The problem with sunny summertime

Checking my blog stats, I see more and more people are finding their way here when searching for info about “light sensitivity”.

Well, it is getting to be summer, after all, which means bright, bright days that are getting longer and longer.

I don’t usually think of myself as being light sensitive — or “photosensitive” — but one sure way to push me over the edge, is by subjecting me to constant exposure to bright light without my sunglasses. If I spend time outside on a sunny day without wearing sunglasses, I become highly agitated and frantic and hyper-reactive. I blow up very easily and melt down easily, too. It’s embarrassing, to be so sensitive to light and not be able to “keep it together” over something as basic as a sunny day, but there we have it. I’m light-sensitive, and that’s that.

To cut down on the impact, I wear amber lenses, which block out certain spectra better than gray or green lenses. I didn’t realize that this was objectively true, till recently, when I read that amber blocks certain spectra better than others. All I knew was, amber lenses “felt better” to me.

I also wear prescription sunglasses that have larger frames than are fashionable, these days. My frames are actually about 20 years old, and I bought them when I got my first expensive eyeglass frames. I have taken really good care of them, because I paid (at that time) almost half a week’s salary for them — I didn’t have a job that paid that well, but I wanted to get a really good set of glasses frames, so I did. Needless to say, those frames are very precious to me and I go out of my way to take really good care of them.

The thing is, they’re not very fashionable. They look very 1990, being large and round, not like the current trend which is short and rectangular. If I went with smaller frames, however, I wouldn’t have the kind of protection from light that I need. I need larger frames, so I forego fashion to keep myself sane.

Light sensitivity is a crazy thing…  And — like so many other issues I have — it sneaks up on me, when I’m not paying attention to it. So, I pay attention. And it pays off.