The next few posts will focus on a common problem for womb twin survivors - compulsive hoarding. When I began research into the psychology of womb twin survivors, I new nothing whatever about hoarding. Then I met Alan, who is an extreme hoarder and I began to wonder about this and if this was a womb twin survivor thing. I had no idea at that time what I was getting into!
So as an experiment I put into the questionnaire the following statement: "There is one or more rooms in my home ( including a shed or garage) that is completely full of stuff. " The results were astonishing - almost HALF of the respondents gave the strongest possible agreement to this statement.
So I know I was on to something, but the mystery remains as to exactly why womb twin survivors hoard. So over the next few blogs I'm am going to explore this and I hope you will help.
Here is Randy Frost, hoarding expert, to get us started.
If you have a hoarding problem and you are a womb twin survivor, do let me know and maybe share your story with me.
I would like to collect a hoard of 20 or more stories about hoarders and publish them as a book, for the sake of all those hoarders out there who think they are the only people in the world with this problem.
Do you have an idea for a title for such a book? Do share it here!
All comments welcomed.
When a twin dies before birth, the sole survivor needs help and understanding. Womb twin survivors are the sole survivors of a twin or multiple pregnancy. This group, 1 in 10 of the population, includes survivors of a stillbirth, miscarriage, abortion and a "vanishing twin" pregnancy. It is a story of a twin bond broken by death, leaving a lonely survivor.
I am not a hoarder like those people on TV who hoard garbage and can't move in their homes, but I have always had a tendency to not let go of things, seemingly meaningless (to other people) but if I misplaced them or my mother threw them out, I would get extremely upset and then a massive sadness and depression would set in, and this horrible feeling of loss would shroud me (wonder where THAT came from) but over the last couple of years, since discovering I am a survivor, it all makes sense and I am able to let go a little more. I still have a huge collection of baby dolls that I look after and wash their clothes, bathe them, etc. They're not going anywhere, but I have become more rational with other items.
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