Blushing why it happens and how hypnotherapy can help

March 2nd, 2011

Blushing happens to all of us sometimes. Fortunately for most of us it happens rarely and is soon forgotten. For a significant minority it becomes an on-going problem. The intensity of the problem varies from a nuisance to something that interferes with everyday life on a daily basis.

So why does blushing occur and what can be done to overcome it? There are two reasons why people have blushing problems. Children blush more frequently than adults. Most people who have blushing problems as adults have experienced a situation where their blushing has been pointed out to others usually during their childhood.

In other words an adult or other probably older child present has said “oh, look s/he is going red”. This increased the person’s feeling of embarrassment which set up a vicious circle of worrying about blushing which caused it to happen more often, which caused even more worry and so on. Once this type of vicious circle becomes established it can be difficult to break.

Another less common type of blushing problem occurs because of “illogical guilt”. What I mean by illogical guilt is guilt out of all proportion to what caused it in the first place. For example a child is given sweets and told to share them with his brothers and sisters but eats all the sweets himself. At the age of say six this could be a significant event in his mind causing strong feelings of guilt. At the age of twenty five he is unlikely to recall this incident at a conscious mental level. However at an unconscious mental level we never forget anything. So an incident of this type could be fuelling a blushing problem.    

Blushing responds well to hypnotherapy treatment. The two types of blushing require a different approach. Treatment for blushing were illogical guilt is not present requires suggestions to build the individuals confidence often referred to as “ego strengthening” together with a suggestion that deals directly with the blushing. This is a suggestion to the effect that it is happening less and less often and that the client is worrying about it less and less. This reverses the vicious circle built up when the individual started to worry about blushing and replaces it with a beneficial circle.

When illogical guilt is present this needs to be explored and dealt with so that the client can see that his/her feelings of guilt were out of all proportion to what actually occurred.  

Treatment is generally completed within a few weeks. Most clients experience a reduction in blushing within the first couple of sessions and most go on to completely overcome the problem.