I suppose there are levels to this. What you're describing is basically my current life. Which I consider at least relatively normal after living like a hermit for so long.
Before this, I spent 9 years in a small wooden house in a forest, miles away from my nearest neighbour, and virtually never saw people. That was my hermit life.
That one is a bit different because unless you plan to leave that life (which I didn't, it was imposed on me when my house burned down), there is absolutely no need to keep up appearances, maintain hygiene, clean up, etc., except to the extent that the dirtiness/smell becomes too annoying. You don't see people, ever, so what difference does it make if you don't wash your hair for a few months, or get it cut for 2 years? Why does it matter if you get really fat, or conversely lose a tonne of weight and get jacked? It literally doesn't make one iota of difference to anything. Days merge, what time you're asleep and for how long mean nothing, I remember one time realising I'd been lying in bed for almost 4 days and just smiling to myself thinking I should probably eat something.
That life gave me a different way to view the world that is strange after re-entering it. It took a while to learn to talk properly again much less communicate like anything other than an outcast. Turns out if you never speak for almost a decade, you pretty much forget how to. Having to keep the apartment relatively clean because people might come around is bizarre and feels difficult. Having to shower most days and maintain the body a bit better because I'll see people and they'll judge me on that takes a while to adjust to. These things mean nothing to me but because they affect the way others view me I feel like I have to pay at least some attention to them.
I think the issue with this version is even in a small town like mine, there are still so many people around compared to zero. I can't be the same guy I was there that just happens to be living here and seeing people every week. I either need to go full hermit again, or socialise myself enough to live functionally in society, which removes most of the reality of what hermit life was really like.
