A house full of waste in Seneffe. A family contacted us via the orange Alert Us button. The mother of three children suffered from Diogenes syndrome. A behavioral disorder that results in an enormous accumulation of objects. This generally leads to unsanitary living conditions. In the case that concerns us, the accumulation was extreme and caused the despair of the children, who must evacuate more than 200m³ of waste.
The mother ofAmandine, Thomas and Laetitiasuffering from Diogenes syndrome, made the house she lived in for several years near Seneffe (province of Hainaut) completely unsanitary.
After his death last July, the three children inherited a slate of a few thousand euros and a property that they now have to renovate in its entirety. Because Diogenes syndrome consists of never throwing anything away and accumulating everything (see detailed explanations at the bottom of the article).
Amandine, Thomas and Laetitia, who saw their mother outside, might never have imagined what was going on in their childhood home. The home is now unsanitary because waste of all kinds and in very large quantities has been kept.
“My first impression? I was completely upset. The world is falling apart. We wondered how we were going to get there”Thomas immediately confides. “Same. I mightn’t imagine how big it had become. I have a hard time understanding how one can be suffering from this syndrome, at this level”, adds Laetitia.
We had two quotes, and it’s 33,000 euros to empty everything
A major clean-up operation was thus launched. With already 5 containers of 20m³ filled to evacuate objects and other waste, the budget quickly swelled (a container costs more than 700 euros). “A dozen containers must be filled in total. And the renovation work (roofing, plumbing, etc.) has not yet started”, says Thomas. “We do not know how much it will cost, but we must expect a large amount. There are specialized companies that come to empty this kind of house, but as the budget is limited, we do it ourselves. We had two quotes, and it’s 33,000 euros to empty everything.”
When they come into the house to clean it, they protect themselves with a suit and a mask. “There were rats, mice, … and so there was a whole bunch of bacteria and viruses that might endanger us in terms of contact with the skin and in terms of breathing. is essential”, continues Thomas.
Inside, we find everything: clothes, furniture, animal waste… “In the room (given the state of the room), it is not possible to be able to rest. It’s really abused.” said Laetitia.
We’re almost ready for Halloween
Outside the house, a tent in which many objects were also stored. “You can find everything there. We’re almost ready for Halloween. It’s become a ghost house. There’s new stuff, stuff picked up from trash cans. There’s cat food,” adds the sports coach.
Thomas explains that sa mom always had this “problem of accumulating objects. The separation with my father made her give free rein to her madness. My father was there to temper her. When they separated, there was no limit (. ..) We knew she had a problem, but she wouldn’t let us come here. It was really at the time of his death that the damage was discovered.”
“When she wanted to meet, we would go to neutral places, shopping, etc.”says Laetitia.
Faced with this impressive construction site, Thomas expresses a feeling of resentment, frustration and anger “compared to everything she leaves us. When we end a day here, we are knocked out, disgusted, tired, and only the next day, we say to ourselves that we have worked well and that pushes us to do it back. We’ve been busy for a month and a half. We hope to complete the project in 5 years.”
The goal is to completely refurbish the house and perhaps turn it into a party room or an Airbnb.
What is Diogenes Syndrome?
To learn more regarding Diogenes syndrome, we interviewed psychologist David Vandenbosch. He explains that for this behavioral disorder, three elements must be taken into account.
“First, there is the side of hoarding rubbish and waste, what we call syllogomania. There is the careless side, the side where the person is not going to take care of him. There is really an abandonment of personal hygiene”, he indicates.
“And we will also have obsessive hoarding disorders. The person will passively accumulate things and collect them or else actively, by going to get them, bringing them inside to build collections. It’s at that time an obsessive compulsive hoarding disorder.”
Where does this syndrome come from?
“Generally, people who present with such massive disorders are of a certain age, over 60 years old”ajoute David Vandenbosch. “We are also going to find people who are isolated and who have lived at some point in a very complicated moment, a breakup, a death, a loss of work, … with an isolation that will be the result of that. We can sometimes see this type of two symptoms, but it’s extremely rare. It’s regarding 0.5/1000 people who are affected by this type of experience.”
People with this syndrome are unaware of it. It is often members of their entourage who will seek help from psychologists.
“There is no sense of shame in these people, and the help is experienced as an intrusion. In the people I have met, they say, ‘yes, indeed, I have a lot of things ” and when we saw the photos, there was no more free space. These people tend to minimize the problem and say that their relatives exaggerate a little. When they are offered to do a sorting, there is an increase anguish.”
Can we get out of this? “There is a way to work on obsessive-compulsive disorders and allow them to be able to reverse things, to sort things out, and to get into something that will be more tenable in the long term”, conclusion David Vandenbosch.