Archive for disorder
Hyperhidrosis Treatments: Know Your Real Options
Posted by: · on October 14, 2010 | CommentsIf you are at all new to this site, I would like to well– first, WELCOME you 
— and then let you know that you have found a safe place to: a) read about the journeys of others like you, b) submit your own stories or memories of how hyperhidrosis has affected your life, and c) find out all you can about the real, proven treatment options available, as well as find strategies and clothing and various products to help you manage your daily life. By participating in any or all of these things here, you can give yourself the opportunity to turn the tables on your hyperhidrosis. What do I mean by that? In a word, CONTROL.
Ask yourself– does your hyperhidrosis control you? Does it keep you from doing things you want to do? Do you make decisions every day based on whether or not your body will betray you? I am going to make an educated guess and say a loud YES.
So take your control back. Take your power back from this pain-in-the-ass disorder.
Start with your Treatment Options by clicking! There ya go.
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Insurance Coverage for Hyperhidrosis
Posted by: · on September 7, 2010 | Comments
The spotlight this week is on health insurance coverage for hyperhidrosis. I know, YAWN. Please keep reading, though– I have a few points to make that could help with your treatment!
If you have….by any chance… read my report on ETS (on your right, over there → ), you may know that you really MUST be proactive in dealing with your coverage.
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Herewith, a few facts and tips:
- In case you haven’t noticed (sarcasm alert), hyperhidrosis does not seem to get much attention in society at large, and also is the red-headed stepchild in the medical community as well. This tends to result in health insurance policies either giving extremely narrow coverage parameters, or ignoring the disorder altogether.
- You really need to know what your policy does or does not cover. Absolutely do not, DO NOT, call your insurance company and ask if something is covered. Read the damn thing yourself. This was a mistake that I made that very nearly cost my family $20,000. It didn’t cost me in cash in the end, but the distress it caused was very real and completely unnecessary. Hypothetically: You call your insurance company and ask, “Am I covered for Botox treatments for hyperhidrosis?” The person on the other end (who gets paid whether or not the answer you get is accurate or not) may respond, “Well, is it medically necessary?” To which you reply, “Yes, absolutely, I think so!” That person then replies, “Well, then you’re covered!” Then, you merrily go on your way and get the treatment. Weeks or months later, a letter comes in the mail from your beloved insurance company informing you that you did not take the proper steps to prove medical necessity and therefore coverage for the treatment is rescinded. And you are left with the bill. Really. That happened to me, but the treatment was not Botox. It was about 20× more expensive.
- Oftentimes, the aforementioned “proper steps to prove medical necessity” for anything invasive and/or expensive require you to do any number of things, such as taking oral medication, using a prescription topical treatment, iontophoresis, etc. Skip any of these steps at your own expense.
- Many policies I have reviewed will only pay for treatment of hyperhidrosis if hyperhidrosis is directly causing skin infections or diseases. This means that you are only eligible for relief from sweating if the sweating is causing you bodily harm. Because we are apparently not suffering enough. (sorry, insurance makes me snarky)
- If your insurance company balks at covering your treatments, a letter of medical necessity from your doctor may change their stance.
- If your insurance company refuses to cover your treatments or if you feel you are being treated unfairly, do not hesitate to contact the insurance commission for your state. This is one of the things that I did, and I think it really helped my case.
- Keep a written record of all communication between you and the insurance company: dates, names, brief outlines of conversations. Also print out any emails and keep any letters. Again, that probably factored in my little victory.
- If it is worth the expense, don’t be afraid to get a lawyer involved. Once again, I did!
- For more information and to download letters of medical necessity and other helpful forms, go to http://www.SweatHelp.org, which is the website for the International Hyperhidrosis Society. See “Insurance Tools”– they have it all covered (pun intended
)!
Please keep in mind that it costs insurance companies NOTHING to rescind payment or promise of payment for a procedure/treatment you have already received! My lawyer told me that the vast majority of people who are denied coverage just accept the decision. Don’t be one of them.
You have a medical disorder: Your Sympathetic Nervous System does not work properly. You do need medical intervention to correct it. You pay for medical insurance; therefore, you have the right to coverage for the medical interventions your hyperhidrosis requires. It is wrong that you should have to fight for that. But you may have to– and I hope you will.
