Anxiety & Facial flushing - need help fast

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Unsure82

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Hi All,

As far as i can recall, i started suffering a bit of anxiety after my 26 yr old brother passed away unexpected and suddenly almost 3 yrs ago now. It really shook my self esteem and i think since then i haven't felt 100% at ease in alot of social situations. I have mostly been able to control it, but it seems that whenever i have other stresses going on in my life, these seem to be amplified and therefore i tend to be easily affected by anxiety. I don't deal with my emotions well and i think this is a big part of my problem.

Last week, i felt more anxiety than i have ever felt to the point where it was actually debilitating. I was actually making myself sick. There was no clear explanation for it either. I have had a bit of stress at work and i have also had stress from househunting with my partner (been looking to buy for 6 months and still nothing in our price range)... i guess it was all just a build up.

I am also paranoid at the moment as i feel like i have facial and neck flushing at the drop of a hat. It's erabarrassing and i know that this also fuels my anxiety. Someone at work pointed out that i had gone red in the face last wk. Ofcourse when something like that gets pointed out, i only feel like my face gets even redder and all i want to do is crawl away somewhere and hide! It makes me feel so crap about myself!! This flushing even seems to happen if i cough, laugh, drink alcohol or show any kind of emotion - i hate it!

I really don't know what to do. I started having acupuncture on the weekend and the acupuncturist said i have a lot of heat in my body and has given me herbs to cool my body. I have also booked an appointment with a psychologist to try and breakthrough some of the emotional stuff that makes me feel this way. What i am desperate to change is not to flush soooo easily... it is really killing me and i need to do something about it because it is making me feel like i will lose all respect from the people around me :(

Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated
 
See your doctor.

The beta blocker propanolol can be very effective in stopping this flushing, in very low doese - so side effects are rare.
 
I take a beta blocker for anxiety and it really helps alot. There are different kinRAB of beta blockers. I would talk to your doctor and get a prescription for one.

Trust me it will help a lot.
 
Hi Unsure82,

Although I have read through many health boarRAB on various topics, this is the first time I have felt compelled to respond. I wish I was replying with some helpful advice or answers, but I'm not. I'm writing because I am experiencing something very similar. I have searched online about this before, but never found any comments that were relevant to my situation.

I too had a traumatic event happen 3 yrs ago - my father almost died - and since then I have noticed weird things. The facial redness is THE WORST. It is so disheartening & it almost seems to have a snowball effect. Meaning, that If I think about it, I will go flush just because I'm nervous about going flush & it just makes it worse when someone points it out!! I have always been extremely outgoing & love to socialize & now sometimes I just don't want to leave the house - I fear this will change who I am. And that just makes me really sad.

Anyway, maybe it will comfort you to know that you are not alone - I know reading your post made me feel better. Please, please keep us posted if your docs have anything helpful for you! I wish you the best - as I know just how horrible this can feel.
 
One more thing: you said "This flushing even seems to happen if i cough, laugh, drink alcohol or show any kind of emotion"
I also experience flushing in those SAME scenarios, my first experience was when I was drinking wine, but now all it takes is someone asking me a simple question.
 
Hey Ladies,

I can totally relate and sympathize to every last word you are saying.

I also a traumatic child hood experience (when I was 16, my father almost died and was debilitated from a brain hemmorage) and I took this event very hard. It affected me in many ways - confidence, self esteem, missing a father figure in my life (I used to be very close with my Dad, so this event was very hard on me).

Anyways yes I experienced facial blushing and flushing from the age of about 17 on. And yes when i sneeze or laugh or workout or anything strenious turns my face bright red. Oh and yes it used to be when someone would say good morning to me at the office, or if I dropped some change in the market while paying, or anyone of a million stupid things would set my face on fire.

Oh and how I hated someone pointing out that I was turning red, of course that was like adding fuel to the fire and I would turn a shade of birght shade of red. Of course being a guy, who kinda of thought of himself as a tough guy ( a man's man) this blushing thing was very debilitating to me and my confidence and everything.

After a couple years of dealing with this I started to avoid social situations and dates with girls and events at work and so on.

I used to think if I could just get this blushing thing under control my life would be great and I could face the world and deal with things and so on. I remeraber i used to watch movies and certain scences that the actors would be in would make me turn red and I would wonder how is it they are not blushing.

