Erythrophobia – a condition in which a person is afraid that his face will turn red or become covered with red spots in public. Found in 0.2% of the population. Often seriously complicates communication with others and business partners. It is especially significant for patients whose profession involves publicity or active communication with people.
Specialists at the Leto clinic provide qualified treatment for erythrophobia using medicinal and non-medicinal techniques. You can make an appointment by phone 8(969)060-93-93.
Causes
The face is actively supplied with blood. A huge number of small vessels pass through the subcutaneous tissue and muscles. The muscles are located superficially and are fixed at one end directly to the skin. Because of these features, even a small rush of blood is enough to change complexion.
From time to time, noticeable redness of the face occurs in all people. Provoking factors are high or low ambient temperature, significant physical activity, strong emotions (excitement, embarrassment, shame). In patients with erythrophobia, the face turns red even with minor experiences or at rest.
The reason for the vivid physiological reaction is the individual characteristics of autonomic regulation - increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system. Repeated, untimely or inappropriate episodes of facial flushing provoke anxiety and anticipation.
Emotions cause increased production of adrenaline, which stimulates the sympathetic nervous system. The patient blushes. Negative emotions are “fixed” and repeated, which causes an increase in episodes of hyperemia and generalization, that is, the spread of a pathological reaction to an increasing number of life situations.
Symptoms
As the name implies, the main symptom of erythrophobia is redness of the skin during any, even the weakest, experiences. A person feels that red spots are about to appear on his face, and worries about this, fearing that others will see them. This increases anxiety. Over time, nervous exhaustion develops, due to which the individual experiences anxiety even when nothing is happening. He's just constantly waiting to get excited and blush.
As erythrophobia develops, its manifestations intensify. The following symptoms appear:
- ever-increasing anxiety;
- panic and uncontrollable fear;
- trembling in hands;
- chills, cold sweat;
- difficulty breathing, shortness of breath;
- cardiopalmus;
- headache;
- dizziness;
- loss of connection with reality.
Eventually a panic attack develops. With erythrophobia, it only intensifies the experience and makes the manifestation of the disorder more pronounced. Sometimes the internal tension becomes so strong that a person simply cannot cope with it and faints.
Symptoms
The main manifestation of erythrophobia is considered to be facial hyperemia or the appearance of spots on the face. In some cases, redness spreads to the neck and décolleté. Some patients feel hot during an attack. External changes cause significant mental suffering and negatively affect self-esteem and social adaptation.
Not knowing how to get rid of erythrophobia, patients avoid crowded places and choose specialties that do not involve communication with other people. Choosing a partner for them is associated with enormous difficulties, since first personal meetings are always accompanied by excitement, which causes severe facial hyperemia.
Any contacts can present difficulties : traveling on public transport, talking with a salesperson in a store, meeting friends in a cafe or on the street.
Restrictions in all areas of life cause the development of secondary mental disorders: depression, social phobia. Patients with erythrophobia may experience suicidal thoughts and intentions due to a feeling of hopelessness and hopelessness.
What is erythrophobia
The name is derived from two Greek words: ἐρυθρός, which translates as “red”, and φόβος, which translates as “fear”. Erythrophobia is an irrational, panicky fear of blushing in public. For example, during a public speech or during one-on-one communication, at the dinner table, etc. The more often this happened, the greater the fear, complexes, and uncertainty of the individual.
Interesting! Erythrophobia is sometimes called stress flushing. And in medicine, the redness itself is called hyperemia. In medicine, this is called blushing syndrome.
Diagnostics
The diagnosis is determined by a psychologist or psychotherapist and is based on information obtained during a survey and external examination. During the diagnostic process, it is important to distinguish erythrophobia from other conditions accompanied by similar symptoms: hot flashes during menopause, carcinoid syndrome, manifestation of rosacea, the body’s reaction to certain medications.
To exclude other causes of hyperemia, patients' faces are examined by an endocrinologist, dermatologist, oncologist and gynecologist. The scope of laboratory and instrumental diagnostic procedures is determined taking into account the identified violations.
Getting rid of phobias
Most phobias occur when mood is low. Experts often prescribe antidepressants to “phobics.” But you don’t have to take pills, but improve your mood with the help of special techniques and methods that you will find in this article. If phobias develop against the background of low self-esteem, you must, first of all, fight shyness and uncertainty.