If we don’t fight for what we are entitled to, how will anything change? Do you want to fight insurance companies for the next 20 years? I don’t.
HyperhidrosisAndMe Weekly Spotlight: Your Emotional Health
Posted by: · on August 30, 2010 | CommentsSince I seem to be on a bit of a kick regarding mental/emotional health, I thought it would be logical to focus the ol’ Spotlight on the fields of psychiatry and psychology.
I am one of those people who believe that a little– or a lot– of therapy never hurt anybody. We all have issues. Whether it was a difficult childhood, being bullied in school, substance abuse in the home, or if you secretly suffered from unexplained sweating episodes and were, say, convinced you were a freak (I don’t know where I got that one from)… everyone can benefit from talking it out with someone who knows how to guide you through processing your feelings so that you can move on.
If you have hyperhidrosis– and if you are reading this, let us assume that you do– you may regard this disorder as just a nuisance to be managed and really have a healthy perspective on it. If so, that is commendable and somewhat amazing, in my opinion. I am on a journey to that state of mind! It has been a very long one. If you have read the post from earlier this week about my emotional scars from having hyperhidrosis throughout childhood and beyond, you already know how hard I have had to work to be able to bare my soul to you, my familiar strangers who walk along the same (formerly) lonely road.
If your sense of self was damaged like mine, I can tell you that it helps immeasurably to have someone look at you and tell you all the positive things you are not able to tell yourself. If you are anything like me, you have had so many negative thoughts about yourself swimming around inside your head that there is no sense of perspective, and it is difficult to imagine how everyone else may regard you.
The key to undergoing truly successful therapy is finding a psychologist or licensed clinical social worker who knows what hyperhidrosis is and truly understands the harm it causes the psyche. Unfortunately, this may be like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack– there seems to be precious little awareness about hyperhidrosis in this field. Hopefully, with time, awareness, and a little less shyness on our part (!!!), this will change. In the meantime, just find someone who comes with excellent references and if they are good at what they do, you can help them understand how this has affected your life. Please do not let a therapist tell you the sweating is psychosomatic, and can be entirely controlled or cured from therapy, meditation, or hypnosis. It simply is not true. This happened to me– and the therapist was someone I highly respected and liked. In fact, I still respect this person tremendously and know he is a gifted therapist. He simply was misinformed about what hyperhidrosis is and what causes it, and that is a circumstance that is sadly all too common.
Meditation, therapy and hypnosis may turn out to be excellent tools in helping you to deal with your hyperhidrosis. They may help you to become less anxious, more confident, and happier in general. These tools will not turn off your overactive sweat glands; I just want to make that clear!
So, find thyself a therapist. While you’re at it, make sure your insurance will cover it! I believe it is time to harp away on that subject…. so perhaps next week, we will talk health insurance and your rights! I can sense you are tingling in anticipation…
To bide your time until then, be sure to check out my page called Strategies, if you have not done so already, to see what other tricks and tools I recommend.
An Open Letter About Hyperhidrosis in Children
Posted by: · on August 25, 2010 | CommentsEarlier this month, I came across an article published in a medical journal that addressed the issue of anxiety in children, advising what pediatricians should be looking for. While the article was written for the medical community and not “lay” persons such as myself, I naturally felt the need to add my two cents.
Having been a child who suffered in isolation, I felt I had a different perspective to offer. You can read the article here and you will see that the author (who is, from what I understand, a top professional in her specialty) goes into great detail about using screening tests and other tools to determine whether a child suffers from anxiety disorder, panic attacks, or even OCD. I firmly believe an “anxious” child should be screened for hyperhidrosis, as well. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote:
“….I am writing to you because I wanted to share another perspective on anxiety in children and adolescents.
I am a stay at home mother of five children who range in ages 5-15. I also have started a website recently about primary hyperhidrosis. I hope it is not presumptuous of me, but I wanted to let you know that I suspect that at least some children– particularly adolescents– who present as anxious may actually be anxious due to hyperhidrosis. As I’m sure you already know, hyperhidrosis often appears during puberty, which is most certainly a bewildering, upsetting, and embarrassing experience.
