# People Are Filming Their “Manic Cleaning” Routines, Leading To Warnings From Experts
An online trend in which people label impulsive cleaning as “manic cleaning” has raised concerns from those with actual manic experiences who feel the casual use of mental health terms diminishes the severity of conditions like bipolar disorder. Many people have experienced a sudden urge to clean or dedicated a specific period during the year to drastically wash their home, such as spring cleaning. Yet, some individuals have found a questionable way to brand the need to instantaneously cleanse their surroundings.
Some oblivious people on TikTok have been using serious psychiatric terms to describe a relatively ordinary behavior. The latest consists of labeling random bursts of motivation to tidy up as being manic cleaning.
TikToker Jessica Roof, for example, posted a video that’s been viewed over eight million times where she was seen walking into a room and dropping a full basket of laundry. She captioned: “When you’ve been manic cleaning for the past 8 hours and go to tackle the 3 baskets of laundry but then feel the switch flip.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, mania is a condition in which you have a period of abnormally elevated, extreme changes in your mood or emotions, energy level, or activity level. 25-year-old Hanno Ortiz, from Kansas, USA, was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder bipolar type, meaning she experiences both manic and depressive episodes, as well as delusions and hallucinations. She told USA Today: “It is absolutely insensitive and invalidating to see mental health language being used as a cute little adjective or referring to something completely normal.” She continued: “Unfortunately, serious symptoms of mental illness have become trendy and have lost their meaning.”
According to Hanno, manic cleaning videos have been contributing to misinformation about mania, as people associate it with ordinary behaviors and ignore other, more debilitating symptoms. David Miklowitz, a psychiatry professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA, explained that a person experiencing a manic episode might deep-clean their apartment at midnight on two hours of sleep or spam former classmates with messages asking to meet after years of no contact.
The psychiatry professor revealed that random bursts of motivation to clean were considered manic only if they were unusual, noticeable, occurred every day for a week or more, and affected a person’s daily life, such as their ability to work or care for their children. He also said that these episodes had to always be accompanied by other symptoms, like feeling euphoric or extra talkative.
José Menchón, a psychiatrist and director of Centre Medic BM in Barcelona, Spain, said people who have frequent cleaning sprees may exhibit obsessive-compulsive symptoms instead, which include intense urges to be orderly, as per USA Today. The National Institute of Mental Health describes obsessive-compulsive disorder, commonly referred to as “OCD,” as a long-lasting disorder in which a person experiences uncontrollable and recurring thoughts (obsessions), engages in repetitive behaviors (compulsions), or both.
Professor Miklowitz suggested that a person should ask themselves: “Do my cleaning sprees interfere with my job, relationships, or physical or mental health?” “Next, consider whether you have other manic symptoms, such as no desire to sleep and high energy that’s out of character for you.” “If you are experiencing at least three manic or depressive symptoms, seek a mental health evaluation so you can receive proper treatment, if necessary, which may involve a mix of medication and talk therapy.”
Sarah Victor, an assistant professor of clinical psychology at Texas Tech University, told USA Today: “They oversimplify, and in many cases, are inaccurate reflections of the experience of these types of problems.“Many people already feel ashamed about living with mental illness or other problems, and these terms can exacerbate that.”
Bipolar disorder affects approximately 5.7 million adult Americans, or about 2.6% of the US population age 18 and older every year, as per the National Institute of Mental Health. The institute further estimates that 1.2% of U.S. adults had OCD in the past year. Past year prevalence of OCD was higher for females (1.8%) than for males (0.5%).
