Hygiene

[juffur]

I often hear that people with Asperger's Syndrome have terrible hygiene. I'm curious, would any of you fit into that category? I personally think my hygiene is rather good and I consider myself sorta metro lol.

This always seems to be a common problem websites list for individuals with Asperger's. I'm not so sure I believe it. What do you think?

 

[. . .]

I wouldn't say that mine is "terrible", but it's sub-par.

It isn't rare for me to:

• Go three or four days without bathing
• Go a week without brushing my teeth
• Not bother combing/maintaining my hair (it's short now, but when I have hair I usually don't care about how unkempt it is)
• Not bother shaving everyday (I really should since facial hair on me looks bad)
• Not bother washing my hands before eating a meal (I usually always wash after though)

Etc. etc. etc. . . .

 

[Droopy]

I have very good hygiene. I wash every day (sometimes twice) and always wash my hands when appropriate. I shave regularly too, brush my teeth daily and in general maintain good hygiene.

When I was younger though, my hygiene wasn't as good.

 

[Pedro]

I'm obsessive about keeping a good hygiene.
So, I think you got all kinds of answers here. I guess we're not a completely different species from the NT's.

 

[kasmanaft08]

I think the reasoning behind the link of Aspies with terrible hygiene is assumed through poor social skills. I'm rather particular about grooming, but it's not for social reasons. If I go more than a day (or two) without a shower, have hair that falls weird or am wearing clothes I'm not comfortable with, it really will ruin my day and bother the hell out of me. I keep up shaving even though no one would see any of that. It's more a comfort/sensitivity thing than a social thing. The only difference in 'maintenance' with me at home is no makeup and I live in pajamas, or underwear, or whatever it is I slept in.

But I am rather messy/unconventional with random other things. My room and car is far from clean. I often forget about my bed sheets...I accumulate finished coke cans in my room....etc etc. I wear clothes over and over before washing them.
My pickiness/OCD qualities are not consistent, anyhow.

 

[Droopy]

I accumulate finished coke cans in my room....etc etc.

Same for me. I go through so many Coke cans that they just pile up around my room.

 

[katcha]

I don't recall ever brushing my hair, my clothes are usually not ironed and I usually look a state. I do bathe and wash my hair daily though. I guess "ungroomed" would be more appropriate than unhygienic. I'm certainly clean, although I don't care what I look like.

 

[142857]

I have a routine where I shave and shower before I go to work.... but if I am not working then I might only shower before I go out with friends, go to interviews, when I feel smelly, and so on. So I might sometimes go 3 days between showers in winter.

Considering how the world is full of people who do all sorts of gross things, including not washing their hands after they go to the toilet, I think aspies get a bad rap. Most aspies I know are not particularly concerned with fashion or grooming, so I guess it is more a matter of perception than anything.

 

[Spinning Compass]

I used to not care much about my appearance and/or hygiene either but I found out that those things are absolutely critical if you are going to be out dealing with the public, because otherwise you will miss out on opportunities at best and become a target for bullies at worst. I work in an office so it is very essential I keep up my hygiene and appearance. This past week I had to take sponge baths because my power was out due to a storm, and I was beginning to worry about odor.

 

[Geordie]

Well, all successful people seem to care how good they are, don't they.

 

[Drake Marino]

This is not true at all for me. Well, actually, when I was a kid I was like that. Then I spent a week at my sister's house when I was 10 and she was like "nope, that's gross, you are going to bathe every day", and ever since I've had great hygiene. Thank god I have my sister! I shower twice a day, use deodorant and cologne, etc. However, most of the other aspies at my school have horrible hygiene! I ride a bus of all aspies, and boy do they stink! The same goes for the autistic classroom in my school. I'm so tempted to by a bottle of cologne for every person on my bus and be like "Here, use it! You stink". Like, what's so difficult about taking a shower, brushing your teeth, and putting on deodorant every morning? My number one peeve has got to be people that have poor hygiene, I just want to slap them so bad. In my opinion it is so rude and inconsiderate of others to subject them to your BO.

