symptomatic
Member
Well, where do I begin? I guess I'll start this early on in my life. I had a father who always put me down in anything I tried to do during my childhood. I remember crying alone because of it. Nothing I did was right. When puberty hit me, I became victim to hiper-hydrosis and social phobia. I'm not sure which came first to tell you the truth. Since then, I have been fighting an internal battle that I only recently became public with. I am now 44 years-old with a wonderful son and am in a loving second marriage. My son lives with us and shows no signs of my illness (thank God). Because of my phobia and hh, I got into drinking and drugs. These things helped immensely but, my hh was still extremely active and I still had problems speaking with people that weren't my closest friends. And we all know what that path really does to a person. I always felt (and feel) that I am being judged or talked about because of my hh or, because I seem weird or anti-social due to my social phobia. I would always play the "cool" guy just so I could exist in public. Don't get me wrong, I am cool..lol, but in my mind, I had to hide all this at almost any cost. Because of my drug use, I found out I had hepatitis-c when I turned 40. It was estimated I had it for about 20 years and as a result had done considerable damage to my liver. My specialist put me on interferon/ribovarin treatment for 48 weeks. My depression hit an all-time high with this news. The treatment I was about to go on has a high rate of depression as a side effect (as well as a plethra of others - I was off work the whole time) so it was decided I go on anti-depressants. Effexor. It certainly helped and to this day I am on them. I also used medicinal cannabis for all the side effects of the treatment and found that cannabis helped with my anxiety as well. For the record, my treatment was a success and I am hepatitis-c free although my liver is in a cirrhotic state. I have symptoms of a bad liver and have side effects to effexor. One of them is hiper-hydrosis on top of my hiper-hydrosis. Sexual dysfunction is another one. I still suffer from social phobia but the effexor helps with the anxiety most of the time. I come off as anti-social or someone who is not approachable. I began to stutter a few years ago as well. I get the shakes. I want to run many many times. Untill about 8 months ago, I worked in mid-management for over 7 years. Now, this job asks you to speak in front of others(1 to a crowd of 100's). For 7 years I loathed going to work because of this. I would have to go to seminars and I would be a nervous wreck on the inside that I would be singled out. I would sweat and sweat because of it. No sleep as I thought about it. Well, I was let go for "no reason" and given a severence and told to hit the road. The worst thing I coud have done was take that promotion 7 years ago. I coped and even thrived when I was an hourly wage worker.
I still use medicinal marijuana to this day. I find it helps with my nausea and stress. Having a bad liver, I stay away from any pain killers and use medicinal marijuana for pain as well. I'm not telling everyone to go out and use medicinal marijuana. I'm just saying it works for me. It helps me get up and get out of the house. I only need a little. More than a little can make you lazy. More than a little helps me sleep at night.
Social phobia/avoidance and hiperhydrosis are so real. It has drastically altered my life and am so glad that I finally don't care who knows it. Trying to hide it is so hard. Now that I finally told my family Doc about my hh, he prescribed compound glycopyrrolate for the hh. They help very well with head and palm sweats, but they also dry your mouth out. I recently bought some odaban and for the first time in 30 years, I don't have soaking wet armpits and don't have to change my shirt many times a day. This is all within the last 3 weeks so you can imagine how good I feel about that. I'm wearing pretty much any shirt I want now. Also, I was taking 150mg of effexor and last week lowered it to 75mg to help alleviate the symptoms it has. I have to say that my I'm very tired of it all. The stress sucks. The affect social phobia/avoidance and hh has on a person AND their loved-ones is difficult, especially when the ill person tries to keep it a secret. How many times have any of you said to your spouse... "I don't want to go or made an excuse last minute not to go?
Please don't wait so long like I did. Open up and get help. Life in a cage is not the best way to go about life.
I still use medicinal marijuana to this day. I find it helps with my nausea and stress. Having a bad liver, I stay away from any pain killers and use medicinal marijuana for pain as well. I'm not telling everyone to go out and use medicinal marijuana. I'm just saying it works for me. It helps me get up and get out of the house. I only need a little. More than a little can make you lazy. More than a little helps me sleep at night.
Social phobia/avoidance and hiperhydrosis are so real. It has drastically altered my life and am so glad that I finally don't care who knows it. Trying to hide it is so hard. Now that I finally told my family Doc about my hh, he prescribed compound glycopyrrolate for the hh. They help very well with head and palm sweats, but they also dry your mouth out. I recently bought some odaban and for the first time in 30 years, I don't have soaking wet armpits and don't have to change my shirt many times a day. This is all within the last 3 weeks so you can imagine how good I feel about that. I'm wearing pretty much any shirt I want now. Also, I was taking 150mg of effexor and last week lowered it to 75mg to help alleviate the symptoms it has. I have to say that my I'm very tired of it all. The stress sucks. The affect social phobia/avoidance and hh has on a person AND their loved-ones is difficult, especially when the ill person tries to keep it a secret. How many times have any of you said to your spouse... "I don't want to go or made an excuse last minute not to go?
Please don't wait so long like I did. Open up and get help. Life in a cage is not the best way to go about life.
