Fallout from recent heatwave

100% - so many problems in the world would go away if people could accept this!

Yes, the losing touch with reality thing is what happens to me sometimes (not often, thankfully). Horrible and terrifying.

As well as having the curtains over except a crack in my work room today I have tried  a plastic tub of water on the window sill with a cool block in, which was changed at lunchtime. I did close the window when it started to warm up, but then re opened it as the heat felt stifling and that was better.

My theory was that this with the breeze was something like air con.

Thanks for sharing, Bee68! I'd never heard of swamp coolers and will look into it, as they sound amazing.

About your previous psychosis diagnosis: this reminds me of an episode I had about two years ago back home in the South of France, where I started losing touch with reality and a close one had to bring me to a place with AC to regain my composure. High temperatures are just so much to process for us. It happened to me once only, but I really don't want to go through this again.

As someone who grew up around the Mediterranean, closing shutters and windows during the day is something I learned to do very early. However, the UK having more humid weather, I find it a lot harder to cope with the heat here, especially with windows shut! It's a very "sweaty heat" indeed, and no shower can get rid of this feeling during the day.

There are people who think it right to criticise anything that affects others but not them. If only people could accept that we are not all the same. 

I definitely took several days to start to feel normal again after the temperatures dropped. I panic when the heat's meant to go crazy (or when any severe weather is forecast, frankly) but this usually means at least that the house is prepped and I have bottles of ice in the freezer, plenty of cold water in the fridge, I open all the windows early, then shut them before the heat rises, then later shut all the curtains once the sun has come around. We also have a swamp cooler now, which is a fan that you put water and ice packs in, which is very helpful.

In 2022 when there was the crazy heat, I got really ill (drifting into what previous diagnoses have led me to believe is psychosis but I'm now suspecting is ASD overwhelm - goodness knows, maybe it's both), and I have a dread of that happening again if I can't stay on top of managing the heat. 

(I also get really angry when people start "it's just summer"-ing, "stop all the drama!"-ing, etc. (People don't say this to me, I see it on the media.))

I find the stress and fear of overheating is overwhelming. Like genuinely scary. I hate feeling hot and sweaty too. 

we have a very intricate system at home of course of opening windows at night and sealing the house at day so things stay very cold inside. 

I also saved up last year and bought a £200 used portable AC unit. This is the backup plan and it was a life saver to know it was available 

Thank you - I will definitely do that. Wishing you luck with the rest of the Summer too.

I also took time off work last week, which helped as I wouldn't have been able to work. I hope you're able to get some welcome rest over the weekend!

That's a very interesting point about disturbed routines, I hadn't considered it!

Yes, food can be a real problem as well, especially when using the oven and stove makes the house even hotter! Something that really helped me was putting a soaked flannel in a freezer bag and keeping it in the freezer for a few hours. You can then apply it to your left wrist, armpit, or neck. Apparently medical professionnals do this in really hot countries. It helps a lot with heat regulation, and certainly helped keep me sane last week... Good luck with the rest of summer!

Thanks Bunny for the interesting reads! Luckily for me I'm able to take good care of myself but the advice in these pages is really welcome!

Yes. It definitely has a bad impact on me. I was only working on the Monday and Tuesday as had booked leave in the hope of going somewhere to walk. Instead I did very little. It felt much worse than brief heatwaves of previous years and hard to get over. I felt like the exhaustion I was previously getting over returned including the symptoms and definitely sensory extremes.

Thankfully since the heat has subsided I've managed to return to semi normality, I really don't do well with temperature extremes.

I find that if my usual routine is disturbed due to external factors it can throw me off for a while. The heat certainty caused issue with my sleep pattern (which isn't great to start with) so I've been a bit out of whack

Hi Morgane,

Yes I can really relate. In the heat I find it really hard to stay calm, am much more irritable. Keeping still can be hard because of the feeling of heavy perspiration. Living with elderly mother too who struggles. Sensory stuff feels worse. Even water on me feels slimy and I can't cope with the feeling of carpet under my feet. Food textures seem more intolerable. It has an effect afterwards and now I am in anxiety for the hotter days. Summer has always been terribly difficult, but only very recently diagnosed so I now understand why. I think the anxiety and irritability and worry causes a crash after the weather cools down but I feel always running on empty at the moment. Brain fog, spaced out, low energy and heavy limbs and struggle to concentrate and remember things plus general apathy and tearful and low mood.

Hi and welcome to the community.

I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling. 

You might find the advice here helpful:

NAS - Autistic fatigue and burnout - as the introduction page (for the different versions of that article) explains: "Autistic fatigue and burnout happen when the pressures get too much and you end up suffering from extreme exhaustion." 

NAS - Anxiety

NAS - Autism and sensory processing