And the beat goes on.....

My life has been challenged in working with JZ.  As you can imagine, those of us who work with hoarders are usually very well-organized, neat and fastidious people (my husband would say anal.....).

To work in a hoarding situation is to challenge my most basic instinctive desire and need for neatness and cleanliness.  THIS is the challenge, really:  understanding and working with someone whose personality and ways are so very different from my own.  One cannot make a neatnik out of someone who simply is not that way, nor can one do the reverse too easily, either!!

The important point here, though, is this:  EITHER extreme is not healthy!  Amazingly, even I recognize that my extreme need for neatness can drive others to exasperation, as others' messiness and lack of attention to keeping things in order can drive me to distraction.  This fact is of primary importance, I am learning, in working with a hoarder:  do not expect them to suddenly become totally different than they are.  One must work within the hoarder's capacity for changing their ways toward a more healthy and safe environment without thinking that the hoarder will suddenly become the neatest person in the world.

And the beat goes on.....who is learning more here:  me or JZ???   Hmmmm.....