My best friend's mom... hoards

I would like to think her mom is just disorganized instead of being a Pack Rat Disorder or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. But the all other symptoms are leading to that. I mean no offense here, please, just to give a clearer view of what is this all about. Pack Rat is a continuous acquisition of same items, thus, not disposing those items if not going to use anymore. Hard to let go of the items. they have a thought of "I might use this someday." Although there is no thorough study on Pack Rat Disorder yet, it is commonly associated with OCD, because of Obsession in nature. http://www.ehow.com/about_5376998_pack-rat-disorder.html Pack Rat Disorder By Ily Goyanes, eHow Contributor Well I just hope that this will be put in attention before it leads to a more serious hoarding problem. thanks .

it sounds a bit like a sort of perfectionism, and she is trying to have such a large collection of recipes because she thinks without them she can never be good enough at cooking. she probably does need some professional help as just telling her how good a cook she is probably wouldn't work as everyone has probably been doing it anyway, so the problem probably lies in some deepseated insecurity. maybe she feels that being a good cook makes her a valuable person, or something.

I think she better ask her mom to apply as a Chef in a restaurant and that she can apply what her talent and skills in cooking.

Hi friend, sad to hear about this, so your friend's mother is very much addicted with her activity and don't have the ability to stop her new recipes, as you mentioned she collected a lot of magazines and it takes a lot of space from the home. Your friend must talk with her regarding this issue and made her to realize her fault, it will help to stop her activities

Well in my opinion your friends mom will need professional help. She is only going to accept this help when she is ready to. You cant force someone to quit something they are addicted to until they are ready much like smoking. My advice is to give her comforting words and encourage her to seek help.

this sounds funny but i think your friends mum is having an addiction or else this habit is as a result of some issue she is going through.does her family appreciate her cooking,do they praise her meals?maybe she needs to go into catering so that she exhausts this crave,can they get her to open up a small cafe or do home cooking for peoples functions it will probably get her busy and she stops running around buying recipes.or teach her how to download recipes on the internet so that she doesnt have to keep papers all over the house.