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Is waste a mental disorder?

Is waste a mental disorder?


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Wake

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I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.
 
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I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.

No, I don't think it's a mental disorder. A shame and damaging to the world they will have to live in, but not a mental disorder.

There's something besides sane and insane. There's also ignorance and education.

If they had any honest idea what all their waste is doing, and how many people in the world get less food in a week than they throw in the trash in a meal, and what that food costs to produce both fiscally and environmentally, if they honestly, truly understood that, they would never waste like that.

Someone is not insane for believing the earth is flat... if no one has ever told them it's round, or why we know it's round.

They are ignorant. Teach them. Seriously. Show them what all their waste is doing to the world, and all the children who would die to have what they throw away. Not just in terms of food, but clean running water, electricity, etc. Explain to them what would happen if 7 billion people all wasted things like they do.
 
Could also be simple rebellion. Remember how little power children have over their own lives. Perhaps the ability to control something, anything, against the wishes of those who control them is something they need. It's a good thing they're not doing this by breaking stuff.
 
I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Learned habit - never forcing theirselves to eat only at set times, a certain amount, and restrict theirselves - all without wasting food.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Water running: habit - can be untaught. Same thing with the lights on - out of sight, out of mind - thoughtless . . . can be taught ot pay attention.

Clothes worn only once? I don't see how this is waste - I only wear my clothes once and during the summer (since we don't have AC) I change during the day because I just can't stand being caked in my day-long sweat clad layer. Once my clothes come off they do NOT go back on for any reason unless I only wore it for a very short time before removing (say - if I changed and an hour later took a shower)

So - everything else is habit, just like my children who complain they're hungry for hours - when dinner is finally served I give then a reasonable portion (I've see how muc htey CAN eat if they want - like, if it's pizza they'll put back 2 slices). . . but the moment the hunger pang goes away they conclude they are 'not done' and 'not hungry anymore 'and if I don't pay careful attention - they'll scrape it into the trash.

I have to intervene - and force them to either consume it all OR save it for later since they WILL get hungry in another hour since they didn't eat enough - and then want more and usually something else unfilling. . . dinner leftovers is usually served for any hunger throughout the rest of the evening.

Per your cousins: this similar situatoin is EXACTLY why my two aunts stopped talking to eachother - their children were horrid pigs (all of them were, but they refused to see it) and all were wasteful and rude when visiting. All it would have taken was some rules laid out - some intervention.

If this is a constant problem then shop scantily and force them to trek out on their own to the store for their junk food.
 
So doing all of these things are rational? I understand what you mean, but I find it difficult to believe. Is the opposite of waste, extreme hoarding, also rational?

I don't think it's rebelliousness. They're all adults.. Perhaps I don't understand their internal workings well enough..
 
So doing all of these things are rational? I understand what you mean, but I find it difficult to believe. Is the opposite of waste, extreme hoarding, also rational?

I don't think it's rebelliousness. They're all adults.. Perhaps I don't understand their internal workings well enough..

Sounds to me like they aren't even considering the rationality of their actions, they are just doing what they always have done. Like Aunt Spiker said, it's a habit and they've never gone without or been disciplined properly before. If there came a time when they started opening the fridge to less and less to eat, for a prolonged period, I guarantee you the waste would stop; the rationality of not wasting good food would become more prominent in their minds. As of right now, its no skin off their back, right?

I think hoarding can be developed for many reasons, but I can speak from experience to one type. My great grandparents grew up during the depression, and whether it was empty plastic jugs, old rusted and broke-down farm equipment, or pens and pencils, they kept or re-used almost everything. And the thought of wasting food never ever entered their minds. Consequently, they had tons of tupperware.
 
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Sounds to me like they aren't even considering the rationality of their actions, they are just doing what they always have done. Like Aunt Spiker said, it's a habit and they've never gone without or been disciplined properly before. If there came a time when they started opening the fridge to less and less to eat, for a prolonged period, I guarantee you the waste would stop; the rationality of not wasting good food would become more prominent in their minds. As of right now, its no skin off their back, right?

In that light it can be seen as a horrid habit..

I forgot to mention they also buy cans just to waste them, seriously.

When I learned about this I "went to town" on snatching and hoarding those items. They don't eat their leftovers, yet keep making large meals.

With the clothes, my adult male cousins wear them once and then throw them out.
 
So doing all of these things are rational? I understand what you mean, but I find it difficult to believe. Is the opposite of waste, extreme hoarding, also rational?

I don't think it's rebelliousness. They're all adults.. Perhaps I don't understand their internal workings well enough..

Bad habits aren't necessarily rational. They're just a learned process - which can be corrected if the individual (or others) chooses to. A learned, inapprorpriate behavior is not a mental disorder. A mental disorder is often separated out from this by one being unable to control it - and it being excessive and unexplainable.

My sister's kids are tossers of their food - she doesn't encourag ethem to eat all theri food. Instead, she offers a huge variety of foods (at least 5 different dishes at each meal) and encourges the kids to eat just afew bites of what they take. Ergo: they never finish anything they begin to consume. they have been taught to not complete a meal and to expect a large vareity of foods without having the intention of consuming it all.

The kids -as they grow older - can continue this. Or they can change this if they choose. It's up to them.

A bad habit I use to have which was taught to me by my parent's guidance was to knock on every door before I opened it. This was reasonable when I was a child: we use to have a lot of guest-rooms and every weekend different fmilies stayed with us. Knocking before entering was to ensure I didn't walk in on someone unwantedly. So - as an adult I continued this - senselessly - and it wasn't until I was alone by myself with my husband deployed, all the kids in bed one night, that I realized I was still doing it. And so I stopped. I realized my habit - and stopped doing it.

