Blushing/sweating/anxiety

[dizzy_girl]

I have never had social anxiety in my life, but lately I’ve noticed I blush all the time around people and I even sweat a little because I feel so embarrassed to be blushing in the first place. Then I get choked up with my words because I feel so dumb for being nervous around people I’ve known forever.

I really don’t know why this is happening. Or what is causing it.

Plus the more I think about it the more it happens. I tried not thinking about it but it didn’t work and I keep trying.

How can I stop?

 

[KittyKat]

I hope you figure it out!

I get so stressed out about how people are going to react to me, and I don’t want to look stupid that I can be hesitant do some things that I would like to. I have always been really shy, and it is taking me time to deal with it. I have spent time praying, actually I love to pray the Rosary since it is a great way to relax, but if I am out in public I will say an Our Father to myself and then I feel better.

 

[maendem]

dizzy girl:

Plus the more I think about it the more it happens. I tried not thinking about it but it didn’t work and I keep trying.

How can I stop?

According to Victor Frankl, founder of logotherapy and Holocaust survivor (and a wonderful author, BTW), your trying to NOT think about sweating is probably causing that very reaction at this point.

He writes about this very problem in “The Doctor and the Soul.” One thing he suggested to his clients suffering from socially-provoked sweating was to actively think about sweating as much as possible during a “trigger” situation. IN other words, they tried to imagine themselves sweating a lot, forcing the sweat, as if they wanted to sweat very much.

Most of them found that after a very short time, they simply couldn’t produce sweat in that situation because the psychological impetus - the fear of sweating that caused them to sweat - had disappeared. Good luck!!