fnord
Member
Hello, everyone. I have to say that finding this group has been a revelation! Thanks to you all for posting here.
Here’s my story. I’m in my forties and have suffered from HH since I was a teenager. I pretty much sweat all over in hot conditions or when doing physical exercise but I guess it’s the head/facial sweating because of social anxiety that bothers me most. The feeling of just getting hotter and hotter and then becoming damp and then having the sweat running off my face and head… And all triggered by things as trivial as answering a phone call or speaking to people in person.
I’ve gone though a few phases of trying to do something about it, and just a week or so ago when I had one of those episodes when a couple of colleagues came over to my desk to ask me to sort a problem out I realised it was time to take some action (again
) Don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner, but I then began to research this condition on the internet. First thing I found was a few sites offering “amazing” results — all you had to do was buy an instant download eBook. You know, I came pretty damn close to spending the money on one of those, but having a rather cautious nature, I decided to research a bit further first. And that was when I found this group.
I’ve tried to figure the social anxiety thing out a few times and I often wonder whether I sweat because I have an anxiety problem or if I have an anxiety problem because I sweat. The old vicious circle thing, I suppose. I’m pretty sure a contributing factor to the anxiety is the fact that in my first year at high school I fainted in class and all I can remember is coming to, drenched in sweat, with lots of faces looking down at me. I fainted again in class one other time a few years later. During my years at school I quite often got facial sweats in class and I hated physical education as I always ended up covered in sweat when no one else seemed to. Having to sit in the school bus also became a bit of a nightmare. I often used to catch an early bus in the morning so I didn’t have sit with all the other kids on the regular bus. And I’d often stay behind so I could get a late bus or sometimes even walk home to avoid it. I went to the doctor back then. Total waste of time. Looking back on it, he obviously didn’t have a clue about HH, wasn’t very sympathetic, and could only come up with “try wearing lighter clothes”.
Over the years I think I’ve become more and more anti-social and withdrawn because of the condition. I’m really pretty much a loner. I don’t go out with friends any more. I’m only really comfortable going anywhere with my wife and children, and even then it can still be a problem. When I did use to go out, I, too, used to quickly down the first couple of drinks — being more relaxed countered the sweating problem, but it meant I ended up drinking too much! Another coping strategy that I’ve seen mentioned here and that is all too familiar to me is escaping to the toilets to cool down. I’m sure that I would have been far more ambitious with my career and achieved much more by now had I not been crippled by the desperate need to keep a low profile because of this problem.
As I’ve mentioned, my triggers are hot weather (obviously!), exercise, and social encounters. Being put on the spot, having to talk about my self, being close to lots of people, being in an enclosed area with people, eating in a restaurant, eating at home (occasionally), going into shops — especially having to stand in line, also when I’m browsing the items and get the feeling that other people might see what I’m doing, etc, etc, etc. From what I’ve read here I’m sure some of this is familiar to some of you.
Apart from that time at school, I’ve tried getting help from GPs on two other occasions. The first was almost twenty years ago. All that he suggested at the time was to read a few self-help books on anxiety. Which I did. I guess it was some sort of relief to realise that other people had problems too, but it didn’t really help with my problem. The second one must have been about ten years ago and he prescribed Driclor. At the time I was suffering pretty bad from excessive armpit sweating. I could be just sitting quietly at my desk and feel rivers of sweating gushing from my pits (nice!) Anyway the Driclor worked for that. Can’t remember how long I used it, but it certainly did something. And these days I only need to use a regular product for my pits as they are generally pretty dry.
Over the years I have tried various relaxation techniques and self-hypnosis CDs aimed at increasing self confidence. I can’t say that these have really helped much at all. I understand the principles of controlling your breathing, trying to relax, and focusing your attention outwards, but I have to confess that whenever I’ve been put on the spot and have felt an episode starting I have never been able to put any of these techniques into practice. I reckon that to be effective, you’d need to have the appropriate responses programmed at a subconscious level. But like I said, I don’t seem to have had much success with self-hypnosis aimed at boosting self-confidence.
Having read quite a bit on the net now, I ordered a bottle of Odaban (which arrived recently). And while I was waiting, I found the remains of a bottle of Driclor that must have been in my cabinet for years. So I’ve been applying that for a few days and it does seem to be making a difference. Thing is, it’s hard to tell as my incidents tend to be a bit random. My head does seem to be drier though.
I’ve read in a few places about the anti-sweating properties of sage. I have therefore starting taking sage leaf capsules and drinking it as an infusion. Just waiting on an online order of 500g of dried sage to arrive. I had been buying it from the local supermarket, but they only do 10g packs (as a condiment) — so that would work out way too expensive.
I go to the gym quite a bit (about 5 times a week) and have come to accept sweating in public there — others may not be sweating as profusely, but at least there are others sweating too. Five minutes of cardio and I’m starting to sweat, 30 minutes and I’m totally drenched. I also like relaxing in the heat of the steam room afterwards — another place where it’s acceptable to sweat. Now, I don’t really expect anyone to have read this far — I think I’m writing this more for myself as a personal catharsis of something I just can’t seem to talk to anyone about — but if any of you are still with me: do you think regularly sweating it out in the steam room is likely to make you more prone to sweating under “normal” conditions?
Right, I’m going to stop now.
