Emotional sweating: understanding and easing stress sweat

Emotional sweating is the sweat that turns up at the worst possible moment: clammy hands just before you shake a recruiter's hand, sweat patches spreading during a presentation, beads on your forehead when it is not even warm. If this happens to you, you know how much it can spoil an appointment, and even push you to avoid some altogether.

I am a sophrologist, hypnotherapist and wellbeing coach in Bordeaux. I regularly see people who come to me about this, often after years of keeping their embarrassment to themselves. Here you will find why the body reacts this way, how to tell it apart from excessive sweating that needs medical advice, what helps day to day, and three exercises I use in sessions.

Why we sweat when we are stressed

Sweating is essential. According to ameli.fr, the French national health insurance website, the body produces about half a litre of sweat a day at rest, mainly to keep its temperature steady at around 37°C. Sweat glands are most numerous in the armpits, hands, feet, face and groin.

But sweat is not only there to cool you down. When you are stressed, your autonomic nervous system switches to alert mode. The MSD Manual describes it well: the sympathetic branch gets the body ready to fight or run, speeds up the heart, and also makes the palms sweat. It is a very old reflex that has nothing to do with heat.

Where this sweat shows up

Dutch researchers measured the skin's reaction at 16 places on the body while volunteers watched emotionally charged film clips. In their study, the feet, fingers and shoulders reacted most, and the arm, back and armpits least. That matches what many people describe: it is the hands that give the stress away first.

One detail that often reassures people: sweat itself has no smell. Ameli explains that odours come from bacteria on the skin that break the sweat down.

Emotional sweating or hyperhidrosis: telling them apart

Everyone sweats a little when they feel strong emotions. For some people, though, the sweating is much heavier: this is called hyperhidrosis. Ameli states that in nine cases out of ten it is localised, mostly to the armpits, palms and soles of the feet, on both sides of the body, and has no identified cause. Strong emotions and stress are among its main triggers, along with heat, alcohol, spicy food and exercise.

A few signs show that the problem goes beyond an ordinary stress reaction: finding it hard to hold a steering wheel or use a keyboard, avoiding sport or dancing, having to change clothes several times a day. In that case, the first person to see is your doctor, not a sophrologist. I come back to this further down.

The fear-of-sweating loop

This is what I see most often at my practice. It starts with one embarrassing moment: a damp handshake, a comment, a shirt marked in front of colleagues. Then the person starts keeping watch. Before every appointment, they wonder whether they are going to sweat. And that worry is enough to set off the alarm, and therefore the sweat.

They end up adapting their life: always a jacket, never a light-coloured shirt, a quick wipe of the hand on their trousers before saying hello. Ameli also notes that this kind of sweating can lead people to withdraw and can cause real difficulties in some jobs.

That loop is where I can be useful. I am not going to switch off your sweat glands. But we can work on the fear that sets them off, and on how you live the moment when it happens.

Simple habits that help day to day

Before any exercise, a few habits recommended by the NHS already make a real difference:

• cut down on alcohol and spicy food, which can make sweating worse;
• wear loose clothes and avoid tight or synthetic fabrics such as nylon;
• wear socks that absorb moisture, change them at least twice a day if you can, and alternate your shoes;
• keep a cotton handkerchief in your pocket to dry your hands before shaking hands;
• ask a pharmacist about a stronger antiperspirant, which works differently from a deodorant.

A deodorant masks smell but does not reduce sweat. An antiperspirant is what acts on sweating, and it can irritate the skin, so use it less often if your skin reacts.

Three exercises to bring the alarm down

These exercises do not stop sweating. They help your body come out of alert mode, which is what triggers it, more quickly. They are the ones I teach most often to people who come to me about this.

1. Breathe out before you go in

In the minutes before the moment you dread, in the corridor or the toilets, breathe in through your nose for a count of four, then breathe out slowly for a count of six or eight. Keep going for two minutes. A meta-analysis of 223 studies shows that slow breathing increases parasympathetic activity on the heart, the body's natural brake, during and just after the exercise. I explain how this works in my article on the parasympathetic nervous system.

2. Let your hands go

Sitting down, rest your hands on your thighs, palms up. Breathe in as you clench your fists hard for three seconds. Breathe out as you open your hands all at once, fingers spread, then let them fall back, loose. Notice the feeling in your palms: warmth, tingling, weight. Do it three times. You can do it discreetly under a table, and it gives you back a sense of control over the part of your body that worries you most.

3. Rehearse the scene differently

In the evening, with your eyes closed, after a few slow breaths, picture the situation that makes you sweat. But this time, see yourself getting through it calmly. And if sweat appears in the scene, picture yourself noticing it, taking out your handkerchief and carrying on with your sentence as if nothing had happened. In sophrology this is called positive projection. The idea is not to convince yourself that you will never sweat again, but that it will not matter if you do.

Accept rather than monitor

This is often the turning point. As long as you check every five minutes whether your hands are clammy, your body stays on alert. The day you tell yourself "yes, I'm sweating a bit, so what?", the pressure drops. It sounds simple, and it usually takes a few weeks of practice to get there. If your stress goes well beyond sweating, my article on managing stress and emotions can help you go further.

When to see a doctor

Sophrology does not replace medical advice. According to ameli.fr, you should make an appointment with your GP:

• if you sweat a lot despite simple measures, and it disrupts your daily life;
• if the sweating started suddenly, when you did not have it before;
• if it happens at night;
• if it affects only one side of your body, or your whole body;
• if it comes with fever, weight loss, itching, chest pain, breathlessness or a racing heart.

Your doctor will assess how much you sweat and how much it affects you day to day. According to the ameli page on solutions, they may recommend a suitable antiperspirant or medication, then refer you to a dermatologist if needed, who can offer other techniques such as iontophoresis or botulinum toxin injections. These are medical options, and I encourage you not to hold back from them out of embarrassment.

What sophrology can bring you

In sessions, we work on what happens before, during and after the moment you dread. Together we identify the situations that set off the alarm, choose the breathing and release exercises that suit you, and prepare your next important appointments through visualisation. For a specific goal, such as a presentation or an interview, a few sessions are often enough to feel more at ease.

If the fear of what is coming is very strong, Ericksonian hypnosis in Bordeaux can also be worth exploring, at my practice only. Heart coherence breathing is a good addition to practise at home.

I see people as a sophrologist in Bordeaux, on rue Ducau, and I also offer online sophrology. My background is on the about page. And if you would like to talk about it, you can book a sophrology session for adults. Nobody here will be looking at your hands.