Lack of grooming (hygiene indifference) can be a symptom of mental illness, causing avoidance and prejudice.

Hygiene indifference may be caused by a lack of motivation or an inability to execute goal-oriented activity.

Reasonably careful self-presentation can help counteract the stigma of mental illness.

I care very deeply about the way I look, sometimes to the point of being semi-obsessive about it. I don’t ever want to look sloppy or disheveled or dirty—above all, I don’t want to look like I don’t care about my appearance. There are very good reasons for this that date back to a time I prefer not to think about but can’t ignore because it had a seminal impact on my life.

In 1999, I was hospitalized for major depression in UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute’s outpatient program. Before this, I’d been a high-functioning, successful entertainment lawyer, so it was a shock even greater than the electroshock therapy I’d resorted to in desperation. I was suddenly face-to-face with mental illness in all its unvarnished and sometimes uncomfortable reality.

I witnessed a wide array of self-presentation by the various hospital patients. Given the stress we were all under, none of us appeared at our best. But there was a small contingent of more deeply troubled people,........

© Psychology Today