Reporter for NPR Seeks Info - Wearing Too Many Clothes, or Winter Clothing in Summer

Lulu Miller, a science reporter for National Public Radio, is doing a radio piece about a scientific study that looks at possible physiological explanations of why people with schizophrenia sometimes wear multiple layers of clothes, or sweaters/sweatshirts in the summer.

But she would really like to hear from you.
Why do you wear multiple layers? Are you cold? Is it a comfort thing?
Is it about wanting ‘barriers’ or protection from the world? OR something else?

She is really curious to hear your experience of it. She is also curious if you have ever gotten in trouble or been ridiculed for wearing multiple layers?

Please post your story if you have one.

Thanks!

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It’s this. I just feel more comfortable with a beanie and a hood over my head. I do it in weather I shouldn’t.

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Ive done it once. Walked around in tropics with a sweatshirt. For me however, it was an atachment to the cloth, it had a meaning. I didnt have to many possesions at the time so they were significant. I did know however that I looked weird, I just hoped people wouldnt notice or bother, wrong!!1 :grin:

i wear a beanie, a hoodie…many layers even in summer and i am in australia :scream:
i think it is protection
not wanting to be seen
or feel exposed
i feel safer with more layers.
also the MI5 bugs can’t read my thoughts ( i am joking people :smiley: …back away from the nutter :chestnut: !?! )
take care :alien:

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It’s all about security. First being wrapped tightly and then hiding under something larger than yourself.

Long long time ago. But these things you never forget

I used the fire escape to climb out of my dorm room. Then I sat outside under my comforter. People saw me and asked what was wrong. It was I wanted to be in world but not. Protection layers? Yes. Hard to put these feelings into words When you lost contact. If only it would help to figure it out.

I could talk to people but they could not see me. Whatever.

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[quote=“SzAdmin, post:1, topic:35215”]
a scientific study that looks at possible physiological explanations of why people with schizophrenia sometimes wear multiple layers of clothes, or sweaters/sweatshirts in the summer.
[/quote]I’m not like that at all. I’m a mini-furnace. I wear only one layer of clothing as early as I can, usually by May or June I’m in trunks & short sleeves. Even in my own house in Winter I keep it a low 59-64 degress in the house and wear minimal clothing indoors.

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I guess the paranoia makes us more prepared. Since this is for NPR I’d better straighten up though, but I’m kind of serious about the paranoia causing it.

I wear them because I like to keep my temperature up in case it gets cold. I put my sweater on tonight before it started getting cold. It could be the paranoia.

Sorry, I am having a hard time, because my school didn’t let me register classes due to a new thing that I had already done. They just didn’t count it. I might not be able to get in any of the classes that I need.

I like to wear hooded sweatjackets, sometimes in the summer time, especially when I am lying around the house.

I used to wear a beanie during the Summer months.

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Since I have experience being homeless? And seen many homeless schizophrenics, it’s mostly the homeless that do this. They have no where to put the clothes usually and so they wear everything if they dont have a backpack or are really ill and psychotic. Even if in the day when it’s hot, at night temperatures dip lower especially in early morning and the clothes keep you comfortable enough to sleep. The concrete saps the heat from your body fast if you have no cover, cardboard, or sleeping bag. Laziness and illness, lack of money and or place to safely stash stuff keeps some from taking off the extra clothes.

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Some people are just bat ■■■■ crazy and go around smelling like death not showering.

Hey Darksith -

I am Lulu, the reporter. I would love to hear more. would you mind emailing me at LMiller@npr.org ? Thanks so much.

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I’m glad you have a sense of humor about your illness :slight_smile: Sounds like you are doing really well! I can’t even imagine my son sitting at the computer and “talking” to other schizophrenics or caregivers. He wears long sleeves and sweat pants in summer and shorts and tees in the winter. Not as bad as it used to be, but still over dresses in the summer for sure. And I know this isn’t particular to him. My friend has a son who is schizophrenic and he did the same, but she moved away and I haven’t heard from her and right now I’m going through some things that she’s already been through, and I think that may be the reason she has cut me off! She probably doesn’t want to go back there. Her son was ill long before mine was. And at first we talked a lot, but I was still not fully on board with it myself and now that I am, I can’t get ahold of her :frowning: It’s as if his inner temperature gauge (if there even is such a thing) isn’t working! I don’t know.

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Yeah, if I walk into his house and he’s the only one home and it’s a scorching, humid, one of those really gross summer days, he’ll be in there with the AC turned off and the windows closed!

It could just be as simple that people are trying to conceal their extra weight as they are overly conscious about their bodies…as Sz types tend to be.

I’ve gained weight on Abilify and wear more sweaters now. Wearing layers hides the shape of your body.

I doubt there’s much more to it than that.

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This has been going on with me ever since high school, when I was tiny and gorgeous. I wore short sleeves one day and my friends called me “naked girl” all day long, because I was so known for wearing long sleeves and layers of sweaters in all weather. It seems like there’s maybe something more going on, I guess. Never thought there was a connection.

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…i use humour as a distraction from sz :blush:
your son is lucky to have a mum who cares :heart:
take care :alien:

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For me it is a barrier to the outside world - a shield that protects. Think that is why lots of scz folks have trouble bathing: taking all your clothes of makes you feel vulnerable.

On a side note every time I washed my dog the first thing he would do after was go and roll about in the park. He covered himself with dirt and scents. I wonder if this has something to do with multiple layers in scz folk.

I’ve noticed mentally ill people wearing heavy clothing in summer before. There is this guy who works for Wal Mart bringing in grocery baskets from the parking lot and he wears hot clothing in summer time. He doesn’t seem to get hot in it. I’m pretty sure he isn’t sz. I’ve worn clothes in layers before, but that was in cold weather. In the army they told us the best way to dress in the cold is in layers. Also, I did it because that was the warm clothing that was available to me. It was laying around my apartment. I don’t wear hot clothing in summer time. I sweat a lot just in regular clothes. I would quickly overheat if I wore warm clothing on a hot day.

My son is on an injectable once a month and he hasn’t gained any weight. Invega Sustenna. I guess it doesn’t make you gain weight like many of the other APs do, but of course it does nothing for his negative symptoms. He has always done “backward dressing,” since he became ill, and during the prodromal stage, and he always says he’s not cold or he’s not hot. I don’t know what it is. But it could certainly also be the weight gain for some people, no doubt.