[DenisDonnacha]

I know it sounds weird, but the fear of blushing is called Ereuthrophobia, and I have it bad. One of the main reasons I fear social situations is because I'm afraid I'll make a fool of myself and when I do that I blush... when I blush I get even more nervous and blush some more. So now I don't do a lot of things because basically... I'm afraid of getting red cheeks.
Does anyone have advice on how to get over this?

[ECHOES]

Learning about your fears that drive this response would be very helpful.
Are you in therapy?

[DenisDonnacha]

Originally Posted by ECHOES

Learning about your fears that drive this response would be very helpful.
Are you in therapy?

no I'm not in therapy and never have been, I don't really know how to tell my parents that I think there's something wrong.

[shezbut]

I've always struggled with blushing easily and intensely. I've hated it!

I do recommend talking with your parents and a doctor about it. I developed rosacea in my 30's, but have been told (by some rosacea experts that send newletters) that the intense blushing is an early warning sign that rosacea will be a part of one's life.

The sooner it's recognized (and treated), the better! Symtoms can and do become permanent as the years pass. So, keep your eyes peeled to prevent the flushing from always staying present.

[ECHOES]

It sounds like the fear is a fear of making a fool out of yourself. What does that mean to you? How would that work?

In a situation where you conclude that you've made a fool out of yourself, is that judgement coming from others or from yourself?

We all blunder sometimes socially. I would guess that most of the time what we are thinking of as something that makes us look bad is not even noticed by others. We judge and shame ourselves and the blushing comes from the shame.

I had a problem with blushing because I felt guilty. As long as I can remember. In school, if the teacher talked to the entire class about an issue, I felt like it was really all about me and the teacher was, for some reason, just not singling me out. Later in life, on jobs, when a department was receiving criticism or being blamed for something, I was likely to blush because I was so programmed to feel guilty that I reacted as if I was the guilty party. At that point I was in therapy so I was able to talk to my therapist about it. We spent some time practicing differentiating between feeling guilty and being guilty, between shame of 'being' that was part of my growing up and shame inflicted on myself through the internalized parent. When I was made aware of how this worked, it took some practicing but eventually it became something I could stop if it began, that I was in control of stopping because I was in control of it starting in the first place.
It rarely happens now, so I guess the reprogramming was successful.

[DenisDonnacha]

I know I should tell my parents about how I feel and go to someone, but we don't have that type of relationship and I don't feel comfortable talking about these issues with them. I would talk to someone in my college but we don't have a counsellor any more because my college has become partnered with another college nearby and a lot of services still haven't been put in place. We don't have a chaplin, counsellor, or any of these types of services right now.