Psychotherapy and functional training are helpful in treating obsessive fears. For example, those suffering from claustrophobia are “trained” to travel on the subway, buses, elevators, and at first the patients travel accompanied by medical specialists; and then, having mastered some techniques of mental self-regulation, they ride in the elevator independently.
Love your fear
The vast majority of us try in every possible and impossible way to drive away our fears, but more often than not we only drive them deeper. However, there is a paradoxical, but really quite effective method of influencing your own anxious experiences, your fears: you just need to try... to love your fear!
But before you start treating this not very pleasant feeling in this way, you should first realize and understand that you can use the energy of fear (namely fear, not phobia) to solve some of your problems and even increase your own activity! And this is because fear should be perceived as a signal indicating where you need to pay your attention.
Remember how, as a child, you were afraid to walk through some wasteland (or, even more so, through a cemetery) at night? You were tormented by your “cowardice”; you wanted not only to appear, but also to be strong. And then one day you finally walked this road through a wasteland (or through a cemetery) and felt not only a noticeable weakening of your fear, but also that you became calmer and freer! Yes, you walked with quiet, almost inaudible steps, and you were hiding behind bushes (or tombstones), but you managed to walk this difficult path! After which, for a long time, we felt like winners, filled with joyful determination to achieve new successes and achievements!
In fact, most people are often afraid of very real things: illness, loneliness, loss of property, punishment, change, the future, defeat, danger, death, contact with other people, and they also fear the inability to solve problems, not meeting expectations and even being unrecognized . And such fears do not always develop on real grounds. But most importantly, any type of fear most often mentally drives people into a negative, “dark” future. And in order to return to the present, in order to objectively assess everything that is happening to you, everything that can generate fear in you, you can use the following fairly simple techniques. Here is one of the most effective:
Balloon breathing
An intensive balloon breathing technique can help reduce your fears.
Close your eyes and imagine a light ping pong ball in front of you. Inhale - and this ball slowly and smoothly rises from the center of your stomach to your throat. Exhale - and the ball also smoothly falls down. Inhale again - the ball slowly and smoothly rises up. Exhale - it gently and smoothly falls down.
And so on for 3-5 minutes, after which your fear will begin to weaken and will no longer be so “scary”!
Let off “extra steam”!
Don’t keep your own experiences to yourself, do everything to let them out - like releasing excess steam from a boiler so that it doesn’t explode. This is the best way to fight obsessive fears - phobias - that are trying to enslave your consciousness and your feelings.
There are also many ways to do this. Here are some of them:
1. Verbalization of phobias
Some “phobics” intuitively understand that they can reduce the degree of obsessive fears by talking about them. But if a person tries to make fun of them and even make fun of himself, the “coward,” then the relief will be more pronounced and more lasting.
2. Visionization of phobias
Write down each of your fears on separate pieces of paper. On one of them it will be written: “I’m afraid of ridicule of my appearance,” this note should be placed or hung near the largest mirror in the apartment. A piece of paper with the note: “I’m embarrassed and afraid to talk to strangers on the phone and call them” should be placed near the telephone. And a piece of paper on which it is written, for example, “I’m afraid of insects” is best placed next to a dried beetle or butterfly (they are sold not only in pet stores). Several times a day, when your eyes come across these “paper confessions,” stage comic mini-performances: laugh and mock the phone, a bug, or look in the mirror and make faces at yourself. Gradually, the intensity of your anxious and phobic experiences will begin to noticeably weaken, and then they may disappear altogether.
3. Replaying the situation
If, for example, you are afraid of an upcoming visit to the clinic because you are afraid of injections, you should not isolate yourself and your apartment “with all the keys and locks.” Try to imagine that it is not you, but one of your friends or relatives who is planning a visit to this medical institution. Laugh, mock HIS fears. And then try to model your trip to the clinic as a very safe and harmless event.
4. Poetry – for phobias!
Try to compose some self-affirming and ironic saying. For example: “I’m not afraid of clinics - I’ll come to the appointment with confidence!”
