\u201c\u2018Depression room\u2019 is this term that has entered into the pop psychology lexicon lately, and it refers to the living space of a person in the grips of a depressive episode,\u201d said Dayton Olsen<\/a>, a licensed professional counselor with Thriveworks<\/a> in Roanoke, Virginia. <\/p>\n \u201cA \u2018depression room\u2019 describes a living space that has become noticeably cluttered or chaotic because the person living in it is experiencing depression,\u201d said Kobe Campbell<\/a>, a licensed clinical mental health counselor in North Carolina.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not about laziness or lack of care, it\u2019s a sign that the inner world has become so heavy or disorganized that maintaining the outer world feels impossible,\u201d Campbell added.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a clear reason \u201cdepression rooms\u201d happen.<\/p>\n \u201cThe state of the room becomes a mirror of what is happening internally,\u201d Campbell noted.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what even just a brief glance into someone\u2019s living space can say about how that person\u2019s doing,\u201d Olsen said. A picture \u2014 or video, in this case \u2014 speaks 1,000 words, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThese awful depressive episodes, they do to a person\u2019s living space what they do to a person. They rob them of the ability to just care for themselves, to tend to themselves and their space,\u201d Olsen noted. <\/p>\n \u201cDepression impairs executive function, which is the area of the brain that helps us plan, prioritize and follow through on tasks,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n When you\u2019re depressed, everyday tasks and chores feel overwhelming, Campbell added.<\/p>\n Illustration: HuffPost; Photos: Getty<\/p>\n “Depression rooms” \u2014 the messy bedrooms and homes that reflect the lack of motivation that happens when someone is depressed \u2014 are trending on social media.<\/p>\n People who\u2019ve dealt with depression describe it as a period of timelessness \u201cwhere they can\u2019t remember back, necessarily, to a time where they didn\u2019t feel depressed, and they can\u2019t imagine a future where they feel differently,\u201d Olsen said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re just frozen in this awful emotional pain, and what that translates to so often is this difficulty to do what so many of us typically do when we\u2019re well, which is to make small investments in our future \u2014 brushing our teeth, vacuuming, folding laundry, bathing, eating regularly, all of these things that don\u2019t necessarily require a ton of energy or mental bandwidth but they do require looking ahead to the future and investing in that. And depression robs us of that,\u201d Olsen explained.<\/p>\n Depression also robs folks of their energy and motivation, which can make things like doing the dishes or hanging up your clothes feel impossible.<\/p>\n \u201cDepression room\u201d cleaning is a way to break the depression feedback loop.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you think about psychology and mental health, there\u2019s this feedback loop between your thoughts, your feelings and your behaviors,\u201d explained Taisha Caldwell-Harvey<\/a>, a psychologist and the founder and CEO of The Black Girl Doctor, an online therapy and wellness platform.<\/p>\n When your behavior changes, and you\u2019re no longer cleaning your bedroom or letting dishes pile up, it also influences how you think, talk to yourself and how you feel, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all a circle, it\u2019s all a loop, and so you might look around and say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m gross, I\u2019m lazy,\u2019 and then if you say that, now you\u2019re going to have [thoughts like] \u2018I shouldn\u2019t be doing this,\u2019 \u2018I\u2019m a bad person,\u2019 and that\u2019s going to trigger emotions that are connected to that \u2014 now I\u2019m sad, I feel guilty, I feel bad,\u201d Caldwell-Harvey said.<\/p>\n If you feel bad, why would you do anything around your house? If you tell yourself you\u2019re lazy, why would you pick up after yourself? <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all a circle, it\u2019s all a loop, and so you might look around and say, \u2018Oh, I\u2019m gross, I\u2019m lazy,\u2019 and then if you say that … that\u2019s going to trigger emotions that are connected to that \u2014 now I\u2019m sad, I feel guilty, I feel bad.\u201d<\/p>\n – Taisha Caldwell-Harvey, psychologist and founder and CEO of The Black Girl Doctor<\/p>\n The clean-up depression room videos on social media are a way to break this feedback loop and make people feel better, Caldwell-Harvey said.<\/p>\n \u201cMost of the times, we can\u2019t just tell ourselves \u2018feel better,\u2019 right? The feeling [aspect] is the hardest one to try to interrupt … we usually let that one be for a minute and start with something that is an easier place, and so behavior activation is a big one that is usually easier for people to do,\u201d Caldwell-Harvey said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, while you feel like crap, while you\u2019re still telling yourself these negative things, you can force yourself to do a behavior. We call it behavior activation. And so it could be something like clean up your room, [or] it can be something as small as clean up this corner of your room,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t have it in you to clean your whole kitchen, set a timer for five minutes and clean for just that amount of time.