I don't think it's poor social skills that cause aspies to have poor hygiene, I think it's more of a sensory issue. Some aspies may be bothered by the feeling of a bath/shower, just like a cat.

 

[Flinty]

I don't think it's poor social skills that cause aspies to have poor hygiene, I think it's more of a sensory issue. Some aspies may be bothered by the feeling of a bath/shower, just like a cat.

You've hit the nail on my head. I like my hands to feel rough, for one.

That said, I do do that stuff now.

 

[Archer36]

I don't like at all to remember this.

When I was younger, lets say 20yo, I was really bad at it. I basically couldn't take care of myself properly. I was dirty, my apartment was extremely dirty ... I had no notions of being clean ... I was wearing dirty clothes, i wasn't brushing my teeth often .. i was probably smelling like if a creature crawled inside me and died there and was rotting. I was just not realizing it ... i couldn't process that info ... to me it was irrelevant, but at the same time i was feeling really bad about it ... couldn't understand why I was like that.

Now I'm 36 ... I REALLY improved. I take a shower everyday, even if its not a natural reflex. I brush my teeth everyday, my teeth are all normal color now. ... I rarely shave tho ... my beard grow for few weeks, then i shave it down ... grows back ... shave it ... same with my hair, I always wait too long. But its ok .. I keep improving slowly.

My biggest issue right now, is cleaning up my place. I usually do it the day before I know someone is visiting. I know its bad, but if the door bell ring and I don't expect anyone, I just hide and do not answer. I'm really scared that someone would get inside my house at the worse time possible and he would see my mess. But I'm soooo much better now. I went from "I can't see the floor at all" to "I can see it most of the time" I'm really proud of the improvement. For me its a huge thing.

I don't know what is causing this .... Its like if I don't know what to do with the items. If I go to bed, I take off my t-shirt and ... It goes on the floor ... if i find a pencil ... I'll put it on top the drying machine ... it will stay there for months because I don't know what to do with it. If the bathroom garbage bin is full, I'll just push everything down so I can put more stuff in it ... instead of just emptying it. Its very strange.

Then 2-3 times year when I have visitors, I deeply clean everything.

At some point I programmed a nice software. It contained a VERY granular list of everything I had to do to keep my house clean. Everyday, it would e-mail me a couple of task, and I had to confirm it was done the next day. Generally it took 5-10 minutes per day to do them. It was very detailed ... like "clean dining room table","vacuum master bedroom","clean bathroom sink", "clean bathroom toilet", etc. If i was failing to the the tasks, the software would give me more tasks to do the next day. So to prevent that to happen I had to be disciplined. I used it for a couple of months with amazing results. But then i stopped to use it and went back to my old habits. I think i don't have it anymore .. maybe I should re-write it and share it here. It worked on any Windows computers.

Maybe I just need a girlfriend.

 

[Brent]

I don't like at all to remember this.

When I was younger, lets say 20yo, I was really bad at it. I basically couldn't take care of myself properly. I was dirty, my apartment was extremely dirty ... I had no notions of being clean ... I was wearing dirty clothes, i wasn't brushing my teeth often .. i was probably smelling like if a creature crawled inside me and died there and was rotting. I was just not realizing it ... i couldn't process that info ... to me it was irrelevant, but at the same time i was feeling really bad about it ... couldn't understand why I was like that.

Now I'm 36 ... I REALLY improved. I take a shower everyday, even if its not a natural reflex. I brush my teeth everyday, my teeth are all normal color now. ... I rarely shave tho ... my beard grow for few weeks, then i shave it down ... grows back ... shave it ... same with my hair, I always wait too long. But its ok .. I keep improving slowly.

My biggest issue right now, is cleaning up my place. I usually do it the day before I know someone is visiting. I know its bad, but if the door bell ring and I don't expect anyone, I just hide and do not answer. I'm really scared that someone would get inside my house at the worse time possible and he would see my mess. But I'm soooo much better now. I went from "I can't see the floor at all" to "I can see it most of the time" I'm really proud of the improvement. For me its a huge thing.

