Struggling to get through summer? Treat yourself like a beloved dog – and six other survival tips | Emma Beddington

August usually sends me into an anxious funk, but I think I’ve worked out how to handle 2026’s terrifying heat and apocalyptic images Unfortunately for hairdressers, “How’s your summer going?” is a loaded question this year. Even basking lizards and barbecue obsessives are wavering in their sun worship as cataclysmic wildfires engulf our nearest neighbours (and threaten the UK), Wales and parts of England experience drought, and farmers issue dire warnings about our food supply in the near future. Rescue centres are filling up with dehydrated hedgehogs and the Environment Agency is having to rescue fish. Lazy, joyful, sunscreen-scented days are giving way to stifling, existentially terrifying ones spent skulking in the dark (assuming you don’t need to be out in the extreme heat, as many workers do), sweatily scrolling through apocalyptic images. Vanity Fair has decreed it’s a “sad-girl summer”, highlighting the female singer-songwriters soundtracking the myriad anxieties of an “undeniably cruel” 2026 season, but it’s not just the girlies who are sad – many of us are struggling and we still have August to survive. How? I’m a veteran of sad-girl summers (p