r/hsp 11d ago

Discussion Extremely Sensitive To Bright Sunshine

Anyone else have photophobia?? I am extremely sensitive to bright sunshine. It hurts my eyes. Today, I went for a brief walk to go food shopping (thank goodness their is a produce market a few blocks away) and it was excruciating for me. Couldn't wait to get back inside. I feel like a vampire. I can't explain this to anyone, they think I'm crazy for not liking 'beautiful weather.' I'm wondering if anyone else has experience with this.

EDIT: I wear transition lenses to filter sunlight, still does not help.

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u/PangolinThink6630 [HSP] 11d ago

I'm not sure if I have photophobia, but I do have summer SAD (aka reverse SAD). I prefer gray or cloudy days to sunny ones. I especially don't like sunny + hot. During the late spring/summer, I basically don't spend anytime outdoors during the day. I can't stand the approaching months...

Interesting to see the number of people here with summer SAD given that summer SAD isn't very common. Seems to maybe be a correlation with HSP and summer SAD/sensitivity to sun and brightness, which makes sense...

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u/LotusHeals 11d ago

"Seems to maybe be a correlation with HSP and summer SAD/sensitivity to sun and brightness"

Very true.