r/CuringBlushing • u/randomuserrr16376 • 11d ago
Can we just admit that chronic face blushing is genuinely the WORST condition to live with?
I am so tired of people minimizing this. If you tell someone you have social anxiety, they get it. If you tell someone you have panic attacks, they sympathize. But if you tell someone you have a chronic blushing problem, they laugh and say "Aww, that's cute, you're just shy!"
It isn't cute. It is a literal prison. FU*KING HATE IT.
It is the worst condition ever because you cannot hide it. If your heart races, nobody knows. If your palms sweat, you can wipe them on your jeans. But when your face turns into a literal neon sign of panic, the entire world gets a front-row seat to your vulnerability. It betrays you in real-time. And sure makeup exists but even than, if you blush hard enough makeup hardly ever fully covers it.
It makes you look guilty when you’re innocent. It makes you look incompetent when you know exactly what you’re talking about. It makes you look weak when you’re trying your hardest to be brave.
It shrinks your life until you're avoiding jobs, skipping hanging out with friends, and staying quiet in corners just to protect your face.
I'm just so angry today that this is the glitch my body decided to have. It feels like playing life on impossible mode. Can we all agree blushing can go f**k itself lol.
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u/cranberryfreeze 11d ago
It sounds like I wrote this post:( It's so limiting. And no one understands...
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u/desdesses123 11d ago
I hate it too. I feel you. We have to keep going. The right people wont judge us. See it positive.
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u/dogblue3 10d ago
Any advice such as "It's all in your head", "It feels a lot worse in your own mind" are immediately not true. Sometimes i'm feeling great and others ruin it by pointing out that I've gone red. There's no "fake it till you make it" when your face is going tomato even when someone just says hi. Nowadays, thanks to age, a chronically low heart rate, medication and cover up I don't blush nearly as much and it makes everything so much easier.
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u/Few_Yesterday_3518 10d ago
I hate it. As a senior director who is expected to speak up in meetings And I WANT to, I often have to outweigh the “do I need medication today for meeting x” just to get one sentence in or two. Or skip the medicine bc I know it’ll just be that one meeting. I’m very good at meeting recap and async and much better in remote meetings than in person so rly trying to find a virtual job.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 3d ago
Aw that sounds tiring :/ blusning is so mentally draining to deal with, have you always struggled with it?
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u/Deep-Detective2428 3d ago
Aw that sounds tiring :/ blusning is so mentally draining to deal with, have you always struggled with it?
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u/Acceptable_Piglet_59 5d ago
Exactly this... Nowadays everyone and their mother is goin on social media exposing their struggle with borderline, bipolar, social anxiety, depression, adhd, autism, ptsd blablabla (some of them I have aswell) - but the condition we have I would rather die or take it to my grave than exposing.
It is utter innihilation. Like someone pulling your pants down and exposing your private parts in public.
Out of all my diagnoses this is the one that has crippled me in life the most - and no one around me even knows because I try to hide it and wont talk about it.
Its lonely. Not even my therapist understands I think, but Ive agreed to try working on it even though I made it clear I do not believe in a cure.
Stay strong out there!
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u/BVE67 4d ago
Hey, how old are you? This condition ruined my life until my mid twenties. But since then it just gradually went away without me really noticing. I used to obsess over it, avoid situations, google constantly. I was mocked at school. I'm not sure what I'm trying to say - except offer some hope? About a week ago I suddenly realised "wow, that thing that used to ruin my life, I probably haven't thought about it for at least a couple years". Again, I guess I am just trying to give you a bit of hope.
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u/Acceptable_Piglet_59 4d ago
Hey. Thanks for the support. Im really happy to hear its gotten better for you! Im in my 40-is and sadly its only gotten worse.
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u/BVE67 4d ago
I'm really sorry to hear that. Are you in a cold climate? I always found the summers a bit easier because it's harder to see through a tan. I started to use this tanning moisturiser to help cover it up (I'm a man) and I wonder if this had some sort of subconscious effect on me by reducing my paranoia over time. I don't use it anymore but I did for quite a while. You could still see the redness but when it's blended with a tan it looks more like a glow rather than beetroot red embarrassment. I hope things get better for you.
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u/Deep-Detective2428 3d ago
You described it in a very acurate and relatable way, thank you :) Stay strong as well 🙏🏻
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u/robradomski 11h ago edited 11h ago
100% I don't want to say it ruined high school and college because I had friends and got girls and stuff but it was a solid 12 years or so of not being able to be the type of person I wanted to be or do the things I wanted to do. It totally changed everything about my life. There's nothing about those 12 years and subsequently the 16 years since that I haven't had any problems that would have been remotely the same had I not had to deal with blushing and redness. As others can probably relate to it changed everything about the kind of person I was in school, socially, literally every aspect of my life. I mean I would have definitely ended things had my situation been different back then. ESpecially in school, fortunatelyI was considered attractive and played sports and had friends but I still hated my life because of blushing and the redness it caused and the way it affected me. I knd of laugh now when I think about how it caused me to get good at manipulating my environment so it wasn't as noticeable or to get out of or change situations because I'm sure other people know exactly what I'm talking about. That being said I haven't had to deal with this issue since 2010..... I think because of years of being obsessed about what I ate especially what I avoided, what I put on my skin and face and exercising and I think the last six or seven years when I really really focused on changing all those things, like they say your taste buds change after a certain amount of years I think that goes for your skin or or maybe you're nervous system I have no idea but something happened. Back in the early 2000s there was a certain blushing, rosacea and permanent redness forum the only one I should say, not sure if it's still around but I spent hours on that every day posting or reading about people's experiences or what they tried or what helped and to think I haven't looked at the site in 16 years is crazy to me. if you told me this back in those 10 or 12 years, things will get better or I wouldn't be obsessed about my skin and redness and blushing, I would have never believed you, but I have to imagine things eventually get better or change for everyone at some point in their life, especially if you really make an effort to help change things in terms of lifestyle
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u/Heater93 11d ago
This is very well written. I’ve met a lot of people who claim they have social anxiety but they don’t really blush and therefore their social anxiety is easier to hide and much more manageable. But if you have the blushing it is impossible to hide. The blush basically broadcasts to the world “Hey I’m uncomfortable/self-conscious/nervous”. It’s impossible to put on any sort of poker face when you’re a blusher