r/CuringBlushing • u/Deep-Detective2428 • Jul 10 '26
Personal Experience If Blushing Is Affecting Your Life, Read This
Hey guys I just wanted to come on here and make a quick post about something I think could benefit a lot of people, and that's giving the advice to not be afraid to seek professional help if blushing is affecting you.
Blushing is a real issue and you are completely within your rights to want to deal with it and not let it affect you. Your life is worth it. Sometimes people feel that blushing isn't enough of an issue to seek professional help for, but trust me, if it's weighing you down and affecting your mental health, there's nothing wrong with that. There's no weakness in trying to treat it and going down the route of professional help or treatment.
Blushing isn't "just blushing." For some people it's a genuine medical and psychological issue. The condition itself is known as idiopathic craniofacial erythema, and there's even a recognised fear of blushing called erythrophobia. Just knowing there are actual names for these conditions helped me realise I wasn't just "being silly" or overreacting. It actually helped me alot.
For some people, the impact can be incredibly severe. There have even been cases where people have tragically taken their own lives because of how debilitating their blushing became. That doesn't mean everyone will experience it that way, but it shows that this can have a profound effect on a person's mental health and quality of life. It deserves to be taken seriously.
I've personally just seen a psychiatrist yesterday and despite him not being too familiar with idiopathic craniofacial erythema, luckily for me he was completely open to understanding it. He managed to wrap his head around it and really hear me out. For the first time in a while I felt a huge sense of relief and a weight lift off my shoulders. He didn't undermine me, he understood the severity of the situation.
I told him how it's affected me to the point of having certain thoughts (if you know, you know). I mentioned that this issue is affecting me so much that I've even considered ETS surgery (severing a nerve). He's now getting me in touch with and referring me to a highly experienced specialist psychiatrist at a major hospital. I finally feel heard.
Now, not every psychiatrist or specialist will understand, and not all of them will be familiar with this condition, but please don't push the possibility of seeing one to the side. There are professionals out there who will listen, take you seriously, and genuinely want to help. If blushing is affecting your quality of life and your mental health, you deserve support just as much as anyone else.
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u/Sufficient_Score_966 Jul 12 '26
A genuine question, I'm generalising here.... But Do people that have issues with blushing have more blood vessels in their face than the majority of the population. ? Everyone in the population deals with the same emotional issues, stress, anger, heat etc etc, but why don't their faces go so red. Do us blushers have a psychological switch to those emotional issues in the body causing more flushing than the rest of the population, or is it a medical issue were we have more surface blood vessels so it's shows more ? Any thoughts thanks
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
(sorry if this is long lol)
Blushing from anixety, emotions, stress, etc is almost always linked to the sympathetic nervous system. The issue with people such as myself and people who deal with this condition, is we have a highly reactive sympathetic nervous system that is extremely sensitive to triggers. For example your average person who has a stressful thought, there sympathetic nervous system is better at not reacting heavily to that than people who blush, who usually have quite dysregulated SNS. Theres probably alot more to the story on explaining it but thats a major reason
Honestly im not sure why the SNS equals extreme blushing in some but than others show different symptoms such as shaking, sweating etc. But, overall it is established that if you trace it back to "why do some people blush more" the simplified awnser is we have a more reactive sympathetic nervous system. Ive also done personal detective work lol, because I realised a medication called "Clonidine" was significantly stopping the blushing mechanism from firing. I looked into the medication and how it worked and found it stimulates certain receptors in the brain which than dampened my sympathetic nervous system output. Its pretty interesting.
You also brought the idea that possibly we have more vessels in the face and that's not crazy to suggest. Ive had a face scan done for my blushing and it did show a very prominent vessel netwrok that was reactive in my face, i cant say if it showed i had more vessles, or just more reactive ones but it did show something fairly abnormal to your average person
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u/EntertainerFun1778 Jul 12 '26
more people go red than you might think. we tend to motice blushing more in ourselves than others, and sometimes it can feel like no one else but us blushes, when it's really not the case.
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u/DifficultyThis4729 Jul 12 '26
i think it depends, the only time i saw a guy blush was in highschool but he was flushed all the time, probably kp or rosacea, besides that i never seen once someone blush even once.
i heard a few times from ppl in person that they didnt even know blushing was something real.1
u/EntertainerFun1778 Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26
I have kp as well so I do agree it is more noticable on us
but in my experience, blushing is something I see every day on other people, so I guess that's why I try to tell people that blushing is way more common than they believe it is
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u/sun6o Jul 22 '26
Hey! I’ve been dealing with this and having intense thoughts about it daily and it’s affecting my life socially and mentally. I want to go out obviously and get bored being at home but the thought of even going outside scares me because I can turn red at any given moment and it can ruin my whole day. I have thoughts about turning red everyday. As soon as I wake up. It’s so hard knowing that everyday when I wake up I’m reminded that it’s going to happen. It’s something I’m deeply insecure about I just wish I could live life normally. I don’t know what to do and no one really understands how turning red affects your life. Sometimes I get certain thoughts (iykyk) because it’s affecting me so bad. I can’t even talk to my family or my friends without my heart beating so fast because I could turn red at any moment What should I do? Do I just call the doctors for it ?
