Bridging the Gap of Hyperhidrosis Awareness

Brittany Estrin: The thing I would want people without this condition to understand is that this is a big deal. This is a lot bigger than people make it out to be. Yes, it’s just sweat, but it’s constantly in the back of your mind. It’s something that we’re always thinking about, you know? It transfers day-to-day no matter what. And when you think about it, it makes it worse and you sweat twice as bad. So, I would just want people to take that into consideration and to understand that if we don’t want to put ourselves in a certain situation, be understanding with that and realize that we’re not just complaining about things, that this is a lot bigger than it seems, and we are really uncomfortable with it. So, just to be considerate would be the best.

My son actually has the condition. He’s showing all the symptoms that I showed when I was younger, but he started at a way younger age. He’s 6, and he’s already showing symptoms for it. So, for him, I really want to explain to him that we’re not strange people. We’re normal human beings, we just sweat a little bit more than normal, and that’s OK. There are a lot of different conditions out there—a lot of people have a lot of things wrong with them that you don’t actually see with your eyes. So, don’t be embarrassed about it; you’re just you. And a lot of people with different conditions hide it their whole lives. And if you want to speak about it, that’s awesome. I encourage you to tell more people about it and explain what it is and that there are treatment options, to get the name out there. But if you don’t feel comfortable about it yet, just know that there are others that have it too. You’re not alone in this.

And for the future of healthcare and medical technology and everything, I really hope that they find something that can treat younger children with this. Because if I knew about treatment options, being younger, being a teenager, I would have been all for that, and I probably would have had this under control by now. So, it would have made things a lot easier.