Neurological diseases >>>> Blushing-syndrome

Blushing-syndrome.

Blushing-syndrome or idiopathic craniofacial erythema manifests itself as a sudden redness of the face (neck and chest area or the whole body) due to a sharp rush of blood to the vessels close to the skin surface. This is a feature of the work of the vegetative-vascular system, or rather the sympathetic nerve that runs along the spine and has paired branches on both sides of the spinal column.

Various states can cause a sudden rush of blood to the face: joy, fear, nervous shock, irritation, surprise, excitement, resentment, and so on. The reaction of the vegetative-vascular system is aimed at vasodilation and increased heart rate, which is beyond the control of the person himself and cannot be regulated by him.

Sometimes a tendency to blushing-syndrome provokes acne - rosacea, which makes life even more difficult.

Blushing-syndrome, accompanied by a flaming face, provokes in a person insecurity, embarrassment, fear of being defeated, being in the center of other people's attention. A person, experiencing inner anxiety about his appearance, feels uncomfortable, begins to get nervous, behave tensely, cannot concentrate on his own thoughts and feels a desire to disappear from the field of vision of other people. A person's pulse (heartbeat) may become more frequent, the pressure on the nerves may rise, and sweating may appear. In this state, the nervous system can block a person's thoughts, which prevents him from thinking clearly and freely expressing himself, being in front of the public. Speaking in public for such a person, or talking with several people, can be distressing. This state is called erythrophobia.

People suffering from erythrophobia have to give up public professions, or professions that require multiple contacts with other people. They try not to express their own opinion in the team, so as not to attract the attention of their interlocutors. Sometimes erythrophobia can lead a person to self-isolation and avoid communication. In severe cases, a person's worries about their appearance become the cause of severe depression.

Methods for the treatment of blushing syndrome and erythrophobia include several courses of action:

Psychological training , which allows you to develop self-confidence in a person, makes you abstract from reflex redness and pay more attention to the environment and people, without thinking about what impression he makes on others. Much attention is paid to the self-hypnosis technique, which allows to increase the self-esteem of a sufferer of blushing syndrome . Close people and acquaintances are advised to pay as little attention as possible to the fact that a person's face turns red if they want to continue communicating with him. You shouldn't say such phrases: "Why are you blushing?", "Are you ashamed?" etc.
Autogenic training helps to learn how to regulate the breathing rate, carry out muscle relaxation, extinguish an attack of nervous anxiety, and develops a person's self-control skills.
Hypnosis is used as an alternative psychotherapeutic approach.
Yoga and meditation will help you learn to relax and concentrate at will.
Calming agents of plant or synthetic origin help not to excite the nervous system, but you should not get carried away with serious drugs from the group of tranquilizers, since they worsen over time the thought processes, memory, and are addictive.
Drug therapy with drugs alpha and beta-blockers, which reduce the heart rate in stressful situations, regulate vascular tone. Antidepressants help relieve obsessive thoughts and constant anxiety.
Surgical treatment by blocking the first spinal nodes of the sympathetic nerve, allows you to get rid of the flushing of the face forever, but has contraindications and is used in cases where other approaches to the treatment of erythrophobia and blushing syndrome are not effective. For blocking, endoscopic sympathectomy is performed by insertion into the armpit through punctures of the endoscope and installing a clip (clamp) on the branches of the sympathetic nerve, cutting or destroying its sections using high frequency current. Clipping of the sympathetic nerve is considered the most appropriate, since it presumably makes it possible to return the process to its original state (but reliable data on the reversibility of this process have not yet been collected), since blocking the sympathetic nerve gives side effects: compensatory hyperhidrosis of the lower half of the body. The operation itself, like any surgical intervention, can have negative consequences if it is carried out unprofessional or carelessly: damage to large vessels, ptosis of the eyelids , pneumothorax and other complications, therefore, when choosing a surgical intervention, it is necessary to make informed decisions.