Most sufferers are unable to hold down work and also have a tendency to drink, he adds. They relieve feelings of emptiness with objects”, he says, adding that there is often a traumatic event in their past that triggers their behavior. “People with Diogenes Syndrome have a tendency to depression which is exacerbated by loneliness. Psychiatrist Luis Ferrer explains that Diogenes Syndrome is the symptom of mental disorders that can affect both men and women, and that it usually develops later in life. The other woman was blind and was still waiting for some form of support she was entitled to by law years later. One of the women lived in a bed with the animals piled in beside her. In the small town of Rianxo, in A Coruña, the local authorities waded through tons of refuse to rescue two elderly women and 140 sick dogs, more than half of which had to be put down. In some extreme cases, DS sufferers hoard pets as well as trash. Psychiatrists say they typically have low self-esteem and they live in a state of perpetual self-neglect. Most sufferers live alone and have no family contact. In March last year, a 51-year-old DS sufferer set a building in Palma ablaze, which took firefighters five hours to put out. The local council had failed to have him admitted to a psychiatric unit, although it was able to empty the apartment and repaint it, however, within a few years he had filled it again.ĭS sufferers who start fires to keep warm pose grave problems for their neighbors. A 57-year-old man from Málaga died in hospital the same year after being rescued from his burning home. In 2010, the authorities in Almería entered 34 homes filled with refuse, while four DS sufferers died after being admitted to hospital. In most cases, overstretched social workers are aware of people in the community with DS, but admit they are able to do little to help sufferers or to provide practical assistance to neighbors who must put up with the hygiene problems sufferers can create.Īccording to the Madrid College of Property Administrators, 60% of inquiries by residents’ associations are about what to do with neighbors with DS: the authorities in Madrid receive around 300 complaints a year about people hoarding trash in their homes. For full details about how to subscribe, click here. Sign up today to receive a selection of our best stories in your inbox every Saturday morning. In 2012, a 70-year-old woman was found in A Coruña two months after her death, partially eaten by rats.ĮL PAÍS English Edition is launching a weekly newsletter. This can make it hard to identify bodies, which will often be in an advanced state of decomposition. Typically isolated, most sufferers are not found for days or weeks after their death, and sometimes the authorities are only alerted months later. In winter, it is not unusual for sufferers to light cardboard and wooden boxes in an effort to keep warm, sometimes setting off fires in their homes. Of the handful of people with DS who are found dead each year in Spain, some die of starvation or illness, while others are sometimes buried alive when the garbage they amass collapses on top of them. What made José Ángel, 51, different to other sufferers was his online activity. At the beginning of this month, emergency services were called out to the home of a 79-year-old woman in Erandio, near Bilbao, who they assumed to be dead due to the stench from inside the property, although she died just minutes after they arrived. Last January, a 62-year-old man from Asturias, along with an 84-year-old woman in Cáceres, were found in similar circumstances. José Ángel suffered from what is known as Diogenes Syndrome, a condition that drives people to compulsively hoard garbage. The authorities in Madrid receive around 300 complaints a year about people hoarding trash in their homes
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