hygiene and mental health, a thread for why you shouldnt make fun of people if their hygiene isnt the greatest and how mental health can manifest in physical ways including a lack of self hygiene:

Certain mental illnesses make it hard to look after yourself, basically, when mental illnesses get too much for people, their hygiene can lack, this is nothing to do with 'laziness' but (mainly within depression and anxiety) a lack of motivation or energy.

mental illness can make people physically exhausted because of the toll it takes on your brain, this causes a lot of fatigue and loss of energy, making it extremely hard to even get out of bed let alone look after yourself.

also, in pyschotic disorders/personality disorders they can get extremely severe so much so that people dont have the energy to look after themselves due to hallucinations and delusions and stuff.

infact, poor hygiene is recognised as one sign of mental illness, yes i get that it sucks sometimes having to be around people who dont look after themselves but there is probably a deeper reason behind it rather than laziness.

also, in teenagers and children, lack of hygiene can also be a sign of parental neglect or abuse, so to automatically assume that its due to laziness is wrong because it could be an extremely horrible situation for them

ALSO: cluttered and messy rooms and houses, this can be another sign of mental illness. you stop caring sometimes abt how u view to other people or how ur house looks, or you just simply dont have the energy to clean up.

trigger warning // eating disorders

eating disorders also affect ur hygiene, in particular, ur teeth/oral hygiene. because of a lack of calcium in the diet/anything, malnutrition takes its toll, malnutrition can cause oral problems destroying the teeth due to lack of

needed nutrients for the mouth. bulimia as well, particularly the vomit purge type, acid destroys the teeth and can lead to tooth decay and can also cause cavities and stain the teeth.

im rlly bad with words as one can tell, but what im basically trying to say is that just bc someones hygiene is bad it isnt always down to laziness and some people genuinely struggle with looking after themselves