My son is super super messy. The funk doesnt bother him. I noticed a common thread on here about messiness. I’m wondering if this is a common trait of schizophrenia.
Absolutely common in my son and many others i know with MI , I’m always bribing him with something to clean up !
My son never was messy , until he got out of his first hospital admission and now there was always clothes on his floor and his room generally is cluttered.
Messy is not the word for my son. He doesn’t care to live in filth But he is unmedicated.
yep, I would say 95% of all us have this issue…
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I have struggled with this from time to time. While I was never really neat, I’ve had apartments get out of hand and moving for me is often a trauma. The degree of clutter can be an indicator of mental state.
There are many causes I think. Disordered thinking means you have trouble planning what comes next and clean up is often the last step in any activity. I can be easily distracted, so sometimes the same project gets started multiple times each leading to a trail of disordered mess piled on top of the other. I also may work on multiple things at once, because of distractions and this leads to additional clutter.
Avolition can lead to not wanting to clean, it also can keep you from doing things that cause messes in the first place, however. Depressed mood can lead to similar behavior, but often feeds on itself… I can’t clean because I’m depressed, people can’t visit to raise my spirits because my apartment is a mess, etc.
I also think there’s a degree of blindness or relativeness to disorder similar to anasognosia. It becomes a new norm and you don’t think it’s unusual or bad at all. This extends to smells or personal care as well.
The thing that turned it around for me was when I broke down and hired a cleaning lady to come every two weeks. It provides a little social contact, a bit of ‘good’ stress or social anxiety that motivates a little pre-cleaning and picking-up, puts you on a regular schedule and in some ways demonstrates some cleaning skills that you may have never learned because it was done for you, or you were distracted in your prodrome.
I recommend it of anyone with SZ who lives independently.
When unmedicated, my son’s place was always a mess, at times close to unliveable. I guess I have drilled a few things into him now about putting clothes is the basket, and putting dishes in the sink. He doesn’t clean, but he is okay with me taking a swipe at things.
He has books and stuff placed around the house,but it seems to be intentionally placed.
I used to do at home health care for a patient who had schizophrenia and he was terribly sloppy. drop a bowl of lasagna on the floor just leave it… my kid wasnt raised that way yet hes stll filthy… I have another question about memory and childhood memories in particular.
Very messy. But on meds he is at least keeping it in his room. Is now showering before work. I’m guessing someone at work may have said something.
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Or a girl… lol. My son is now talking about needing a wife… oh my jesus this kid…
Hes very into religion currently which is a good thing I don’t discourage it but it’s a little over the top. I just moved out of my house into a Subway living facility which I think is a bad mood because it’s going to be very stressful he’s going to have to get a job and pay 90 bucks a week to live there we are filing for social security disability but it will be months of course. The last time I got a job it works 2 days and the stress give him a psychotic episode and he was in the hospital for two weeks. but anyway back on track. Sober living place is christian-based and sponsored by a Baptist Church so he was talking about he needs a good Christian girl as a wife it’s like he doesn’t hasn’t accepted it
Well well, it looks like someone should have read that before she sent it. I hope you can read through the typos and understand what I was trying to say all the places where it says I it should say him or he. Fun fun fun voice texting
My sz ex is really messy. He will, however, shower and clean himself up if he is going out. The last time I saw his room it was ankle deep in “ important” papers.
So strange , my son has these so called ‘’ important papers ''too surrounding by thick layers of dust !
@Maggotbrane it sounds like you are doing so well. Thank you for your response.
Our son wants to move out on his own. He’s been off to college at 18 and had to move back home afternoon his initial psychotic break after a semester of a ton of drug use and THC morning til night daily for months. He is messy now at home but I find that comparing him to my other son and also how my husbands was when we met. Clothes on the floor, not cleaning toilets or sinks etc, changing sheets seems to be fairly common for a lot of guys whether they have mental illness or not. He isn’t dirty with his personal hygiene. Showers daily, cuts nails, shaved, meticulous about hair cuts and skin care.
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One small conciliation is something I remember from an interview with Quentin Crisp. He was famous for writing a memoir called ‘The Naked Civil Servant’ about his experiences being an ‘out’ gay man in England long before it was accepted.
He moved to an apartment in New York City which he was famous for never cleaning. He would always say in interviews that after a while, “the dust doesn’t get worse.” From my experience with my brother’s house, I’d say that’s true but of course other things do.
I find it helps to have people of the feminine persuasion visit or live in my house. It has a tendency to make me keep it picked-up. They have a different sense of order and object permanence I appreciate and can often tell me where I left my car keys when asked nicely.