A lot of people are exposed to trauma in their life, some become the direct victims, and some may be indirectly exposed to it. Every individual experiences and deals with trauma differently. Most of them deal with it within a timeline, while some may be unable to get over it and may experience the symptoms of what we call Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
1- What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe psychological issue that someone may develop after being exposed to a terrible, shocking, or fearful event. PTSD can create problems in daily life, such as relationships, at home, and work. Sometimes it may make one fall prey to any physical health issues.PTSD is a stress issue problem.
Stress causes acute and chronic disruption in neurochemical pathways and specific regions of the brain; this results in PTSD symptoms. Brain regions that play a significant part in PTSD are the hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex. Cortisol and norepinephrine are the two neurochemical pathways that are crucial to the stress responses.
2- Clutter, Really?
We may have heard about cluttering a lot randomly, which precisely means to pile a lot of bad mess in any form. There is a relationship between trauma and accumulating clutter. When people experience trauma, their brain is affected, specifically the prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain that performs the executive functions. Executive functions are primary cognitive functions like judgment, decision making, anticipation, and planning.Furthermore, this is why it's tough for people to organize their stuff while they face trauma.
Even after they feel like they have healed, they find themselves cluttering stuff that ultimately makes them feel exhausted. There is hope as our brain is plastic, able to create new neural circuits, it is possible to reinforce the executive functions and be able to organize and declutter after trauma.
3- An unconscious barrier
There is a specific reason why people with trauma have the habit of cluttering more than ordinary people. According to research, there is a link between PTSD and hoarding. When one is exposed to trauma, people build guards around themselves and everything around them. If they start losing the stuff or declutter, they feel a void inside of them, so it's tougher for them than other people.Clutter acts as an unconscious barrier.
4- What about addiction?
We all must have heard about the tendency of people with trauma to rely on some addiction; it can be of any kind, gaming, shopping, drugs, etc. Considering shopping here, when people with trauma buy something, they feel a wave of endorphins for almost 20 minutes, and they feel joyful. But as soon as the wave calms down, they feel down again. The "good" feeling is indeed temporary and worsens both the emotional situation and the amount of clutter.
5- The vicious cycle
The more people pile up stuff around themselves, the more they feel exhausted because one's brain has to engulf in all the information at a time which makes it feel tired. As those who encounter trauma are already in the low mode feeling, the tiredness related to clutter just worsen the situation.
6- Tell me how we can win against PTSD and clutter
A decluttering journey on four dimensions is what I found that is the most helpful. Someone absolutely need to overcome each of the four dimensions to be able to get rid of trauma. The four dimensions are the Stress, the Mind, the Time and the Space.
As long as one waits to make a decision to declutter, one's brain automatically demands reasons and logical explanation of the act, and fear takes over the person showing him/her the risk of change, even when the change is positive.
Setting a goal is a crucial aspect of the process. Having a goal and knowing why we should do something, are undoubtedly helpful and contribute to the journey of the whole recovery process. Being very clear regarding the goal will certainly help one to have a clear image of life. When one does not have a clarity of goals, he or she may keep coming back to cluttering to satisfy the subconscious.
I truly believe that every one can go through the decluttering journey and create a life worth living, without stress, mental clutter, calendar clutter and too much belongings. You can learn more about the process on my website.
