Of course, some people’s refusal to shower, brush their teeth, comb their hair, wash their clothes, and indulge in other expected daily activities may not be mental. It could just be an attitude problem. For some individuals, it could just be procrastination, laziness, and/or simply not properly prioritizing these activities. For some, it could even be the temperature of the water available for bathing or showering, as some individuals cannot stand it hot or cold.
But the mistake is that people jump to these conclusions except the individual has outright and obvious psychological issues. Please, don’t make this mistake. For the record; there are early and general symptoms of psychological disorders like depression, PTSD, extreme anxiety, and many others. Knowing these mental health illness symptoms can help in getting the needed and timely medical care before the disorder becomes more severe.
With some conditions, cleanliness can be compromised with a psychological intervention needed to get back in the right shape and state. Well, you will find out some psychological reasons a person may not shower, bathe, wear clean clothes, and practice good hygiene here in this study. So, make sure to read on.
Summary
Poor Personal Hygiene Can be Psychologically Induced
Any condition or disorder that adversely affects how an individual does feel, think, mood, and even behaves is a mental health or psychological disorder. Many people are especially aware of how psychological issues can negatively impact social interaction. However, many are unaware of or perhaps, do not take seriously the fact that psychological conditions can trigger poor hygiene. Some of the reasons it can are explained in this IST Health welfare study:
Psychological Induced Disorganization
The truth is that it takes some level of motivation to be organized. This is why it feels easy to be disorganized. Well, a long list of psychological problems like depression, PTSD, anxiety, and even psychoses will make a person feel less motivated.
This tells on the normal sense of organization; including routines like washing one’s cloth, applying lotion to one’s skin, showering or bathing, and doing other expected routines. In some cases, it would only take psychological treatment to get the person not to neglect personal hygiene anymore.
Physical Discomfort
Physical and mental health are intertwined. For example, when you feel some level of physical pain, it affects you mentally. It is also the other way around. This sort of pain can be one of the many undesirable effects of psychological illness. This sort is known as psychogenic pain.
As a result of psychogenic discomfort (which is even possible from stress), gathering the strength to engage in personal hygiene activities that you should perform every day can be very difficult. In the course of this study, we have come across individuals who would not shower for a whole day. Sadly enough, some would steer clear of showering or bathing for close to one week.
Of course, this seriously impacts negatively on healthy living, as it opens them to so many risk factors. To make sure this already bad situation does not become any worse, mental health treatment needs to be sought.
Temperature Issues
You would think this is not psychologically related but it could be. For example, people with some sort of sensory and anxiety disorder may find it difficult to shower with some degree of hot water. It might just come as too hot for their body, as opposed to what many other people think.
Here in the IST Health welfare segment, we have noted in an article how there are benefits of cold water showers for men. But a man with this psychological illness may feel it is too hard to bathe or shower with cold water.
Hygiene History
Even without a mental health illness triggering neglect for good hygiene, some people are capable of not taking theirs seriously. Such individuals are too quick to stop showering, bathing, washing, and performing other expected routines when faced with any of these psychological disorders.
This is why learning to take personal hygiene seriously should start when one is a child. Parents need to take note of this.
Personal Hygiene Is of Utmost Importance
Performing these expected activities every day promotes healthy living. For one, this is because it does help get rid of bacteria in the body. As a result, such a person can avoid the following health risk associated with bad hygiene:
- Tooth decay
- Scabies
- Body lice
- Pinworms
- Athlete’s foot
- Pubic live
- Head lice
- Dermatitis
There are just so many others. So, ensure that you engage in activities such as – showering or bathing, brushing your teeth, combing or brushing your hair, and keeping your skin moisturized.
We have other information on our website’s welfare segment that you will find helpful. For example, you can read this study about when morning sickness starts during pregnancy.