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DS19 at uni with longstanding hygiene issues and social anxiety

31 replies

Firefly45 · 05/04/2026 21:47

DS19 has awful personal hygiene and its making me so upset for him but also angry.

DS is at uni, however this lack of personal hygiene is not new. He has been like this all his life. He is also massively obese. He smells of BO. He sleeps in clothes and wears them all day. He doesn't wear deodorant. He has a shower or bath but doesn't use soap.
His teeth are a massive issue. They are disgusting. Ive paid over and over for scales and Polish (£75). The dentist who is lovely has had stern talk with him, nice talk with him, shown him photos of what will happen.

His eating is absolutely out of control and he is so unhealthy.

He has social anxiety and always struggled to make friends. However he has made 2 or 3 friends at uni. He is massively into gaming and loads of friends online.

Hes not depressed, singing, joking, dancing in kitchen. He is attending uni fine, doing fine in his work, he is funny and kind and affectionate.

I do suspect he has ADHD. Ive asked if he wants counselling to talk about his social anxiety..he says no hes fine, he just avoids people.

Im so sad because he is so lovely.

Does anyone else have an experience like this?

I think noone is ever going to want to be friends or romantic with him because of his awful personal hygiene

OP posts:
Bababear987 · 09/04/2026 12:50

Firefly45 · 06/04/2026 11:06

He has had several different flavours of toothpaste (non minty, dentist has been great and really tries to think of solutions and compromises)
He has soap, shower gel, foamy stuff, baby wipes. Ive asked is it sensory.

His answer is either to shout at 100 decibels 'okkayyyy'
Or to say he doesn't know why he just can't be bothered
Or he lies and says he has washed/cleaned but clearly hasnt

Can't you just shout back though? Like scream at him that he stinks and its not acceptable?

Maray1967 · 25/08/2026 23:20

If he was mine I would not have let him go. Are you financially supporting him? That would have been my leverage.

I’m also an HE lecturer and it is absolutely awful when we have to talk to students who smell badly and no one else wants to sit near them in class.

BingoBnago · 25/08/2026 23:33

I have a ND pre-teen who is reluctant but also we explain to him people won’t want to be near him if he smells, we had to break it into baby steps (go upstairs, get towel, dirty clothes in laundry, shower on etc etc) but remind him every step of the way. After many many years of repetition he appears to be getting it and hopefully by the time he leaves home it’s a habit. Being nice smelling and well dressed is especially important if you struggle socially.

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BingoBnago · 25/08/2026 23:33

*by well dressed I mean clean clothes, not that I had him in a suit age 8 😂

AssassinsEyebrow · 26/08/2026 00:01

Perhaps tackling it head on is not the solution anymore. You suspect he had adhd, so presumably you know how else neurodivergence may be affecting his life. Can you encourage him to be assessed for adhd & asd?

Don't mention hygiene, but talk instead about how else a diagnosis may improve things for him - and especially the additional support it can open up at university.

If he is assessed and diagnosed, the support available to him could lead to him feeling able to tackle his hygiene issues. Might be you need to play the long game..

NoctuaAthene · 26/08/2026 00:14

Sympathies OP. If it's any help at all personal hygiene has been a lifelong struggle for me and my brother, both raised in a dysfunctional home with chaotic parents, him ND definitely, me possibly so can offer some insight maybe - of course for your son I'm sure he's had a better upbringing than we had, I literally and embarrassingly genuinely did not really know or understand the basics of how often you need to wash to not smell when I went to uni as this was never modelled for us or taught whereas I can see you've really tried everything with your son. But what I can offer is:

I really don't think it's laziness as such, I do think both the actual physical/sensory experience of washing yourself but also the executive function needed to process and complete a personal hygiene routine as a task are much harder for a lot of ND people. I know that's really hard for an NT person to understand when the person may be very intelligent and able in lots of other ways, able to complete apparently more difficult tasks with ease but not stick to something as simple as showering every morning. But there is just something about mundane everyday jobs like cleaning your house that are hard for the likes of us where they're just not for others, that is the point that ND brains are wired differently. So I don't think simply nagging or shouting are likely to work. On the sensory side obviously he needs to work out what works for him but for me I've found baths are much better than showers, washing in the evening is better than the morning, and the plainest, least scented products are better than the super glitzy bubbly/fruity/floral products that often get recommended, but you say you've got him all sorts of things already so I am sure you're on top of that. It also really helps having a big fluffy robe or towel available to put on straight from the shower/bath as the transition between hot and steamy in the bath to cold and drippy wet is horrible for me (shudder). I think if you're trying to set expectations for him (which is perfectly reasonable when he's living at home) try and go with very small changes, things that are easily achievable rather than what you necessarily would consider ideal or even minimum acceptable, one of the things I struggled with most as a young adult was thinking that in order to be 'clean' I needed to shower twice a day using lots of products and complicated multi-step routines. I know that is normal for lots of people but it just felt so totally unachievable for me that I gave up on the whole hygiene thing entirely for a while. Whereas when I eventually gave myself permission (avert your eyes MN hygiene boil wash brigade) to bathe or shower properly 3 times a week and brush my teeth once a day it suddenly felt so much more achievable and less overwhelming and actually I can now manage much more than that reliably.

I'd really try and avoid making him feel ashamed or fearmongering or succumbing to catastrophising yourself - I know especially with things like his teeth you must be so worried but he's clearly not stupid, it's not that he's not able to understand what you/the dentist tell him, if he's anything like me and my brother he probably feels an enormous amount of shame and guilt over his appearance and smell and that will be why he's getting angry/irritable with you as the messenger of what he already knows, but clearly it's not effective in making change happen, we would more tend to spiral and be less functional if something happens like a loving family member intervenes than actually take action.

Things that can work really well, gamification can really appeal to ADHD brains, there are various apps that are designed for this very purpose, I know again it sounds so stupid that I'd need an app to remember to wash and do my laundry but what can I say, it helps. Maybe you can start a conversation with him about this, if he's into gaming he's probably heard of a few?

I also think he'll likely take advice and ideas much better coming from online influencers, there's loads out there now about neurodiversity and cognitive issues etc - I don't really know how you get him into them as I'm sure he doesn't want recommendations from mum 😂 but again maybe open conversations, listening and sharing ideas is the way to go?

Also just making small positive changes the easier choice is food, what you say about his clothes reminded me a lot of my brother, one thing we've done together that helps him is making sure he has a really big supply of clean, easy, soft and comfortable clothes always to hand, so that even on his worst days it's the easiest choice to put something clean on, even if he does literally nothing else. I know again this will be repulsive to many on MN, and that a dirty body will still smell even in clean clothes but dirty clothes on a dirty body definitely smell worse than clean clothes dirty body. If he can add deodorant as he's getting dressed better yet. Like I say, small, achievable steps.

Anyway hope all that helped and I'm not about to be flamed by all of MN for being minging now 😂

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