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, you clean for five minutes, and now you think, \u2018Oh, I did one small thing,\u2019\u201d she said. Being able to say to yourself, \u201cI did one small thing\u201d can lead to a tiny bit of hope and even a commitment to do five more minutes of cleanup the next day, she added.<\/p>\n This breaks the cycle and interrupts the pattern, she explained.<\/p>\n fcafotodigital via Getty Images<\/p>\n Depression robs folks of their motivation, which makes tasks like cleaning feel impossible.<\/p>\n You can also always use your home as a visual mental health check.<\/p>\n \u201cOur environment influences our emotional health. A 2010 <\/a>study published <\/a>in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin found that women who described their homes as cluttered or unfinished had higher levels of cortisol and more feelings of fatigue and depression compared to those who described their spaces as restful and restorative,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, even small acts of tidying can help signal safety to the nervous system,\u201d Campbell noted.<\/p>\n Beyond signaling safety, your home can give you a peek into your emotional and mental health, which is important as it\u2019s hard to keep tabs on the small mental health changes that lead to big declines.<\/p>\n Usually, people wake up one day and feel totally depressed, but it doesn\u2019t happen overnight, Caldwell-Harvey said. \u201cYou actually have a decline,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n One way to keep tabs on your mental health and be aware of the decline is by using your bedroom or home as a mental health check, Caldwell-Harvey added.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of times, your environment really is telling you how you\u2019re doing, and so it\u2019s a good question to ask \u2014 \u2018What is my environment telling me about what\u2019s happening right now?\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n If you do have a depression room, don\u2019t be ashamed.<\/p>\n Depression is heavy, isolating and scary. If you have a depression room during times of low mood, that\u2019s OK. \u201cIf you have a \u2018depression room,\u2019 you are not alone,\u201d said Campbell.<\/p>\n \u201cFeeling shame about it is understandable, but misplaced. Clutter isn\u2019t a character flaw, it\u2019s a flag signaling that you need more support than you can offer yourself,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also a sign that you\u2019re struggling and need additional care, Campbell noted.<\/p>\n Beyond taking a few minutes to clean your depression room, make social plans and create structure for yourself within your home, added Olsen, whether that\u2019s waking up at the same time, logging on to work at a certain time or simply having a glass of water before bed.<\/p>\n And know when you need extra support.<\/p>\n \u201cI always want to be really careful when we talk about stuff like this,\u201d said Caldwell-Harvey.<\/p>\n While content about \u201cdepression rooms\u201d can help people feel less alone and increase conversations about depression, \u201cI also am really cautious that we\u2019re not glamorizing suffering, and that we\u2019re not further stigmatizing people that are in a clinical depression that needs treatment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n You can have symptoms of depression and not have clinical depression, Caldwell-Harvey explained. But for those with clinical depression, things like room cleaning, behavior changes or daily mantras aren\u2019t going to be enough to boost your mood.<\/p>\n If two weeks go by and you still aren\u2019t feeling good, you may need more support, she noted.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re struggling and you are trying this stuff, and you\u2019re just like, \u2018Yeah, this ain\u2019t doing it,\u2019 that\u2019s when we want you to reach out for help,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is what therapists are for. Medication is really effective for depression \u2014 medication and talk therapy are both extremely effective for depression,\u201d Caldwell-Harvey added.<\/p>\n For some people, a depression room \u2014 and depression \u2014 may be a short-lived occurrence, but for others, it\u2019ll be a longer challenge.<\/p>\n \u201cCleaning your room is not going to take away grief. It might make you feel better for a minute, and that\u2019s great if it does, but again, you probably need to talk to somebody and process it and do all the things that are going to give you the long-term relief from what you\u2019re going through,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n 20 Years OfFreeJournalism<\/p>\n Your Support Fuels Our Mission<\/p>\n Your Support Fuels Our Mission<\/p>\n For two decades, HuffPost has been fearless, unflinching, and relentless in pursuit of the truth. Support our mission to keep us around for the next 20 \u2014 we can’t do this without you.<\/p>\n We remain committed to providing you with the unflinching, fact-based journalism everyone deserves.<\/p>\n Thank you again for your support along the way. We\u2019re truly grateful for readers like you! Your initial support helped get us here and bolstered our newsroom, which kept us strong during uncertain times. Now as we continue, we need your help more than ever. ![\""Depression](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/6878141b160000980942d0e2.gif\")
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