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Anxiety Sweating

Anxiety sweating is a condition of excessive sweating triggered by stress. Here, we are exploring various aspects of this condition.
Bidisha Mukherjee
There are many people who encounter the problem of anxiety sweating, where they break out into cold or hot sweats without any reason. It more commonly occurs at night, and is faced by many people quite frequently. There is some difference of opinion among the medical professionals over whether anxiety actually induces sweating or not.
While some of them feel that heavy sweating is one of the symptoms, and it occurs when the mind is under a lot of stress, there are some who opine that anxiety does not play any role in producing excess sweat. Rather, it aggravates the symptoms of the already existing hyperhidrosis (a health condition that causes profuse perspiration).

Impact

Anxiety sweating becomes severe while facing some stressful situation like a business meeting or standing in a crowd in a social gathering. It makes a socially embarrassing position for the person. They develop a habit of checking their hands and arms. They grow a tendency to avoid people.
This can have an adverse effect on the mental and physical health of the person. Those who have this problem often suffer from lack of self-confidence and low self-esteem. It can make them depressed, and anxiety can take control over their entire life.

Treatment

Cure involves identification of the root cause that is triggering the condition. If it is caused due to anxiety disorder, then when the anxiety is controlled the problem of sweating will go away. Otherwise, treatment is needed to check the sweating.

Treatment for Anxiety

Anxiety and sweating goes hand in hand. When you sweat, you start feeling embarrassed, and you become tensed. This underlying anxiety will make you sweat even more. In this way, you break out into heavy sweating. When you learn how to keep yourself tension free, then you will stop worrying about your problem which, in turn, will keep it under check.
Deep breathing techniques, meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy are some of the techniques that are helpful in managing the stress and anxiety problems. When you learn these techniques, it facilitates better stress management, and you can keep your mind in a relaxed state.
Medications are mainly antidepressants, and can be used to cure the anxiety. However, it is used only in severe cases as they have some adverse side effects.

Treatment for Sweating

Antiperspirants are available for over the counter that can control mild sweating. There are some stronger antiperspirants which are available under prescription only. These prescribed antiperspirant may not be used for a long time as they tend to cause skin irritation.
Botox injections are proved to be beneficial for many people. These injections help to obstruct the nerves that activates the sweat glands for sweating.
This is a temporary solution and its effect may last for a brief period of time. After that, it has to be administered all over again. When all other treatment fails to show the desired results, then surgery is the option that can be availed.
There are two different surgical procedures that are used to treat excessive sweating. One involves removal of sweat glands under the skin, and in the other process, the nerves connecting the sweat glands are blocked.
There are certain measures that you should take to prevent sweating. Wear loose fitting clothes to keep your body cool. Take a shower everyday. Use an antibacterial soap to keep your body free from germs associated with sweating. Keep the environment, where you spend maximum time, your home and office, cool.
If required, keep a small fan with you. Do not use deodorants as they can check the body odor but not perspiration. Rather, use antiperspirants. Certain foods aggravate sweating. So, exclude foods with sugary content, caffeine, alcohol, and spicy foods from the diet.