No, I’m not nervous (touch wood – actually, I am), it’s because I have a hand condition known as hyperhidrosis. It is a genetic condition and is basically when you sweat profusely in certain areas (in my case it’s hands and feet) triggered by certain stimuli – for me it’s certain materials and sounds. The instant I touch or even see certain materials (mostly fabrics) or hear a certain sound my hands become damp and start sweating. What’s interesting is that even when I just think about the stimuli, it occurs. This means its very easy for me to trigger it – stopping it is another issue completely, something which I have been quite interested in for a while.

The common medical practice for dealing can be split into two ways: the permanent and the temporary. The permanent method involves sedating you in an operating theater and burning away your nerve endings with a surgical laser. This isn’t quite my cup of tea, so I looked at the temporary solutions. They range from ultra-powerful anti-persperants, half-hour soaks in baking soda to mild electrocution with a 12V battery (there’s even a YouTube Video of this). No matter what the math says, I’m not planning on hooking myself up to a battery anytime soon.

Another thing I would like to note is that it’s very uncomfortable, even on the brink of painful when this occurs. Think sharp pins jabbing your hand.

What I was interested in was whether or not I could stop this with my mind. It’s quite well-known that the mind is certainly powerful – such to the point that it can even convince itself of death.

What would happen, I reasoned, if I forced myself to feel a material that I knew would trigger it constantly? I took a silk tie and scrunched it within my hands. Instantly I felt sharp jabs of pain in my hand and the tie became damp. What I discovered was interesting – normally I would instantly withdraw my hand, proceeding which they would get damper until they would drip water. However if I kept touching the material, they would get damp, but never more than that – and I can guarantee you it wasn’t because the tie was soaking it up.

Whatever it is they make touchpads out of, that’s another one of the materials I can’t stand. As soon as I so as touch a touchpad, it becomes damp. However, despite this I love having the ability to use a touchpad. It’s convenient and near to the keyboard. However once my hands become damp the touchpad is unusable. Forcing myself to touch it coupled with intense concentration has somehow managed to make it so that the majority of the time, I am now immune to that material.

Even when it does become damp, I have found that through the mind I am able to now actually make it stop (depends on the situation – but it’s improving!)

It isn’t about how my hands feel the material, its about how my mind interprets that feeling. The feeling is still as sharp as ever, but interjection from the mind allows you to separate the feeling itself with the interpretation.

Just my two cents on the topic. I’m going to go wipe the keyboard now.

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