I write about hyperhidrosis because I have had it since early childhood. I grew up with the slow realization that I was different from everyone else I knew. As I grew older, the subliminal message that sweating is shameful and disgusting (thank you, advertising campaigns of the 1970′s) became ingrained in me and I regarded myself in that light. By the time I was 13, I was anxious and desperate to make it stop. I was also too utterly ashamed to tell a soul about it. It never occurred to me that I had a disorder; I was simply convinced that I was a freak and as such, utterly worthless. This, despite the fact that I was the adored youngest child of a large, close-knit family.
One night, after sweating uncontrollably throughout Urban Cowboy (who does that during a movie??), I had had enough and was caught by my older sister rifling through medicine cabinets, determined to commit suicide. I tried to explain why I was so distraught; I finally spoke of my shame and the source of it. They (my parents and adult older siblings) brushed it aside. They determined, despite my protests, that I was suicidal due to some other family dynamics which had indeed created a tense atmosphere in our home. Of course that was a factor in my anxiety, I do know and acknowledge that. But I also know that I was an adolescent with nowhere to turn, dealing with an issue that was bigger than me. I never spoke of my sweating again until I was in my early 30′s and heard the word “hyperhidrosis” quite by accident.
I am telling you this because I know that my experience is not unique. I also know that for reasons I cannot understand, the fields of psychiatry/psychology seem to be rather oblivious to the severe damage hyperhidrosis wreaks on the self-esteem of people who are like me. Perhaps the reason is that “we” are so ashamed that we suffer in isolation and fail to explain the source and depth of our pain. It is not “just sweating”. It is the pain of being different, of not being in control, the fear of discovery through the senses of touch, sight, and smell. It is every day.
People who don’t suffer from this really, truly, don’t “get it”. Sadly, many therapists could ease this pain and are utterly uninformed and thereby make it worse. I had a wonderful therapist (an LCSW) whom I admire in every other respect, but who told me that it was all in my head; that I could completely control it with meditation and therapy. I now know how wrong he was, and I wasted a lot of time and energy on something that was not helpful.
How many pediatricians are missing this diagnosis? Hyperhidrosis has no definitive cure, but a referral to a dermatologist for medical treatment and a referral to an informed psychologist could make a world of difference to a child who is drowning in shame.
I have carved out a wonderful life, but I wonder what my life would have been like if I had not been convinced I was a freak for 33 years of it….”
I should have added that my family did try to help me through that rough period by sending me to a psychologist. If that psychologist knew that what I had was a medical disorder and had diagnosed me with hyperhidrosis, it would have saved me from a great deal of pain and self-loathing. Sad to say, I believe very little has changed since the early ’80′s in that regard. The same oversights are likely still occurring all over the world.
My Hyperhidrosis “I Can’t” List
Posted by: · on July 31, 2010 | CommentsWhen you have Hyperhidrosis, there are a whole host of things that seem to be off-limits. I know that I have always had my own personal “I Can’t” list– which I will be actually putting into words here for the first time– and if you have abnormal sweat patterns too, I would bet that you have your own list. I am hoping that writing (typing!) it all out will help me to be able to look at some items more objectively and perhaps will enable me to migrate them to a new “I Can” list…
At the risk of sounding rather self-pitying, here it is:
I CAN’T
- Hold hands in a group setting (prayers, games, etc)
- Be an actor, unless it is off-camera (such as voiceover, which I do enjoy)
- Do yoga or anything requiring being barefoot
- Wear whatever style shoes I want
- Choose any career requiring touching others, such as being a physical therapist, nursing, being a doctor, teaching small children, the list goes on….
- Before surgery, I could never have manicures/pedicures
- Wear certain clothing
- Dance with a partner (the traditional ballroom-type dancing)
I CAN (recently)
- Talk about it online
- BY FORCE OF WILL, talk about it in person
- Separate my disorder from how I feel about myself (most of the time)
So those are my lists, such as they are. I will gladly publish anyone else’s list, either “Can” or “Can’t”. Just contact me!
Could Your Adolescent Be Suffering From Hyperhidrosis?
