Is Clutter an Addiction?

I would say that, in most cases, yes, clutter is an addiction.  It dulls the senses and it is used as a numbing agent, much like food- eating your emotions...alcohol- drinking your emotions... drugs- escaping your emotions...clutter- displacing your emotions in "stuff".

Here's how dictionary.com defines addiction: the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

And, here's how clutter hoarding could look like an addiction:

Clutter is stagnant energy.  Basic law of attraction principles say that like attracts like.  So, if you've been living in a cluttered state for a long time, you've gotten used to how that looks, feels and resonates on every level.  Your clutter attracts more clutter to it and you've gotten nice and comfy (in some ways) being immersed in your stuff.  It's become deeply habitual.  Anything to change that would be at least slightly uncomfortable.  Possibly VERY uncomfortable. 

A good clearing might be good for you, but it would cause a shift that would create ripples in the rest of your life.  So, you come up with reasons for why it has to be this way...why it would only get back to this way, and you become complacent...until some kind of trauma or enlightening experience happens to shock you out of your reverie. In those moments, you realize how much pain your clutter is CAUSING for you.  The thing is, the more deeply you are immersed in your stuff, the more acute that kind of event has to be, therefore creating a viscious cycle of hiding in your stuff, being shocked into awareness...hiding in your stuff, being shocked into awareness...you get the picture.  And it's not a pretty one, is it? 

So, what to do?  I believe the best thing is to get help from a professional, to actually coach you through the releasing part, because all those emotions that have been locked up in your stuff are going to come spilling out of YOU.  This is ultimately a good thing, but it probably won't FEEL very good.  In fact, it might feel like hell.  Then again, that release of energy will start to build upon itself and clutter clearing can actually become a healthy addiction!  Of course, everything in moderation.  What I'm suggesting is that sometimes it takes just doing the thing that you know, intellectually and spiritually will help, even if you don't feel like it.  Sometimes BECAUSE you don't feel like it.  If there is only well-being and resistance, as stated in the book Ask and it is Given, then clutter is resistance getting in the way of your well-being.

Can the clutter addiction be kicked?  Of course it can.  How?  That's another question for another day...

Comments

[Tweetandtidy]

As with most addictions, people are very good at ignoring how bad the disadvantages of the habit feel. Sometimes just acknowledging how much your clutter trips you up is enough to give you a push in the right direction, but you're right, if it's got this bad, it's going to feel worse before it feels better!