• LeopardShepherd [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    5 months ago

    It is interesting to see high heat and associated sweating as quite a powerful stimulus which often causes overstimulation particularly in people with neuro divergence. So sometimes it’s not even a heat tolerance problem but an overstimulation problem which NTs seem to have a hard time understanding.

    Also like others have said, perception of temperature changed is largely dependent on where your current baseline is.

    • Aradina [She/They]
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      5 months ago

      I have fibromyalgia and autism so it’s a combo for me. Heat makes pain worse, discomfort increases sensitivity, etc etc bad times.

      Even just new meds can fuck with your ability to process heat. When I started prozac I would feel hot and get sweaty from basically any activity, which then meant I’d get cold, shiver, sweat more. NTs are fucking weird

    • 389aaa [it/its]@hexbear.net
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      5 months ago

      In my case it almost feels like my body’s reaction to heat has a screwed-up sense of how hot things are. I can’t take hot showers, for example, which are objectively not dangerous, because they genuinely feel like they are going to burn me - normal-hot-shower temperature water feels like like a wet hot pan, it’s like my cap is just lower. Ambient heat in the air and light doesn’t do that in the same way, but it can make walls and stuff feel like that, naturally.

      I hadn’t thought of it from the overstimulation angle before, though, but now that I think about it I think you’re right, that is at least part of why I hate ambient heat and particularly sweating. Thank you for that insight.

      • LeopardShepherd [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        5 months ago

        That sounds super frustrating, do you have any idea why that might be? I know certain conditions like Raynauds or some medication can fuck with temperature perception.

        Oh no worries, my partner described it to me that way as she gets pretty much the same symptoms in the heat that she gets in large crowds or noisy environments. Then we looked it up and other people (especially those with ASD) described it the same way!