Personal hygiene and psychological well-being of students

Personal hygiene asserts the act of ensuring the cleanliness of the human body to preserve overall wellbeing and healthy living. The activities involved in maintaining a good personal hygiene includes but not limited to bathing regularly and brushing at least twice a day, washing the hair, doing laundry regularly, trimming and grooming the finger and toe nails as well as the hair, cleaning up after visiting the toilet or engaging in activities that put one directly in contact with toxic waste and consequently germs which if left unattended could be an invitation for illness into the body. As students maintaining good personal hygiene can never be overemphasized because apart from helping the students maintain great physical wellbeing, it goes a long way in bolstering their self-confidence and esteem, hence improved mental health. It isn’t unnatural to find students who as a result of poor personal hygiene suffer from mouth odor; tooth/gum decay, body odor, skin rashes and other skin disease etc. become depressed and constantly solitary because over a long time, fellow students have begun to avoid them, hence nursing a feeling of rejection and begin to see no worth in themselves which ultimately might lead to low self-esteem and production of an embittered and generally grumpy adult.

For most students the major concern seems to be how to get improved grades and make the parents proud and above all make dream careers come to fruition while in the process forgetting something which is more important, without which all the aforementioned concerns would be none existent. The author is of the opinion that the physical health being a constant denominator for emotional and psychological wellbeing be given priority above all other concerns but it is a far cry especially in developing nations where the right to basic needs have been robbed off the citizenry. 

Ensuring good personal hygiene goes way beyond physical health for students as it helps to nurture for the society an individual who is full of well channeled energy, bubbling with a high sense of self albeit not annoyingly and always ready to help provide solution to societal challenges of which they are a part, unlike in the case of students who as a result of various stigmatization that comes with poor physical hygiene have become isolated from the mainstream society at home and in school hence a sense of detachment and solitary euphoria. Individuals who have experienced the latter are more likely to be a bane to the society as they have no sense of belonging and will care less what happens to the people who have ostracized them as a result of their personal choices regarding hygiene.

It is commonly opined that a person is addressed the way they are dressed and this saying has proved itself true in all aspect of human endeavors and affairs even when it is not always a true representation of who a person is.  It evaluates human behavior towards another as a function of physical appearance and what meets the eye.
In schools across the world, it has been recorded and documented that students who are victims of bullying are usually made a target by bullies as a result of their lack of privileges and access to resources germane to ensuring healthy personal hygiene. Some of these victims are usually targeted as a result of their inability to afford clean clothes, grooming their hair, bathing with soaps and brushing their teeth constantly among a host of other trifle yet technically vital hygiene promoting activities. The consequence of the bullying can be long-lasting and it could go as far as creating a terrible adult of the once bullied kid. Kids in school will always have a way of showing their disapproval of poor personal hygiene from a fellow student no matter how polite and accommodating the school curriculum might be teaching them to be towards one another. They may result in name-calling, side snickers or even outright shunning of the affected students. Some victims of this kind of treatment have also been recorded to have resorted to suicide or continuous suicidal activities, yet some in their effort to fight this stigmatization become worse than their oppressors as they tend to be more violent, ruthless and intolerant of others and they are not to blame as it seems the most probable of defense mechanism. In the end, the victim is an individual whose mental health will become questionable as a result of the effect of poor personal hygiene which may or may not be of their own volition.

In the end, a student’s personal hygiene status will rub off on the entire household because people tend to judge the family by what they see of individuals who come out of thence, hence even the members of the household may not be excused from the psychological trauma and mental assaults.
Health is wealth and bliss.