# Ereuthrophobia (Fear of blushing)



## Spring (Feb 4, 2008)

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## katielou (Feb 5, 2008)

Hi, I am new. Thought I would jump in on this one. Blushing is one of my main problems.
Getting embarrassed about it creates more blushing. I like to participate in things, but I don't like too much attention drawn to me. Such as when it comes to saying my name in front of a crowd that I don't know.


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## Spring (Feb 4, 2008)

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## VerbalHologram (Feb 19, 2007)

yeaa...i suffer a great deal from ereuthrophobia and have been unable to find cures or an affective treatment..in all honesty the one thing that helps me is just reasuring yourself how strong you are and try not to let it bother you..


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## a989chris (Dec 12, 2006)

Before my anxiety really recovered somewhat, I had one of the worst fears of blushing. Despite internal prayers and pleas, it would always appear, especially on hot and humid days. Xanax seemed to help control the blushing, I believe other benzos do as well.


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## VerbalHologram (Feb 19, 2007)

i've heard from a lotta people that benzos help....but getting benzos perscribed seems next to impossible..


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## korendir (Jul 6, 2007)

deleted(double post)


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## korendir (Jul 6, 2007)

I keep hearing how Benzos help with things but I can't bring myself to jump into addiction. I smoked for alot of years, thankfully thats over n done with(thnx to Alan Carr's book). The hardest thing for me as a 30yr old man regarding blushing was not knowing why I blush and how it affected every area of my life from work to socializing. 
Recently I became aware of shame in regards to social anxiety which for me began with religious indoctrination and severe physical and emotional bullying in high school, made worse by the fact that I'm 6'4 and physically very fit, in other words people never assume that could be why I'd blush.

Shame occurs as a result of exposure to humiliation either physical or emotional in a situation where we are not prepared to experience it, usually in early childhood and usually repeatedly. These experiences become associated to situations or triggers that cause us to employ avoidance behaviors and substance abuse in order to escape or avoid these emotions. We become very sensitive to rejection and criticism as a result.

Personally I've found it very hard to express my emotional and physical needs as a man because of these repeated experiences, but knowing they exist and how to overcome them is the first step in ensuring their eradication through various cognitive and exposure methods. Unfortunately people use drugs to mask their unwanted emotions so that they can feel uninhibited by them instead of learning to reverse the stressors and triggers that bring them about.

The great thing with knowing why I blush/sweat/feel shame etc is that I now know not only that it isn't my fault but that if I visualize, (e.g NLP anchoring/ CBT etc) and gradually expose myself to these situations the fear and shame I feel will retreat Permanently, instead of waiting there until I come off some drug.


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## AcidicJuiceMotel (Jan 8, 2008)

I find the same thing, but it comes and goes for me. I'll have periods of a few months where my blushing is quite bad, and periods when it goes away. I find it gets bad when major changes in my life happen (moving, new courses at school, etc), and when I meet new people. I usually blush any time that I see someone in a different place than I expect to see them (ie: seeing someone I go to school with at a restaurant). It's worst when it's guys, too. My mindset is, "I can't blush right now, because if I do, so-and-so will think I like them", and that makes it worse. I also blush when other people talk about having crushes, because I think, "If I blush now, people will think I like either the person talking, or the person they're talking about." It's so stupid. I'm fair-skinned, so it's very obvious when I blush. I don't know why I'm so afraid of people thinking/knowing I like them, even in a platonic way. I must have some sort of shame associated with loving people, because I also have issues saying "I love you" and asking people to hang out. 

Sorry, that was alot of my baggage in one post.


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## killerwasp (Feb 27, 2008)

This is something that I've struggled with a lot. But I found an audiobook that helped me a lot with this problem. If you are interested, just google the name Gary Ambrosh.

I didn't post a link to the website because I'm new and I wasn't sure if that was verboten.

Basically, Ambrosh says that the fear of blushing develops because:

1)we care WAY TOO MUCH about what other people think of us

2)we RESIST blushing. The more we fight it, the more we unwittingly bring it on ourselves. It's a paradox.

If you want to not have such a problem with a blushing phobia, you need to not resist blushing. The irony is that the less you care whether or not you blush, the less likely you are to blush, and the less intense the blush typically will be.

Today I had to face a situation at work that I had been dreading, largely because I was afraid that I might blush. But I went into the situation with an attitude of "If I blush, so what? If I don't blush, so what?" and it went fine.


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## Nerual9 (Nov 27, 2010)

Someone please help me with this problem


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## rockyraccoon (Dec 13, 2010)

I blush a lot and sometimes when I am alone I will blush just thinking about blushing. I was on anti-depressant called nortriptyline that for whatever reason helped reduce my blushing. However, it didn't work as anti-depressant so my doctor took me off it.


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## thenobodiesmm (Oct 4, 2012)

Im 16 years old and ive always had blushing problems. I dont get involved in things were i know that ill have to be with other people. I know others say to be strong and believe in yourself, but that takes a lot of time and help. Im very VERY anti-social because of it, knowing its a really phobia makes me feel not so bad. Granite I have plenty of other problems but i can honestly say that it makes life so much more hard and less enjoyable.


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## Meier (Jan 27, 2014)

I have been struggling with blushing since the age of 20. That's many years ago. I've tried many things over the years; hypnosis, benzos, antidepressants, CBT. I've worked through many things but the blushing remains. One thought I had after a recent painful blushing episode: I've always thought that my blushing was caused by shame. Now I'm leaning toward the shameful feelings being brought on by the blushing. I truly believe that my blushing is pathologic and caused by a hyperactive sympathetic system. I don't blush from shame, I feel shame after I blush. I believe the blushing creates the feeling rather than the other way around. That is why it is pathologic. Ruthless teasing about my blushing when I was a young adult is what brought on the phobia about blushing. Then the Social Anxiety Disorder. I'm not giving up on finding an answer here, even if the simple answer is to let anyone know who calls attn to my blushing that it is a neurological disorder that can't be controlled and that I don't find it funny.


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## IntrovertsUnite (Aug 6, 2014)

I guess one way to think of it is you have the best ever "fake or real" friend detector. If someone is a genuine person they wont make a big deal out of it. I used to suffer terribly from blushing phobia but it didn't seem to be known about back in the 1990s. People used to take a "oh get over it" attitude. I preferred to call it "going red" because blushing sounds so coy and elegant. Trying to describe how it feels to people who don't understand is like the feeling that you've wet yourself in public (it really is that distressing!). What helped me was a combination of being able to wear a concealer by Mary K that went on like Elizabeth I paste and going to university and having to go out and talk to people even though I was what I viewed as a hideous red colour. Embrace the red and wear it like its war paint, you are all beautiful people. And personally if someone is going to mock me because I have thin Scottish type skin, that's pretty much verging on racism.


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## keeks (Aug 13, 2010)

I used to have a fear of blushing at the wrong time.. It's not so bad anymore, in fact, I hardly worry about it. If I blush, I blush.. I just let the feeling come and go and move on. If anyone says anything, I guess I'll just explain and laugh about it. Or tell them.. I have a fear of blushing  ...It goes along with the Pure-O OCD.. Innaproppriate times are around other women, women's boyfriends/husbands, family members and children.


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