Blushing: When a Common Reaction Becomes a Problem
Physiologically, blushing is a harmless reaction, although in combination with certain skin diseases (like rosacea), it can cause painful tingling sensations. Blushing becomes a psychological problem, however, when a frequent blusher becomes socially phobic (intensely fearful) about blushing. People with fear of blushing experience the blush as exceptionally distressing and anxiety provoking. Out of fear of blushing, they avoid social situations and are willing to accept severe negative consequences of that avoidance. Others experience very high discomfort in normally enjoyable situations.
What Is Blushing?
Physiologically, blushing results from an increase in superficial facial blood volume: blood vessels in the skin dilate, and red blood cells color the skin red. The area of skin that can blush is usually restricted to the face, ears, and neck, but in some rare cases, the upper body blushes. This dilation of the blood vessels is involuntary, and it is not absolutely clear what mechanisms are responsible for it. Pharmacological blocking experiments, however, have demonstrated that blushing involves the beta-adrenoceptors. The beta-adrenoceptors in the skin of the face are activated when the autonomic nervous system signals emotional arousal. Thus, stress can increase the activity in the autonomic nervous system.
A baby’s skin is able to flush when the baby is born. This is very important since blood vessels in the skin are essential for dissipating heat. Blushing starts at three years of age. At that age we become aware that others can observe us. Most people, however, do not remember blushing before the age of five. Normally, the intensity and frequency of blushing peaks in teenage years and decreases with age. However, even very old people can blush, and the amount of blushing varies greatly between individuals.
Frequent Blushing
Some people blush frequently, in a variety of situations. Just meeting a friend unexpectedly in a supermarket may cause blushing. It has yet to be determined why some people blush more frequently than others. One explanation suggests that fair-skinned people blush more easily than dark-skinned people. But, as a recent study at the University of California, Davis, showed, lighter skin coloration explains only differences in the visibility of blushing, not differences in the occurrence of the phenomenon itself. People of all skin (Afro-Americans, Asians, Hispanics and Whites) report blushing. Furthermore, an Australian researcher demonstrated that variations in the density of alpha- or beta-adrenoceptors in facial blood vessels cannot explain differences in blushing propensity. It is therefore most likely that psychological, not physiological, differences
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