Just one more thing: why are my hands freezing cold a lot of time? ;-)
Here’s my story. I’m in my forties and have suffered from HH since I was a teenager. I pretty much sweat all over in hot conditions or when doing physical exercise but I guess it’s the head/facial sweating because of social anxiety that bothers me most. The feeling of just getting hotter and hotter and then becoming damp and then having the sweat running off my face and head… And all triggered by things as trivial as answering a phone call or speaking to people in person.
I’ve gone though a few phases of trying to do something about it, and just a week or so ago when I had one of those episodes when a couple of colleagues came over to my desk to ask me to sort a problem out I realised it was time to take some action (again
) Don’t know why I didn’t do it sooner, but I then began to research this condition on the internet. First thing I found was a few sites offering “amazing” results — all you had to do was buy an instant download eBook. You know, I came pretty damn close to spending the money on one of those, but having a rather cautious nature, I decided to research a bit further first. And that was when I found this group.I’ve tried to figure the social anxiety thing out a few times and I often wonder whether I sweat because I have an anxiety problem or if I have an anxiety problem because I sweat. The old vicious circle thing, I suppose. I’m pretty sure a contributing factor to the anxiety is the fact that in my first year at high school I fainted in class and all I can remember is coming to, drenched in sweat, with lots of faces looking down at me. I fainted again in class one other time a few years later. During my years at school I quite often got facial sweats in class and I hated physical education as I always ended up covered in sweat when no one else seemed to. Having to sit in the school bus also became a bit of a nightmare. I often used to catch an early bus in the morning so I didn’t have sit with all the other kids on the regular bus. And I’d often stay behind so I could get a late bus or sometimes even walk home to avoid it. I went to the doctor back then. Total waste of time. Looking back on it, he obviously didn’t have a clue about HH, wasn’t very sympathetic, and could only come up with “try wearing lighter clothes”.
Over the years I think I’ve become more and more anti-social and withdrawn because of the condition. I’m really pretty much a loner. I don’t go out with friends any more. I’m only really comfortable going anywhere with my wife and children, and even then it can still be a problem. When I did use to go out, I, too, used to quickly down the first couple of drinks — being more relaxed countered the sweating problem, but it meant I ended up drinking too much! Another coping strategy that I’ve seen mentioned here and that is all too familiar to me is escaping to the toilets to cool down. I’m sure that I would have been far more ambitious with my career and achieved much more by now had I not been crippled by the desperate need to keep a low profile because of this problem.
As I’ve mentioned, my triggers are hot weather (obviously!), exercise, and social encounters. Being put on the spot, having to talk about my self, being close to lots of people, being in an enclosed area with people, eating in a restaurant, eating at home (occasionally), going into shops — especially having to stand in line, also when I’m browsing the items and get the feeling that other people might see what I’m doing, etc, etc, etc. From what I’ve read here I’m sure some of this is familiar to some of you.
Apart from that time at school, I’ve tried getting help from GPs on two other occasions. The first was almost twenty years ago. All that he suggested at the time was to read a few self-help books on anxiety. Which I did. I guess it was some sort of relief to realise that other people had problems too, but it didn’t really help with my problem. The second one must have been about ten years ago and he prescribed Driclor. At the time I was suffering pretty bad from excessive armpit sweating. I could be just sitting quietly at my desk and feel rivers of sweating gushing from my pits (nice!) Anyway the Driclor worked for that. Can’t remember how long I used it, but it certainly did something. And these days I only need to use a regular product for my pits as they are generally pretty dry.
Over the years I have tried various relaxation techniques and self-hypnosis CDs aimed at increasing self confidence. I can’t say that these have really helped much at all. I understand the principles of controlling your breathing, trying to relax, and focusing your attention outwards, but I have to confess that whenever I’ve been put on the spot and have felt an episode starting I have never been able to put any of these techniques into practice. I reckon that to be effective, you’d need to have the appropriate responses programmed at a subconscious level. But like I said, I don’t seem to have had much success with self-hypnosis aimed at boosting self-confidence.
Having read quite a bit on the net now, I ordered a bottle of Odaban (which arrived recently). And while I was waiting, I found the remains of a bottle of Driclor that must have been in my cabinet for years. So I’ve been applying that for a few days and it does seem to be making a difference. Thing is, it’s hard to tell as my incidents tend to be a bit random. My head does seem to be drier though.
I’ve read in a few places about the anti-sweating properties of sage. I have therefore starting taking sage leaf capsules and drinking it as an infusion. Just waiting on an online order of 500g of dried sage to arrive. I had been buying it from the local supermarket, but they only do 10g packs (as a condiment) — so that would work out way too expensive.
I go to the gym quite a bit (about 5 times a week) and have come to accept sweating in public there — others may not be sweating as profusely, but at least there are others sweating too. Five minutes of cardio and I’m starting to sweat, 30 minutes and I’m totally drenched. I also like relaxing in the heat of the steam room afterwards — another place where it’s acceptable to sweat. Now, I don’t really expect anyone to have read this far — I think I’m writing this more for myself as a personal catharsis of something I just can’t seem to talk to anyone about — but if any of you are still with me: do you think regularly sweating it out in the steam room is likely to make you more prone to sweating under “normal” conditions?
Right, I’m going to stop now.
Just one more thing: why are my hands freezing cold a lot of time? ;-)
