How do you deal with it?

So recently ive been down a bit because of my HH and was wondering how you guys deal with HH. Ive had this condition since childhood and it has got worse now at age 22. I use to only have palmar and plantar HH, but now I have HH in armpits that excrete endocrine sweat I think( the one that smells terrible) which is somewhat controlled by deodorants.

Also I have like "situations induced facial HH", I hope you know what I mean and if you know the correct term please let me know!

For instance, I was on the car with a couple of semi-close family members and they asked me some embarrassing question ( not even that embarrassing) and I would immediately starts pouring sweat out of my face because I was a bit nervous about it and that would trigger the endless HH sweat cycle many of you know(at first you get nervous for some reason, sweat starts, then you get nervous about sweating, which makes you sweat more)

When my family members saw, they where in awe, they could not believe I was sweating so much and told me if i was ok. I just told them I had been on the sun for a while waiting. I mean Im so embarrased about it and I dont know what to do in this type of situations. What do you guys do in this type of situations?

HH has shaped so much of my personality in a bad way in my opinion, and I am so embarrassed about my condition. the only people that know my condition are my parents and siblings. I've hid this condition from almost all the people I know. Its just too much embarrassment for me to let people know.

For me the worst part of my condition is this "situational HH" that Ive talked about. The thing about facial HH is that its so hard to manage. drysol? on the forehead? very ineffective and glyco works but the side effects I hate them.


i hope people in the same situation can give me some advice with how to deal with this. sorry for the long post and have a dry day.

So all of this is about your reaction of how others view you.

mmm yeah... not really. i dont think you have HH

I found that talking about it with others helps. I'm more than double your age and it took me a long time to open up to tell family and friends about my silent suffering. HH doesn't improve with age, so maybe start sharing with friends as a start. My friends were both amazed and supportive. We cannot help how our bodies over react.

If I'm in a situation that my hands are sweating and I cannot shake someones hand I'll tell them that my hands are sweaty. Rarely does anyone question me. The more you talk about, the easier it becomes to inform others about it. Anyways, thats how I cope now.

I see, how where you in your 20's?

More than double your age as stated above. That's mid 50's. This translates into many years of dealing with HH. I have a daughter a year older than you who also deals with full body HH.

I meant to say like how was your personality back then, you say you are more social now etc, but its ok, thank you anyways!

When I was in my 20's I had a girlfriend and that helped. I struggled with HH since early on. My girlfriend new of my condition, but our condition didn't have a name. By late 20's I met someone new and got married. Dating and sweaty hands sure was challenging.

Back then it was considered anxiety related and you needed therapy. I was social then, yet still anxious with the HH. I decided to become self employed only because it made it easier to deal with my HH and it helped tame the radical part of me that didn't like working for other people.

HH was a nightmare, but life still went on. We didn't have a group such as this to vent. It wasn't till my mid 40's that I discovered ionto and it was then that I opened up and told friends of HH. This is why I encourage you and others to talk about with whomever.

it seems to me youre the wisest in here ^^, i remember talking to you couple of times

I'm not the wisest, maybe one of the older or in a politically correct fashion... more mature. Wisdom comes at many ages for many things in many areas.

I wise person once said, "If you have an itch, scratch it." A wise me says, "Try not to drown in one owns sweat or sweat the small stuff before a puddle forms."

I can relate to the "situations induced facial HH" you mentioned. When put in a situation that is embarrassing or one where I am the center of attention, my face gets red and hot and I start sweating heavily. >_<

Man I hate it so much....

Do you usually sweat on the forehead? or is it the same as me its like stress induced? what do you do in that situation? tell everyone you have HH? also can you give me your HH background ^^

I know just how you're feeling. I'm almost 30 and have only told even my parents of my embarrassment in the last 5 years. My husband of 3 years was completely in the dark until about a year ago too. I was so afraid to tell anyone. The thing I have realized in the last few years is that if one of my friends told me I would never judge them. Give the people who love you some credit and you might be surprised. I mean, I certainly don't tell everyone I meet but my close friends and immediate family know. I also recently told one of my favorite aunts. Everyone has been terribly supportive. I know how scary it is but as someone here already said, it really does get easier the more you talk about it . Good luck!!

thank you for your support megan, i will try to be more open about it although I still find it quite terrifying ;/

Hi!

I'm also in my twenties, and also feel uncomfortable talking to others about my hyperhidrosis. How do I deal with it? I think I'm becoming more and more withdrawn as time goes by. Not a happy thought. :sad:

Recently I started posting on hh forums in hope that I will find some way to either cope with this or cure myself...eh. I learned some useful things but still can't get rid of my hh-related anxiety. mg:

I see you mentioned deodorants in your first post, so I wanted to suggest you try some of the clinical antiperspirants if you haven't done so before - they helped me get a little better.

The HH-related anxiety never truly disappeared for me even when ionto works. It's truly a vicious cycle that I've adapted too. All I can say is that I've survived my preteens, 20's, 30's, 40's with horrible hand sweating and with nobody to talk to about it with. Theses days it's a recognized condition, we have online forums etc. For me, talking about with people helps. It's not worth becoming a hermit over at such a young age.

You know Sprawling, thinking about your words - how in a way we have it easy today compared to decades ago - makes me almost embarrassed for not being cooler about this. I think it's a good motivator to change my attitude, at least in theory. (In practice, I know that my anxiety will keep putting up a fight...)

I just know that if I openly speak about this to my friends, they will tell everybody else and I'll be gossiped about and... *that's when anxiety kicks in*
I hope I'll get wiser in time. Or maybe I just need to find some better/closer friends. mg:

or, your friends might surprise you?

Sorry - what is HH?

Effloresce said:

Sorry - what is HH?

Click to expand...

Hyperhidrosis...