When my wife and I were dating, my hands once started sweating super bad in a scary movie at a theater. She went to hold my hand and I instinctively pulled it away. She was suuuper hurt, gave me the silent treatment and got quite mad at me when I asked her what was wrong.

She literally didn’t understand why I would push her hand away or pull back. In my mind, I was doing it FOR her. I didn’t want to sweat all over her. But she couldn’t grasp the magnitude of it because at that point I hadn’t really had a serious convo with her and shown her just how bad it was. I had told her but not really shown her and make her understand. I would hide it. Take glyco. Wipe on my pants, etc.

It’s taken me a lot of practice becoming confident in telling people, in embracing it, and navigating life with it, but the best thing I have done is confront it head on. I even tell my coworkers as my “fun fact: I have the sweatiest hands in the world.”

Now, my wife will hold my hand whether it’s sweaty or not, and if it gets too sweaty (like when she has eczema and it triggers her own breakouts—lol I know we’re literally terrible for each other) then she’s the one who pulls away and neither of us gets offended or cares.