by Carmel Brulez

Created on: May 19, 2010

Keeping a clean house does help with depression, and I can tell you how I know for sure.  Because, with all due respect many people who speak about these subjects are just guessing.  Firstly, I am a qualified therapist who has spoken to and helped a lot of people with depression and similar problems. Secondly, I myself suffered badly with depression so know how awful and debilitating it can be.

However, if you are not the one suffering from depression and you are not qualified as a therapist you cannot gauge what is best for someone or what they are capable of.  You cannot decide that someone who has depression ought to get off their backside and clean their house,  they may genuinely be too ill to do that.  I have also found that there are really two types of depression,  if we are going to generalise and simplify this subject for this article.  There is medical depression, where the person has a lack of the right chemical balance in their brain, which can often be helped by anti depressants,  and where the rest of their life is quite happy, contented and worry free.  There is also reactive depression where people get upset, sad or in a state because of something which was beyond their control, such as a death, losing their job, losing their partner or getting bad news.

When we are talking about the medical version of depression this person may feel physically ill, with headaches, stomach aches, trouble with concentration or making decisions, lack of energy, sleeping a lot, lack of appetite. It might take them ages just to get washed and dressed if they can get out of bed. The last thing they need is to worry about chores.  Hence not only do they find they have trouble focusing on housework but they feel physically too ill or too tired to do it.  What would help them is for the house to become tidier and cleaner, but they are not up to it.  The best way then is for someone else to do it for them, even if they have to pay a cleaner to come in and sort things out,  and then for them to feel uplifted when their surroundings look better.  After a while this will help them feel motivated and energised and they will find they can and want to to it themselves.

When we speak ot reactive depression the person might be so sad, worried or upset about whatever has happened it is normal and would be strange for them to be interested in other things.  This may mean cleaning the home, washing and dressing, eating properly or leading a normal life.  They do not feel physically ill, usually, so they should be able to clean, but their emotional energy is taking up all of their time.  It is fair and caring to let them get over this before expecting them to get down to normal every day chores which become of no importance to them while they feel like this.  Asking them to do chores while they are in such a state may push them back to feeling much worse.  They will get back to normal gradually and in their own time.   If you want to be kind and caring and help them then tidy and clean the house for them so that at least they know there is less to worry about.

For those who claim to have depression when in reality they are just bored or lonely it would be a great idea to clean the house.  It exercises you, fills your time, gives you a purpose and it means you can invite new friends to your home and forge relationships. The more you have to offer new people the more likely they are to like you and accept you,   if you always expect others to invite you to their home or visit you in an untidy or dirty home you have less chance of meeting friends who will want to see you again.

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