Struggling to get through summer? Treat yourself like a beloved dog – and six other survival tips | Emma Beddington
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- Emma Beddington outlines seven summer survival tactics — treating yourself like a dog in a heatwave, starting the day with a book, taking up a low-stakes hobby, deleting weather apps, going nocturnal, enjoying seasonal fruit, and reminding yourself it's rational to feel distressed.
- The Environment Agency is rescuing fish and animal rescue centres are filling up with dehydrated hedgehogs as the UK swelters through wildfires threatening the country, drought in Wales and parts of England, and dire warnings from farmers about future food supply.
- Naomi Alderman is running a reading-focused 'Couch to 5K' programme on her Substack, which Beddington recommends for readers whose concentration has collapsed under summer anxiety.
- Beddington describes herself as a veteran of summer distress who suffers 'anxious, distressed funk' and 'brain shutdowns' in July and August, and frames her 2026 distress as part of a broader pattern.
- Vanity Fair has declared 2026 a 'sad-girl summer,' soundtracking the anxieties of an 'undeniably cruel' season — a framing Beddington extends to readers of any gender.
- Blackberries are already ripe, which Beddington flags as worrying, though she notes an unusually generous season for peaches, figs, watermelon and apricots to eat over the sink.
Why it matters: Beddington frames summer distress as a rational response to documented UK wildfires, drought across Wales and England, and farmers' food-supply warnings — and by prescribing concrete low-stakes tactics like frozen treats, elaborate salads and nocturnal wandering, she gives readers a behavioral toolkit rather than climate fatalism, while implicitly legitimising seasonal affective disorder in summer as a recognised condition.
