Anxiety and nervous hyperhidrosis, sweating looks the same, but treatment is different
Table of Contents
Hyperhidrosis is all about when you sweat
hello. I’m Dr. Hwang Sang-cheol, director of Dudukduk Oriental Clinic. As the weather gets hotter, the season is getting harder for people with hyperhidrosis. Korea has four distinct seasons, so sweating symptoms change dramatically depending on the weather, and many hyperhidrosis patients are especially distressed in summer. Today, we’ll explain the difference between anxiety hyperhidrosis and tension hyperhidrosis, which have similar sweating patterns but have different causes and treatment directions.
When I ask people with hyperhidrosis, “When do you sweat?” most of them say, “When I’m nervous and when I’m hot.” However, there are some people who sweat when they are nervous, but at the same time feel anxious, fearful, or worried. This is not just nervous hyperhidrosis, but anxiety hyperhidrosis, which requires a different approach to treatment.
Common comorbidities of anxiety hyperhidrosis
Anxiety hyperhidrosis isn’t just about sweating; it’s also about emotional symptoms. You may often feel depressed, have fear and anxiety accompanied by nervousness, have trouble sleeping, tire easily, have panic attacks, and in severe cases, your depression and anxiety may become so high that you have thoughts of self-harm.
Anxiety and hyperhidrosis are hormonal and autonomic issues
The main hormones involved in anxiety and depression are adrenaline and serotonin. An excess of adrenaline leads to an overactive sympathetic nervous system, which increases anxiety and tension, and a lack of serotonin leads to depression. When these two axes are out of whack, anxiety and depressive feelings overlap, and sweating becomes excessive in a form of dysautonomia.
Facial Hyperhidrosis Cause: Muscle and Autonomic Nerves, Not Sweat Glands – 두근한의원
Differences in approach between Western and TCM treatments
Western medicine uses SSRIs, which inhibit serotonin reuptake, to control symptoms of anxiety and depression. Chinese medicine, on the other hand, looks deeper into why the person has anxiety in the first place. For example, it assesses your constitution and autonomic nervous system response by looking at things like whether you’re more anxious in high humidity, if your symptoms worsen when you don’t sleep, if your anxiety is accompanied by urinary symptoms, or if your anxiety is only worse in certain places.
Anxiety hyperhidrosis requires both constitutional and autonomic treatment
People with anxiety hyperhidrosis rarely benefit from standard hyperhidrosis treatments alone; they need an approach that addresses the psychological component by analyzing their sleep, digestion, urination, humidity response, and emotional patterns to improve both sweating and anxiety. In fact, we often see this approach reduce hyperhidrosis, improve anxiety and depression, and dramatically improve academic and work performance and quality of life.
Anxiety Hyperhidrosis is challenging, but it’s treatable
Anxiety hyperhidrosis is difficult to treat because it is a complex condition that cannot be explained by simple sympathetic hyperactivity or dysautonomia alone, but there are cases where it has been shown to improve with long-term systematic treatment. If you have anxiety symptoms along with hyperhidrosis, it’s important to get a proper diagnosis.
