OK so you have a disability. Does that give you the right to ignore you personal hygiene? What about your loved ones, do they have a say about it?

Hygiene is defined in the dictionary as keeping clean and free of germs. Do you do that? If someone dropped by unexpectedly to your house, are you presentable?

You men out there, do you continue to shave every day now that you are disabled like you used to do when you were working? What about your hair? Is it groomed? Are your shoes clean? No I didn’t say shined, I said clean. There is a difference. How often do you bath? Every day I hope. Have you gained a lot of weight?

Women, are you keeping yourself groomed? Are you continuing to shave your legs and under your arms? What about your hair? Do you keep it styled like you did before? Are your nails groomed like they always were? Have you gone from a size 6 to a 16? Do you wear that same smock day in and day out?

I most certainly hope not. I would venture to guess that if you have given up on your personal hygiene, then in effect, you have given up on yourself. If you have given up on yourself, then what reaction do you expect your spouse, caregiver, and loved ones to have towards you? How then can you expect these people who love and take care of you to be empathetic towards you/? I don’t believe that they can.

I’ll tell you a true story of a man who had the unfortunate luck of having a colostomy after a 2 and a half years battle with Ulcerative Colitis. The colostomy cured his disease and currently, his health is very good for a man in his mid seventies. One thing went wrong however, he refused to acknowledge the colostomy and take care of it. This left his wife holding the proverbial bag so to speak. Let’s face is folk, this is not a good thing for a relationship. Every attempt was made to have this man acknowledge the colostomy so that he would take care of it himself. Nothing worked!

Over the next couple of months, this mans total personal hygiene started to deteriorate. He stopped shaving unless prompted by his spouse and children. He wouldn’t keep his hair neat. He wouldn’t cut his nails, either finger or toe. He wouldn’t keep his shoes clean. Now he would let his wife comb his hair, cut his nails and clean his shoes, and most importantly change his colostomy bag. But he wouldn’t do it himself.

Let us take a deeper look at this first from a physical approach and then from a psychological approach.

What happens to a physical body when it is not cleaned? Bacteria start to multiply on it especially in the hairy areas such as the arm -pits and the groin and in skin folds, that’s what happens. What happens when bacteria start to multiply? Odors start. What kind of odors? Stinky smelly odors. Your body’s secretions coupled with your body’s hair gives off odors that are very unpleasant. Not to mention that you are now a breeding ground for infections. That’s a different article. As maybe you are aware, you also become accustomed to your own smell. You don’t think that you smell but every one around you knows that you do.

The same holds true with your dental hygiene. Not brushing and flossing your teeth will leave will leave tons of bacteria on your teeth and gums that will eventually lead to cavities and gum disease. In the short term though, your breath will stink.

Let us look at why a disabled person would allow him or herself to be like this. Apathy (which is a lack of interest) in yourself is the first thing that comes to mind. Your body has deceived you and let you down. You can no longer trust your body. Your disability has taken away your physiciality. Some of you will no longer be able to work or play sports of do anything but live a sedentary life. So simply, you have given up. Given up on what, the fact that you can ever be who you were again? So you may be thinking why bother. Why should I bother to keep myself groomed. Heck, I don’t even go out of the house much any more. Who is going to see me, who cares if I brush my hair, shave, cut my nails, take a shower? Who cares if I gained 40 pounds? I don’t, and neither does anyone else.

I am hoping that those of you who aren’t keeping up with your personal hygiene see yourself in this article. The reason that you are feeling this way is because you are depressed. You need to get some professional help.

I want to answer the question that was posed in the above paragraph. Who cares? I will tell you who cares. Your spouse cares, your children care, most of all, you care you just don’t realize it.

Your spouse and your children are your greatest supporters. Don’t forget the fact that when you and your spouse fell in love that there was also a physical attraction. It is difficult enough for a spouse to accept the limitations that their disabled counterpart has. As some of you know, some can’t accept it and relationships end. Don’t add fuel to the fire by ignoring your personal hygiene. If you don’t care about yourself, then care about your spouse. Think about what kind of a turn off it is getting into bed with a smelly person, having your spouse look like they just got out of bed all day long. Keeping yourself groomed keeps you attractive to your spouse. Isn’t that something that you want?

What about your children? You men out there, remember when your little girl looked up to you as her hero, a night in shinning armor? What does she think of you now? The man that she modeled her mate after now stinks. If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for her. Your son, he modeled himself after you as the man he wants to be. Now you’re ungroomed and an embarrassment. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, then do it for him.

Women, your daughters model themselves after you. Their physical appearance is pretty much a copy of you and how you keep yourself groomed. They learned how to comb their hair from you, how to put on makeup from you. If you don’t want to do it for yourself, do it for them.