The history of hospitalizing minors for mental health issues is deeply entwined with that of youth incarceration. Sometimes the two share a room.

Only some compulsive hoarding is comprised of the need to acquire; many hoarders are driven only by the need to retain.

I am learning that mothering is more of a decision. If this is unnatural, well, so is the way I’ve been brought into the role – through a death than a birth. Is it strange for a child to have years more experience being a daughter than her caretaker has at mothering? It’s a situation that requires work.