Random Question: Why don't WE want to shower?

I am proud of me today
I voluntarily took a shower
second one this week
I washed my hair and even blew it dry

Go me!!!!!!

Good going!!!

This is a small miracle for both of us. I have showers for...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...wait for it...16 days in a row! Unbelievable! It has been over 10 years since I last did this! I have been showering every two or three days until recently.

OMG what is next? Not spending all my money every month? That may be asking for too much. But I really hope this is not the case. Others here on the forum gave me a plan-of-action. So I am all set.

I hardly ever get out of the house except to get some food at a drive thru so I often just don't care if I get dressed or take a shower. If I am going somewhere social like a sit down restaurant or a doctor appt or the like I take more time to be presentable and clean and often put on makeup and polish my nails.

But I just don't have personal incentive when only my son sees me. Even with him living with me he spends most of his waking time in his room and I stay in the living room. He has told me I need a shower at times though.

Still no electric or lights working in my bathroom so today I went to the nearby gym and took a shower and then rewarded myself by using the tanning bed. I can't remember when I last showered but it was over a week ago.

If I can find a job I would take the time to clean up and look nice but who knows when that will happen. I've procrastinating that big time and seem to have a block to calling people I would like to use as references. Not sure how to get past that.

I am happy for your accomplishment! I think the tanning bed was a good idea. I see this as light therapy that can help you.

our aversion depends on no. of factors especially environment or find no joy on starting that. You may be too tired to shower. i go jump in water rather than waiting.

I must be the odd man out then. I have never really had an issue taking a shower depressed or no. I learned to love them in Basic Training for the Army (it was the only time we could really relax). Showers became a way to relax and cool off for the day. Then again, I hate feeling grimy too, so I probably would still like showers either way.

Couldn't really guess why there is that aversion to shower though.

>__>

Many in some way, the aversion is a lack of self love?
Maybe it is just too much work?
Maybe the water hitting your skin is unpleasent?

For me, all of the above

I am so glad to find this thread.
I don't know the why of it.
For myself, the normal me loves a good, long soak, all girlie fragrant, and relaxing.

When I am as I am now, not my normal self, it such an aversion to the whole concept of getting wet! And it is an ordeal all the while in the bath or shower that exhausts me, wears me out as if I'd wrestled some wild animal! It makes no sense.

I'd think after that, I'd be tired out enough for sleep, but noooo.

This is one of the states-of-being I've only had to experience twice in my six decades.
But it concerns me that it is twice in four years now that I have to white knuckle my way into the bathtub. And unlike others posted here, I do not enjoy it nor is it relaxing for me.
I normally love a good bath! What ever is wrong with me??

Yoda - do not call the folks you might use as references. Calling puts you on the spot. Write to them instead.

To go back to the thread - I have been taking regular showers, but I rarely wash my hair because it is just too much work. The longer I delay, though, the more work it eventually becomes

I haven't showered in a week and on top of it I've been exercising. Yeah got to hit it today before my husband leaves. I have been washing and using lotion in my face, but my hair is hella nasty. Did you know it's very good to go about 4 days without washing your hair. Shampoo strips the natural oils which are the best conditioner. It's especially good if your hair is colored.

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I learned that when I went to an all girl's high school. Hardly anyone washed their hair regularly bc it was not like guys were around. A hairdresser who cut my hair said the students from my high school had the healthiest hair of any other clients.

And imo not showering beats going out in public wearing pajama bottoms?! Where the hell did that come from? It reminds me of being in patient. **No offense to anyone who likes to wear them.

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I was at the health food store yesterday, and there was a big display of handmade soaps.

They smelled wonderful

But self-destructive me says...oh gosh, they've $2.95 each..oh gosh

Yet, they smell so wonderful I would want to use them

This is a thing? I had no idea this is a thing. I thought it was only a me-thing. Weird.

My excuse is that my apt has a very small waterheater, so all showers end up being cold as ice. I take really long ones when a friend lets me though...

So weird.

Is it possible it has something to do with the shower itself? E.g. if you were at a really nice hotel with an amazing shower, would you have the same aversion? I know that when there's a really nice shower I look forward to it more.

When I don't sleep I get super sensitive to everything, the idea of the water beating my skin is torment. Don't have a mist setting, got to look into that.

Go for it, Standup. Enjoy.

So, GoHungry, you have a weird, faulty shower ... and you have a valid technical reason for wanting to avoid the shower ... thus you are not weird like the rest of us here. Lol.

Like so many others, I thought I was the only one like this! I don't know what it is, but the build-up to it is excruciating. Once I'm in it, I'm okay and sometimes I even love it. But working my way in there is what's hard. I am a nurse, so I have to shower before work, but on my off days, it's awfully hard to get in there. We have a hot tub and I tell myself that's good enough.

It's such a chore . It's like a billion steps before stepping into the shower you Need to get clothes for after the shower, a towel ect then adjust the water temp. Then undress, after then dry up OMG then dress back up , put clothes in hamper dry hair OMG , I'm tired just writing this .

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This is true. Excessive washing damages hair. My dad, who's a former doctor, keeps asserting this.

Right on Sweepy

MM, you made me smile.

I've been pushed into the shower too, fully dressed!

Ugh and then after you shower you have to put on clean sheets, but that does feel awesome. As I lay unshowered on old sheets.

I'd like to be like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz. They just put her through that assembly line and she came out spiffy!!

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I was pointed here by someone on the Depression forum after opening a thread on self-care and personal hygiene.

For the past few weeks, I've been showering once a week. Before that it was twice, although I was aiming for three times.

Showers are just so exhausting. One of the most tiresome parts I think is drying off. So I mostly just wait for the wetness to evaporate and wear a bathrobe or loose clothes afterwards.
But the whole showering process is exhausting too. I have a leg amputation and thus aprosthesis so I shower sitting on a shower chair, so I don't have to stand. That's something at least. I can't shower quickly because that's far too tiring. I usually take around 25-30 minutes, sometimes more. Because after I've washed my hair it takes some time to be ready to wash my body. I sometimes (often) forget to do that, too, and then I've only washed my hair.

When showering is really too much but I have to (I live at home and I'm dead scared of my parents getting angry, which they will if I don't do as they say - meaning showering when they say I really have to) I sometimes shower in the tub. Sit down in the tub when it's filled with around 4 inches/10 cm of water, and then use the handheld shower head to rinse myself. The tub fills up slowly with the water from the shower head, so I won't get cold even when washing my hair. But sitting in the bath is much less exhausting than sitting in/standing in the shower.

Edit: It's been a week since I've brushed my teeth. It has been longer in the past.

I'm glad I'm not the only one! If my hair wasn't so terrible every other day I'd never shower. Sometimes I let it go three days anyway. My husband is grossed out by me on the weekends. Thursday to Monday morning is a no wash time. I'm trying to do better about my teeth since my dental work, but no floss and once a day brushing was great in inpatient.