is this a sensory problem?

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is it possible to be hypersensitive to heat? i am also a long-time heliophobe and get predictably stressed in hot weather or the sun.

i just drank a warm drink and am overheating. waves of sweat and panic as i feel like my body is heating up out of control. so i fill a basin of cold tap water and immerse my arms in it for 10 minutes, which helps. i go away for 5 minutes, surf some internet, drink a glass of water and i'm still heating up (again).

i have just bathed my arms in cold water again for a minute. i have just finished sucking on an ice cube and it feels better, but a minute after and now i can feel myself heating up again.

i have had panic attacks before when i fell asleep in the car while my fiance was driving us home on a hot sunny day and when i woke up i was very hot so i started panicking like anything. had a freezing cold shower for a while and that was better.

aaghh heating up again. afk another ice cube or something

is this a bizarre sensory reaction or just my homeostasis on vacation?

I think so. I get overheated really easily too. If I spend more than 5 minutes in the sun I could burn. My poor lips are constantly cracked and dry. I have freezing cold showers that do nothing. I've migraines and sensory overload just from the heat. The worst one being inside a hot warehouse on a hot day, with no ventilation, and being surrounded by loud music and crowds of people.

Hot flashes? I don't know how old you are.

I'm 23. It usually happens due to an external trigger, although I'm fairly certain it's happened randomly as well. Can hot flashes happen regardless of age? I've had this at least since my early teens.

Thanks pensieve. Exactly how I feel o_o I also tend to get dehydrated a lot (have been hospitalised for dehydration/heat migraines once when they thought I was having a haemorrhage). But I also have problems when I go from hot to cold: shiver endlessly and can't seem to adjust to the cooler temperature, long after everyone else is happy and running around, unless I was "feeling cold in my mind" to begin with.

I don't get panic attacks from cold though, and I would MUCH MUCH rather be cold in a given situation.

Does this happen at a particular temperature or even if it's cool enough for you usually?

Is this associated with eating sugar, refined/starch carbohydrates or drinking alcohol?

Are you an athlete or someone who does more than 1 hour of aerobic exercise at a time?

Are you experiencing anything that might cause estrogen or testosterone levels to change? Taking steroids, birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy?

Eat a lot of soy products? Do you have allergies?

Here's a web page on non-menopausal causes of hot flashes

Does this happen at a particular temperature or even if it's cool enough for you usually? this was at a normal temperature. the only change in temperature was a warm (not hot) drink.

Is this associated with eating sugar, refined/starch carbohydrates or drinking alcohol? nope. happens most frequently in the sun but can happen while eating anything really.

Are you an athlete or someone who does more than 1 hour of aerobic exercise at a time? nope, wish i was, but i actually don't do much exercise due to my dislike of getting hot

Are you experiencing anything that might cause estrogen or testosterone levels to change? Taking steroids, birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy? none of those

Eat a lot of soy products? none, unless you count tofu? not much of that anyway, i just eat it when it appears in a chinese dish or something.

Do you have allergies? none that i know of..?

thanks ephemerella for your thoughts

i don;t know how old you are , but get your hormone levels checked.

have you done anything that might cause hormone level fluctuations?

that is, unless your are peri-menopausal or menopausal. then it sounds like you are about to enter what is for some women, the delightful jaws of hell.

i,m still a few miles from the gate.

Might want to get it checked out. You want to rule out a medical issue affecting brain regulation and hormone status.

From the above web page link I posted:

No one knows exactly what the physiologic cause is for hot flashes but the beginning trigger is probably increased heat (or blood flow) in the heat regulatory area of the brain. The brain, sensing an increased body temperature, releases chemicals that cause the skin blood vessels to dilate so the heat can be released. Apparently estrogens and testosterone allow the body to have a higher tolerance for changes in core body temperature. In other words, normally a body might tolerate a change in 1.5 degrees C. before dilating the blood vessels whereas in the absence of the sex hormones, the blood vessels are triggered to dilate at a change of only 0.8 degrees C. This means that anything increasing core body heat or even just the heat of increased blood flow at the brain's heat regulatory center will cause a hot flash. ...

Can foods or drinks cause a hot flash?

Definitely yes. Almost everyone should be familiar with how a meal containing hot pepper (capsaicin) can cause a rapid out break of a hot sweat. In this case, the capsaicin directly stimulates nerve endings that affect and dilate the brain blood vessels. Alcohol, other food additives and just eating a large meal itself can cause hot flashes. The truth is that we do not know all the different foods and additives and other ingested substances that can trigger this reaction.

