Other patients may not drip sweat, but their hands are usually discolored, cold and clammy. Newspaper print stains their hands and books will have curled edges from the constant moisture on their hands. The mechanism is involuntary and cannot be consciously controlled. There is a usually an interrelationship between anxiety and sweating that develops to a greater or lesser degree in nearly all patients with severe hyperhidrosis. The condition is often aggravated by anxiety and the onset of symptoms is in itself anxiety provoking, thus a vicious cycle is created.
Many individuals try to escape by withdrawing or avoiding stressful situations.
This repetitive pattern only serves to create more emotional injury. During conversations with others, those with hyperhidrosis may hide their hands under their arms, behind their backs or placed under their thighs. Many patients have reported that, during a party or some social gathering, holding a cold drink in their hands makes shaking hands with others socially acceptable. People would assume that the hand they just shook was cold and clammy because of the cold drink and not because the afflicted was nervous. One young professional woman mentioned that, before a job interview, she would park her car and rub her hands on the tire.