I don't know what is causing this .... Its like if I don't know what to do with the items. If I go to bed, I take off my t-shirt and ... It goes on the floor ... if i find a pencil ... I'll put it on top the drying machine ... it will stay there for months because I don't know what to do with it. If the bathroom garbage bin is full, I'll just push everything down so I can put more stuff in it ... instead of just emptying it. Its very strange.

Then 2-3 times year when I have visitors, I deeply clean everything.

At some point I programmed a nice software. It contained a VERY granular list of everything I had to do to keep my house clean. Everyday, it would e-mail me a couple of task, and I had to confirm it was done the next day. Generally it took 5-10 minutes per day to do them. It was very detailed ... like "clean dining room table","vacuum master bedroom","clean bathroom sink", "clean bathroom toilet", etc. If i was failing to the the tasks, the software would give me more tasks to do the next day. So to prevent that to happen I had to be disciplined. I used it for a couple of months with amazing results. But then i stopped to use it and went back to my old habits. I think i don't have it anymore .. maybe I should re-write it and share it here. It worked on any Windows computers.

Maybe I just need a girlfriend.

Girlfriends help a lot. I wasn't far off from you but man, having a girl around lights a fire under your ass for a few reasons.

 

[Zack]

I am terrible about hygiene, but getting better. As a kid, my mum would pester me to bathe, although I hated it. When my parents divorced and I lived with my dad, it was a rare week that saw my teeth brushed.

In college and up until about a month ago, I would go up to 10 days without bathing, even though I worked in a bakery. I was terrible at washing my clothes (probably because I was scared to go to the laundry mat -- I live in an apartment building with its own laundry facility now). I had to wear white t-shirts to work, but they were often stained with grease and sometimes sweat. I didn't own a pair of jeans without holes, and all of them were grease-stained. I wore my shoes until they had holes in the bottom and I was getting annoyed because water kept getting my socks wet when I mopped at work.

I'm better now working as a chemist. I still don't wash my clothes very often, but my boyfriend always asks me to wash his, so undergarments and important things get cleaned. He also keeps me honest about teeth-brushing and showering before bed. I have recently been exercising at a small fitness center at my apt complex (it's awesome because nobody uses it), and that prompts me to shower more often because hot water feels good on my muscles, even if I don't like being wet.

All-in-all, if left to my own devices, I'd probably be much dirtier. Thank goodness for cleanly boyfriends.

 

[Thea]

I used to be very good with cleanliness. Since my depression and anxiety got worse I don't have any energy and the idea of standing in a shower, even for 20 minutes, is exhausting. I shower every day when I have somewhere to be but if I'm home alone, or don't have anywhere to go, sometimes I won't shower for days until I start smelling or my skin or hair feel gross. It makes me feel really bad and lazy but I simply lack the energy.

 

[tree]

Linus talks about the difference between
"hygienic" and "disgustingness."

I also would eat food that falls on the floor,
at my own house. Reasonable intact sorts
of foods.

I wouldn't try to scoop up a raw
egg and use it.

 

[Dee317]

I wouldn't say that mine is "terrible", but it's sub-par.

It isn't rare for me to:

• Go three or four days without bathing
• Go a week without brushing my teeth
• Not bother combing/maintaining my hair (it's short now, but when I have hair I usually don't care about how unkempt it is)
• Not bother shaving everyday (I really should since facial hair on me looks bad)
• Not bother washing my hands before eating a meal (I usually always wash after though)

Etc. etc. etc. . . .

This is true for me as well, except for brushing my teeth, I do that daily. My hair is not brushed, or makeup done, or pretty much anything to do with self care unless I have to go out into the world. Then it's cloak of motherhood as to not be made by the NTS lol.

 

[EricD]

I keep quite clean, as my position at work requires me to interact with our members and public players, even if it is a brief encounter. My job is fast paced and physically demanding, so I'm in good shape also.
As a competitive golfer, I need to keep up a neat appearance as well. It wouldn't do me good to show up on the 1st tee at a tournament looking like I had slept with hogs!