How do I deal with being productive when it's hot

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Without my Concerta (one of my medications), I feel have a hard time being productive unless it's cold outside. With my Concerta, I only have a hard time being productive when it's hot outside. Yesterday, it was hot in my room making it very hard for me to be productive. I have a birthright trip to Israel on May 30th to June 8th and I know that it's very hot there. I know that all activities on the birthright trip are mandatory. What should I do? I'm scared that I'm going to faint on the birthright trip. Is my hard time being productive the warmer it gets something to do with my Autism or my Concerta? Why would this even happen to me? Every time that I forget to take my Concerta, I feel like laying down on the floor. I really want to be productive. I really want to have fun on the birthright trip but it will be very hard for me to participate in activities there with my problem. I don't even know how to describe my problem. I don't even know if this is fainting, or losing my balance. One thing is for sure, It feels like there's more gravity pulling me down when the above problem goes into effect. Does anyone else have this problem? What exactly is this called?

I don't take any medication and don't have any advice, but I'd like to express my sympathy. I hate hot (and humid) weather and it kills my brain. I live in a cold climate, it's the only thing that worked I'm afraid.

I'm sensitive to the heat, and when I take medication, it tends to get worse. It's always worse outside on very hot, sunny days. I feel sort of drowsy and off-balance and lightheaded. Not sure if I'm even using the right words; it's sort of a strange feeling. I can start to feel my heart race. The theory is that maybe it's a combination of the heat and anxiety together.

Ice packs help, the shade, breezes, ice cold drinks, I'll even put the bottle all over my body to cool myself down. Also, swimming in the water, if I can. I love the water. Let's see what else, having my hair wet, going into the bathroom and putting some water on my body and going back outside, sitting down, I think that's about it. A lot of people don't get it.

Do you have low blood pressure by any chance? I'm heat-intolerant because I have low blood pressure as the result of another condition. I wonder if you might have low blood pressure too, and the Concerta raises it up to normal since it's a stimulant, so you feel better when you take it. That's just one guess.

If you sweat a lot, or you drink a lot of water to help cool yourself down, you can buy salt tablets to help you stay hydrated on your trip, which might help. They're an easier alternative than trying to carry around Gatorade or something like that. Here's a link to one brand on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/SaltStick-Electrolyte-Replacement-Capsules-Supplement/dp/B002IY96B0/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1463943330&sr=8-2&keywords=salt+tablets Make sure you don't drink too much water without replacing your electrolytes, or you can actually drink so much that you flush out your sodium and dehydrate yourself, and that's quite a cycle to get out of.

Also, you mentioned that Concerta is just one of your medications, so it might be worthwhile to look up the side-effects of all of your medications and see if any of them list increased heat sensitivity, low blood pressure or anything along those lines.

I think it would be a good idea to get checked out by a doctor before you go, just to make sure you don't have something going on with you that could be causing this problem. If they do find something, hopefully they can treat it before you go so you can enjoy your trip without having to worry about feeling bad or not being able to keep up. Maybe you can even be medically excused from the activities that would be too much for you (although I admit I don't know much about Birthright trips). That feeling of lightheaded almost-fainting and just wanting to sit down because it's too hard to keep standing up is very familiar to me, and I imagine a doctor would understand what you mean even if you don't describe it just right.

I hope some of this helps!

My other medications are:

1) 15 milligrams of Deplin
2) 2 milligrams of Abilify
3) Prozac
4) 4 milligrams of Intuniv (ran out of Intuniv last week)

I did a quick search on those medications and didn't see increased heat sensitivity listed among the most common side-effects, but that doesn't mean much. Apparently Intuniv is also used to treat high blood pressure, so maybe it can make yours too low if you didn't have high blood pressure in the first place (if such a thing is possible). Do you check your blood pressure regularly? If possible, I would check it a few times when you don't feel right, as well as when you feel better. The only thing is that there is no standard 'this is low blood pressure' number like there is with high blood pressure, but it's generally considered to be at whatever point you start to have symptoms, which is around 90/60 for most people.

I don't want to keep going on and on about low blood pressure though, because just because it's what causes my heat sensitivity doesn't mean it's what causing yours. I would definitely make an appointment with your doctor before you go to get to the bottom of this!

What Quill said.
I have low blood pressure but it greatly improved since I started taking midodrine.

Heat is mostly getting use to it, in the desert the sun and dryness are far worse than the temperature altho humid heat is much worse. The moisture just gets sucked out of you before you even notice it sometimes but I pretty much carry water wherever I go now, such is life in one of the hottest deserts in the world. You really do get use to it eventually tho, it's not so bad when you're in the shade and not moving lol. You just have to want to do it or be forced to, it's just an exposure thing where it will become better over time. I think I am bit a masochist when it comes to weather, oppressive heat or bone chilling cold/snow something about sharing the experience with everybody makes feel more connected and also people are less likely to be out so I can avoid people more easily.