Personal care & hygiene

Sometimes, when experiencing depression, anxiety or any other mental health problem, looking after yourself physically can feel harder than usual. Sometimes convincing yourself to go the extra mile can be really helpful. A lot of people find putting on some make up or having a shave makes them feel much better about themselves.

‘It gives you the best foundation to feel good…little things you sometimes forget to do when you’re feeling bad…have I drunk enough water today? Have I brushed my teeth? There’s apps that help you to remember these things that ask questions like ‘How much sleep are you getting at the moment?’ and all those basic things that are important but often go out the window when I’m feeling rubbish.’

Read Young Champion Maddi's blog 'When personal hygiene feels like a mountain to climb'.

                                       

What young people have told us:

'My personal motto is "Look good and feel good". If you feel happy in what you are wearing and you are clean, then you can start the day on a better foot.'

'Aim to have a morning and night routine for personal hygiene.' 

'I think it helped because if you have something to focus on then you don't have as many thoughts racing through your head. As well, hopefully if you look nice and don't have anything dark or mysterious on then you might feel slightly better too.'

'Looking after yourself makes you feel better because if you take that time to think about what you need and do it then you can feel as though you are helping yourself.'

'Starting off the day in a nice way can have a good effect on your mood and even just washing your face, brushing your teeth or having a shower in middle of the day can improve your mood drastically. It makes you feel as though if you can fix one thing, like not drinking enough water that day, you have the ability to get through the day.'

There isn’t much academic research in the area of self-care for young people who are living with mental health issues. We are trying to find out more about what works for different people so we can better advise other young people what to try.

If you’ve tried this activity when you were struggling in relation to your mental health, please let us know if it helped you and how by clicking on the ‘Did this activity help you’ button.