What does blushing have to do with anorexia?

What does blushing have to do with anorexia?

Have you ever seen a picture of someone who has been suffering from anorexia for a long time? The image usually reflects someone who is truly skin and bones and yet continues to starve themselves. It is difficult for someone who has never had anorexia to look at such a picture and understand what the person in the picture looks like in the mirror and sees a fat person who still needs to lose weight.

Without understanding the psychological aspects of anorexia, it is impossible for someone who sees themselves closely to understand how distorted an anorexic's body image is. Because much of anorexia is an obsessive and overwhelming fear of being overweight, those affected develop a distorted body image. They really don't see their bodies as they really are. If you tell an anorexic person that they are too thin, the person will believe that you are lying to them.

Someone with problematic blushing behavior probably won't immediately recognize the connection between blushing problem and anorexia, but there is an important similarity between the two conditions. Problem blushing behavior also has psychological ties. Because people who have trouble blushing tend to be overly sensitive to other people's opinions, they blush even more every time they feel like they are being judged.

If you have trouble blushing, you know the overwhelming feeling of shame that hits you when you feel a blush creeping up your neck and face. But here's a question you should ask yourself. Do you know what your blush looks like to someone else? Do you think you look like a sunburnt crab to the other person? Or is it possible that your blushing really isn't as bad as you think?

Before you answer this question, remember that an 80-pound anorexic honestly believes she is fat. She looks in the mirror and sees an obese person. She thinks that when you look at her, blushing or not, you see someone who is morbidly obese.

How do you know what you look like to other people? When my friend found out that my blushing problem was at an all-time high in my audiobook Blushing Free when I first met her, she was surprised. She didn't even notice what I thought were the worst episodes of excessive blushing I'd experienced in my life.

Just as anorexics have an excessive fear of being overweight that distorts their body image, problem blushers have an excessive fear of blushing that distorts their perception of what blushing does to their appearance. I'm not saying that problem blushers don't turn red too often. As a former problem blusher, I know that problem blushing is real. What I'm saying is that as a problem blush, your perception of what the problem is doing to your appearance is worse than reality.

As a problem blusher, a great first step towards this stop blushing It's clear that part of your problem is related to your fear of blushing. I'm not saying you're making it up, but I'm saying it's partly in your head. If you realize that your blushing problem isn't as bad as you think, and that other people probably don't notice or care, you're a little closer to solving the problem of excessive blushing for everyone.

Inspired by Gary Ambrosh