How To Put A Stop To Excessive Blushing
Millions of people worldwide deal with excessive blushing, either feeling embarrassed or worrying about it. This is a real and common problem that can affect your self-esteem and confidence. In this article, I will be analyzing the cause of excessive blushing, how to know if you are experiencing this condition, and what to do about it. If you have been experiencing extreme embarrassment or anxiety due to occasional intense blushing, read on for some helpful advice!
Excessive Blushing Due To Embarrassment: What Causes It?
Excessive blushing can be a serious issue for sufferers. Although it is often viewed as an embarrassing physical symptom, the truth is much more complicated than that.
Blushing does not actually cause anything to happen and typically expends a lot of energy. This makes blushing a very inefficient method of protecting oneself from being embarrassed or hurt. Most blushing happens without any known reason. Excessive blushing is closely related to social anxiety disorder, which causes people to feel embarrassed, self-conscious, and worried in certain situations. The most common situations include using public transportation, making presentations at school or work, and dealing with strangers.
It has been found that the brain's hypothalamus (the part of the brain that controls many body functions) is involved with controlling how much blood leaves the heart during episodes of blushing.
When someone is embarrassed, the hypothalamus releases a chemical that causes blood vessels to dilate. This allows more blood to leave the heart and travel to the skin. The skin then becomes red, which signals that the person is embarrassed and conveys an expression of uneasiness or discomfort. A lot of people who blush excessively are not even aware of this process occurring in their bodies until they start looking for it.
What Causes Excessive Blushing?
Some people are more predisposed to experiencing excessive blushing because of family genes or hormonal changes during puberty . This condition can be treated with a type of cognitive-behavioral therapy developed specifically for social anxiety disorder called "exposure therapy".
Some people are more prone to excessive blushing because of psychological factors . Thoughts and beliefs about oneself, the world around them, or their social interactions can dramatically change how an individual looks and feels in a certain situation. This can cause a person to feel embarrassed about their behaviors and reactions, which causes them to blush more often.
This type of psychological disorder is typically treated with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which teaches sufferers specific methods for controlling their emotions in different situations so that they do not feel embarrassed or anxious when faced with such situations later on. The first step is to identify the thoughts and feelings that cause the blushing. To do this, you must record all of your emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations in a journal daily. Over time, you will see a pattern emerge that serves as a road map for how to break your thought patterns (which causes excessive blushing) in order to get rid of the blushing itself.
Other Psychological Causes Of Excessive Blushing
Fear of embarrassment or being judged can make someone more prone to experiencing excessive blushing. In fact, most people who have this problem feel extremely worried about it. This is due to certain beliefs they have about feeling embarrassed or being judged that exaggerate what they will experience in certain situations. Then, their blushing makes them feel more embarrassed and uneasy than they would have felt in the first place. This is a classic example of how fear and anxiety can cause a negative cycle of events.
Anxiety Of Overall Embarrassment: Many people who are prone to blushing are also prone to feeling anxious about overall embarrassment. They worry excessively about whether they will embarrass themselves, which typically leads to their blushing more often. They also experience increased worry in general (due to the constant negative thoughts that they have), which can lead to a number of physical and mental health problems as well as social anxiety disorder.
Anxiety Over Specific Situations: Many people experience anxiety about specific situations, such as public speaking, eating in front of other people, or being around strangers. The worry that they have about these situations usually leads to them feeling embarrassed very often in these situations. Then, the blushing that occurs as a result of this embarrassment makes them even more nervous and uncomfortable in the future. Thus a vicious cycle is set up of feeling embarrassed and then blushing, which then causes increased anxiety and fear of future embarrassment.
Blushing Due To An Inability To Control One's Emotions: Some people blush excessively because they have difficulty controlling how they feel when they are embarrassed or nervous. Their blushing is completely out of their control and occurs regardless of whether they feel embarrassed. This can cause a number of psychological problems, including fear, anxiety, embarrassment, and overall negativity. This type of blushing is sometimes called "Pure Blushing".
How To Know If You Are Experiencing Excessively Blushing?
If you have been feeling unusually uncomfortable or embarrassed for no apparent reason at all (such as appearing nervous in front of your friends) as well as experiencing frequent blushing for no reason whatsoever, chances are you are experiencing excessive blushing.
If you have been feeling unusually uncomfortable or embarrassed for no apparent reason at all (such as appearing nervous in front of your friends) as well as experiencing frequent blushing for no reason whatsoever, chances are you are experiencing excessive blushing.
This is because the excessive blushing is caused by a physical and psychological disorder called social anxiety disorder, which is characterized by over-fear/anxiety about being embarrassed in certain situations or situations involving one's appearance. Typically, if you experience this disorder along with persistent excessive blushing and inappropriate facial expressions (e.g., a smile that does not reach your eyes), it may be time to consider the possibility of social anxiety disorder. It is also important to rule out other medical illnesses, such as hypoglycemia, hyperthyroidism, or a rare disease called "Erythrophobia".
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to see if your excessive blushing falls under the category of social anxiety disorder:
Do you find that you blush excessively even when others are not around? If so, then it is likely that your blushing is caused by psychological factors. Many people who suffer from this type of blushing were once teased or humiliated for their blushing when they were younger. This made them feel extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed about their blushing in general from then on. Thus, they started blushing more automatically without provocation from others. Avoiding blushing in certain situations becomes a way for sufferers to avoid feeling uncomfortable and humiliated, which exacerbates the severity of their blushing.
Do you feel like you blush excessively because you worry excessively about making mistakes or embarrassing yourself? Do you try not to make eye contact with people? Do you have difficulty talking to strangers? Do other people think that you have social anxiety disorder? If so, then there is a good chance that your excessive blushing is caused by psychological factors. Excessive blushing can be caused by generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) as well as social anxiety disorder (SAD).
Conclusion
Before you start treating excessive blushing, it is important to make sure that it is not caused by other physical or mental illnesses. These include hyperthyroidism, a disease called "Erythrophobia", or a type of skin disease known as "Transthyretin Amyloidosis". If you are experiencing any of these diseases, you will experience the excessive blushing alongside other symptoms. So, for example, someone with Erythrophobia would also feel nervousness and distress in addition to the blushing. Someone with thyroid disease would have unexplained weight loss and trouble concentrating in addition to the blushing.