My advice to you....

A little known quirk of mine is watching really weird t.v. shows on the Discovery Channel or The Learning Channel... things with titles like "300 lb Tumor!" or "Help, I'm Turning Into a Giant!" or "My Daughter was Born a Mermaid!". And they are real people suffering from real afflictions through no fault of their own. The strange diseases and issues in the human body and brain really fascinate me.

The other night, Furry Husband gave me the remote. (oh, will he ever learn?) I found a show called "Hoarding: Buried Alive!" on The Learning Channel. The show highlighted several people with hoarding issues, when the hoarding started, the psychology of hoarding and why it happens, how to help treat the people and the show talked to family members etc. about this person's hoarding.

One guy, a retired Navy man, trim, neat looking, attractive... lived in this house and had been hoarding for 20 yrs. He didn't know what was under all the layers and layers of stuff... it was piled so high in some areas it touched the ceiling... he had to climb over mounds and piles and heaps to move anywhere and most times his head was near or touching the ceiling.

He had a girlfriend who had no idea. She'd never ever been to his house. He always went to her house with the excuse of "my house is a bachelor pad - it's messy and cluttery and I'm embarrassed by it" I can see how a gal wouldn't think twice about that.

In the show, he takes her to his house for the first time. The camera shows them walking down the street arm in arm and she says, "Are you excited for me to see your house?" He replies, "Well, it's a little cluttered - maybe you can help me organize it" And I really don't think he was being mean - he's been doing this for 20 yrs and can't really SEE it anymore.

She walks in and is stunned... stunned to the point of shaking and crying and she's speechless. Poor thing.

So my advice to you:

Any time someone you love or care for wants to tell you something or show you something but they won't tell you until the camera crew arrives.... RUN.

Run as fast as you can in the other direction. Nothing good can ever come of a secret revealed by a person you love and trust when there are camera crews involved.