Hi everyone,
I have had severe palmar and plantar hyperhidrosis for my entire life. Like many of you here, this condition has caused an enormous amount of suffering for me on a daily basis. A couple of years ago I tried iontophoresis and it was largely successful as I was about 95% dry whenever I stuck to my schedule: 1 hour daily for about 2 weeks to get dry then 1 hour every 4 days for maintenance. I use the R.A. Fischer machine by the way.
However, during this time I noticed that I feel good when I'm 100% dry, but as soon as one or two beads of sweat appear I'd go crazy with anxiety, similar to how I felt when I was dripping with sweat. I tried everything to make iontophoresis 100% effective in order to avoid the terrible anxiety and discomfort I felt when my hands sweat, no matter how little. I was not successful. After a lengthy period of depression, I realized that sweaty hands in themselves don't make me nervous and uncomfortable, but rather it's my mind that created those feeling.
I have a little background in self help exposure therapy in which I used to successfully treat myself for various issues stemming from an abusive childhood. In a desperate experiment, I decided to apply exposure therapy to rid myself of the severe anxiety caused by hyperhidrosis. Anxiety is by far the most aweful effect that that condition has caused me. It has prevented me from leaving the house, seeking employment, having girlfriends and caused me to fail to complete my masters degree, shake with fear, lose my desire to do anything....I must somehow destroy this anxiety that has ruined my life thus far. The sweating I don't care so much about, but the anxiety and general discomfort must go.
Exposure therapy is the best method for arousal based emotions such as fear, panic, anxiety, embarrassment, ptsd...It works on that principle that your mind will naturally desensitize these emotions if you let yourself experience them over time. Similar to how you'd stop being scared if you watched the same horror movie thirty, forty times or how you'll get bored if you listen to your favorite song over and over. The main thing is to allow yourself to fully feel these feelings without wanting to get rid of them or keep them. Over time they will lose their charge and you'll no longer be bothered.
The first couple months into my experiment was horrible. I spent hours every day feeling all the anxieties that I had been repressing my entire life. The worst feeling is the moments when my dry hands start to sweat. I would feel full on panic at those times, but I forced myself to sit there and feel the waves and waves of fear. I didn't see any progress until I was 2 months in and once I saw results, I just kept at it. Now one and a half year since I started my anxiety level and feelings of discomfort has probably decreased by 95%. It feels absolutely amazing to have sweaty hands and feel almost no nervousness. I no longer care if my sweaty hands would be cured as I no longer feel discomfort when they do sweat. And the amazing thing is, the sweating itself has naturally reduced by about 40%. I guess when I'm no longer nervous when I start sweating the body doesn't have any reason to sweat more. The vicious cycle is broken.
Emoclear.com is the website where I learned exposure therapy from. It is free and the author is very knowledgeable and helpful, although like many healthcare professionals, he doesn't have much understanding of hyperhidrosis. I highly recommend you guys visit this site and apply the techniques to your condition. It has given me a life after all these years of suffering. Start with a basic technique such as the Emo Integrator, it's very effective.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to ask me anything.
I have had severe palmar and plantar hyperhidrosis for my entire life. Like many of you here, this condition has caused an enormous amount of suffering for me on a daily basis. A couple of years ago I tried iontophoresis and it was largely successful as I was about 95% dry whenever I stuck to my schedule: 1 hour daily for about 2 weeks to get dry then 1 hour every 4 days for maintenance. I use the R.A. Fischer machine by the way.
However, during this time I noticed that I feel good when I'm 100% dry, but as soon as one or two beads of sweat appear I'd go crazy with anxiety, similar to how I felt when I was dripping with sweat. I tried everything to make iontophoresis 100% effective in order to avoid the terrible anxiety and discomfort I felt when my hands sweat, no matter how little. I was not successful. After a lengthy period of depression, I realized that sweaty hands in themselves don't make me nervous and uncomfortable, but rather it's my mind that created those feeling.
I have a little background in self help exposure therapy in which I used to successfully treat myself for various issues stemming from an abusive childhood. In a desperate experiment, I decided to apply exposure therapy to rid myself of the severe anxiety caused by hyperhidrosis. Anxiety is by far the most aweful effect that that condition has caused me. It has prevented me from leaving the house, seeking employment, having girlfriends and caused me to fail to complete my masters degree, shake with fear, lose my desire to do anything....I must somehow destroy this anxiety that has ruined my life thus far. The sweating I don't care so much about, but the anxiety and general discomfort must go.
Exposure therapy is the best method for arousal based emotions such as fear, panic, anxiety, embarrassment, ptsd...It works on that principle that your mind will naturally desensitize these emotions if you let yourself experience them over time. Similar to how you'd stop being scared if you watched the same horror movie thirty, forty times or how you'll get bored if you listen to your favorite song over and over. The main thing is to allow yourself to fully feel these feelings without wanting to get rid of them or keep them. Over time they will lose their charge and you'll no longer be bothered.
The first couple months into my experiment was horrible. I spent hours every day feeling all the anxieties that I had been repressing my entire life. The worst feeling is the moments when my dry hands start to sweat. I would feel full on panic at those times, but I forced myself to sit there and feel the waves and waves of fear. I didn't see any progress until I was 2 months in and once I saw results, I just kept at it. Now one and a half year since I started my anxiety level and feelings of discomfort has probably decreased by 95%. It feels absolutely amazing to have sweaty hands and feel almost no nervousness. I no longer care if my sweaty hands would be cured as I no longer feel discomfort when they do sweat. And the amazing thing is, the sweating itself has naturally reduced by about 40%. I guess when I'm no longer nervous when I start sweating the body doesn't have any reason to sweat more. The vicious cycle is broken.
Emoclear.com is the website where I learned exposure therapy from. It is free and the author is very knowledgeable and helpful, although like many healthcare professionals, he doesn't have much understanding of hyperhidrosis. I highly recommend you guys visit this site and apply the techniques to your condition. It has given me a life after all these years of suffering. Start with a basic technique such as the Emo Integrator, it's very effective.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to ask me anything.
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