5. Step over the problem!
Well, if this kind of fear really “gets” you, if you can’t hide from them anywhere, then don’t be like a frightened little animal - don’t run away from your problems! After all, fear only wants this. And if in nature, in the animal world, this kind of reinsurance is often simply necessary, then in the human community it is already superfluous! Therefore, it is better to use one of the special techniques of NLP (neurolinguistic programming). It is quite simple, but very effective. Be alone. Stand facing the middle of the room, imagining that the problem tormenting you is in this room at some distance from you. Then go in its direction and STEP on the problem, and then step over it. Repeat this technique several times. At first, you may notice that your heart will gradually speed up its beating as you approach the “enemy”, i.e. to the problem you identified. But when you step over it and then return to your original place, you will most likely feel a slight blush on your cheeks, but your soul will become a little calmer.
Repeat this exercise several times a day. And soon you will feel that you are already able to step over your problem without any “strain.” And it itself will gradually begin to seem more and more trivial and easily overcome to you.
Cost of services
| CONSULTATIONS OF SPECIALISTS | |
| Initial consultation with a psychiatrist (60 min.) | 6,000 rub. |
| Repeated consultation | 5,000 rub. |
| Consultation with a psychiatrist-narcologist (60 min.) | 5,000 rub. |
| Consultation with a psychologist | 3,500 rub. |
| Consultation with Gromova E.V. (50 minutes) | 12,000 rub. |
| PSYCHOTHERAPY | |
| Psychotherapy (session) | 7,000 rub. |
| Psychotherapy (5 sessions) | 30,000 rub. |
| Psychotherapy (10 sessions) | 60,000 rub. |
| Group psychotherapy (3-7 people) | 3,500 rub. |
| Psychotherapy session with E.V. Gromova (50 minutes) | 12,000 rub. |
| TREATMENT IN A HOSPITAL | |
| Ward for 4 persons | 10,000 rub./day |
| Ward for 3 persons | 13,000 rub./day |
| Ward 1 bed VIP | 23,000 rub./day |
| Individual post | 5,000 rub. |
| PETE | 15,000 rub./day |
This list does not contain all prices for services provided by our clinic. The full price list can be found on the “Prices” , or by calling: 8(969)060-93-93. Initial consultation is FREE!
Men's and women's fears
Fears have become extremely diverse, affecting not so much weak and fragile women as representatives of the seemingly stronger sex. At the same time, men are more likely to have a fear of blushing or sweating, a fear of speaking in front of an audience, and also a fear of heart disease.
Men are increasingly afraid of female bosses. This fear robs them of confidence and can give them an inferiority complex.
Some men have become wary of advertising, which increasingly features attractive, muscular male competitors.
Modern men are also afraid of women with a strong character, strong relationships and at the same time they are afraid that they will be abandoned.
Women are more likely to fear open spaces, fear of going crazy, or getting cancer.
Treatment at home
Among the non-traditional means, the following methods can be distinguished:
1. Mint decoction. You need to chop 1 tablespoon of mint leaves and pour a glass of boiling water over it. The resulting composition is kept in a water bath for 15 minutes, and then cooled and drunk half a glass in the morning and evening. 2. Hardening. It is necessary to douse yourself with cool water every morning, gradually lowering its temperature. In the evening a contrast shower is shown. 3. Yoga, breathing exercises. These methods will increase self-confidence and reduce unwanted heartbeat.
It is necessary to exclude massage, hot baths and compresses.
Fear of blushing leads to a deterioration in the quality of life and the development of depression. Therefore, it is necessary to treat it completely using modern methods of therapy. It is worth contacting a psychotherapist who will help you find the essence of the problem and relieve unpleasant symptoms.
How to get rid
You can eliminate the fear of blushing in front of people with the help of medications, surgery, effects on the psyche and folk methods.
Working with a psychotherapist is considered the most effective. It helps to get rid of the true causes of erythrophobia. A professional specialist can determine the degree of development of the phobia and choose the best way to solve the problem.
With the help of psychocorrection, you can learn to control your emotions and behavior, and calmly react to various situations.
Treatment for erythrophobia includes cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps eliminate bad thoughts and beliefs and changes the type of thinking. This is a very subtle method that requires a person’s conscious desire to be cured of the fear of blushing.
The following drugs are used as medications to combat anxiety and eliminate vasodilation:
1. Beta blockers. 2. Tranquilizers. 3. Alpha blockers.
Often the doctor prescribes a complex of vitamins .
Thus, ascorbic acid has vasoconstrictor and anti-edema effects, rutin reduces the fragility of capillaries and strengthens them, vitamin K reduces their permeability. Such products are allowed to be used only after consultation with a specialist. Self-administration of medications may cause undesirable consequences.