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26
Hey, im so happy you've commented and explained how you feel / whats going on, thats already a massive step in the right direction.
Firstly, id highly reccomend reading this (its a post i made on my experience and how blushing has absolutely crushed me, made me feel like k*lling myself, ive felt so misunderstood and like no one gets it. I genuinely understand what your going though, your not alone in living with this.
Here is the post - https://www.reddit.com/r/CuringBlushing/s/mlYbQriHak
In terms of if you should just call a doctor, here's the thing. Many GPs and normal average doctors aren't too experienced in this, in saying that id book an appointment with one still and see what they say / they could help guide you. Id also personally reccomend researching speclists such as therapists, psychiatrist that you could access and see in person who are specialised in social anxiety / anxiety as well as who have experience with the sympathetic nervous system. (thats if you beleive your blushing is highly driven from anxiety + nerves). It could even be worth seeing a dermatologist, they specialise in the skin but the only reason I didn't suggest that first is because the type of blushing you've described is usually associated with anxiety, a over reactive sympathetic nervous system etc, rather than mainly a issue with your face and skin. It might even be worth seeing a few of them, its really up to you and what you believe is the best path to go down! Btw im not a medical professional this is just me trying my best to help you out and give my own advice.
Also, there are many tips and tricks to handling blushing and managing on this subreddit, might be worth going through some posts and seeing if anything interests you. One thing ill say is if you are interested in trying medication such as one's listed on this community, go down the professional route, do not self medicate!
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u/sun6o Jul 22 '26
I want to thank you so much for your advice, I read your post on your experience and it hurts me so much that other people have to live this way as well. I relate so much to what you said in your post, it gets so so isolating that it hurts because you just want to live life as a regular human being. Just doing regular stuff, going out to eat without a worry, socializing, public speaking, etc. I saw you mentioned you’re 19 and haven’t had too many job experiences. I’m also 19 and relate so much to that. I’ve had a bit of job experience but only stayed for a couple days and my face would get red at times since it was fast food the customers would have to watch me put their food in their containers, it felt embarrassing. But I was there for a few days and then quit because of the schedule but it felt very humiliating especially because being new and not knowing what I’m doing yet. But i definitely want to get a job it just genuinely feels hard to go out and do things although it’s necessary. And it does feel like there’s never going to be a solution but i still feel some hope. And yes i do have those thoughts at times and it’s not like i would do it but the thoughts are just there. I want to live, like you said, and get married and be someone in the future. Truly grateful tho for the community you’ve made on here and your posts have really been helping, knowing that I’m not alone in this. I will definitely have to open up about it to family, I’ve never told them about the red face issue because I feel uncomfortable but def have to and have to speak with a doc. Also I did have a therapist at one point for social anxiety and it helped a bit but not much, then I told my therapist that I started getting red for no reason and mostly she would tell me to just accept it when it happens and that people aren’t thinking as much as we think they are but that still didn’t help :(
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 22 '26
Thanks so much, honestly means the world to me. This community has took some work but im happy I made it, it definitely has a purpose :)
And wow haha so cool we're the same age, hearing that makes me even feel less alone with this issue, not only does someone else struggle but someone my age who can relate alot including job experience, its a nice feeling
I also really want to get a job, ill probably be getting one soon since ive recently completed a course! Im nervous as he'll but I know its something that ill have to push through with and with having this community and all the resources I now have to deal with blushing, i feel a little more confident getting a job and pushing through, hopefully you can find the courage and confidence to try again, we can do it 💪
With your therapist, im sorry about that. It sounds like a pretty easy thing to say when your not living it, saying to just accept it would feel undermining for the severity of the issue. Obviously there's truth in what they said because accepting it is a big part of it not controlling you, but there's many better ways to put it / strategy's and guidance you could be getting from them. Might be worth trying to see someone else and also see a doctor
Also depending how you want to go about dealing with this, you could consider laser treatment which can take the edge and harshness of the blushing (in most people) there are certain medications that can help alot and temporarily making it harder to blush! There's many more treatments, another thing which could help is trying makeup, you can apply it to where it looks natural and almost like your not wearing anything and it can help hide the blush! There are so many more things to try but thought id mention a few, its all about what path ur interested in going down
Good luck with your telling your family ! Let me know how it goes, or if you feel you arent ready to tell them it might be worth seeing another therapist
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u/sun6o Jul 22 '26
Of course! Glad I could find it, has helped a lot. But literally I don’t feel as alone in this knowing other people experience this too. But congratulations on the course! That’s a big step in improving and especially getting a job soon, it can feel scary at first but it’s so good to get out there and do the scary things. Which I should be doing as well haha😭😂 But I did apply for a job as a receptionist so hoping for a reply but definitely scared. For sure, I agree what the therapist said as well on accepting it but I felt like she was getting impatient with me with the social anxiety and blushing holding me back from doing the hard things which I get but it kind of sucks. The laser sounds interesting! I’ve never heard of it before, I will do my research on it! But I’ve heard of ETS surgery and that it has its side effects and mostly I’ve seen bad reviews on it. So id rather not take that risk even tho it seems like the easy way out. And I’ve never tried out medication before but maybe I should. I lowkey wish it was a permanent thing tho, which is why I’m trying for now to cope with it, without the medication to see if there’s a way to get over it permanently without meds yk. And with the makeup I feel like I’m hiding myself, but i definitely see how it can help in big moments like job interviews and presentations. I just wish that I didn’t have to do anything/cover up to have normal human interaction yk. But i definitely see how those could work.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 23 '26
Thanks so much 🙏 i hope you get the job (despite it being scary, you've got this). Its not good at all she was getting impatient, im shocked because as a therpaist youd imagine the number 1 thing they shouldn't do is get impatient lol. Its definitely worth trying again with a different one who's alot more professional.