Many prescription drugs such as anti-hypertensives and mood altering drugs such as anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications can also cause hot flashes. Each prescription drug you are taking should be checked to see if hot flashes or night sweats are a known side effect. Over-the-counter medications and supplements should also be examined for their side effect profile.

What other conditions or circumstances can cause hot flashes that are not "menopausal"?

Many systemic conditions can also produce flushing such as carcinoid syndrome, systemic mast cell disease, pheochromocytoma, medullary carcinoma of the thyroid, pancreatic islet-cell tumors, renal cell carcinoma, hyperthyroidism, neurological flushing, emotional flushing, and spinal cord injury. These conditions are thought to secrete chemicals into the blood stream that can stimulate the nerves or blood vessels of the brain.

By far, the most common cause of hot flashes is a stress reaction that causes epinephrine and norepinephrine release into the blood stream. This in turn causes increased blood flow and thus increased heat. A hot flash may ensue to get rid of the heat. The trigger can even occur during deep REM sleep (presumably from dreaming). The next most common cause of a hot flash is just simply that the body is too warm. This can happen at night with thermal blankets or by just sitting with a portable computer on your lap for awhile. We have radiant heat panels at our house that overshoot the thermostat and often cause our family to have night sweats when they come on.

I'm 23...pretty sure I'm not anywhere near menopause, have had these sorts of episodes for a long time.

I'm thinking maybe it's not a "hot flash" since the waves of sweat are panic related rather than heat related. Even after I cool down, I heat up again. Also there are all the associated things with panic such as hyperventilation, dizziness, feeling stressed, feeling out of control.

I get the exact same pattern with anything else that is stressful such as attempting to drive or if someone talks to me that I wasn't expecting to talk to me.

I don't think my actual absolute body temperature has to change very much for me to start panicking, which is the abnormal bit. Don't most people feel hot for a while, then fan themselves or whatever, and then slowly cool down? For me I feel hot, then I feel stressed/panicky which makes me feel sweaty, I feel hotter due to the panic, so I get more panicky, so I get hotter etc.

Ephemerella - I was drinking a warm chocolate drink. I am not allergic to chocolate or milk (milk has always been one of my favourite foods, I think I would have noticed if I got stressed about milk)

I do not drink any alcohol at ALL.

what i do know about sensory integration issues that we may have hyper or hypo issues and these may fluctuate. we can also have strange sensitivity to all sorts of stimuli.
You may have an internal thermostat that is a bit funny.
many autistic people either feel the heat TOO much or TOO little.

for instance, when i was a kid, i would be the one coming home in mid winter with nothing but my school tunic and my shirt on. no jumper. and others would be freezing cold.

The other issue is that sensory integration issues fluctuate over time.
SO, some days are good and some days are bad.
that is how it is for me.

Yessterday was bad for me. today has been ok except for nausea when my son came home and brushed against me. he can give me firm hugs but i hate really light touch. it literally FLIPS my stomach over.

read up on the sensory integration issues. there is plenty about that is ok to read on the net.

good luck liresse,

and ps .... I hate sweet food and i do not drink milk so your idea of a nice drink is vomit material to me! I am savoury and hypo taste with chilli/tabasco in bucktloads on everything.

thanks for your thoughts millie :) and i will certainly read up on it, seems like a few gaps in my understanding.

i also don't like sweet stuff (the chocolate i was drinking was dark, had no sugar etc - usually can't finish a bar of chocolate if given one) and love savoury ;) i will sometimes crave savoury stuff for no explicable reason.

mmm internal thermostat theory. that's kinda what i'm thinking it could be too. i might talk to my doctor about it.

Well, all kinds of hypersensitivity can happen with autism and Aspergers, so it does not seem strange to me that you are hypersensitive to heat. Feeling heat is a sensory thing - there are specific sensory neurons which feel heat. And the theory is that the autistic brain has excessive neuronal processing going on, leading to hyper-perception.

Personally I am very sensitive to heat, and always have been. It has it's positive aspects - lower heating bills, for instance!

It would seem my ideal temperature is somewhere between 73 and 74. 73 or less and I feel chilled. 74 or more and I start to sweat. Unfortunately I cannot input fractions on my digital thermostat. Other days I am seemingly immune to cold. I have never been immune to heat though. I overheat easily.

Stuck in traffic in the summer with a malfunctioning air conditioner is one of my worst nightmares.

thanks for your thoughts guys :)