Erythrophobia – morbid fear of turning red

Sometimes people with the problem of blushing, known as erythrophobia, are brought to the beauty salon. It is worth getting to know better what the person affected by this problem is experiencing. It will be easier to help him or her not only aesthetically, by recommending treatments, but also psychologically.

 

What is erythrophobia?

Erythrophobia (Latin: erythrophobia) is a morbid fear of blushing classified by psychiatrists as one of the social phobias. Erythrophobia is medically harmless to the patient. However, because of the intense shame accompanying the phenomenon of paroxysmal blushing, it often results in additional mental balance problems. It usually begins during adolescence, when the young person is forming his or her personality, asking himself or herself the first questions of ‘who he or she is’ and ‘who he or she wants to be’. Very often, his environment does not provide him with sufficient security and acceptance, then a distorted self-image, low self-esteem, shyness and uncontrolled blushing arises. This usually manifests itself in social situations, which in critical cases can lead to avoidance.

 

Eternal blushing

A person with erythrophobia feels constantly judged, feels that all eyes are on them, then they blush and actually draw the attention of other people. The circle closes. It should be mentioned that in the old days, such a disease entity did not exist. It was in good taste for a maiden to blush; it showed the vulnerability and shyness of the woman. The times of overconfidence, NLP and assertiveness training not only do not tolerate the possibility of being a sensitive and secretive, insecure person, but in fact absolutely negate such attitudes, making people who blush from excess emotion feel unaccepted and socially inadequate. One forum participant described his experience as follows:

“Sometimes I feel like some kind of freak, I think why am I so stressed all the time, why can’t I just relax? no change of mindset works for me, when I want to say something, even in the company of people I know, I immediately get burnt from the inside and my face is all red, I feel hot as if the environment is 100 degrees.”.

This is usually how long-standing problems start, for which there is no simple prescription.

 

Therapies with a psychologist

Psychologists recommend a variety of therapies, sedatives. Unfortunately, these are often ineffective. There can be many reasons for the disorder. Some point to unrealistic demands placed on oneself or one’s parents, perfectionism and too much focus on oneself. Suppose a young girl, in front of a paper, says to herself: “what does it matter how it comes out, after all it’s only a paper”. “it must be a breakthrough speech that will take me to the top of my career”. And her parents, instead of asking: “did you knock the teacher’s socks off with your brilliant speech” will ask “how was school, something funny happened?”. Unfortunately, much of the problem here is caused by the environment, which quickly notices the deviation from the norm. Otherness or brooding, which in pop-culture reality is the lack of automated responses to the social situations at hand. Unfortunately, children and young people are the most cruel in denying this otherness. This is because they themselves do not want to belong to these ‘others’ and thus struggle for acceptance.

 

Emotions on the face

People who blush, after years of struggling with their problem, often no longer distinguish which emotions are accompanying the incident. They merge them into frustration. The physiological symptom of fear is blanching, as it is accompanied by blood flow out of the blood vessels. On the other hand, when blushing, the opposite is the case. Blood vessels fill up with blood in situations of excessive excitement, whether joy, anger or rage. These are emotions of greater intensity than sadness or any other shade of melancholy. Shyness and hiding emotions cause the person blushing to boil from the inside instead of saying out loud what they are feeling, getting angry or admitting that they are upset by the situation. Admitting one’s shortcomings or weaknesses is unfortunately no longer a way of being honest with another person.

 

Erythrophobia in the cosmetic surgery

The fact that a person with erythrophobia has wandered into a surgery means that he or she has decided to fight against his or her existing reactions. On the other hand, she sees hope for improvement in cosmetic treatments. Certainly, a great deal of emotion has cost her this decision, and the mere crossing of the surgery door causes further emotions. The beautician, knowing what fears a person with a phobia of blushing faces, should create an atmosphere of ease, relaxation and acceptance. Visits to the beauty parlour can also be a form of therapy. It can be assumed that a shy person will be ashamed of his or her body, so the beautician should make a special effort to respect these boundaries.