Cleaning related to trauma or PTSD

Whenever I mention cleaning related trauma and PTSD I often get asked “what is that?” or “Is that even a thing?”. People often associate PTSD with soldiers coming back from hostile territories or the after affects from being in an incident like a crash, a natural disaster, or victim of a physical attack. What people often don’t realise is that there are many ways that negative or traumatic experiences around cleaning or the living environment that people grow up can affect someone later in life. What we experience as children impacts how we live our lives as adults. A common example of this could be if you were bought up in a hoarder house or a house where cleaning wasn’t prioritised so the living conditions weren’t sanitary you could develop the same living habits. These kind of life skills aren’t taught in school so unfortunately if parents and carers don’t show and teach children the basics of cleaning and housework it is often simply the lack of knowledge and understanding could mean you live your life in the same way as you know no different. It also often goes the opposite way and develop obsessions with cleaning and tidying which can lead to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Often people that grow up in severely untidy or unsanitary environments are so determined to live their life differently it can almost become an unhealthy addiction to cleaning and obsessing about germs and cleanliness can take over their lives. The term “OCD” is often used far too casually and inaccurately, thrown around about people that like a clean house but real diagnosed OCD can be very intrusive and in severe case debilitating. Other traumatic or negative experiences around cleaning that could leave last effects could be child abuse involving cleaning. We all know the fairytale Cinderella, unfortunately that situation isn’t uncommon. We did a free reset clean for someone once whose mother used to make her clean the kitchen floor with a toothbrush while beating her. She now, understandably has a real block when it comes to house work. Hoarding disorder in particular is very often triggered by trauma of some kind. It isn’t uncommon for people to have been bought up in poverty or with very little to develop hoarding tendencies. Lots of our elderly clients grew up during rationing and in poverty and now struggle to get rid of anything at all, even if it is on no use or monetary value. There are also other traumas such as grief/loss that can trigger Hoarding disorder. People that have suffered a huge loss can develop an emotional attachment to certain things. It might start off as belongings and related items but this can often develop and escalate to overwhelming and uncontrollable levels over time. Whatever the trigger or reason, it is always important reserve judgement, keep our minds open and realise that there is rarely a circumstance whereby someone would choose to live in an unsafe environment.