I am a pretty sarcastic, dark person sometimes (not when I’m coaching, obviously, and only with organization clients when it’s clear they value that kind of humor as well). One of my frequent responses to friends, family, and coworkers?

“That sounds like a trauma response.”

I’m usually kidding, because I’m not a therapist and don’t have the training to make such an assessment accurately. But the reason this particular dark joke came into my lexicon is because I started wondering which of my behaviors were trauma responses.

I have shown symptoms of PTSD (undiagnosed, and since PTSD changes the brain, quite literally, it likely wasn’t actual PTSD because of the fact that they didn’t remain for more than a year in either case) twice in my life. After I moved into the dorms in college I used to regularly wake up in a panic because I thought I heard my dad yelling. (my dad wasn’t abusive other than occasional spanking, and yes I’ve argued this point with my therapist enough to not want to hash it out here again. The second PTSD-like period was after the birth of my youngest- it was traumatic in a we both could have died kind of way that happened suddenly and was just as quickly resolved, and both of us were completely fine. I remember an hour or so after she was born my midwife being so impressed at how calm my husband and I were after the whole thing was over, because while she was super calm and focused during, she was a little freaked out once we were safe.

Then, four months later, I had hallucinations and a panic attack during gentle yoga at the Y. And another, smaller panic episode during the All Souls mass (I was still going to church then, and was singing in the choir, but thankfully I was in the second row and fairly well hidden).

All of that to say, we see those kinds of reactions as related to trauma. But there are so many other, smaller things that we do that can be reactions to trauma that we don’t think about.

I was talking to my mom a while back about my organizing work, and how I’m not really naturally organized, but I learned to appreciate organization early due to my disorganized brain. I told her she is what I consider a BO, born organized. She told me that she didn’t feel like that was the case and I, being me, said “it was probably a trauma response.” Only she agreed, and I know parts of my mom’s childhood were… less than ideal, so perhaps it is true, for her.

I’m still in the process of evaluating my own habits, behaviors, and little quirks, but I’m doing it because I think that recognizing actions that are due to past trauma and that don’t serve me is the first step towards dealing with those behaviors.

When I am organizing for clients, I get the impression that either keeping or acquiring items is often a trauma response. Keeping makes them feel safe, even when the cluttered space makes them feel out of control. In these cases, you may need to talk to a therapist in addition to an organizer who is trained in chronic disorganization.

Check out the Institute for Chronic Disorganization for organizers near you who are trained in a variety of topics including hoarding, ADHD, and traumatic brain injury among others.