Key Takeaways
- A depression room is a living space that has become overwhelmed with mess and clutter, and may be a sign of depression.
- Depression can make it challenging to keep your living space clean and decluttered.
- You can seek treatment for depression and take steps to recover your living spaces.
A neglected household chore, like keeping an area clean and decluttered, can cause a space to morph into a “depression room.” Having a depression room is about more than just inhabiting a messy space. It’s about the mindset that leads to clutter, and it can be a symptom that something is wrong.
What Is a Depression Room?
The term “depression room” was coined on social media. Many TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit users applied the term to spaces that showed outside what they were feeling inside.
“A ‘depression room’ is a space that feels unmanageable and overwhelming due to the effects of depression. It can look and feel messy, and have different items strewn about,” says Saba Harouni Lurie, licensed marriage and family therapist and the owner and founder of Take Root Therapy. “The room might feel dark and stuffy, even heavy.”
“Common signs of depression rooms would be unfinished room projects (i.e., half-completed room painting), dishes piling up, ‘doom piles,’ and a lot of dirty laundry. Excessive amounts of these common issues signal a loss of investment in the tasks of daily life,” explains Billy Roberts, LISW-S, LCSW, and founder of Focused Mind ADHD Counseling.
“Clutter is overwhelming for people who experience depression because it requires cognitive energy,” he adds.
By talking about their depression rooms on social media, people are able to ask for help. They also help others with the same experience feel less alone.
Why It Happens: The Psychology Behind It
When you realize that you’re living in this type of space, looking below the surface to see what’s behind it is a good place to start. The National Alliance on Mental Health notes that depression can leave you feeling fatigued, stressed, and with little desire to care for yourself or anything else. Cleaning up a room and keeping things orderly may seem to take too much effort.
“Depression can make it difficult to access motivation to do anything and can also make us feel slow and make cleaning up incredibly challenging. Depression also makes it difficult to focus, and when someone is depressed, even simple tasks can feel monumental,” explains Lurie.
“When you’re in a depressive episode, it can be really difficult to see things clearly. Depression can creep in gradually, and depression rooms can develop gradually too. When someone is depressed, they are often trying to survive each day, and what started with a pile of clothes that need to be put away and an unmade bed can quickly become a situation that is difficult to manage,” states Lurie.
How a Depression Room Can Further Impact Mental Health
Having a depression room can create a cycle. Studies show that a cluttered space can increase feelings of anxiety and stress. Feelings of being overwhelmed by the mess are heightened, and those thoughts can have a negative impact on your mental health, including feelings of depression.
Depression can also lead to feeling detached and disconnected from what’s happening around you. In turn, you may not have connected the dots to realize you had a depression room.
When to Seek Support
By recognizing you are dealing with depression, you have taken a big step. The next part of your journey is to begin the process of working through it. A mental health professional can guide you through the process.
“If you believe you are depressed, you should seek help. Depression is a progressive mental health condition, meaning it gets worse without intervention. The time to act is the moment you recognize that you’ve felt sad and hopeless for a prolonged period of time,” says Roberts.
Journaling, talking with friends, lifestyle and relationship changes, and other actions that address the reasons behind your depression can also be beneficial.
How to Gently Reclaim Your Space
While working on the root cause, addressing the symptoms can make a difference too—and that includes cleaning up your spaces. On the journey, remember to:
- Be patient with yourself. Give yourself grace and show the same kindness and compassion that you give to others.
- Start small. “Setting a small, attainable goal can help you identify where to start and to have something to celebrate. That can mean cleaning up one area (like the bed), completing one task (taking out dirty dishes), or whatever will get you one step closer to creating a clean space,” Lurie advises.
- Don’t neglect your mental health care. Even as you start on the process of clearing your depression room, continue to take care of yourself. Getting outside in the fresh air, exercising, eating healthy foods, sleeping well, and doing things that bring you enjoyment will all continue to boost your mental health.
- Reach out for help from a friend. Support and encouragement from a friend can help you mentally, as well as deal with the practical task of cleaning up. “Human connection and support is like rocket fuel for productivity. Ask someone you trust to either help you make a plan or come over and dig in,” Roberts notes.
- Celebrate along the way. Rejoice at every small victory. Whether you cleared out an entire closet or managed to clean the countertops, take the time to give yourself a pat on the back.
