It All started back on an ordinary day in elementary school, I still remember every single detail of that day. We had just reviewed how to simplify fractions, and we were heading to the music room for the last class of the day, the room always had chairs, and recorders in the middle, where we would practice for our upcoming assembly where we would all perform as a class in front of the entire school. However, on this day there were no recorders or chairs in the middle, it was completely empty, which I thought was strange considering we were presenting next week. Our music teacher announced that we would be doing a different activity today, and that we would be creating music beats with only our hands. I didn’t think much of this, and we all began to walk around in a circle clapping each others hands. During the slight pauses we had between each section, I noticed that my classmates were whispering words like “Gross” and “Disgusting” looking and pointing at my direction, I did not understand until I looked down at my hands, and noticed that my palms were covered in sweat, dripping onto the floor. At first, I did not even know there was a name for what I was experiencing. I carefully wiped the sweat off my palms onto my jeans wondering to myself, “why I was sweating so much?”
The Realization
Ever since that day in my music class, I began to notice how my hands were always sweaty throughout the day, even just thinking about my sweaty hands made it even worse. The day later, with the incident still fresh in my mind, the sweat from my hands began to drip onto my math paper making it extremely difficult for me to write on it. A few days later, it had reached my breaking point and I decided to look for answers online. Initially, I thought I was sick, but when I looked online I discovered a word that stood out from the rest, “Hyperhidrosis.” After I looked into this, “Hyperhidrosis.” I recognized that this was not something that would go away on its own, it was a medical problem.
How It Changed My Life
After I realized I had hyperhidrosis, I began to notice that my friends would intentionally avoid shaking my hand, or avoid partnering up with me for class activities. I knew that millions of other people suffered from excessive sweating, but I could not help but feel that I was the only one who had hyperhidrosis. Even thinking about it made it worse, and knowing it did not make my life any easier. It had the biggest effect it had was on my social life when I reached middle school. I started to avoid people because I was anxious about people reaching for my hand, or being asked why my school paper was so wet. My hands always being sweaty was not the worst part, it was that people would always see me differently because I had a medical condition I could not control.
Why I Am Sharing This
Looking back, that moment in elementary school changed my life forever, it had a immense effect on my social life but it also taught me resilience and helped me understand my body. That is what brought me here, I decided to make this blog “Beyond The Sweat” to raise awareness for hyperhidrosis, to share my experience living with it, and to offer any tips that I have learned with having hyperhidrosis my whole life to help anyone else suffering from this obstacle.
