Hygiene issues...what exactly is the problem?

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I don't take daily showers because that would be change and I don't accept changes. I didn't shower daily when I was younger, so why should I now?

I don't take daily showers because that would be change and I don't accept changes. I didn't shower daily when I was younger, so why should I now?

By the way, I do brush my teeth every day and use deodorant, so I am kind of clean.

I shower two or 3 times a week. Brushing my teeth is something I have problems with getting myself to do. When I was living with my parents, they had to remind me to brush my teeth every day (and often had to make sure I did it). Since moving out, I haven't been able to get myself to brush my teeth very often.

In short, maintaining my hygiene isn't something I'm very good at.

If you want to know how your breath smells, just cupping your hand over your mouth and nose won't tell you much. Lick the back of your hand, let it dry, then smell that spot.

I shower everyday, I hate having to go without a shower. It feels very uncomfortable and weird if I cannot have a shower.

I think I was similar to OP.

I can't often make myself take care of hygiene without prompting.

Especially in youth, I couldn't handle the what I now know is the overstimulation of the senses having a bath or brushing teeth. I prefer electronic toothbrushes as the sound it produces masks the sound and feeling of the brush scrubbing against teeth.

These days... I can't shower or brush teeth every single day... That often makes me feel unwell, there's also a problem with scented body wash. It has to be non scented and tend to go for more feminine products for that reason.

I've also got into the habit of softening the skin and shaving all body hair as it feels preferred to my own sense of touch. I can now manage twice a week with an electronic reminder prompt, otherwise I like the sensations once in the shower and take longer. Because I function at a slower pace as well, it's not unusual for me to take 90-120 minutes between all hygiene activities for the twice per week I can.

I shower every morning as I enjoy the sensation of water falling over my body and it wakes me up. However, I only shampoo my hair 1-2 times a week.

I am also big on hygiene and like to look and smell good. I believe this is a big part of how people perceive you. I like to be presentable and dress for success.

Unfortunately, hygiene is a big part of our society in the 21st Century. We made it so that you are not a normal human being if you don't shower, shave (everywhere) and be clean cut. I don't believe this is beneficial for us but we implemented the changes.

In the old days it was common to shower/bath maybe 1-2 times a month. People were attracted to each other's scents and odors. We were hairy, we were mammals. Now we call it BO and can't stand it! Body hair is gross and your rejected if you don't follow the rules. Oh society.

I shower when I am going to have to be around another person or go out in public. Otherwise, I can't be bothered because I have more interesting things to do with my time. Living alone has advantages.

I wish I could do something like this! I live a couple of miles from a sizeable lake, but it's not all that clean, and it has quite a alligator population. Another thing I wish I could do is put a bathtub or shower on my back porch. I live far back in the woods, and we have very few neighbors. So being naked (or nearly so) isn't that big a deal. However...one of those houses is directly next door and contains three teenage boys. No need to traumatize them with the sight of a starkers 54-year-old woman. Life is difficult enough...lol



If I was a blonde and had light leg hair, I wouldn't be so self-conscious about going out in public bare-legged. But I am a brunette, and my leg hair is very dark and thick. So even long shorts wouldn't cover it up. Oddly enough though, the hair on my arms is VERY light. Don't quite get that. You'd think that hair would be evenly dispersed, but I guess not.

I don't think any dermatologist would recommend that you soap up every single day (and certainly not more than once per day!), and it's not a good idea to wash hair every day either. In the summer it often makes sense to rinse off on a daily basis, otherwise you will probably feel sweaty and gross, but soap should only be used every other day. and you really should moisturize after cleaning with soap, too, no matter how often you do it. I would recommend using baby oil or olive oil on your skin right before getting out of the shower, then patting your skin dry with a towel (instead of rubbing it). people think that oil is bad for your skin, but it produces oil for a reason - to keep it elastic and healthy. I actually cleared up my occasional pimple breakouts by washing my face with approx 1/3 castor oil and 2/3 extra virgin olive oil mixture. It's worth a google search for anyone who has problems with dry skin AND pimples.

I've typically showered daily all the time since I was a kid. I've never liked feeling dirty - and sometimes being clean has been a bit of an OCD thing, like hating the feeling of mud on my feet, or wet socks etc - but those are partially sensory things.

But there was a period where I was functioning at my lowest where I sometimes didn't shower for 4 or 5 days. I chalk it up to poor executive functions at the time, very poor time perception, depression & generally not caring because I didn't have anywhere I was obligated to go or anything I was obligated to do. But then I'd shower and it felt sooooooo good I'd ask myself why I didn't just continue showering daily and couldn't come up with an answer.

