Bayden C.

Canada

I’m an 18 year old student living in Toronto, Canada with hyperhidrosis in my palms and feet. I actually didn’t know I had hyperhidrosis until a couple of years ago when someone I shook hands with pulled away and asked why my hands were “so freaking sweaty”. Up until then I hadn’t thought it was that out of the ordinary or known that it was a medical condition, even though it had been happening my entire life. Looking back I remember writing essays where my hands would smudge the ink as I was working and gym classes where the baseball bat or basketball would be desperately trying to slip out of my grasp. While as a child I could get away with sweaty hands more easily, however now that I’m older I’ve found that it affects more aspects of my life than I ever imagined. For example, I can’t apply to jobs that require me to handle food or serve customers directly, eliminating a lot of the part time work students like me tend to find. I’m also going to be studying business in university, but I have massive fears about what will happen when I have to shake peoples hands, work with documents, and generally interact with people hands on. While my feet are less of an issue, I’ve found myself going through two or three pairs of socks in a day and I have to be mindful of my foot hygiene all of the time. Thankfully my parents are extremely supportive and have done everything they can to mitigate the problem, including buying me a Dermadry kit to help manage my sweating. I am so grateful for what Dermadry is doing and that Voices of Hyperhidrosis is building awareness for a condition that no one I ever speak to seems to know about. I hope that someday the stigma will be lifted and more progress can be made in helping people live with and overcome this condition.