Depression can affect every aspect of your life, including your hygiene. It’s common to feel too low to take care of yourself when you have depression, but neglecting your hygiene can make you feel even worse. Thankfully, depression is treatable. If you’ve noticed a drop in your self-care, working with a therapist and potentially also a psychiatric provider can make a difference in how you feel and help you reach your goals.
Ways Depression Can Impact Your Hygiene
Depression often zaps energy levels, self-esteem, motivation, and pleasure, making basic tasks feel impossible.
Lack of Motivation & Energy
Two of depression’s core symptoms are loss of energy and lack of motivation for completing daily responsibilities. It’s easy to put everything aside that doesn’t absolutely have to be done that day, which could include things like showering or brushing your teeth.
Worthlessness
Depression can make people feel hopeless and worthless, making daily responsibilities and caring for themselves feel meaningless. They might say, “What’s the point?” or, “I don’t deserve it anyway.”
Cognitive Impairment
Depression causes issues with concentration, memory, and decision making, leaving care tasks more difficult and tedious than they were previously.
Anhedonia
Anhedonia is another big marker of depression, which involves a loss of interest or pleasure in activities that used to be pleasurable. If you used to feel satisfaction after doing self-care, these feelings might be dulled or absent altogether.
The Spiral of Poor Hygiene & Mental Health
Depression and hygiene often have a bidirectional relationship, meaning each impacts the other in ways that can make someone spiral into unhealth. Here are a few of the ways not taking care of your hygiene can make your depression worse:
- Increased levels of guilt and shame, as you want to take better care of yourself but don’t have the energy to do so
- Physical discomfort like an itchy scalp, unpleasant odors, and matted hair
- A decline in self-esteem, probably avoiding mirrors and leaving the house as a result in this decline
- Health consequences like dental issues or bed sores in response to improper care
How to Take Care of Your Hygiene When Struggling with Depression
Taking care of yourself is essential, especially when coping with depression. It may feel challenging, but even small changes or shifts in thinking can start to boost your self-esteem. Ideally, a therapist can help you come up with a personalized plan for starting some of these changes. Medication can also help boost your energy and motivation, making these tasks easier.
Here are some simple ways to take care of your hygiene during depression:
- Create a schedule and set plenty of reminders for yourself to stay on top of hygiene tasks, building them in as a regular, non-skippable part of your day.
- Do whatever you can to ease the task. If you’re having trouble showering, buy some wet wipes and dry shampoo for days you simply can’t be bothered. If it’s brushing your teeth, consider buying some pre-pasted toothbrushes to make the task as smooth as possible during this season. Remember that this won’t last forever, but these small changes you make now could help get you out of your slump.
- Spend extra time getting ready in the morning to boost your confidence, even when you don’t feel like it. Maybe this involves getting a new skincare product that you love the scent of or taking a few extra moments to put clips in your hair.
- If you have access to a tub, try a long, luxurious soak with a lavender scented bath bomb to make the process feel relaxing instead of like a chore.
- Talk to someone about what you are going through so that you don’t feel alone. You are not the only one to struggle with these tasks, and sharing openly can take some of the shame and stigma away from how you’re feeling.
- Break tasks down into smaller, more manageable steps: If all you can handle today is rinsing the dishes instead of fully washing them, that’s one step closer. Or if you don’t have the energy to wash all your bedding, switch out your pillow cases.
Why Is Self-Care Important?
Self-care is vital because it serves as the foundation of both physical and emotional health. It encompasses activities and practices that we engage in regularly to reduce stress and maintain and enhance our short- and long-term well-being. This can range from maintaining good hygiene to ensuring a balanced diet and regular exercise.
Particularly for people with depression, self-care can act as a powerful aid to treatment, often helping build toward a sense of control and self-worth. It reinforces the significance of personal well-being and self-esteem, serving as a reminder that everyone deserves to take care of themselves and prioritize their health and happiness. Therefore, in the journey of managing depression, self-care plays a pivotal role by promoting a healthy relationship with oneself, combating negative feelings, and paving the way toward a more balanced and fulfilling life.
How Depression Treatment Can Help
You shouldn’t face depression on your own. While upping your self-care routine can be one powerful way to boost mood, many people don’t “bounce back” from depression without professional treatment. Therapy and medication are often necessary on the journey to healing.
- Therapy: Therapists are trained to help people better understand their life history, current situation, and brain function, getting a greater context for their symptoms and then learning how to move forward. Most therapy for depression is eclectic and tailored to a person’s specific needs, but could include techniques from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and interpersonal therapy (IPT).
- Medication: Psychiatric providers can assess symptoms and determine if medication for depression is necessary. Antidepressants like SSRIs and SNRIs are usually prescribed first, which work to increase the brain’s ability to process important neurotransmitters for mood and energy regulation.
- Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): If someone isn’t seeing relief from medications or has unwanted side effects, TMS could be the next step. This non-invasive treatment uses magnets to stimulate underactive areas of the brain and comes with few side effects for most people.
- Spravato®: Spravato® is the first FDA approved esketamine-based nasal spray for difficult-to-treat depression symptoms, used when other medications haven’t been successful. It works quickly, boosting the brain’s overall ability to function.
Contact New Directions Mental Health for Empathetic Depression Treatment
Depression is a challenging mental health condition and can affect your hygiene in multiple ways. If you’re struggling with depression and hygiene, know that you’re not alone. Try to take small steps toward self-care and know that you can always seek help. Speaking to an expert who can help manage your depression symptoms can make all the difference in your daily life.
For depression treatment in Pennsylvania, give New Directions Mental Health a call today at 724.374.7414 or schedule your first appointment now.