Posted by: · on June 2, 2010 | CommentsHere is an article I have written to give parents a “heads up” about hyperhidrosis in adolescence:
Adolescence can be an exciting, emotional, and confusing time in your child’s life as well as yours. As a parent, it can creep up on you… One day, your talkative, adoring, happy child seemingly morphs into a stranger. This stranger behaves as though you are the dullest knife in the drawer, is convinced you can’t dress to save your life, and is capable of eating every potato chip in the house in one sitting. Suddenly, everything about you is an endless source of embarrassment. You must drive in the car with all the windows up just in case your horrifying taste in music or a younger sibling’s voice causes your teenager to keel over in mortification.
All that aside, it is surreal and fascinating to see the physical changes taking place before your eyes! Everything is growing, changing, developing… there is a new game in the house: who is taller than who? Of course, along with these incredible changes usually comes an increasing self-consciousness. Self-consciousness breeds secretiveness. This is normal. You must become, by necessity, two parts detective and one part Nosy Parker. We need to stay on top of all the new dynamics in a teenager’s life, and that takes a lot of ingenuity and persistence.
One of the possible changes your adolescent may face is something that very few parents are aware of: hyperhidrosis. Hyperhidrosis, by definition, is a disorder that causes the body to sweat excessively or inappropriately. Some people develop this in early childhood (I did), but it seems that most cases of hyperhidrosis appear along with the changes brought on by puberty. There are several variations of hyperhidrosis: Axillary Hyperhidrosis (excessive underarm sweat), Palmar Hyperhidrosis (sweaty hands), Plantar Hyperhidrosis (sweaty feet), and CranioFacial Hyperhidrosis and Blushing (sweating and/or blushing of the face and scalp). The most common form of hyperhidrosis is Primary Focal Hyperhidrosis, which is a combination of sweating in the underarms, hands, and feet.
Can you imagine how difficult it would be to have this happen to your body at such a time? A teenager is already dealing with the physical changes of puberty, a new-found awareness of the opposite sex, and the emotional upheavals of hormones-gone-wild. Add to this mix the self-consciousness and secretiveness that accompany adolescence.
The upshot here is that your child could be dealing with the bewildering effects of a disorder they do not know even exists, and could be too ashamed to tell you. In fact, most people who suffer from hyperhidrosis live with it for many years without even knowing it is a medical disorder. I grew up with it and until I was in my 30′s, I thought it was “just me”.
The good news is that there are many others in the world who have this disorder– estimates are that it affects approximately 3% of the global population. Therefore, there are many treatments available, as well as chat forums and websites to be found where those who suffer from hyperhidrosis can go to find helpful information and to share their feelings and frustrations.
If your child starts to exhibit anti-social behavior, won’t allow you to hold his or her hand, sweats through their clothing, or acts depressed for no known reason, try to ask them why. Ask their permission to take them to see a specialist who can help them. For the most part, dermatologists can provide the best medical treatment for this disorder. However, not all dermatologists take hyperhidrosis seriously enough or are not experienced in its treatment. Ask before you bring your child to an appointment, because a doctor who belittles the problem can make things worse.
If you think your adolescent may be dealing with hyperhidrosis, please seek help and find out as much as you possibly can about the disorder. Above all, take it seriously. Living in a body that can “betray” you at any moment is embarrassing, scary and frustrating. Too many children suffer from this alone, in silence, believing he or she is a “freak”. It does not have to be that way.
Watch Out for Hyperhidrosis “Miracle Cures”
Posted by: · on May 31, 2010 | Comments“Miracle Cures” for Hyperhidrosis: Top Ten Things to Watch Out For
Do you suffer from Hyperhidrosis? Does living with the embarrassment, discomfort, and low self-esteem caused by excessive sweating make you feel anxious and depressed? Are you willing to try just about anything to find relief?
Thought so.
The Internet is a big place. You can find everything on it: information, camaraderie, friendship, entertainment, and SCAMS. There are predators on the Internet who seek out those who are the most unhappy, the most miserable, the ones who suffer from maladies for which there is no cure: in short, the most desperate. And you, my fellow Hyperhidrosis sufferer, fit these opportunists to a “T”.
