#temperature regulation

[janeacular]

People who have regular body heat don't experience cold the way we do. They apparently have this little heater inside of them that just, keeps their blood and internal organs comfy all the time. Being "cold" to them is just a chill on their skin. "If you're still cold after the first layer, put another layer on!" That doesn't work if you don't have the body heat to warm up those layers!!! it's just cold fabric on top of cold fabric on top of cold fabric on top of cold skin on top of cold fat on top of cold muscle on top of cold bones.

Then of course, even if there are FINALLY enough layers to make our skin warm. That does not mean it will make our bones warm. I could have an electronically heated blanket on me, and start sweating from it, and STILL BE COLD because it takes a lot of time for any amount of heat to pierce the surface level of my body & warm me in any ways that matter. So yeah, anytime you're interacting with somebody who doesn't have temperature regulation issues, and they offhandedly mention that they love the cold, just be aware they are never ever talking about our kind of cold. the kind that feels like an uphill battle. They're talking about something completely different and unique to them and their little internal heater. something some of us may never experience because we're always trapped in that fight with the air around us.

[warmblanketwhump]

A struggles to regulate their body temperature, maybe after a traumatic event, injury, or illness.

They used to wear trendy, well-fitted clothing—now, they wear layers of large sweaters and flannel/wool pants and wool socks around—anything to help insulate them and stay warm.

certain times of day are clockwork for spells of chills. it’s common for them to come to breakfast huddled in a blanket, and it takes them at least a half hour of clutching mug of hot tea to warm up enough to function. If they stay up too late at night, they shiver in bed for hours.

being outdoors in the fall and winter is miserable. they try to dress for the weather, but they inevitably get a chill in their bones that they can’t shake for hours even when indoors.

the others can tell when they’re cold, no matter how hard they try to hide it—shoulders drawn tight, arms hugged close, the occasional shivers that ripple down their spine.

during team meetings, A’s the only one huddled in a blanket with a hot water bottle clutched to their core, even when the room is well heated.

their hands and feet ALWAYS feel like ice.

constantly feeling chilled makes it easier for them to get sick, especially when their body is always fighting to stay at a decent temperature. when they do get sick, they’re bedridden for days under piles of blankets.

they used to not be a very tactile person, but now they’re always down for a hug or for someone to throw an arm around their shoulders, the warmth of another human providing indescribable comfort—especially after what they went through.

[autism-polls]

Poll idea submitted by Ghost on April 8, 2024

[existennialmemes]

Having POTS is like getting your autonomic nervous system from Wish. My body regulates my temperature as well as a newborn kitten.

Every single moment the AC is running, I am shivering like a wet, abandoned Chihuahua.

And the very instant the AC shuts off, I am melting like gummy bears left in the sun.

[a-totally-reasonable-username]

When i tell people that my body is really fucking bad at temperature regulation they tend to think i get cold easy or that i react strongly to cold and hot temperatures. While this is true, it's actually so much worse than that and no one that hasn't seen and felt it firsthand believes me.

I can be lying in bed, under multiple blankets and my feet will be so cold, i can't feel or move them anymore. My body's lack of temperature regulation literally paralyses me at times and everyone i tell this believes i'm exaggerating.

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autism & Can’t Regulate Temperature?

Neurodivergent_lou

[crippy-tangerine]

Really don’t see other autistic people talk much about temperature-related sensory differences beyond “the sun is too much sometimes”,, in any autistic spaces we’ve been in,,,? Which we are confused by, because it’s one of our most prominent autism-related sensory difficulties.? Aside from noise & smell hypersensitivity anyways... So we’re unsure if we’ve just missed all the conversations about it, or if other autistics don’t find it as difficult/debilitating so don’t feel the need to discuss? But we think the first option is much more likely, so hi autistic community, talk to us because we missed the earlier conversations 🥹💖. (This is not meant as a criticism of any autistic communities by the way, this is very /neutral, and just an observation really! Especially as we may just have forgotten the times people have discussed already!). Anyways, we’re just gonna ramble about our autism & temperature issues below, because it is an issue for us and we need to write things out to process them 🫡. This will be long, so TLDR is at the bottom!!