Self-correctivity of a behavior counters the notion that it's a disorder.

Things are often disorders when one tries to stop - and can't. Or - they don't even realize, even when it's pointed out - that there's a bad habit even going on.
 
In that light it can be seen as a horrid habit..

I forgot to mention they also buy cans just to waste them, seriously.

When I learned about this I "went to town" on snatching and hoarding those items. They don't eat their leftovers, yet keep making large meals.

With the clothes, my adult male cousins wear them once and then throw them out.

They are paying for all their own stuff, right? Sometimes people do this if they are being provided with too much for free.

Seems like the grocery bills alone should be an incentive to straighten them up.
 
They are paying for all their own stuff, right? Sometimes people do this if they are being provided with too much for free.

Seems like the grocery bills alone should be an incentive to straighten them up.

Hah! Yep. My husband alwys complains there's nothing to eat! But whent I get tired of his complaints and send him to the store he always complains that everything he wants is so expensive.
 
I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.

Unless you can point to an obscenely expensive pharmacological solution that the medical industry can make billions from selling to gullible proles then no.
 
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Considering they are adults, I think it's a mental disorder.
I seriously suggest they visit a psycho-analyst or so.
Hope it helps. :)
 
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Today anything and everything could be labeled a mental disorder, syndrome, habit, what ever, because people want to lable everyone and place them in a box for their own purposes.

The Cousin needs to be cut off after the first trip to the table.

I knew a guy who would smell every bite he took as if the food could go bad in a seconds. He has a real problem.

I knew kid who would constantly be smelling his fingers every few minutes to check for the smell of matches because he was a fire bug and he got caught once because of the smell.

He finally grew out of it.
 
I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.

It's not a mental disorder, but it's grounds for disapproval. I think it may be best to talk with them and get them to understand their actions and make changes to their behavior.
 
I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.

The only thing mentally wrong here is that you haven't thrown these mother****ers out yet.
 
It's part of the mental disorder to be cured by environmental awareness. You see, these people treat stuff the same way they treat their life; it's only worth a bite or two, and if they are only worth a bite or two then what can a plate of food be worth... nothing. They know the price, but not the value.
 
I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.

Have you tried smacking them in the back of the head to break loose some common sense?

Or mayber give them the bill for the waste.

That would stop it right quick.
 
It's not a mental disorder, but it's grounds for disapproval. I think it may be best to talk with them and get them to understand their actions and make changes to their behavior.

Please, read what Wake writes next:

In that light it can be seen as a horrid habit..

I forgot to mention they also buy cans just to waste them, seriously.

With the clothes, my adult male cousins wear them once and then throw them out.

Now, who in the right mind would trow his/her clothes after wearing them once?!
I don't know what exactly the disorder is but these guys need to see a doctor. :blushing:
 
Sounds like it's time to lay down the law.... they kick in 50% of the food bill, they can throw all of their 50% out if they want, they paid for it. They also pay 50% of the electric bill. They don't like it? There's the door - happy trails!
 
Adults that need to sleep with the lights on do in fact have a problem.

I saw a picture yesterday of an 11 month old Sudanese child that is dying of malnutrition. Find that picture, print it, and tape it up in the kitchen.

Stop buying food. Eat your own supper on the way home from work.
 
Is starting threads with bull**** in the OP a mental disorder?

No, it's not.

If you experienced what I experience, you would question their sanity based on their behavior.
 
I understand it's an odd question but please hear me out.

In our home my cousins take a plate of food for dinner.

They take 2-3 spoonfuls.

Garbaged.

Then an hour later they do it again.

It's frustrating, really. They aren't paying for the food, yet they and certain others waste... constantly. We buy $150 in food... $80 or so feeds the garbage can. It doesn't stop at food. They leave many hot lightbulbs on in the basement when no one is in the room. Sometimes throughout the night. And in the main bathroom 16 of the hot lightbulbs are turned on to the brightest setting throughout the night.

Water is left running. Clothes are worn only once, Etc.

Here's the kicker: I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again. It's a vast, cool basement... and it's being lit for the ghosts... argh..

Is waste in its severest and mildest forms a mental disorder?

It's irrational. I get a plate of food I didn't pay for, eat a bite or two, and waste it. Totally sane of me. Might as well take three plates and waste them since it's rational. I'll leave every light on all the time as well.

Either it's rational or irrational.

Madness, I say.

The term: "Waste not, want not" is surprisingly true.

I'm not sure that waste in and of itself is a mental disorder, but in your cousins' case I have to wonder if it isn't fueled by some sort of mental disorder or other factor.

I'd go down to the basement when everyone went to bed to turn the lights off. I'd then slip into bed. I kid you not three minutes later I hear feet going downstairs. Then, a minute later, they return. I wait a while, go down, and lo and behold they're all on again.

This is what makes me wonder that. If they were just leaving the lights on because they didn't think to turn them off (or were too lazy) then I'd probably just pass it off as they are lazy and thoughtless. But they're specifically going back to turn them on after you turn them off yourself, which leads me to believe something else is at work here. What, I have no idea.

Have you ever talked to them about their behavior and why they do it?
 
Sounds like it's time to lay down the law.... they kick in 50% of the food bill, they can throw all of their 50% out if they want, they paid for it. They also pay 50% of the electric bill. They don't like it? There's the door - happy trails!

This.

Tell them to wisen up, if not kick them out. And be dead serious about it.
 
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