PACKRAT PALM COAST CODE

It's a shame because I was extremely pleased with the initial order, drop-off to load and pick-up to ship experience.

'We are great rationalizers,' said the 50-year-old writer who asked that her name be withheld.The claim was paid but the consumer should not have to resort to public complaints to get basic customer service. Pack rats are otherwise articulate and rational people, and a disproportionate number of them are teachers, writers and creative people.

Many are also perfectionists and procrastinators who will continually postpone cleanups if they can't do them spic-and-span. The behavior transcends age groups, and has been seen in children as young as 2 and 3, who hoard toys, shells, coins and other possessions.Ī substantial number of pack rats are also compulsive spenders and overeaters, who also show one or two dyslexic traits (there are as many as 30), like a poor sense of direction and concentration. No economic, racial or intellectual segment of society suffers more or less. Roughly 10 percent of the population suffers from compulsive saving, with men and women suffering equally. In a Psychology Today magazine article the team wrote a year ago, they tried to establish what research had been conducted about pack rats, what interest existed in a subject that had touched them personally. Ostrom, a clinical social worker who founded Pack Rats Anonymous, and Lynda Warren, a psychologist and full-time professor at California State University, San Bernardino, conducted what is thought to be the first large-scale study of pack rats. They say they get no joy from keeping worthless objects, but they suffer tremendous anxiety and loss when they discard them. Support group members say that they recognize, even as they are stuffing irreparable broken jewelry and dishes into closets, that their behavior is irrational. Other pack rats include authors Ray Bradbury and William Saroyan.īut little has been learned about pack rats until recently because their problem is usually a private one, a secret that does not hurt anyone but the sufferer. Billy Graham, wrote a book called Confessions of a Pack Rat.

PACKRAT PALM COAST CODE

Every family seems to have a pack rat who, at worst, may be viewed as a harmless eccentric.Įxtreme cases exist, of course: the bizarre New York twins who died after their intricate web of booby-traps backfired and buried them in trash the San Francisco woman whose house was so riddled with junk it slid off its foundation the Long Beach, Calif., professor whose home was closed by code enforcement officials, who allegedly found staggering levels of rubbish.Īnd there are some famous pack rats. This, some experts say, is because having a messy attic or garage or junk room seems downright normal. While annals have been written about far more obscure ailments, the pack rat phenomenon has earned barely a glance in psychiatric circles. 'When our dining room table got so piled with stuff that we couldn't see the top of it,' a woman revealed at a recent meeting, 'my husband and I decided we obviously needed a bigger dining room table.'

Most of them have a wicked sense of humor about an affliction that has created anxiety and pain for them. He is a 'computer pack rat,' who said that he stored so much data at work that an electronic warning announced he was 'a disk hog.' Problem areas include her bedroom, study and hallway table, which regularly pile up with mail she never seems to get through.Ī computer processor who has more than 1,000 videotapes and only loses one if he needs to record over it in a pinch. Newspapers filled so much of her house she began stuffing them in kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator.Ī free-lance writer who has trouble throwing away newspapers, magazines, books and articles. Members of the group, who have varying forms of the problem, include:Ī minister whose compulsive saving reached such proportions that the junk in her car toppled onto the gas pedal, making it unsafe to drive. Launched by the daughter of a chronic saver, the 18-month-old group's meetings begin each Tuesday night like the Alcoholics Anonymous program after which they are modeled: 'I'm Jane D. They are everywhere, but 25 or 30 of them are meeting weekly at The Center, a bookstore in Garden Grove, Calif., in what is thought to be the first-ever pack rat support group.

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