Teenagers’ rooms are often messy. Some level of untidiness usually isn’t something to worry about. It can be a sign of creativity or growing independence, or a consequence of busy schedules as adolescents balance schoolwork with socialising and the pursuit of interests and passions.
However, when a room becomes very untidy, or when a bedroom’s messiness seems to cause a young person distress, it may be a sign that something isn’t right. Bedroom messiness may be especially worrying when it’s accompanied by other signs that they’re struggling to care for themselves.
How Can Mental Health Challenges Cause Messy Bedrooms?
Mental health disorders like depression or complex PTSD often involve feelings of hopelessness, low self-worth, and a lack of motivation. These symptoms can manifest in different ways. For some teenagers, it becomes challenging to fulfil basic acts of self-care, like eating and sleeping regularly or keeping a room tidy.
When a young person develops very low self-worth, they can feel like they don’t deserve to have a clean and tidy room. If they feel hopeless about life or like nothing has meaning, they might feel like there’s no point in keeping their space organised. Fatigue, another common symptom of depression, can leave young people struggling to find the energy to complete even simple self-care tasks.
Mental health challenges can also impact teenagers’ ability to concentrate and focus on tasks. This means that even if they start to tidy their room, they might find it hard to finish it.
Research shows that high levels of clutter in young people’s bedrooms are associated with stress and emotional exhaustion.
What Are the Causes of Mental Health Challenges in Teens?
Mental health challenges can develop for many reasons. Usually, they’re caused by an interplay of different factors, including life experiences and personality traits.
Childhood experiences often play a key role in shaping a teenager’s mental health. Instability at home or bullying at school can disrupt young people’s learning and development, leading to problems with emotional regulation that make them more vulnerable to emotional challenges.
Trauma is a key shaper of mental well-being. Childhood trauma, which may have been caused by peer victimisation, insecure attachment to parents, or the loss of an attachment figure growing up, can have a profound impact on the way teenagers think and feel.
If unaddressed, ongoing trauma can develop into complex PTSD, a mental health condition characterised by low self-worth, feelings of hopelessness, and a lack of trust in other people and the surrounding world. These symptoms can often manifest in a lack of self-care.
Mental Health and Problems at School or Home
However, while past experiences are sometimes the root of mental health challenges (and almost always impact a young person’s vulnerability to mental health disorders), they can also be triggered and sustained by the present environment.
Difficulties at school or home can impact teenagers’ psychological well-being. Interpersonal problems with peers or family members can cause emotional distress while destabilising a young person’s support system. This makes it harder to cope with and manage the emotions they are experiencing.
Interpersonal problems can also affect teenagers’ identities, how they understand themselves in relation to others, and their sense of belonging to a community. During adolescence, as teenagers explore and consolidate their sense of self, these disturbances can be especially distressing.
Academic pressures are another common source of stress for young people. School environments and the examination system often put pressure on young people to achieve high grades, while devaluing learning processes and overlooking their well-being. This can lead to anxiety and low self-esteem, especially among teenagers with perfectionist traits.
Bullying and Mental Health
Sadly, bullying at school is common among teenagers. A UK-based study found that 40% of year 10 students had been bullied in the past year. Bullying can be a traumatic experience that has a long-term impact on young people’s mental health.
Research has found that young people who are bullied are more likely to have symptoms of:
- anxiety
- depression
- social isolation
- self-harm behaviours
- suicidal ideation
- psychotic symptoms such as delusions and auditory or visual hallucinations
These symptoms can manifest across all aspects of a young person’s life, including how they maintain their spaces and care for themselves.
When Does a Teen’s Messy Room Become a Warning Sign?
The best way to understand whether a teen’s messy room is a sign of mental health challenges is to see how it fits with other aspects of their well-being. If a young person has a messy room but appears motivated and lively in other aspects of their life, it might not be a cause for concern.
It’s important to look for other signs of self-care: are they managing to eat well, maintain a regular sleep schedule, spend time with friends and pursue hobbies? If so, their messy room may be nothing to worry about.
However, if a messy room is accompanied by other warning signs of mental health challenges, it deserves attention. Other warning signs might include:
- Eating a lot more than usual or eating very little
- Sleeping a lot (keeping in mind that adolescents naturally need to sleep longer than adults) or very little
- Spending more time alone and becoming isolated from friendships
- Losing interest in activities they used to enjoy
If you’re concerned about a teenager’s mental health, it’s important to act. If a young person has a mental health disorder, it’s very hard for them to feel better without additional support.
Supporting a young person often begins with an open conversation. Let them know that you’re worried about them, coming from a position of care and not judgment. Ask them if they want to talk about anything and assure them that you are there to support them. Listen carefully to what they say.
You can speak about the importance of professional support and offer practical support, such as researching treatment options or attending appointments with them. Take care to avoid coercion and aim to make decisions collaboratively.
The Wave Clinic: Specialist Recovery Support for Young People and Families
The Wave Clinic offers transformative recovery programs for young people and families. We take a whole-person approach to mental health support, focusing on the past experiences and social relationships that shape how young people feel, behave, and think. We place the family at the centre of programs, endorsing collaborative treatment planning and integrated family therapy.
We have extensive experience working with young people living with complex trauma, borderline personality disorder, eating disorders, and self-harming behaviours. We support young people to develop life skills, grow in self-confidence, and transform their relationships.
We offer residential, outpatient, and intensive outpatient therapy from our clinics in Malaysia and Dubai.
If you’re interested in our programs, please reach out to us today. We’re here to make a difference.
