[Jbk]

Hi all,


I suffer from Rosacea. It's not 'bad' always but I get hot flushes and redness randomly and regularly so.

I am only 26 and have had it for a while so it's younger than usual.

My major problem is that I blush quite often, and rather easily in social interactions

I consider myself to have average, maybe slightly above, confidence but blushing easily (and the knowledge and fear of it happening) really holds me back in so many ways.

I think it prevents me from being as outgoing as I want to be. Obviously this means it harms my confidence. Sometimes I think I am TOO socially aware/conscious and that this makes the situation worse as I read interactions too well, and perhaps care too much.

Has anyone else similar problems?

Have you found anyways to get around it?

Do you feel like it still holds you back or have you conquered it?

I feel like this is the number 1 thing that is currently holding me back from being all I can be.

[Jbk]

Forgot to add, a few things I have seen recommended to help this that are of interest to me are:

- Green toned makeup/concealers/moisturizers
- Beta-blockers

[Alpha Mind]

There's a product called "Skin" by Dr. Garber. Homeopathic.

Did not have much faith in homeopathy until I tried a few of his products.

A buddy of mine has very mild rosacea and this works for him, to date.

"Lung" worked well after a crazy, cigarette filled weekend in Reno.

You can get it from a number of stores (online). Amazon is probably the cheapest.

I use Skin during winter if my skin gets dry and it works like you wouldn't believe.

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Garbers-Natural...B000T9S180

Looks like he changed the label, but the formula remains the same.

[Benoit]

Could never work out whether I had real rosacea or just a constant flush that never goes away.

The good news is people's reactions are definitely a confidence thing. The bad news is you need to accept this and work on being confident when you don't feel it.

If you want to work on your confidence, take every opportunity you can to have attention focused on you - volunteer for stuff like having your photo taken to promote something, deliver a speech/presentation, take dance lessons etc.


Some practical solutions (fuck that homeopathic crap - offence intended, no man should ever fall for such an obviously ridiculous scam):

Change the colour and fit of your shirts:
- black crew neck tee + dark hair = focus is straight on your face
- Light v-neck or collared shirt with the double unbutton = upper body takes some of the spotlight

Lose weight - a bit of podge on your cheeks gives you the face of a sweaty fat blob, cheekbones will draw other people's view to your eyes

Tan - holiday, sunbed, fake tan, whatever you have to do - if your skin's pale, the redness will stand out a lot more. Self-tanning face moisturiser every couple of days gives a subtle boost. Which leads me on to:

Moisturise - you should be doing this anyway. Also eye cream, you don't want obvious dark bags because they'll draw the eyes down again.

[alecks]

i have it and freezing cold showers work great.

also aztec healing clay from amazon.clay bentonite.

[Jbk]

Thanks for the replies.

Hoping for some more as this problem is the single biggest obstacle - maybe a symptom of - holding me back from my full potential in life.

[MikeCF]

Bill Clinton has it and he did OK.

Like most things about ourselves, the less of an issue we make it, the less of an issue it is to everyone else.

[chexmix]

losing excess fat and getting tan is what has helped me the most. I've also used Melanotan II. This is a drug which helps you tan and for a pale guy like me is amazing. in about 2-3 weeks I got pretty bronzed and felt like my Rosacea was hardly noticeable. It's worth looking into but not very everybody. Getting a tan really helps smooth out the contrast between the redness and white skin color.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanotan_II

There is a lot of crazy rumors about melanotan II so if you have and questions hit me up. It's pretty safe and simple as long as you use a small dosage.

[MidniteSpecial]

Wheat germ oil is very good for skin because of its Vitamin E content. Give it a shot. Can't hurt.

Also change your frame on this. At least your not pale. I always thought rosecea was kind of cool. One of my boys has it and he pulls.

[chexmix]

(05-04-2013 09:23 AM)MidniteSpecial Wrote:  

Also change your frame on this. At least your not pale. I always thought rosecea was kind of cool. One of my boys has it and he pulls.

Just curious but why? I hear girls say it's "so cute!" but I just can't understand why it's not a negative.

[Kaizen]

See a skin doctor

[Jbk]

I have it fairly mildly tbh. People don't notice it.

What I find annoying is that I blush so easily in social situations. It suggests I'm not comfortable in my own skin which is not what I want to convey.

Because of the Rosacea it shows up a lot when I blush.

Really wish I didn't blush so easy! Argh!

[MidniteSpecial]

(05-04-2013 10:11 AM)chexmix Wrote:  

(05-04-2013 09:23 AM)MidniteSpecial Wrote:  

Also change your frame on this. At least your not pale. I always thought rosecea was kind of cool. One of my boys has it and he pulls.

Just curious but why? I hear girls say it's "so cute!" but I just can't understand why it's not a negative.

I don't know really. I guess it always reminded me of being out in the snow and I loved being out in the snow when my face would get red.

It probably means you have good blow flow man. I would NOT put chemical based make up on it at all dude. Go to a TCM doctor they know everything.

[Benoit]

(05-04-2013 03:38 PM)Jbk Wrote:  

I have it fairly mildly tbh. People don't notice it.

What I find annoying is that I blush so easily in social situations. It suggests I'm not comfortable in my own skin which is not what I want to convey.

Because of the Rosacea it shows up a lot when I blush.

Really wish I didn't blush so easy! Argh!

Clearly it's having a major impact on your self-image, which is holding you back in social situations.

Try a simple experiment - randomly during the day, without looking in a mirror, think how flushed you 'feel', rate yourself from 1-10 and write it on a sheet of paper. Then go look and write that next to your original score.

When I did this I found that I was really inaccurate at guessing how I looked. If you find the same then you'll probably be going through the day thinking "I look really red" when you're not actually flushed.

You'll either get a lot better at guessing or you'll realise going through life without worrying about it is much easier.

[Kieran]

I get this. My face is always slightly red, and sometimes flushes bright red if I drink a lot of alcohol, spend time in a room with central heating, come into a warm room from the cold, exercise, or get stressed/embarrassed.

I can completely understand how you feel because it has affected my confidence at times too. I can actually recall a night that when somebody commented on how red I looked, I just made an excuse and went home early because I felt so self conscious. Another time I went round to a friend's house for warm up drinks, and the combination of his central heating and the alcohol caused me to flush really badly, and I ended up going home early again.

I'll second what was said above about losing weight. I was never really overweight (about 154 at 6 foot 1 before), but now that I have gotten really lean for boxing (140 at 6 foot 1 with about 7% bodyfat), I don't flush nearly as much as before, and if I do, it is fairly mild and returns to normal much faster than before.

Nutrition plays a big part too. You'll find that there are certain triggers that are especially bad which you will need to avoid. For me anything fermented (I realised this when I was teaching in South Korea; I had been particularly flushed since arriving and soon realised it was being caused by the kimchi). Red wine is another one for me. Avoiding acidic foods in general has helped too (you can look up which foods are acidic online pretty easily so I won't list them here).

Alcohol is another cause for me. Red wine is particularly bad for me, and lager or cider is bad too. Beers and stouts are somewhat better, but the best drink I've found is vodka and soda water which doesn't seem to cause me to flush at all unless I drink an awful lot of it.

With women, I don't think it has made much difference to me (I'm into triple figures), but it helps to have an answer ready for if you get any comments on it. I usually just use it as a chance to show some vulnerability, but a cocky answer would be just as good. I like the examples Julien gives in the video below about his man boobs making him more attainable, or that it's lucky he has them because otherwise he'd be too perfect:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=De_wf_7sqc0

I hope this helps