The woman eventually moved outside and used buckets as toilets that she would dump over the neighbor's fence. Excrement and decomposing food were strewn around the floors, and the stench was unbearable to all but the owner. The reclusive woman was living alone in a dilapidated house filled with rubbish and infested with vermin. In 2002 in California, a Solana Beach home with an "ocean view to die for" was so cluttered the owner had to crawl "almost crablike" over piles of newspapers, mail and rubbish to get anywhere inside the house, according to an article by Denise Nelesen, spokesman for the San Diego County Office of Aging and Independence. And poverty often has nothing to do with it. Often the inspectors are called in when the squalor spills out into the yard. Those afflicted have few guests and experience shame and isolation, Lyons said. "But there is huge resistance and it's a source of strain for the family." But in these huge homes nothing is done unless a neighbor complains or someone passes away or a family member comes in to help declutter," Lyons said. "When it's a rental, there are quarterly inspections. In private homes and among the rich, odd behavior often goes unnoticed, she said. The association holds annual conventions on the topic. In California, a focus on the hoarding aspect of this syndrome began when landlords - worried about public health and fire hazards - evicted tenants and made them homeless, according to Belinda Lyons, executive director of the Mental Health Association of San Francisco. The topic was chronicled in a book by Harvard University's Jon Gudeman. Many blame national policies in the 1970s that closed psychiatric institutions and released thousands of patients without giving communities financial support to care for them.
#Diogenes disorder windows
Violations included infestations of rats, mice and roaches, no heat, no fire alarms, broken toilets, exposed asbestos, raw sewage backing up into the sinks, no running water, broken door locks and windows painted shut. There was a rash running up and down her legs and she was eating moldy food that the landlady had retrieved from the garbage cans and was serving people."
#Diogenes disorder series
"The woman who we started the series with was lying on a mattress, drenched in urine, with piles of spent toilet paper around the room.
![diogenes disorder diogenes disorder](https://cdn-prod.medicalnewstoday.com/content/images/hero/314/314595/314595_1100.jpg)
![diogenes disorder diogenes disorder](https://mentalhealthtip.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/What-are-the-symptoms-of-Diogenes-Syndrome1.jpg)
"When you go around to these rooming houses, it's horrifying," said Meg Kissinger, who reported the story. Hoarding occurs in about 1 to 2 percent of the population, according to Randy Frost, a psychology professor at Smith College who wrote "Buried Treasures," a self-help book for hoarders. The syndrome was named for Diogenes, a Greek philosopher of the fourth century B.C., who advanced the principles of self-sufficiency and contentment unrelated to material possessions - a misnomer - given the nature of the disorder, which causes people to hoard animals and belongings.
![diogenes disorder diogenes disorder](https://www.medstoreland.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Diogenes-Syndrome-1.jpg)
The eccentric Beale pair - the first cousin and aunt of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - is a classic example of what has also been called squalor disorder, which especially affects the elderly.
#Diogenes disorder movie
17, 2007 - The Broadway musical "Grey Gardens" - headed for Tony nominations and a Hollywood movie - highlights the fall of socialite Edie Bouvier Beale and her mother, Edith, who lived in a squalid 28-room mansion among scores of flea-infested cats and raccoons, and towers of dirty cans.īut the hit show also highlights Diogenes syndrome, a disorder characterized by self-neglect, domestic squalor and social withdrawal.