Ep. 54 Compassion Before Cleanup: Mental Health, Clutter and Shame
Updated: Aug 21
Alison DeCamp joins us to talk about how decluttering intersects with mental health, including depression, trauma and ADHD. I met Alison through Calibrate ADHD, the ADHD support group I belong to, where she serves as a coach.
I know firsthand how difficult it can be to work through clutter—and how deeply it can affect your mental health. The guilt, shame and embarrassment are all too real. It’s not that I don’t know how to organize things. It’s a combination of not making it a priority, feeling overwhelmed by the volume and knowing that going through everything will take up time I don’t feel I have.
Dawn generally prefers to keep things off of her counters and floors, but her experiences with family members who hold onto things—and the painful experience of having meaningful Denim Day-related items thrown away without her permission—gave her a new perspective on who gets to decide whether something has value or whether it’s simply clutter.
This conversation has the potential to be very emotional.
Watch Ep. 54, “Compassion Before Cleanup: Mental Health, Clutter and Shame” Thursday, August 13 at 7pm ET / 6pm CT. Dawn Neuburg is my co-host.
Post-Show Update
I shared the picture on the left on screen while describing the clutter you don't see in my office. A few days later, I was able to carve out 90 minutes to work through my office. I cleared the clothes off my sofa, cleared space in my closet so I could put papers that needed to be sorted into multiple boxes, and picked up everything off the carpet. I was able to vacuum for the first time in months. I still have a lot of work to do, but progress is better than perfection, right?
Watch the recording on this website or watch and comment on social media: Facebook* | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube
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Your Clutter Does Not Define Your Worth
As Alison wrote in a blog post for this episode, “Decluttering is not about proving your worth because your worth was never dependent on how organized your home is. Sometimes the most powerful place to begin is not with cleaning up—but with showing yourself compassion.”
Alison brings several years of experience helping people declutter and organize their spaces. Her background includes training in ADHD coaching, graduate study in conflict resolution and mediation, experience supporting sexual-assault survivors in hospital and crisis settings, and professional development through the Institute for Challenging Disorganization.
Her approach is also informed by her own experience with ADHD and burnout, giving her a practical, compassionate understanding of the mental-health challenges that can make decluttering difficult.
Programming Notes
On August 27, Sree Sreenivasan, the CEO of Digimentors will join us to discuss the mental health impacts of social media for teens AND adults. Sree taught what was then called “new media” at Columbia Journalism School for 20 years and is the father of twins. He worked to balance his social media presence with family time while his children were growing up.
Background
Dawn and I launched this twice a month show (usually the 2nd and 4th Thursdays of the month) in order to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health. Thank you for being part of our community.
We are proud to be in Year 3 of the show. If you are interested in being a guest on the show or know someone who might be interested, please let us know. We’re looking for people who would be willing to share their story, advocates and people who work in the field of mental health.
We hope you can watch the show and share your own thoughts in the comments.
Resources / Relevant Links
DeCamp DeCluttering
decampdecluttering.com
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Helpline
800-950-6264 Or text "HelpLine" to 6264; nami.org
Mental Health America Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org; mhanational.org Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) National Sexual Assault Hotline 800-656-HOPE (4673); rainn.org
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