If you spend any time online looking for help to manage Hyperhidrosis, you will see articles, websites, and advertisements for various “miracle cures” on the Internet everywhere, every day. I have always maintained that the best way to deal with “snake oil” salesmen online is to ignore them. However, they are making that noble tactic increasingly difficult. After seeing many posts on Hyperhidrosis chat forums about shattered hopes and reading entries of other frustrated bloggers who are being “spammed” to death, I thought it would be helpful to give people a guide for what to look out for. I joined forces with the admin from www.VerySweatyBetty.com along with one of her forum members (who I must say has got skills in Internet investigating!) to investigate some of these questionable websites. Here is what we came up with:
Top Ten List of What to Watch Out For when looking for treatments for Hyperhidrosis:
- The old adage stands firm: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is!”
- The word “cure”. I am so, so, sorry, but there is no one, single, absolute cure for this. Different folks react to certain treatments really well, but do not believe claims that you will BE CURED.
- The words “100% Guarantee”: When it comes to treatments for Hyperhidrosis, everyone reacts differently. There is no way ANYONE can claim you will be sweat-free with 100% certainty. No. Way.
- The words “Natural” or “Herbal”: A very reliable marketing ploy is to call something “herbal” or “natural”– people tend to equate those terms with “not harmful” or “gentle”. In fact, taking herbal supplements or “medication” can be extremely harmful, especially if you are also taking medication prescribed by your doctor. Keep in mind that if something is “herbal”, it does not have to pass the stringent guidelines of the FDA (applicable in the United States), and is potentially dangerous.
- You should be wary of the website. There is one, for example, showing a person in a white lab coat… the grammar is terrible, and the site appears to be very simply put together. There is an address shown for New Zealand with some impressive looking office buildings… which, like the attractive individual in the lab coat, in all likelihood have nothing to do with the product being hawked. Turns out we were able to trace this site back to Pakistan.
- Make sure to ask questions before you buy. We emailed a certain company with very specific questions about drug interactions as well as a request for their research papers, which they claimed on the website were available upon request. We did not receive any satisfactory answers; only a statement informing us that the treatment takes 3 months to work. Yes, you have to buy that much to find out if it works! Does that sound solid to you?
- Check out the claims. If any “cure” touts miraculous results, go on any major health forum to see if it is mentioned. Even better, go to SweatHelp.org, which is the website for the International Hyperhidrosis Society. Basically, if the IHHS does not recognize a treatment or “system”, you should not consider it. The people at the IHHS devote themselves to raising awareness about Hyperhidrosis as well as finding viable treatment options. If there was a real, amazing cure for Hyperhidrosis in existence, the IHHS would be all over it!
- If a certain “cure” seems to be turning up at the end of every link you click on, and it is not endorsed by the IHHS, that should raise a red flag for you. There are a couple of e-books that are being very cleverly and aggressively marketed and they are oh-so-convincing…. yet secretive. In fact, one of them was ordered and reviewed by an editor at the International Hyperhidrosis Society’s newsletter, Sweat Solutions. If you go to http://www.SweatHelp.org and click on the archives for Sweat Solutions, scroll down and under May/June 2006 you will see a link to the article entitled “A Natural Sweat Cure? We Did A Test”.
- If you are curious about a cure that just seems to be “IT”, join a chat forum or two and ask about it. Chances are, there are other members who can fill you in. You can also try Facebook! There are several Hyperhidrosis support group pages on Facebook…just type “hyperhidrosis” and you will see them. Ask,ask,ask!
- And FINALLY……Go with your gut. If you think you are being scammed, YOU PROBABLY ARE!
Living with Hyperhidrosis is difficult; I should know. I have had excessive sweating and inappropriate sweating since early childhood. There have been moments in my life when I would have sold my soul to the Devil in order to be free of the prison HH was creating for me. It is tempting to pursue these remedies that are promising you the freedom you crave. These people know how desperate you are, and they know how to tell you what you want to hear. Please do not listen to them. They don’t care about you. These fake miracle cures are all over the Internet because people are letting themselves be fooled. Don’t let yourself be scammed.
There are people on the Internet who do want to help you; who can help you– by listening to you, chatting with you, and by sharing good information with you. So reach out to those who want to help you– and not to the ones who want to dupe you.
