Sweaty Palms

Thursday, September 17, 2015 Jes Myself 4 Comments

How embarrassing.

And I just have to be in sales. Whenever we meet someone, we have to shake hands. Two times mostly for customers, the moment you see them and the moment you are leaving. It's twice the embarrassment.

My usual sheepish face

Sweaty palms occur whenever I am feeling nervous or hot. It is also more serious in the morning after I awoke when my palms can just sweat for no reason at all in an air-con room. It stains my mouse, mousepad, keyboard, controllers, handphone, chairs.... basically everywhere. And it's ok if it just stops at that.

When I meet people, I try to wipe it on my dress first before I shake hands but you can still feel the thin layer of moisture on it. It's unsightly, it's disgusting, it's downright embarrassing. The more I think about it, the more I will become scared or nervous, the more sweat there will be.

So I try not to think about it.

But it's impossible. Even during Chinese New Year or friend's birthday, everyone will be shaking hands to congratulate and greet each other. Or when I use the controllers to play some games. I will be the only one fretting about it. It just seems like not many people have this condition. It's not a life threatening disease and I am glad that it isn't but I still don't want to shake hands with others!

Surgery is completely out of the question. It's risky, it's expensive and there is absolutely no reason to risk it at all. Hand shaking does not happens everyday and who cares what others feel about sweaty palms right? They will just look at me and register me as someone whose palms will sweat and not think much about it.

I hate those who linger over the handshake!

I did some research and bought an anti-perspirant from Watson/ Guardian. Just have to apply it the night before you sleep and the next day, it's as if those hands were not mine.... totally sweat free for a day! It's not a long term solution but for occasions and festivals, I can pull it off just by applying this.

I saw some statistics that if you have sweaty palms, you will definitely have a cousin who also have that. However, it only affects less than 5% of the population so it definitely runs in the family. I am just lucky I am not an electrician or a pianist or sushi chef. I am also lucky that my sweat is not so much that it starts dripping like one of my friends, so I can't be complaining.

For those who experience such severe sweat on your palms and also legs, it might just be worthwhile to get the surgery done.  Sympathectomy can be done and it is a key hole surgery to the chest and it takes out the nerves responsible for all the sweat in your hands. Honestly, sweaty palms is just a social inconvenience, it is not life threatening unless your livelihood depends on it.

So just live with it like me. And to the 95% of the population, stop being a jerk and give people the gross-out face about our sweaty palms and just wipe it off!