Just like you said I only had to think about turning red and I would flush. s matter of fact someone could tell me a story about how some guy they talked to turned bright red and even if I was not flushing, something like that could set me off.

Anyways I'm happy to say that these days (Thank God) I don't blush that much at all. Yes sometimes I still turn red from sneezing or whatever. But it does not bother me and nobody seems to care and even if they di make a comment that I;m red (which rarely happens) I just say so what and move on.

I'll never know (but I still do wonder) if I always blushed (like from a younger age than 17) or did this just all happen then or was it always happening but it just never bothered me, did the event with my dad set it off.

The best way to deal with it is this. Nuraber one Exercise, take care of your health, watch what you eat and just in general try to be a healthy and active person. The second thing that helped me was faith in God and I stopped caring so much about what other people thought of me and just worried about what my maker thought. The third thing is just put yourself out there and don't fear. Beleive me I know that is easier said than done and as you can see by my comments I;m sure you can probably relate to everything I;m saying so you must beleive me when I say I know what you are going through.

So if you ever want to get out of this and not let your life be restricted by it, then as hard as it is you are just going to have to put yourself out there and live your life and it may make doe some erabarrsassing moments, but beleive me most of the erabaressement is just in our own minRAB and in reality it is not as bad as you think it is.

So just live your live put yourself in a unconfortable sitautions and don;t worry about the blushing, you turn red so what. So your red big deal (you could be dead) and beleive me in time you will see that you will just not care much anymore about it and you will turn less and less red to where you probably won't blush at all.

Again I now this is way harder to do than I make it seem. But what other options do you have. I promise there is no magic pill, there are some pills like propanol or some other blood pressure meRAB that do help, but its no magic and you will still blush. If you want to cure your just going to have to face it dead on. the only other option is to bury your head in the sand like an ostridge and I know you don't want to do that, even though you may feel like doing that.

Not to show off (just to inspire you). I'm almost 31 today and I run a company with over 25 employee's who report to me daily. I hold daily meeting with my employee and give speeches to all of them, including meeting with my customers, etc.. and I just don't let it bother me, it was really hard but I had to face it and beleive me I had a big ego and tried to make myself out to be some big shot I wasn't which made the whole blushing thing even harder for me to cope with.

Sorry to blab for so long.

God Bless and the best to both of you. Let me know if you have any questions.

Another drug other than propanol you may want to try is Clonidine.:wave:
 
Unsure82.... I started blushing at age 16, just randomly one day.... and almost 10 years later it still happens everyday. For people that do not have this condition, they dont understand what we go through on a daily basis!!! My frienRAB just say "oh its cute, dont worry about it" My mom even says "you're a blushing bride...its just part of your personality"!!! But as you know, it is unbelievably socially debilitating!! I Know Exactly what you're feeling. I saw the doc actually a month ago & she RX'ed me propanolol... a beta-blocker... told me to try it for 1 month. Hasnt worked at all for me. I tryed it because my insurance covers most of it. If it worked, it'd be $10 a month!! But it doesnt. I will say, I have used one product (4yrs ago) that did work the entire month i tried it.....But its a little spendy $50 for a 30 pill bottle... Eredicane!! Everyone is different, it may work for 1 person, but not the next. How our bodies react to medications/vitamins is as different as the person we are, you know? Anywho, I just bought a bulk packaging (6 bottles) of Eredicane (its cheaper if you buy in bulk) because it works for me. the cost is just a small price to pay to help with such a huge life issue for me! I hope this helps...I would say give it a shot...the most that'll happen is it doesnt work for you and you are out $50...But at least you can move on & try something else!!! Right? Good luck!!
 
Hi Everyone,
I am feeling pretty annoyed today. Was at work today and was pretty much feeling pressured by a boss to step forward and agree to doing a presentation with one other person for 35+ people including my bosses boss in August. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh sooo, not my thing!! Tried to get out of it, but starting to feel like scum. It was the boss that volnteered our team to do a presentation and now he is wanting to delegate the speaking duties! There is 4 in our team including the boss that is trying to guilt me in to having to do it.
Am i strange because i don't feel comfortable with it, i don't think i am!!! I have no idea what is even going on anyway and the boss seems to know EVERYTHING!
Not sure what to do... but know that i CAN"T get up and make a fool of myself
 
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