Joined: May 03, 2005 Posts: 1148 Location: England
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:37 pm Post subject: Anxiety medications?
There are times in the day when i'm relaxed and i'm completely dry. But do you notice when you start thinking about the sweating or you have to do something the sweat usually comes on?
It's said the main cause of the sweating is an over reactive sympathetic nervous chain, so our's is obviously very sensitive to any changes. I've read on various sites that anxiety medications (Benzodiazepines) and in the short term even antihistamines (for allergies and hayfever) relax the system, and can be used to reduce anxiety effects including sweating.
Joined: Oct 07, 2004 Posts: 32 Location: United States of America
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 5:10 pm Post subject:
I am pretty much always sweating, maybe once or twice a day I will be completely dry. I have generalized hyperhidrosis, but may hands and feet are the most stubborn. I have written here in the past and said that my body is alternately hot and clammy, so I am extremely uncomfortable throughout the day. Anxiety certainly exacerbates this. I guess I have a nervous disposition in general, but my anxiety is not out of control....
That said, the only real relief I have found over the years is through a combination of xanax (.5-.75 mg once a day), and a low dosage of an anti-cholinergic (i.e. robinul, ditropan). I still sweat, but the clamminess goes away. Also, the horrible claustrophobic feeling I get when I am sweating particularly bad tends to abate with this med combo.
I imagine an antihistamine would be somewhat affective as well.
Not perfect but, for me, it's better than nothing at the moment.
Joined: Sep 16, 2007 Posts: 35 Location: oxford UK
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:15 pm Post subject:
My HH is definately linked to stress (and of course heat). I can be sat in my office at my desk for hours and hardly sweat at all, them my boss can come up to me and ask me a few tricky questions and within a minute i am dripping with sweat. Then as soon as my boss goes, my sweating becomes under control again and reduces to my normal.
I feel that i am more easily affected by stress and have a magnified (eg x10 compared to a 'normal' person) reaction to it.
Anyway back to my point My doctor knows FA about HH so he latched straight on to the stress part and gave me medication for that. It does not stop me sweating, it just reduces my 'magnification' factor to eg a x2. But as my sweating and stress feed off each other it does make a difference
Joined: May 03, 2005 Posts: 1148 Location: England
Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 8:11 pm Post subject:
Interesting replies thanks. I do sweat for no reason, but nerves/anxiety etc does magnify it, basically makes it worse I guess. I've thought about taking the combination of an anxiety med and an anti-cholinergic, the only issue I have is the side effects that come with them, and the thought of taking lots of pills.
Lexmark on your questions i'd say i'm fairly fit, I play a lot of tennis and do runs, I did a 10k last month. But I don't think it makes any difference. Being obese would probably make the sweating worse, but otherwise I think the whole problem is to do with the nervous system.
Does everyone with HH play tennis? Although I have to say I started only 3 years ago...
On the hyperactive autonomic nervous system part...I think that is a daft/lazy conclusion.
I mean sweating is regulated by the autonomic nervous system, but to say that the autonomic nervous system is hyperactive...There is no such thing as THE autonomic nervous system, it's not one part of your body, it's consisting of many different glands and nerve fibers.
What they really should do is found out which one of those parts causes the problem.
Joined: May 04, 2008 Posts: 34 Location: Taguig City, Philippines
Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:13 am Post subject:
I remember that the doctor prescribed an antihistamine for me, hydroxyzine. I took that because I have a problem sleeping for 3 consecutive days. Whjen I took 10mg of that drug, I became very sleepy and even after 9 hours of sleep the effect won't disappear. I feel dizzy, sleepy, drowsy, a bit of dry mouth, less sweating. My nervous system was relaxed but I had a hard time understanding the lessons taught that day due to its side effects. I had took 5 mg of hydroxyzine and it is still effective without prolonged side effects after 9 hours.
I was taking some pills to help with the anxiety but all in all found didnt help n didnt really notice much difference...I think Im so used to thinking about HH so much all time that be hard to get rid of the anxiety
took some kinda of depression n anxiety tablets god knows what they were called n took em for one day n just made me feel all sketched out so didnt take em again ...made me feel more anxious
I tried some medication once, for the life of me I can't remember what its called but out of the 2 or 3 I mentioned I'd like to try it turns out here in Australia we didn't have them available so my doc put me on to something else which was to regulate my heart beat. In short it didn't work, in actual fact was worse. I could actually feel my heart palpitating and I had these hot flushes which just made me sweat even more, not to mention I felt dizzy and as if my body didn't belong to me.
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