Although excessive sweating may not seem like a serious problem, this condition can profoundly impact the quality of life of the people who suffer from it. Sweating may be acceptable in an athletic gym, or during sporting events, but for most people, under normal circumstances, seeing beads of perspiration on a person usually means that something is wrong. Since excessive sweating usually shows up most on areas of the skin that are relatively hairless, and have more sweat glands than other areas, hyperhidrosis often manifests as sweaty hands and palms, sweaty feet, underarm perspiration, and facial sweating. This can cause a variety of problems, such as having sand or dirt cling to your feet if walking barefoot, staining papers and books from sweating of the fingers, difficulty using a computer keyboard at work, losing control of baseball bats, golf clubs or tennis rackets due to palm sweating, dropping small objects that slip through your fingers, fogging up glasses due to sweat dripping down one's forehead, etc.

Excessive sweating can interfere with people's lives. Trying to shake a new acquaintances hand, and having a perspiration-soaked palm may be highly embarrassing, as can having perspiration stains on clothing. Wearing a hat may be impossible for someone with forehead hyperhidrosis, and excessive odor is not that uncommon for the shoes of people with foot hyperhidrosis. For someone who needs to use their hands to work, having excessive hand sweat may cause them to lose their grip on a tool, risking injury, and a poor result for the job they are doing. If a person is employed at a job where they may have to touch other people, such as a barber, hairdresser, or nurse, their clients may be surprised by a cold, sweaty touch. Jobs that may require the use of gloves, such as a food server in a cafeteria or a health care assistant may be impossible due to hand hyperhidrosis. Playing a musical instrument may be extremely difficult, and sweating may interfere with an office worker's ability to type, use a computer, or even write with a pen. Sweating while speaking in public is usually associated by most audiences as meaning that the person is very nervous, and is doing a bad job with his/her speech or performance, hence the famous adage "never let them see you sweat." Indeed, excessive facial sweating while performing is usually the mark of failure, the so-called "flop sweat" seen when a comedian fails at making his audience laugh. All in all, it has a dramatic effect on a person's quality of life. Since the same nerves that when overactive lead to sweating also control the blood supply to the skin, many people with hyperhidrosis of the face have problems with red flushing. This may make them shy and socially withdrawn, for who wants to look like they are always embarrassed due to facial blushing. Since nervousness may make this problem worse, worrying about the facial blush may itself cause the blush. It is no wonder that many people with hyperhidrosis and facial blushing feel socially disabled, and are not able to lead normal lives due to these conditions.

One very famous and very public event that many people born before 1950 or so remember, is seeing then Vice-President Richard Nixon sweating profusely under the hot lights of the television studio during his famous live 1960 Presidential Debate with Senator John F. Kennedy. Many people were much more impressed with Kennedy, who was able to project a cool and confident appearance, that some historians feel Nixon lost the election due to his sweating.

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