FYI during that time period I was quite ill with a lung infection and was using a strong salicylate acid gel on the bottoms of my feet to get rid of some warts. (ew, gross, I know.) It killed them over time and they're long gone, but since then I have learned that salicylate acid sensitivity is what caused my executive functions to be so horrendous at that time. In hindsight, it's no wonder I was functioning at about my lowest ever at that point. The acid gel I was painting on the bottoms of my feet was wreaking absolute havoc on my brain.

^^^
does aspirin have the same effect with you?

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe it does. I've only ever taken a handful of aspirins in my life because when I have taken them I didn't find that they relieved very much pain/headache at all, and may have made me feel worse.

I know some other people (undiagnosed) on the spectrum who have allergic (skin) reactions to aspirin and other pain killers due to the salicylate acid content.

I'm also FAR less sensitive to SA's now than I was a year or two ago since healing up most of my digestive tract via the diet and herbal/supplement protocol I've shared in the thread in my sig. I know this to be fact because when I first started figuring all of this out a couple years ago, the SA buildup was causing huuuuuge problems with executive functioning, anxiety, audio sensory overload, depression etc & then detoxing them changed everything rapidly. I avoided sals c o m p l e t e l y for several months, but then had to reintroduce them when doing the herbal cleanse thing. I consumed MASSIVE quantities of very high sal herbs/spices and the acids never did cause the same problems again in the least bit. I continued (and still do) using the epsom salt lotion to keep them detoxed asap, as well as discontinued taking Dexedrine (Dextroamphetamine) for ADHD as apparently it leaches magnesium & sulphur from your body which allows SA's to build up in the first place. SA's may have continued to cause some very very minor symptoms with executive functioning etc, but if so they're pretty much unnoticeable. The only symptom I noticed of high sal concentration in my body is that when I'd consume huuuuuge quantities of herbs/spices in a day, I'd sweat a little more and would have to urinate more frequently. Excessive urination (defined as 8 or more times per day) is a sign of salicylate sensitivity/buildup as your body is trying to detox the acids - but can't if magnesium & sulphur are too low, hence the epsom salt lotion. Currently, I haven't been overloading on spices, but I eat any spices I want and don't have any reactions to them.

Salicylate acids are plants natural pesticide and preservative. They're sky high concentrated in herbs/dried spices, and also in GMO foods that have been modified to keep bugs off crops and have long shelf lives. They're also high in many fruits, vegetables, nuts, alcoholic beverages etc.

I used to shower every day but now every other day. I don't like all the sensations initially but then enjoy being in the shower. I hate drying off and being cold. I hate wet hair. My daughter started to really stink when she was 11 even with deoderant. I make her shower every day now and she does not like it mostly because it takes time away from what she wants to do. If I did not remind her to shower and brush her teeth, I don't think she would do it.

Growing up my parents would tell me when to take a bath, which probably only occurred once or twice a week. This was because 1) I was never really dirty and didn't really "need" a bath and 2) we were pretty poor and my parents didn't want to drive the water bill up. Consequently when I was allowed to bathe I'd generally have to use someone else's used bathwater. In retrospect I realize that's super gross and defeats the entire point of bathing and I really don't think that it would have cost that much to run a new bath.

My parents stopped dictating my hygiene in my teenage years. They had never really taught me how to be hygienic (like how to brush my teeth properly, how to bathe properly, toilet procedures, hand washing, etc.) so I didn't realize that I was deficient in that area unless people pointed out that my hair looked greasy or I had something in my teeth. When I finally took notice that I wasn't up to par with other people, I tried to improve my standard level of clean. But showering and brushing my teeth and the like bored me and so I avoided doing it or did it quickly and poorly to get it over with. I've also had a lifelong problem with water touching my face, so showering was a struggle. Also my parents hardly never turned the heat on in our house in the winter time so I dreaded emerging from a warm shower to a cold house. The change in temperature was too much for me. There was a two year stint in which my OCD (and depression) climaxed and I was obsessed with cleaning and not touching doors, handrails, and people. After it settled down, I fell into a normal hygiene routine and was ironically more hygienic than I was when my OCD was at its worse.

Now I shower every day because I enjoy feeling clean and I'm a lot better at keeping up with myself than I was as a kid. It's partly because my parents didn't teach me correct self care and partly because of sensory issues.

that's progress