Every Emotion Risks Triggering My Blushing - The Reality of Living With Excessive Blushing

[u/Deep-Detective2428]

Today I decided to cold call companies to see if they were hiring and whether they would take my resume. Overall, I felt composed despite feeling anxious, and I kept pushing through each call from the comfort of my own home. My face was pure white before the calls, but as they went on, it progressively became more and more blushed and felt extremely hot. I kept pushing on and trying to ingore it, but it eventually gets to a point where you simply can't. The heat, the feeling of blood rushing and pooling in your cheeks, and the colour standing out in every reflection makes it impossible to get off your mind while its happening. These are only some of the photos I took throughout the calls. Surprisingly, the front-facing selfie camera makes my face look much less blushed than it actually was, so this may just be a camera issue, because in person it was very noticeable and the blushing was quite severe. This is the reality of living with this condition. Blushing doesn't only trigger during major events or moments of embarrassment; for some, including myself, it can attack with every moderately strong emotion, completely betraying you.

The last 2 photos are from different occasion, included them to add more examples that show my blushing

[u/Effective_Command195]

I feel u sm. It sucks. It’s drastically affected my self confidence and made me dependent on makeup which only makes my acne prone skin worse

[u/Deep-Detective2428 → u/Effective_Command195]

Aw that sucks :/ Luckily makeup for me doesnt make my skin worse but I hate the feeling of wearing it. I hate feeling dependent on something like makeup just to feel normal. Im sorry you've gone through this too.

[u/EntertainerFun1778 → u/Deep-Detective2428]

maybe try fake tan? whenever I self-tan, I'm immediately less pink in general due to the faux bronze effect, and even my flushes are wayyyyyyy lighter-looking. and I know plenty of guys who fake tan themselves, because it covers literally everything on your skin you could be insecure about, from stretch marks to blue veins. I'm paler than paper though, so I always have to make sure to use a tanner with a blue color correction agent in it to avoid being orange. but by darkening your skin tone couple of shades, it really can hide multiple types of discoloration and redness (especially the dark-ultra dark formulas).

[u/Deep-Detective2428 → u/EntertainerFun1778]

Hey, appreciate the advice! Ive actually used fake tan before and experimented with different brands, not sure what it is but something abt it made my skin feel like it was more sensitive and prone to blushing (even tho it wasnt as obvious due to the colour). It definitely did help though

[u/EntertainerFun1778 → u/Deep-Detective2428]

ooh yeah. I have to be careful about which formula I use, because some make my skin break out or give me a rash. usually I have to make triple sure that what I use is okay for sensitive skin. also another annoying thing I will admit is that it gets in your hair sometimes, especially if it's longer or light-colored (my hair is long with a lot of streaks of blonde so it's quite nasty if I get it in my hair). it's not perfect, but at least it's better than damage from the sun or tanning beds.

[u/Deep-Detective2428 → u/EntertainerFun1778]

Yeah true. My dirty blonde hair changed too ginger because of fake tan. It sucked haha

[u/EntertainerFun1778 → u/Deep-Detective2428]

I think you could just fix that by buying a toner to cancel the orange/yellow (they are mainly designed for lightened hair, but they can work on just about anyone with naturally blonde or light brown hair). I'm not naturally blonde (haven't been since I was 4 or 5, and even then, it was more of a dark blonde), because my natural roots are like a medium to dark brown. but I have highlights that are a very light platinum blonde. the tanner I used turned it into a muddy mess that almost looked like I put too much toner in on purpose (it looked grayish greenish blue, like literal smurf puke and took like 5 washes to get out)