Hygiene

When you can’t even brush your teeth.

🧼 What Is Avolition?

Avolition is the clinical term for the inability to initiate or sustain purposeful activities. It’s not laziness. It’s not depression. It’s a core negative symptom of schizoaffective disorder—and it makes even the smallest tasks feel impossible.

This includes:

• Showering

• Brushing your teeth

• Doing laundry

• Cleaning your space

• Preparing food

• Getting dressed

You might want to do these things. You might even plan to. But the action never starts—and the shame builds up.

🔄 The Shame Spiral

• You can’t clean, so you feel gross

• You feel gross, so you isolate

• You isolate, so your mood drops

• Your mood drops, so you care even less

This is the hygiene trap—and a lot of us live in it.

🧽 Cleaning Your Space

Try:

• A 5-minute timer—clean until it beeps, then stop

• The “one item rule”—put away one thing every time you leave a room

• Pairing music with chores—same playlist, same tasks

• Doing it with someone—peer support, roommate, friend over FaceTime

• Scented spray or candle after—make it sensory-rewarding

🧠 If You Need External Support

• Ask someone you trust to help or check in (no shaming)

• Use peer support (especially people who get it)

• Try services like task assistance or in-home supports, if available in your area