Stress generation, the kitchen and the ironing - as good as it gets

 Stress Generation, Avoidance Coping, and Depressive Symptoms: A 10-Year Model 

Author   Holahan, Charles J; Moos, Rudolf H; Holahan, Carole K; Brennan, Penny L; Schutte, Kathleen K  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Vol 73(4), Aug 2005, pp. 658-666

This study examined (a) the role of avoidance coping in prospectively generating both chronic and acute life stressors and (b) the stress-generating role of avoidance coping as a prospective link to future depressive symptoms. Participants were 1,211 late-middle-aged individuals (500 women and 711 men) assessed 3 times over a 10-year period. As predicted, baseline avoidance coping was prospectively associated with both more chronic and more acute life stressors 4 years later. Furthermore, as predicted, these intervening life stressors linked baseline avoidance coping and depressive symptoms 10 years later, controlling for the influence of initial depressive symptoms.

Folks – if I keep avoiding cleaning up the mess which passes for my kitchen, it would seem that I am guaranteed both chronic and acute stress and future depression. In other words, are they are telling me that if I don’t clean my kitchen, next time I try to cook a meal I will be severely stressed and then depressed?  I see only one solution. My husband should take me out for all meals, thus alleviating my need to avoid cleaning the kitchen, and halting a major depressive episode into the bargain. I could cope with that.

I wonder if there is a solution for my avoiding doing the ironing?