I still have the sweatshirt that I wore on the day when I was assaulted. It’s very comfortable and I still wear it a lot. Is it healthy that I do that and am I making a mountain out of a molehill about it?

Thank you for bringing this here. When you ask whether you might be “making a mountain out of a molehill,” you’re wondering whether you’re making something small into a bigger deal than it really is. We appreciate that you are paying this kind of attention to your inner life. It shows how seriously you are taking your own healing.

There is nothing inherently unhealthy about wearing that sweatshirt. Objects connected to a traumatic experience can carry emotional weight in complicated ways. Trauma research tells us that the nervous system, the part of the body that manages stress and safety signals, holds onto experiences as sensory impressions as well as memories. Smells, sounds, textures, and even the feel of fabric against your skin can become linked to significant moments. For some survivors, items from that day become painful to see or touch. For others, those same items stay comforting and familiar, or even come to feel like a reminder that they made it through. Both responses are real, and neither one means something is wrong with you. You’ve described this sweatshirt as very comfortable. Comfort matters. Soft, familiar things can help the body feel grounded and safe, and reaching for that is a very human thing to do.

Instead of trying to decide whether wearing it is healthy or unhealthy in some abstract way, it can help to gently notice how you feel before, during, and after you wear it. You’re not trying to reach a verdict, just learning about yourself with curiosity instead of criticism. Some survivors notice they feel comforted and present. Others notice a low hum of tension, numbness, or a sense of being pulled somewhere else. Whatever you notice is useful information, and your feelings about the sweatshirt can change over time. That’s normal too.

It would be worth paying closer attention if wearing the sweatshirt ever begins to feel compulsive rather than comforting, meaning it feels like you have no real choice, or that you can’t go without it even when part of you wants to. The same goes for times it pulls you back into distressing memories rather than simply being part of your day. That kind of shift doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong. It may just be a sign that some extra support could help. A therapist who works with trauma can help you explore this.

You are allowed to keep the sweatshirt. You are allowed to wear it, set it aside for a while, or let it go whenever that feels right. You are also allowed to feel whatever you feel when you put it on, without needing to prove those feelings are proportionate or justified. Healing doesn’t require a certain relationship with the things connected to what happened. It only asks that you stay honest with yourself about how you’re doing, and that’s exactly what you’re doing by asking this question. Thank you for trusting us with this.