-> content warning for accidental self-injury, accidental self-neglect(?) of health needs, general disordered habits, and also specific disordered food issues. The food stuff isn’t related to our eating disorder(s) and is purely about temperature issues/stimming, but it’s still not exactly something we would encourage, so yes this is your warning!

Our autism has such a huge impact on our ability to feel temperature properly… we don’t seem to be able to process any temperature sensory input like others do.? For example- our living space feels like a totally different biome from the rest of the building 😭. People come into our space and reflexively go “oh, it is very cold in here-!”, and follow that up by asking if we are ok in this much cold and if we need help making it warmer. Which is very sweet and appreciated, but… It is deliberately this cold, because we have the heating turned completely off and usually have the windows wide open to keep it a nice “outside-during-winter” temperature. “Surely you are freezing?!” you may ask~ the answer is: “we probably are, but fuck it, we can’t tell!”.

We will sit in a T-shirt and shorts (maybe with socks on too?) when it is 7-11 degrees (Celsius, no idea what that is for you Americans sorry) and feel,,, fine.? Don’t even know. Can’t tell really. But we can definitely tell when we overheat, and that is the most evil sensory experience for us, so we are genuinely much more happy to sit in a close-to-freezing room than tolerate warmth 😭. Like we will just make our space the same temperature as the outside (unless it’s hot outside, in which case we will suffer and spend a lot of time taking freezing showers?).

It’s not even that we are immune to the cold or something, the body can definitely get very cold (shaking, blue-purple tinge to hands/feet/lips, goosebumps, hair standing on end, we lose mobility in our joints because they stiffen so much, etc.). We just…. Can’t process that sensory input and *feel cold* most of the time? We don’t have that “oh no I’m cold brrrrr!” reaction other people seem to have.?? And if we do have that reaction it’s more like “whoops, we have gone blue from the cold and didn’t notice, guess we better put a sweater on”.? We tend to not react to the cold until we’re at a point where we’re potentially making ourself ill from the cold, which probably isn’t very healthy, but.??? Cannot handle anything over mildly warm without discomfort. Would sooner freeze into a block of ice than be too hot (/hyperbole and /half-joking).

Heat sensitivity also means that we would rather eat absolutely everything cold. Like, everything. Cold soup, cold pizza, cold stir fry… We will eat bits of frozen foods while they are still frozen because the sensory experience is more fun when they’re icy.? Will happily chew on frozen chips, frozen fruit, frozen veggies, frozen pizza toppings… We were also That Child that would fish the ice cubes out of drinks in restaurants to crunch on 😟. (Would also eat the lemons out of everyone’s drinks, but that’s a whole other thing 😭). We will eat chilled foods raw, instead of cooking them (which is fine and safe for us as we only eat plant-based foods that aren’t dangerous when uncooked!! Please do not do this with stuff like raw meat 😭). Raw veggie spring rolls, cold pasta…. Even if it would probably taste better hot/warm to everybody else, we will try our hardest to eat it cold because we don’t like the heat. Cold coffee, cold tea (no, not even iced tea, we will just make green tea with cold water because hot liquids are not fun for us).

There have been days in the past where it’s been muggy and uncomfortably warm because there’s a thunderstorm coming, and when the rain started we would just go stand outside until we were Very Soggy because we would sooner deal with wet clothes all day than not be able to self-regulate in warm weather.?? And that’s saying something because wet clothes are a bad sensory experience 🫠.

But then on the other end of the spectrum, we have repeatedly burned our hands from accidentally touching stoves/oven shelves/fire and not realising.?? (Reason #62835 why we are not safe alone 😭 /lighthearted.)

Like, somehow, we can accidentally do ourself damage because of not feeling temperature properly (either from holding our hands into burning hot things, or from making ourselves feel ill from the cold).

