Heat & Anxiety

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It's hot, the air is smoky from a recent fire and I'm feeling sick and anxious. I just began to get my life back on track, now this happens. I was so excited to get back to tennis and seeing everyone at the tennis court, but I think the smoke did a number on my entire body. I'm coughing like crazy and my chest still feels a bit congested, although it's lessening a bit. Rafael's loss to Muller in a stupid fifth set match with no tiebreaker (Wimbledon, please change this dumb rule!) did nothing to help my mood.

It's good to see that I'm not alone in being sensitive to heat. Above about 80 degrees, I don't function well mentally. I used to think this was a reaction to having been left alone in hot cars when I was a child, but it seems to be more neurological. I tend to get sensory overwhelm when it's warm - I can do some things like walk or rake leaves or do yard-work, but the overwhelm makes it really hard to do mental tasks. If my body were a big ball of yarn, when it gets hot the ball starts to unwind and all the loose ends make it hard to concentrate, lol. At work, I used to keep a small fan under my desk for when the air conditioning let it get over 70 F.

I don't work well mentally in the heat, below 90 degrees is ok. Above 94 is worse, it feels like my brain is fried.




I'm sorry about when you were a child, I was in a hot car too, but I was older & the car was in the shade, but there another time I wasn't in the shade, I was in the car with my father, he parked the car in the sun. I have psoriasis.




I get sensory overwhelmed when it's hot too. I am probably like you.

I too get more anxiety and discomfort in the heat and have to take cold baths or showers every morning in summer.

I love dry winters. Nice and cool and the evening air seems to crackle with possibility and excitement...

I think I have a bit of reverse Seasonal Effective Disorder; I love thunderstorms and rain and overcast days and wind. It makes me more energetic, maybe due to my depression or maybe I have ADHD, I dunno. Too mcuh heat (since anxiety generates heat) is bad for me, yeah.

Has anyone found they deal with heat worse (or better) as they have got older.

I would say that my maximum temperature for being comfortable is now lower than it was a few years ago. It is almost as though my internal temperature is slightly higher than it was before.

I definitely have become more aware of how the heat is making me feel, whereas before I used to just shrug it off.

I don't usually deal with temperatures of 30 Celsius or above really well. Especially if the humidity is high.

I deal with 25 or below pretty well. When there's little wind, I can even deal with Minus 15 temperatures pretty well.

Man, I gotta admit I love hot summer days but only for a certain amount of time. It starts to agitate me and it just makes me want to go into the house and just stay in there the whole day. Also if I know i'm going to be outside I bring a water bottle because it helps me feel less agitated.

I get physically sick if the weather is too warm. I overheat very easily. I would really prefer that it be no warmer than 72-73 degrees. 74 degrees I can handle sometimes, but other times I will start to feel uncomfortably warm at that temperature and it's definitely too warm to sleep. Humidity levels may play a role. 75-76 degrees I'll start getting overheated much more easily. I think by 77 degrees is when I start really having trouble breathing but can be affected at lower temperatures with higher humidity. In general being overheated can make me dizzy, nauseated, feeling like my skin was burning. One time I felt so sick that I had to jump in the shower immediately because I felt like I was either going to collapse or have seizures(I don't even have epilepsy).

I definitely do have anxiety issues when I'm overheated, but I'm not sure if it's the heat directly, or if it's more like I'm just overwhelmed from the physical discomfort. Being overheated can make a lot of my other sensory issues much worse which will also in turn up the anxiety levels.


I also find that my IBS is worse during warmer weather, but it may be a combination of increased temperatures and increased light levels. It will start getting worse usually right after daylight savings time starts when the weather usually hasn't warmed up too much yet. I know light can't be the only factor though because I would have very bad IBS reactions to saunas.