Lived Experience Forum

[Lilyq]

I absolutely hate staying home in my house, I feel depressed at home. I make any excuse to go to out and leave the house.

I don't really know why except for the fact I find my house to be a prison with constant housework. 

I would rather sit in the car, a cafe, movie theatre, park or any other place that isn't home. 

I have schizoaffective disorder and I have trouble organising my thoughts and I am not very good at cleaning. My kids make such a mess and I have trouble tidying it up. 

Any tips on how to get over it and at least start liking my home again? 

[greenpea]

@Lilyq Hi Lilyq schizo here too and I am totally the same. My son's room looks like a bomb has hit it.... I have to clean it tmorrow but I know I wont .... what I try and do is do one room a day. I find that works best. Anyway I just think of it as a work in progress and try not to let it get me down. Hope that helps a bit. greenpea

[Fredd50]

Hi Greenpea,

I know it's not much but I found arranging to get access to cleaning services through Anglicare (via partners in recovery) really helpful.

They started off with two "spring cleans" to help me get everything in order and then come once a week to help with general cleaning.

It's not much I know, but it did make a big difference. I was pretty isolated at home too and there was something nice about having a chatty cleaner come round once a week, as well as easing the cleaning burden a bit. (I live in Tassie where folks are especially chatty ;-))

Partners in recovery were generally really good in helping me find other services and programs too, to help with getting out of the house and reconnecting, that helped too since time spent alone at home wasn't my mainstay and home was more a place to come back to and rest at night, than a place I was stuck in. I also got a mentor through a program called PHAMs (personal helpers and mentors) who really helped me figure out how to put the pieces together in dealing with complicated demands in life. I'm not sure how much longer the PIR program is not through the NDIS but I think it's still on for now.

I'm new to the forums so apologies if that's something you've already tried.

Wishing you the very best in happiness and healing