Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anyone else struggle with hot weather?
I find warm and hot weather really difficult to cope with and when it is like this I feel as though I can't do anything but try to survive until it cools down again. I am shut in the house with all the curtains drawn and windows closed. I open the windows for a while first thing in the morning to try and get the temperature inside to drop as much as possible, but as soon as the exterior temperature exceeds the interior temperature then I rush round and make sure all the windows are closed. In the winter I keep the thermostat at between 13 and 13.5 degrees C, and can't stand it warmer than that. Anything over 16 degrees C inside the house is a crisis for me. Right now it is 18.5 degrees inside and I can not function. I don't understand why other people seem to like it so much.
I also struggle with sunlight, it is too bright and intense and I cannot stand the feeling of it on my skin. I am also scared of getting skin cancer. I do everything I can to avoid going out in it. I prefer cold, dark, grey, cloudy, misty days. Foggy weather is my favorite, when sounds are muffled and everything is grey and cool.
Am I alone or does anyone else feel like this? It is very isolating and restricting.
I find these comments really interesting. I really hate hot weather and until now I thought I was fairly alone with that, apart from in my family. Hot weather is one of those things like Christmas that I feel I have to pretend to like cos everyone else does. I enjoy the cold weather, autumn is my favourite season. The feeling of having to put a jumper on for the first time is lovely and I love the oranges and browns of all the leaves. I love spring too and I love wearing T shirts but my favourite type of spring or summer day is the one where its just about warm enough not to wear a jacket, anything more than that is way to hot for me.
Does anyone else find the hot weather a real sensory thing? I do. I also hate being in town during a heatwave as I find I can smell and feel all the exhausts of the cars so intensley and that, coupled with the brightness of the sun and the heat around me is too much for me
Autumn is my favorite season too, partly because I too love the softness of the autumn colours, but also because there is a certain security in going into winter. I love jumpers so much, I feel safer and cosy in them and put off having to remove them in the spring and summer for as long as possible.
Hot weather is definitely very much a real sensory thing for me. For a start, as you say, the heat and brightness is already overwhelming - to me a sunny day is too 'loud' even if nothing else is happening, but smells are definitely intensified too. My neighbour's washing hanging outside, covered in some hideous indestructible chemical perfume designed to linger indefinitely and filling the air with molecules that I don't want to breathe in, another neighbour's harshly scented shower gel being sucked outside via their bathroom extractor fan, someone having a barbecue and filling the air with the scent of burning flesh (again I don't want to breathe it in!), the fumes from a lawn mower nearby and yes the smell of car exhausts and the heat from the car exhausts, then also the heat radiating off buildings in the evening as it cools down..... It is all definitely too much! Also I find hot days are literally nosier too - there are more people out and about - and there is no space left in my brain to process all the noise on top of all the other things I am being bombarded with.