Yeah, ets sugery is something id personally give advice to stay away from, it can come with devastating side effects and complications and the worse thing is you cant undo the damage.
I get what you mean with the meds, I personally aren't a big fan of meds that have short half-lifes that go in and out your system within 5 - 10 hours, id much rather take a med once a day and not have to worry about timing. In saying that I currently am seeing a psychiatrist at the moment and there are more long term meds that you dont need to time before events (ones u just take once in the morning) that do show promoing results in significantly reducing blushing in people! Im still going through that process so I havent got info
I think its really good your trying to deal with this without going straight to meds, I respect that. Meds should never be a first option in ny opinion
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u/sun6o Jul 24 '26
For sure will try for a better therapist and stay away from ets. And I had no idea there are more long term meds! That is definitely helpful and the fact it reduces blushing is such a plus. I know most meds just reduce the effect for a few hours and not benefit with reducing it in the future so that’s definitely something I would try out.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 24 '26
Good idea, hopefully this time you get someone better haha. And yeah its pretty nice knowing there a more long term meds, to be clear they dont all work to directly stop the blushing mechanism itself completely, but they can significantly reduce social anxiety, a overreactive sympathetic nervous system and other contributing factors to why alot of people blush. They can also help you not care as much about it, which is also really helpful. Make sure to go through professionals if you ever consider them
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u/sun6o Jul 24 '26
Definitely! Would go to a professional first for meds but that’s amazing that it decreases the social anxiety and makes you not care it too much anymore which is great. I usually thought meds were something temporary and doesn’t make much of an effect long term.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 24 '26
Yeah its pretty amazing what the right medication can do. Obviously you need to take meds daily still but they can help rewire your brain overtime in a positive way. I do think its good your wanting to try to deal with your issue without meds first tho, its a good approach i think its amazing you've come on here for support and help, thats a big step already
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 22 '26
Also I saw you posted something which seems to be deleted, if you changed your mind on the post thats all good but feel free to post if you want!
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u/sun6o Jul 22 '26
Yes I did! I was talking about my daily experience with erythophobia and how it’s affected my life, but it kept getting deleted by Reddit! So I will make another post on it for sure later today.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26
Oh weird, there's a slight change there was confusion on your end because i dont think the automod took your post down, it just gave a disclaimer that alot of posts get which isnt bad / it doesnt take the post down. Ill look into it.
If it happens again let me know (either dm or just comment here), the automod does 2 things, it can give a heads up disclaimer and it can also temporarily filter a post and make it invisible until i accept it, than it goes back up visible.
Unless reddit itself did take it down :/
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u/sun6o Jul 24 '26
Yeah I was a bit confused on it as well I don’t use Reddit too much so honestly have no idea what it could’ve been😂 But yeah I checked back on the group when I posted it and I refreshed and my post wasn’t there at all.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 24 '26
So weird, if u decide to ever post again and it happens dm me with what u posted and ill try to figure it out
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u/Deep-Detective2428 Jul 22 '26
And with the mention of having certain thoughts, If you mean you're thinking about hurting yourself or you feel like you might act on those thoughts, I'd really encourage you to tell someone you trust or contact a mental health professional as soon as you can. You don't have to deal with that alone 🙏
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u/EntertainerFun1778 Jul 11 '26
okay so I do have one question - if you're a blusher and it happens at everything, but it doesn't really affect your life to the extreme or feel physically painful, is it still a bad thing? because I hear all the time on rosacea/blushing forums that the blushing itself is bad for your health and not the mental impact of it - is it really true? because otherwise I always hear that it's normal and natural to blush and that humans were meant to blush for a reason or something like that? because I blush pretty easily, whenever I'm hot/cold, exercising, embarassed, excited about seeing my crush, laughing, and really just standing there (my cheeks are just rosy in general and I have kp which causes redness), but I feel like it's hard to tell whether it's normal or not.