If you are feeling anxious, a bath can physically force your body to change how it processes that anxiety. Not only can immersive bathing help alleviate anxiety, but it's also been suggested that taking a bath can positively impact the symptoms of depression.
Showering and bathing have numerous mental health benefits, including reducing stress and anxiety, improving sleep quality, enhancing body image and self-esteem, and promoting self-care and relaxation.
Some research studies also suggest that a type of warm bath therapy may have positive effects on people living with depression. Warm baths are linked to decreases in stress hormones and more balanced serotonin levels, which help regulate mood.
But studies show that the benefits of bathing are more than just skin deep. In a German study, participants with depression reported a boost in mood after soaking in a 40C bath for 30 minutes. In fact, in this experiment, regular baths proved to be more effective in aiding depression than aerobic exercise.
Symptoms of OCD – compulsions
Compulsions are usually performed to try and prevent an obsessive fear from happening, to reduce the anxiety the obsessive thought creates, or to make things feel 'just right'. Common compulsions include: excessive hand washing, showering and tooth brushing.
Common compulsions include excessive handwashing, showering, checking and repeating rituals. These compulsions and obsessions may take up many hours of a person's day. OCD can cause significant interference in family and social relationships, and daily routines, and may intrude into every activity and action.
While there is no ideal frequency, experts suggest that showering several times per week is plenty for most people (unless you are grimy, sweaty, or have other reasons to shower more often). Short showers (lasting three or four minutes) with a focus on the armpits and groin may suffice.
Sure enough, when the researchers compiled the data, what they found was a strong connection between loneliness and both the frequency of bathing and the typical duration of people's baths and showers. The lonelier someone was, the more they bathed and the longer this bath or shower was.
If you stick with daily showers, limit them to five minutes with warm water, not hot. This is likely fine for most people. However, bathing 2-3 times per week is also likely just as healthy and good for the environment too.
All in all, a shower is actually better for your skin due to the fact that showers expose the body to less water than a bath. Whether it's a bath or a long shower, exposing your skin to too much water can strip it of its natural oils.
Bathing Too Often
Showering every day may be a habit, but unless you're grimy or sweaty, you may not need to bathe more than a few times a week. Washing removes healthy oil and bacteria from your skin, so bathing too often could cause dry, itchy skin and allow bad bacteria to enter through cracked skin.
On the whole, a bath should last no longer than 30 minutes on the high end. The normal average is anywhere between 15-30 minutes, with prolonged exposure causing severe dry skin which leads to agitation, irritation and promotes bacteria growth, which carries a multitude of health risks.
The scientists speculate that physical warmth, such as a shower or bath, is a form of self-therapy to restore social warmth when we're feeling isolated. They view loneliness as a form of "social coldness" that can be somewhat relieved by applying physical warmth.
Take a hot bath or a shower.
Allow the warmth to calm you, and allow yourself to feel safe. The feeling of being clean is also anxiety reducing, so the whole process can diminish any panic.
Indeed, their study suggests that people subconsciously self-comfort against loneliness through the use of warm baths and showers.
"Showering less helps strengthen your immune system by keeping disease-fighting bacteria living on your skin. It also allows us to preserve more of our microorganisms and the skin's natural oils," she says.
The oldest accountable daily ritual of bathing can be traced to the ancient Indians. They used elaborate practices for personal hygiene with three daily baths and washing. These are recorded in the works called grihya sutras which date back to 500 BCE and are in practice today in some communities.
Studies have shown that taking a bath can activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which is the part of your body responsible for relaxation. As your nervous system adjusts to the warming effect of the water around you, you begin to experience lowered levels of stress.
Taking a shower can feel like a chore if you have mild depression, a painful physical condition like arthritis, or you're showering when you're tired. Taking a shower can feel almost impossible if you have severe depression, fibromyalgia, or ablutophobia.
According to the researchers at Yale University, people who take a long-hot shower or bath may do so to subconsciously ward off feelings of loneliness or social isolation.
Great Britain has the lowest rate of showering per week, at 83 percent. However, the English do love their baths: they have the most baths out of every country, with 32 percent of people bathing each week. Germany comes at a far second, at just 20 percent.
“Humans tend to perspire at night,” Dr. Goldenberg said. “When you wake up in the morning, there's all this sweat and bacteria from the sheets that's just kind of sitting there on your skin.” So take a quick shower in the morning, he said, “to wash all of that gunk and sweat off that you've been sleeping in all night.”
Occasionally, the refusal to shower could be linked to certain mental health problems. For example, teens with serious depression may lack the interest and energy to shower. 2 But taking a shower won't be the only problem they'll struggle with; depression could also lead to academic and social problems.