There is something oxymoronic about a journalist with social anxiety, and yet here I sit, writing.
I had a big plan: write a column about going to a concert alone. Despite having terrible agoraphobia in the past, it seemed doable. I asked for advice and read articles by extroverts. After a week of mental and emotional preparation, I was ready.
Well, I thought I was ready until an hour before showtime. Then, I started to feel physically ill. Long story short, I ended up gasping for air in a fetal position while mentally berating myself.
At 8 p.m. on April 6, instead of singing about “crying in my prom dress” in the second row at mxmtoon’s concert, I was crying in my “emotional support hoodie” in my bedroom.
But, like, in a cute way.
Emotional support is defined as “an intentional verbal and nonverbal way to show care and affection for one another,” according to Berkeley Well-Being Institute. A scientific study from the Society for Research and Education says the reception of emotional support helps people cope with “problems, anxiety and disappointments of hope and pain in their lives.”
Though clothing is inanimate, wearing certain pieces like my emotional support hoodie, or ESH, feels like affection, and it certainly helps me cope with whatever hardship I am facing.
My first ESH was a thrifted, severely oversized black Vans zip-up. A light gray Aeropostale number became its successor. When life became too overwhelming, I would tie the hood drawstrings tight and allow the cotton material to become a steel sallet.
Within the past year, I have become attached to a sizable vintage Billabong jacket with peeling print (it has character!). Despite the worn-in nature of my former ESHs, I cannot bring myself to get rid of them, flaws and all. They hang in the catacomb-esque back corner of my closet, sleeves full of memories but never arms.
I am very self-aware and know I am at risk of becoming Rebecca Bloomwood of “Confessions of a Shopaholic” in the distant future, but clothing means a lot to me. Not only are clothes a medium through which I can express my adoration for fashion but according to actual science, they have the power to affect moods — including clothes for comfort.
In a report in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the term “enclothed cognition” is introduced to describe how clothing can influence the wearer’s mental and emotional state. According to a paper published in the Journal of Fiber Bioengineering & Informatics, “perception of clothing comfort includes physical, psychological and physiological factors.”
So, comfort is in the eye of the beholder, and that faded, holey t-shirt that you feel boosts your mood, actually does. Sure, there is a time and a place for “dopamine dressing,” but sometimes the time is Absolutely Not o’clock and the place is Depression Drive.
The Comfy, a “Shark Tank” breakout star, is a “wearable blanket” in the form of a huge, one-size-fits-all hoodie. I received a gray Comfy Original as a gift in December 2022, and I fear I genuinely considered wearing it in my senior pictures. Yes, the Comfy is that comfortable.
As we have learned, what you wear can affect how you feel. When my ESH is not cutting it, it is time to pull out the Comfy. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy feeling like a jovial koala in the McDonald’s drive-thru.
The moral of the story is that we should all own a Comfy, or whatever feels like the equivalent of one to you. I sincerely wish this was an elaborate sponsored post, but I am just explaining science.
Dori Gray is a senior journalism major at Ohio University. Please note that the ideas expressed in this column do not reflect those of The Post. Want to chat with Dori? Tweet her @dorigraywrites.
