Why Do I Blush For No Reason?

You may think that you are the only one with excessive facial blushing (going red), but you're not. Many people experience this embarrassing and socially painful reaction. It tends to come in waves. People who are prone to this form of social anxiety may find themselves blushing in reaction to something as simple as making eye contact. Most of the time, the symptom is triggered by a super-fast thought that you may not even realize you are having. The thought goes something like this: "I hope I don't blush," or, "This is the kind of situation where I've been blushing for no reason lately," or, "This would be a terrible moment to start blushing."
Fortunately, the blushing problem can be resolved. It does not require medication or surgery, but it does require some sweat and effort. There are several steps involved in getting the excessive blushing reaction to go into remission. First, you need to become less "freaked out" by the symptom. A good way to do this is to realize that blushing is an anxiety reaction to the fear of humiliation or embarrassment. Having excessive blushing means you are a socially aware person, which is a good thing. Blushing itself is perfectly normal (just not blushing at the thought of blushing).
The next step after self-acceptance is to learn what specific thought triggers you have. It's not that difficult to uncover if you pay close attention. All you need to do is purposefully analyze all the situations where you blush and put them on paper, in order, from least to most likely to trigger a blushing response. Next, analyze the list to learn what components must be present for you to blush. For example, is it worse with authority figures like a boss or a teacher? Is it only there when you are romantically attracted to the other person? Is it only there when it would look bad to blush (for example when someone asks who left the door unlocked in a meeting and you blush at the thought that others will think it was you if you blush at that moment)? Analyze carefully to learn what triggers the anxiety.

Once you have a sense for the things that make you anxious about a potential blush, you need to figure out how to control your blushing by controlling the anxiety. It never works the other way around. Trying to control the blush is actually what has made it as bad as it is now. The only way to control blushing is to go directly to work on the anxiety that triggers this autonomic anxiety response (autonomic means your brain and nervous system cause the reaction outside of your conscious control).
How do you control the anxiety? You correct your thoughts about the sources of anxiety you identified earlier. For example, if I blush in front of attractive women, I may design a response to my fear of making a fool of myself by blushing. A good response to reduce that particular source of anxiety would be to say to myself, "I will not offend anyone by blushing. I accept myself as a person who is about to blush, and I will just make fun of myself and make light of the reaction if someone points it out."
If you are unable to "believe in" this kind of helpful, anxiety-reducing statement to yourself, or if you cannot come up with one, you may need the support of a psychologist in training your mind to react with calming, self-accepting thoughts. You can also pursue the self-help resources out there first, to see if you can learn how to control your thoughts better by yourself, before paying hundreds of dollars to a mental health professional. It takes about three weeks to really eliminate blushing as you gradually start addressing the anxiety instead of trying to control the blushing. It requires practice where you purposefully face the situations where your old anxiety just kept getting stronger. Believe me when I tell you that it is worth the pain and embarrassment necessary to cure this problem. I have talked many people through the process and none of them has ever said that they wish they had never done the difficult work necessary to beat this painful social anxiety symptom.