“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

I have the LifeRemix network on my Google reader; there are a lot of good productivity blogs that I skim, IKEA hacks, organization tips and other really cool stuff.  Today, however, I read this article on hoarding by way of Unclutterer.  They talk about how clutter and disorganization can be indicative of a bigger health problem, like emotional trauma or brain injury where the act of cleaning just becomes an insurmountable task and can lead to hoarding as they convince themselves that the solution isn’t to de-clutter but to buy more organizers.

I’m sorry, but that’s bullshit.  I think the trend these days is to turn every undesirable trait in human beings into a disease.  Sure, some things are legit.  Obesity, depression, the list goes on and there are tons of oft-inspirational stories where drugs or therapy (or drug therapy, hah) have helped turn their lives around.  But I also think that it’s becoming really easy to use mental illness as a way to absolve oneself of responsibility.  It’s easy to say, “Oh, I do this because I have an illness” rather than saying “I do this because I’m lazy.”

Now, I hope I’m not coming off as any kind of high-and-mighty or condescending, because I don’t mean to be.  I’ll be the first to admit that I’m probably as lazy as lazy comes.  Clutter in my room builds for a couple weeks before I snap and go on a cleaning spree to take care of all of it, where regular daily tidyings would keep my workload down and keep my room looking nice.  I’m overweight, mostly because I can’t be arsed to go to the gym and work it off (and okay, because eating poorly is cheaper but now I have a full!time!job! so that excuse is gone.)  I sometimes hoard - SCHOOL SUPPLIES are my bane.  I just love notebooks and pens and pencils and I’ll keep scores of them long past any usefulness they may have once had.  But never once have I thought that I had a mental illness.  My poor habits aren’t caused by emotional trauma, brain injury, ADD, depression, chronic pain or grief.  I’d just prefer to read a book or hang out with my friends more than I want to vacuum or wash dishes.

I know, I know.  I’m just one person.  And throughout the past few months I’ve been trying to make a commitment to changing these bad habits - like being more organized, staying cleaner, losing weight.  Some of them are working out better than others and it’s a struggle, but on the other hand, the more I try the more things become routine, which in turn makes them easier.  The trick for me is baby steps - I tend to try to do it all at once and when it doesn’t work, I give up.  So one or two new things at a time keeps me on track.  But that doesn’t change my opinion that the trend towards diagnosing everything is growing.  So I propose a new condition that many people may suffer from without even realizing it.  I’m tentatively calling it ‘chronic, clinical lazyfuckitis.’  Unfortunately, the only treatment currently proving effective is a strict regimen of ‘getting off one’s ass.’

(Any and all actual psychology students/professionals are more than welcome to chime in and tell me I’m a dumbfuck and that I know shit-all about psychology [kind of true] and how dare I assume.  Like I said, it’s my opinion and I suggest anyone upset about my post kindly untwist their panties before commenting.  Discussions are welcome; flames are not.)