My success (sort of) story

major_major · Newbie User Joined: Mar 17, 2008 Posts: 1

I've hand palmar/plantar/aux. HH ever since I was a small child. It got worse and worse as I got older, and by the time I was 18 I would often sweat through several layers of clothing. My fingers would drip and my socks would get soaked. Of course, this all made me very self-conscious and contact with other humans was out of the question. I didn't date, I avoided social situations, and I drank excessively whenever I went out.

As soon as I went to college I began trying various treatments. Anti-persperants hardly worked, and AVERT had little effect. I remained very introverted, focused on school, and the drinking, which was necessary to be around other people at all, was getting rather out of hand.

Then I started on oxybutynin. This pill was the only thing that got the HH under control. I needed only a small (5 mg) dose in the morning to see decent results. I still sweated through the armits of my clothes and still had sweaty hands, but the severity was at least somewhat mitigated. Every once in a while I would stop taking the pills to let my organism detoxify, and the last time I did this I noticed that I was still sweating at a reduced rate. So I stopped taking it altogether (except on very rare occassions when I know I will need an extra kick), and my life is more or less normal (much better than it was 5 years ago!).

I think the prime factor in the improvement was the boost of confidence the pills gave me. Not having to worry quite so much about sweating helped ease some of the psychological unease that often precipitated even more sweating. Some of it, I think, is also hormonal and part of my body's natural development. Some, or most of it, is also from the fact that I've largely stopped caring what people think. My hands are still sweaty most of the time, but I don't shy away from shaking hands (most of the time). I mean, what's the worst that someone will think? That you have sweaty hands? Well, you do, don't you?

Currently I am a graduate student and I teach a foreign language to undergraduates (HH-induced introversion is good for book-learnin' and verb-memorizin'). In front of the class, especially if I'm nervous or have a bit of a hangover (which does still occassionlly happen), I'll start sweating heavily from my underarms, back, trunk, and hands. I don't often wear undershirts, and sometimes the sweat stains are more than 10 inches in diameter. There is no hiding that, and aluminum chloride gives me rashes (and is a serious carcinogen!) and has only a mild effect. I don't think my students, or my coleagues, think less of me for it. After all, academia is full of kooks and eccentrics with all sorts of issues. I just make sure to reapply some deodorant over the course of the day becuse things can get pretty rank by the end of the evening.

On other fronts, I dated a girl for a year and a half. She never paid any attention to my sweaty hands because she, as luck would have it, had a mild case of HH herself. She would even warm her hands up on mine! She also loved "my smell" and would often just sleep with her face buried in my armpit. That whole experience helped me gain confidence and not shy away from hand-to-hand contact. Since then I've been with several other girls, and the most I've ever needed to say was "my hands get pretty sweaty. I don't know why." No one has ever seemed to mind, but, again, in the academic community some people tend to at least act unsurprised about these sorts of abnormalities. Also, I highly doubt the women in my life were attracted to me because of my good physical condition (like many HH sufferers, I'm very underweight and prone to awkward gestures).

So I hope this eases some tension, especially for high school students. I remember reading these forums then and thinking my case was so hopeless. But with the right medicine, friends, and courage, things can change for the better. You just have to accept who you are. All kinds of people have all kinds of problems, and you have to remember that, all things considered, you are probably a good person who people will like if you let them. Sweating is annoying and can make you feel awful and disgusting very easily, but it doesn't have to.

hyp-hi · Newbie User Joined: Aug 09, 2007 Posts: 14

Hey Major, thanks for sharing your story. So the oxybutynin help huh? I looked it up and it didn't say it was for HH, but I guess that is one of the "other uses" they mentioned.

You mentioned underweight being a factor. Is this common among HH sufferers? I am also somewhat underweight and have HH. I'm wondering if there is a connection?

HH · Intermediate User Joined: Jan 07, 2008 Posts: 105

yeah, could being underweight have anything to do with it, I'm probably a stone underweight-i'm 28 and weigh just over 10 stone and am about 5foot 8inches. i suffer from hand hh

etsveteran · Newbie User Joined: Dec 17, 2007 Posts: 7

Thats a great story major. I had similar tribulations in my youth and ended up getting ETS 10 years ago with mixed results.

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secret_dream · Newbie User Joined: Feb 26, 2008 Posts: 14

Hi major_major i liked your story.What you wrote may be inspiring to many of us with this condition that the idea of being in college is frightening. I am currently finishing my academic degree as a mature student (iam 34) and although my HH didnt stopped me from studying ive 2 admit that presentations, group projects have been very challenging when i had alot of sweating. Eventhough, HH still bothers me alot in my professional and private life im planning to follow an academic carreer and hopefully it might get better.

In others aspects of my life i did not have the luck 2 meet a guy that had the same problem eventhough ive to admit that in all my realtionships people did not seem to mind. Anyway, well done for getting on so well with life as i believe that the most important is not to give up your dreams:)

Pinker · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2008 4:57 pm Post subject:

I wonder if one reason for the decrease in sweating, was the end of puberty so to speak.. so your hormones were calming down? Have you had HH all your life or just in your teenage years? It would be nice to think HH will calm down in my 20s but as I read on here there are lots of people saying it has stayed the same.

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wethandsandfeet · Newbie User Joined: Jan 26, 2008 Posts: 34