Quote Originally Posted by catherine View Post
I'm not a psychologist, but it's amazing how inseparable one's things can be from their identity and life itself:

"I do have a lot of things, but they aren't junk. They are my life. How can anybody say my life is junk?"

So, yes, her getting rid of her stuff will be like amputating a limb or worse--more like separating Siamese twins. I agree with UA--it will probably kill her.

It seems like people who can't live for today, or are not happy with today, or who look back nostalgically on what they no longer have, are more vulnerable to hoarding. It's like they want to keep the past alive.
This is true, these folks are called "sentimental hoarders." My mom is a sentimental hoarder.