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You are not alone. I also thought my sweaty hands and feet was something only I was afflicted with. Mine began in 9th grade and I would usually wear a jacket, even in warm weather, so that I could hide my hands. In 10th grade dance class for PE I remember leaving a puddle on the floor where my feet had been sitting during a prolonged instructional sit down session. Since we weren’t allowed to wear socks or shoes for the class, just a leotard, I just got more and more anxious the longer we sat there and that just led to more perspiration. I also thought nobody would love me with this condition, but I found my husband who was able to look past it as a minor flaw, as we all have some. Fast forward to 32 yrs of age, my painful foot bunion forced me to the podiatrist for some minor foot surgery and upon explaining my embarrassment he casually said, “That’s hyperhidrosis. Many people have it.” I researched it on this new thing called the Internet and was reassured. I had tried the night time aluminum chloride solution with gloves earlier in my early 20’s without any success. I asked my Kaiser doctor to send me to the surgeon to determine if I was a candidate for the Sympathectomy procedure. The surgeon did a nerve block test on me to see if the surgery would fix my problem and after speaking personally with 2 of his patients about their surgeries, I had the surgery in 2002. I am lucky that I have little compensatory sweating, mainly when I eat spicy foods. I work in a hospital and touch patients frequently, so this had really affected my daily interactions at work. Although the surgery has its own potential serious risks, for me, the confidence I gained after the procedure was the best unexpected side effect.