Anxiety and Cleaning/purging

**alarosalpn** · 01-11-2011, 08:56 PM

Anyone else clean and purge like a maniac when you have anxiety?

Yesterday Murphy brought his twin with him...
My son had a painful ear infection that came on with no symptoms and my car broke when I went to start it in the morning...

Miracle...Thankfully my parents were able to help...They picked me up from work,brought me home(25 miles away)to pick up my DS,then brought us to DS drs(35 miles away),they paid for the visit ($30) and the prescriptions ($40-the prescriptions wouldve been $70 if the dr didtn give me a coupon for "up to $30 off"!)

Today, DH got the part they thought was the problem fix the car
($50)
turns out...not the problem... I have to take the car to the shop and fork over $300 to fix it...

Miracle #2...My best friend is able to mail me a check to cover the cost...and my parents are loaning me one of their cars!

To get to the point, I have anxiety about it all...

I scrubbed down the entire bathroom and everytime I go upstairs I'm drawn into my closet! Its needed to be cleaned out..

For me. when I have anxiety I clean and throw major amounts of stuff away. It's not a bad thing..

Anyone else get like this? what do you do when you have anxiety?

**Nana2two** · 01-11-2011, 10:58 PM

Yes i do. Thats what i did all day. My anxiety was bothering me yesterday and today. I cleaned from 7am till 9 tonight. Got 3 boxes for thrift and 4 garbage bags for dumpster.

**Lynn4** · 01-12-2011, 12:02 AM

I don't like things out of order to begin with and when things start to get disorganized (it reaches a particular point) I have to get busy and get it under control. I think the lack of control over something or a situation compels me to do this as it gives me back my sense of control. I guess it's my way of coping.

Right now I am newly unemployed. I want to desperately go through closets, but it's so cold in those rooms it's keeping out (we've turned the heat way down). And I have a puppy that has a schedule, so it's not so easy to just go do what I want when I want to. But brother am I itching to get in there and get busy!!!

**pat in east texas** · 01-12-2011, 08:14 AM

I clean when I'm stressed, too. Right now, my house is such a mess that I need a bit of stress to get me motivated!!

**Contrary Housewife** · 01-12-2011, 11:06 AM

When life gets out of control then cleaning is a great way to help you feel more in control. When I get a little stressed I start organizing things so that I don't have distractions making it worse. I think it's a normal coping mechanism.

**cab54** · 01-12-2011, 11:55 AM

Yup! That's basically how I get my house clean. If it weren't for worry/anxiety/crises, I'd live in a sty.

**Gotonenerveleft** · 01-12-2011, 12:04 PM

I don't do it but my daughter does. When she was a teenager if she started cleaning something without being told to I knew something was wrong. She cleaned when she was upset not usually when she was anxious. The madder or more hurt she was the bigger the clean. If she was really, really upset she'd take the kitchen apart and put it back together. Now that she's grown I don't think she does this to her own home...lol....think she copes now with shopping.

**shoiji** · 01-12-2011, 12:15 PM

Wow, wish I could say I did this. To much anxiety and I tend to want to just veg out.

**Frugal Nurse** · 01-12-2011, 01:18 PM

I don't know if the anxiety comes from the disorder. Or does the anxiety exist and the disorder is noticed more so.

But yes... oh yes... I start cleaning cleaning cleaning... it helps to calm the brain.