And this isn’t to be all like “wowee autism makes us so silly and quirky teehee!!”, that’s not what we’re trying to say. We’re trying to say: we can’t act like a person if the temperature is bad, we eat foods raw/frozen that aren’t meant to be eaten like that, we border on making ourselves ill/actually make ourselves feel ill because of how cold we need to be to exist, we stop functioning whenever it’s even mildly hot outside, we are so dysregulated by heat that we just shut down and cannot get anything done properly without going into sensory overload. Like, we have such major issues with temperature because of our autism. We don’t remember ever seeing other autistics talk about the same/similar issues, and we don’t get why.? So like, if you’re also autistic, do you have similar issues with temperature? Whether it’s hypo-sensitivity or hyper-sensitivity.? Would be really interested in hearing other experiences in more detail.!! (/genuine, this is an invitation to ramble about your autistic temperature experiences!)

TLDR: we are terrible at temperature-related things (can’t feel temperatures properly and/or have a sensitivity issue with them) and have a tendency to cause ourselves accidental harm because of it. We are wondering if other autistics have the same/similar issues.? (You can ramble in replies/reblogs as much as you want to answer that question!)

Allistics (non-autistics) please do not derail. This is a post about our autism and temperature issues, addressed at other autistics. If you want to talk about a separate disability and how it affects temperature-related sensory issues, please make your own separate post.! Thank you 🫰.

[sailormoonsailorstars]

my cold sensitivity has been so jacked up lately even when it’s in the 60’s-70’s (f) I feel like I’m freezing to death it’s so uncomfortable

it is scary for me to be cold this often

and it feels like the only solution is to layer extensively because everyone else isn’t cold

I can’t buy anything new like compression socks or fleece lined clothes or any clothes at all actually bc I am disabled and unemployed so like idk if there’s even a solution here but if you guys have some let me know

[pileofpawns]

If anybody else struggles with the cold, I stumbled upon this thread of people being really sweet and listing off different ideas on how to warm yourself up. I found it because like the OP, I also wanted to satisfy my urge to sunbathe on giant rocks

[spooniestrongart]

Winter is rough when you can't regulate your body temperature. 💙🥄

[eggings]

heat regulation tips for the summer

- handheld fans!! i haven’t gotten an electric one to bring on the go yet, but a paper one can help a lot with cooling down quickly

- don’t have enough room in your bag to carry water and gatorade/electrolyte drinks? carry a packet of powdered electrolyte drinks

- going off of the last point, i’ve found liquid iv to be amazing for getting in electrolytes, especially if you have a dysautonomia condition. it is a bit expensive, but they have a lot of discount codes floating around.

- sportswear is great for staying cool, especially if you tend to sweat a lot or have sensory issues where you need to wear longer clothing than summer heat tends to require

- parasols can be good for blocking the sun. a lot of alternative subcultures have it as a bit of a staple, so i recommend look into gothic and lolita fashion if you want to find particularly cute ones

- for the love of god, if you drive, buy one of those front windshield sun blockers for when your car is parked. hot cars are so evil.

best, someone struggling with having pots in this heat :’)

[janeacular]

Cold is sharp stabbing needles puncturing every tiny little atom in your body & Hot is a low hum drum throb pulsating through your organs. And both get infinitely worse when you add water :)

[smoov-criminal]

temp regulation issues fuckin suck. i was freezing in my office yesterday, but sweltering today. nothing has changed about my office or really the weather, my body is just like this. i flip flop between sleeping fine and waking up in a puddle of sweat, again with no notable changes in my environment or behaviors. rip me

[theasylumwheretheyraisedme]

“seasonal” depression but seasons don’t exist like they used to so the “season” lasts several extra months bc of climate change and then the very short happy season is also deeply depressing because for the same reason so really it’s just year-round depression

[lemons-bittersweet]

Ponyboys temperature would be bipolar. One second he’s cold and the next he’s sweating and it would piss Soda off when he’s trying to sleep when he’s next to someone who is cold as Antarctica and then hot as a desert 

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

6 Less Common Autistic Traits

Neurodivergent_lou

Autism