Cope With Hyperhidrosis

Have you ever met a person who has hands like this? Have you ever wondered what caused this to happen, and how does the person cope with it?

INTRODUCTION

At some point in your life, you may have met a person who has hands that are similar to the picture above. Do you often refuse to shake or high five the person’s hands when you see that their hands are covered with water-like substances? These are a few of the simple things that people of hyperhidrosis would care and look out for because it’s a huge concern for them. Hyperhidrosis disorder is a condition of excessive sweating that is not necessarily related to heat or exercise. In normal body condition and temperature, a person could sweat in different areas such as hands, feet, armpit, and face. Out of an estimated 7.8 million individuals in the United States, only 2% to 3% suffer from this condition. Many individuals do not believe the existence of this condition to be a huge problem; however, individuals who have hyperhidrosis suffer from this condition everyday, which causes difficulties through everyday work. People must understand that hyperhidrosis is not as easily treated as everyone believes. Aside from ineffectively performing daily tasks, people with this condition often experience anxiety and embarrassment when they’re in the social world. Although there are no substances that we can take to resolve this issue, we can all learn to understand hyperhidrosis and learn how to cope with it. Hello, my name is Dennis Lo, and today, I’ll be sharing my personal experience with hyperhidrosis and providing some tips on how to manage this condition.

MY EXPERIENCES AND PROBLEMS

Like many others who experience hyperhidrosis, I also suffer from hyperhidrosis even to this day. There was never a day that I want to live with this condition because it’s simply annoying and it bothers with my daily tasks and activities. There are lots of examples in which this condition can be problematic. For example, if hyperhidrosis happens around your armpit, the sweat would leak to your shirt, which would cause you to feel uncomfortable and want to change your shirt. Through my experiences, writing a paper essay was difficult. My palm would sweat and it would leak onto my paper, thus, causing the paper to torn apart easily. Another example is when I use my technologies. Nowadays, we can use fingerprint scanners on laptops as well as phones. Well, that is not the case when hyperhidrosis kicks in. Since the ends of my finger are covered with drops of sweat, the fingerprint scanner is unable to recognize my fingerprint. As you can see, people with hyperhidrosis, not just myself, suffer through these problems daily. Hyperhidrosis is hard to control because it can occur randomly. Furthermore, it can also occur when a person is feeling nervous since stress hormones in your body build up when something exciting or scary happens. Through these problems, what kind of ways can we practice so that people with hyperhidrosis can limit their frustration in daily tasks?

HOW TO COPE WITH HYPERHIDROSIS?

As I mentioned earlier, there are no substances that we can take as of right now to completely cure hyperhidrosis. Fortunately, there are ways that we can practice to keep our hands, feet, armpit, and face free from hyperhidrosis. Since hyperhidrosis varies in different spots for every person, I’ll be providing simple methods and practices for all areas. A simple solution to a person who has hyperhidrosis on their hands is to wash their hands with soap often. Another possible solution is to use an antiperspirant, which would likely reduce the sweat produced on your hands. If using an antiperspirant does not work, I would stick with washing your hands with soap as it often helped when I experience hyperhidrosis on my hand. If you are a person who has hyperhidrosis on your armpit, antiperspirants can also be used. Of course, you can always put on deodorant as well to alleviate the bad odor. If your armpit continuously sweats and causing you to feel uncomfortable, I would advise you to change your shirt often. If you decide to change your shirt, make sure to apply antiperspirant or deodorant on your armpit. For people who are experiencing hyperhidrosis on feet, make sure to keep your feet open to the air. Limit yourself from wearing socks at home. You can always wash your feet with soap and water, which would reduce hyperhidrosis for a certain amount of time. If you are a person who is experiencing hyperhidrosis on the face, make sure to wash your face often. Additionally, try to be calm and relax throughout the day. I know it can be really hard to achieve, but a person who is comfortable and calm would indubitably be less prone to hyperhidrosis. Although these simple solutions cannot completely reduce the effects of hyperhidrosis, using these simple methods would reduce the frustrations you feel during the day.

COPE WITH HYPERHIDROSIS

As a person who lives with hyperhidrosis, there are, of course, a lot of information online that offers similar but different methods and practices than mine. However, these simple solutions that I explained earlier come from my experience and what I believe would work for others. I know that some people might already know some of these methods as explained, but for those who do not know, there are these simple ways that we can use to cope with hyperhidrosis. Using these methods may take some time out of your day, but the result from these methods may end your stress and frustrations with hyperhidrosis.

ADDITIONAL INFO

If you want to learn how to counter anxiety and stress with healthy and easy solutions, make sure to visit here: excitethemind.com/2020/07/25/serenity-not-anxiety/

WORK CITED

“Hyperhidrosis – Symptoms And Causes”. Mayo Clinic, 2020, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hyperhidrosis/symptoms-causes/syc20367152#:~:text=Hyperhidrosis%20(hi%2Dpur%2Dhi,cause%20social%20anxiety%20and%20embarrassment. Accessed 1 Aug 2020.

(COVID-19), Coronavirus et al. “An Overview Of Hyperhidrosis, Or Excessive Sweating”. Webmd, 2020, https://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/hyperhidrosis2#1 . Accessed 1 Aug 2020.

IMAGES CITED

“Hyperhidrosis”. En.Wikipedia.Org, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperhidrosis. Accessed 1 Aug 2020.