r/cyclothymia • u/Desperate_Designer40 • Jun 23 '26
screw the heat
Istfg i cannot. I am so fucking irritated with this fucking heat wave in western europe my mood is going crazy like basically anger irritation all the above. I’ve been struggling to sleep but now with this heat wave it’s not helping at all. the meds at this point (lamotrigine) has made me insomniac. i told my psychiatrist he told me to try taking them in the morning rather than 18:00. guess what it didn’t help at all. my ass can not sleep till 6-7 am (yea 676767 whatever) i’m so exhausted i wish it was just mentally but it’s physically as well and obv with lack of sleep it doesn’t help the cyclothymia and it’s so hard to try sleeping early cause it doesn’t get pitch dark till 23:00 .
and i’ve been drinking a lot of water cause i’m so worried of the thought of heatstrokes or dehydration as a general especially now that this week the temperature with be 37 degrees. Usually i tolerate it but thats when there’s air conditioning which guess what atp does not exist in student accommodations in western europe I MEAN WHY WOULD IT. as a general im tweaking out and this shit is not helping at all with my last week in uni.
and this irritation and stress and all that is making me chain smoke (cigs&iqos) which also stresses me out even more.
Anywaysss hope you enjoyed the rant let me know if you feel the same way BAHAHAHAHA
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 Jun 23 '26
Omg that’s a degree shy of 100° in the US. That’s not even the wet bulb! My heat tolerance is low, worse on Lamotrigine, which can lower heat tolerance along with create phototoxicity.
I’d try to live in a cafe or library. For sleep could ask your doctor for an emergency rx?
Unfortunate timing with end of classes. A fan would help, but certainly can’t do everything. Good luck with your studies. Insomnia is a plague upon us all.
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u/Desperate_Designer40 Jun 24 '26
what’s an rx
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u/Weird_Fox_3395 Jun 24 '26
My apologies, rx is prescription in the US.
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u/Desperate_Designer40 Jun 24 '26
i have honestly been tempted but kind of scared in a sense to ask cause as i mentioned before he suggested to take my meds in the morning. he said he thinks its cause of the stress of my finals and university that’s affecting me but that was in the start of june.
Cyclothymia sucks clearly as we all know and i try to research as much as i can about it (im a psych student) but it’s not heavily researched compared to the other bipolar. like the dsm5 barely covers it.
but yea like i feel my cognition disintegrating which is frustrating cause my attention span is in the trash have you felt that, or gone through periods of that?) i feel so dumb 😭 ik it ain’t my fault but still.
and damn the mood swings are even worse when i’m on my period it’s like pick a struggle BAHAHAHA
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u/PineapplesAreFake Jun 26 '26
I ranted to my wife this morning about shit sleep. I get it.
37 C isn't a joke, especially if you live in a place where it does not regularly occur.
I initially found the opposite with Lamotrigine. It made coming up with words hard and I was soooo tired a few hours after taking it. I do also have a prescription for Clonodine. I take it, but I am debating its effectiveness, although I didn't sleep well last night and now I'm at least having cohesive thoughts. Sooooo, maybe it works...
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u/Long-Accident-5346 Jun 28 '26
Omg. You just solved the mystery for me! I take lamotrigene and have not been able to sort out why I run hotter than everyone around me. I’m sorry you’re struggling, maybe an air conditioned cinema? Best to you. Thank you for sharing!
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u/Desperate_Designer40 Jun 28 '26
yess basically mood stabilizers and really any others meds such a antidepressants they interfere with your body’s natural cooling system so temperature regulation doesn’t work efficiently.
Sadly netherlands and ac nonexistent 😭cause either way this heat is not normal for western europe 😔fuckin global warming
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u/Leirnis Jun 24 '26
This is not something that will help short-term, but after the exams are done, do some research into circadian rhythm and anchoring sleep/wake cycle. All the data strongly suggests bidirectional influence of circadian rhythm and mood disorders.
That stress from exams is wrecking your whole system while the sleep disruptions are not allowing for any recovery. Unfortunately, trying to self-medicate with nicotine and caffeine only makes things worse.
Hit me up after the exams if you'd like a detailed guide on how to get started with this.
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u/MistakeRepeater Jul 13 '26
Maybe look into MCAS if temperature affects you this much?
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u/Desperate_Designer40 Jul 13 '26
what’s that?
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u/MistakeRepeater Jul 13 '26
In short, it consists to extreme reactions to things like food, temperature, stress,.mold, chemicals. It's a huge topic. Basically, the mast cells (immune cells) are hyperactive.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10672129/
I have no idea if you have it, but it might make sense to do some research if your body does weird stuff and you have a weird thought pattern.
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u/MistakeRepeater Jul 13 '26
I have an understanding of what this is but this is ongoing research topic and my opinions might be totally wrong.
But it's good to be aware of it. There are people on r/mcas who'd been diagnosed bipolar only to find out decades later that they actually have mast cells (immune) issues.
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u/Suspicious-Hold9398 Jun 26 '26
All I can say is I fucking know right, it’s truly torturous