Hi, I'm new to the group but I'm so glad that I have decided to join. It is so nice to know that I'm not the only one suffering from Hyperhydrosis. I feel like it controls and ruins my life. Sometimes I wonder how it is even possible that this can be a disorder. I would love to know what causes it. I know for one that it is hereditary because my father and sister have it. All day every day for as long as I can remember my hands and feet drip with sweat. Every once in a while I will not sweat but it is rare. It makes everything so much more difficult. I hate the way it makes me feel. It has held me back in many areas of my life (such as picking a career) and caused me so much embarassment that it is hard to talk about sometimes I feel like I could write a book about all the way that it hinders my life. Sometimes I just cry because I just don't understand it. I don't even have any relief in the winter time. My hands still sweat profusely and they even turn bright red which causes even more embarrassment. Right now I am struggling even more because I'm at a point in life where I would like to have kids, but I'm scared because I would hate myself for giving this to someone else. Not to mention, how it will make parenting almost impossible. I would hate to hold my child's hand sweat all over them. Or go to meet their teacher some day, and go to shake their hand and yep you guessed it sweat. Followed by that look that people always give you when they shake your hand because they don't understand. That would make me feel terrible. I have tried everything short of the surgery which I have heard mixed reviews about. Drysol and Robinul didn't work for me at all. I've changed foods that I eat and things that I do and it still doesn't help. The only thing that seems to help is to always be dressed way cooler than normal and yes that includes the winter time. Even though it is just my hands and feet that sweat, I have noticed that I'm so nervous about my sweating that it makes my body hot even though my whole body is not sweating. The people that are close to me understand what I have as best as they can. My husband had a hard time with it, because he never sweats and had a hard time wrapping his mind around the idea, that it is not something I can control and it happens regardless of what I am doing or the weather. I think it is hard for people to understand who don't have it because it is so unreal. I just wish their was a way to make people see how hard it is. I see cures for everything else out there on tv and sometimes I get frustrated that there is not a cure for HH. I feel selfish for saying that because HH is not fatal and there are much worse things out there such as cancer, aids, diabetes, etc. However, the quality of life with HH is absolutely horrid, and sometimes is just to much to bear.