Sweaty palms are a pain in the ass. It is also known as Palmar Hyperhidrosis. Well, some of you may know that I have sweaty palms. I'm not sure if it is genetic because only my mum and I have it. On the other palm, my dad and both my brothers are lucky enough not to have this problem. However, my mum's sweaty palms stopped sweating quite some time ago for no reason at all. I'm not sure when mine will stop. It might even get worst. =(
I notice that my palms do not usually sweat when I am in an air conditioned room or when I do not get enough sleep. However, they do sweat mildly like 10-30% of the day and occasionally they sweat more but not to the point where my hand starts dripping sweat. Some of the extreme cases of sweaty palms does cause the person's hands to over sweat till it starts dripping. I am very thankful that mine does not. =D
Anyhoo, for those of you who also have this pain in the ass problem, you will know what I have to go through on a daily basis. This becomes worst as we have to interact with people on a daily basis. It is well known that the basic hand shake is often performed when greeting someone you meet and it is not easy with sweaty palms. I'm not sure about others with sweaty palms but I am very reluctant to shake another person's hand when my palms are sweating. This may give a wrong impression to others and they might just think that I am stuck up or something. On the other palm, I'll feel bad if I ignore my sweaty palms and just shake his hand because the other person will just end up wiping his hand on his pants when I'm still looking at him or wipe it later if he feel that it rude to do so. So now imagine if I shake a girl's hand with my sweaty palms.... gosh... !@#$
I am now encouraging the "fist bump" to replace hand shakes among my friends. This solves my problem when I need to shake on anything. Either that or I'll just say that my hands are sweaty. =D
One of the annoying situations I face is when I am using my laptop. When my palms are sweating, my keyboard and mouse pays the price so I usually on the aircond and cause the electric bill to skyrocket. Furthermore, sweaty palms interfere with touch screen gadgets like the i-Phone that requires you to use your fingers. Sweaty palms and electronic gadgets are like two opposite sides of a coin. I pity those who have to deal with electronic equipments for a living. What if they get an electric shock because their palms are sweaty? It would be a shock of their life. *Bzzzttt* :P
For the paper and pen, imagine having sweaty palms and writing with a ink based pen. Sweat + Ink = Smudge. Besides that, I write with my left hand and this does not help one bit because the ink will easily smudge as there is not much time for it to dry up when writing. This also applies to pencil where the lead will slightly fade and the words won't be that clear. What a life huh...
Those who play musical instruments will also be affected. The instruments that I could think off are the guitar, piano, violin, etc. It will just reduce the lifespan of the instrument and having sweaty palms while playing the guitar would be challenging. What if the instrument cost $10,000,000. Touch one time with your sweaty hands and the value drops to $5,000,000. Damn....
Basically, sweaty palms affects a person for the rest of his or her life and how they deal with it will just be another obstacle in life. This causes many people with sweaty palms lose confidence in themselves. However, we should not avoid the problem but face it and come up with a solution. Don't let this discourage and interfere with your life.
So you guys without sweaty palms should be grateful with what you don't have. :P
Just my thought about sweaty palms. Feel free to comment and share your opinions.
Reference list
Yeoh, C. K. (2009). The Adventures of Captain Chu Kuan. Journal of PooLand, 67(67), 167-967.
