got to get out

[Em.ma]

Hi,
Ive got to get out of this house. Its leaving with me so much anxiety eg my parents etc. for example we have damp A LOT in the hose and i spoke to my mum about it and she said she would paint over it but that wont solve the damp. I have 2 years till i go to uni but my anxiety is not going to get any better at home. i hate being here. ive been banned by my mum/dad from the counessling for famililes as my bro has phychosis as im not "grown up and not his parent so i dont have to worry about it" in sneeze a lot so i wonder if the damp is casuing this

---------- Post added at 16:44 ---------- Previous post was at 16:41 ----------

the only motivation to go to college and finish my a-levels is so i can leave and have my own life! im sick of it. the hallway is black and now bens room is going like it and mine.

[PanchoGoz]

Do you have a job Emma

[Em.ma]

Not at the moment. Im on the hunt at the moment. Applied for over 20 but havnt got an interview yet :\ hope so soon though
i have family but i can only stay for one/two days at a time

---------- Post added at 17:12 ---------- Previous post was at 17:04 ----------

i know it costs money to fix and i know money is tight in this house at the moment but imo the worse it gets the more it will cost to fix. my dad will go it but not till one of us gets ill from it and he realises it needs sorting. no leaks though.

---------- Post added at 18:13 ---------- Previous post was at 17:12 ----------

my mum has severe ashtma and smokes- if she gets bronchitis her body will not like it.
she coughs a lot aswell. i get pain in nose to and wonder whether this is caused by damp.

---------- Post added at 18:15 ---------- Previous post was at 18:13 ----------

my blind even has black on. i dont know what to do. ive tried cleaning it and it wont budge. i have no net curtain either

---------- Post added at 18:17 ---------- Previous post was at 18:15 ----------

so would be exposed to neighbours if i took it down

---------- Post added at 18:31 ---------- Previous post was at 18:17 ----------

please i cant cope with this :(

[Moggo]

Hi Emma,

I have some on a wall in my bedroom, I worry about health issues it could cause or be causing. Problem is I am so anxious all the time I can't fix the problem at the moment :wacko:

[baileys]

If you cant leave home Emma and its making your anxietys so bad why don't you make your bedroom somewhere that you feel safer in.

Use some detergent and water to clean your blind, maybe some lemon juice too, mold eats away at fabric so it wont look clean but you know it is. They are probably getting moldy because your window is wet so dry the window before the water reaches your blind.

I was told that mold is only a problem if you are allergic to it, in that case you would have more symptoms. I was tested for a mold allergy because of my sinus problems and i have mold in my house too, it came back negative.
Don't make your mums health problems your problem she is old enough to sort herself out, you can only advice her and its up to her what she does.

Make your bedroom your safe haven, somewhere where you can go, chill out, shut the door and forget everything else going on.

[nicola1980]

I had mould in my old house in my bedroom and it played havoc with my asthma, i always had bronchitis and doc says it was cause of that, mould spores and should be cleaned off with bleach and water to kill it but until the root cause of it is fixed it will keep coming back xx

[Rain]

We had no heating in our house for six months of this year. We couldn’t afford heating oil for the central heating system so we just coped without. It wasn’t very nice but nothing bad happened to our health. However, some of the drawers in the bedroom went mouldy recently and the contents got mildewed so we had to throw them out.

I have just done some research into damp and its effects. When indoor relative humidity (RH) exceeds 60% the result is mildew and mould.

We have had heating for a few weeks now but the room (the coldest in the house, with 2 north facing walls) still smells musty and feels damp. There is some condensation on the windows and some mould on the window frame and roller blind.

Today we bought a humidity meter and put it in the bedroom. It registered 72% humidity! The ideal humidity is 45% to 55%. Despite the fact that this room has been humid and damp for ages, we have been sleeping in it and nothing happened to our health. I have lived in some very damp old cottages in the past and never had problems.

We have also bought a dehumidifier machine today. It has been running for an hour and the RH reading has gone from 72% to 62% in an hour. It can collect 10 litres of water from the air a day. Obviously it works best with adequate heating.

You can buy a Digital LCD Thermometer/humidity meter from Amazon for £5.57. Whether your parents can afford to get a dehumidifier at the moment is another question. It will save money in the long run though because mildew ruins your stuff.

I have noticed a lot of your anxiety stems from worrying about possible dangers in your house from machinery malfunctioning. Many of us live in far from ideal housing-it’s just a fact of economics. But mostly people cope and nothing bad happens. You have posted about knocking in the pipes, worrying about fumes from the boiler, and animals in the attic. It’s a shame you can’t get therapy at the moment as you seem to have a specific phobia of household danger, which would probably benefit from therapy.

As you are unhappy at home, it’s really important that you do as well as possible at school, because education is the best way to get a good job and be able to move out early. Have you a couple of pals who would like to share a flat or house with you in the future? Making plans for that eventuality would give you something to aim for and would make you feel more optimistic. Perhaps when you feel you have more control over your environment you will feel more relaxed about things.

[emmasaurus]

hi emma. i too have damp to contend with, and (as has previously been mentioned) the thing to do is carefully scrub your blind/walls with bleach and warm water (or use a cleaning product - i find that 'flash with bleach spray cleaner' works well), dry them as best you can by thoroughly airing the room, then slather on a couple of coats of damp proof paint (which you can get at homebase or b&q - somewhere like that), ensuring you paint about a foot beyond where the damp spread ends. keep an eye out for disposable damp catchers (poundland sometimes stock them) too, and perhaps consider keeping one of these on your windowsill - they do help. other than that, make a point of wiping any condensation away from your windows each morning (particularly now the weather's cooling), and keep your room as warm as you can. x

[pacer]

If anyone's interested in using natural products, tea tree oil kills mould. Just dilute it in water and spray over the damp areas. The only thing is it doesn't remove the balck it just kills the spores.

[Anxious_gal]

You can buy paint that covers damp. Not sure what it is called.
I had some damp on my wall. I panited over it with normal paint about 4 months ago and the damp hasn't come through .

Dampness is bad for asthma. My friend rented a place so damp that when she washed her clothes and put them on the heaters / radiators to dry they became covered in damp.
That's when she moved out.

As for the blind. You could replace it with a bed sheet , hmg it off the curtain pole or tumb tack it to the wall.
When my white bed sheet some how got camp black damp on it I could never it out :(

[Em.ma]

Thanks everyone. Sometimes i think its just me that has this to deal with (which its selfish of me).........
Thanks for all the suggestions x

---------- Post added at 19:48 ---------- Previous post was at 16:31 ----------

i havnt had time yet to sort it. been getting up at 6am for college and at weekends to visit people. i plan to do it this weeend (the blinds)am i OK till then :(?