WHY PEOPLE BLUSH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19815, 5 December 1919, Page 6

WHY PEOPLE BLUSH.

——t , L’'ew people not themselves the subject of inordinate blushing have any idea of the amount of mental agony endured by its victims (says the London ’Daily Herald”). Most people blush a little on occasions; most young people blush somewhat more frequently. But the people of whom I am speaking are they whose faces become reddened and whoso emotions become violently disturbed whenever the slightest atteiil‘ou is drawn to themselves. The colouring of the cheeks is but tlie small visible part of tho storm in which they find themselves; though it is of that which they most complain. Iho tendency to mofibid blushing is by no means a trifling matter. And again and again it has driven people out of their business, made all human companionship impossible, and in not a lew cases, has driven its victims to suicide. \V hat, then are the causes and nature of this condition, and what can be done to remedy it? As a matter of tact, we have not a very dear knowledge ol the causes, physical and psychical, to which this tendency to inordinate blushing is due. it would appear to be the result of an exaggeration of certain qualities, in themselves altogether admirable and desirable Temperament is a very difficult thin" to define, or clearly to picture even to one s self. But it is as an affection ot temperament that blushing lias to be regarded. It is a fruit of sensitiveness and self-consciousness, carried to a point when they interfere with the normal functioning of the nervous system ; when very small external happenings .suffice to produce a condition of agony comparable with tho panic usually produced by great physical danger. The causes of this morbid state are twofold. Firstly, the inherent or inberried one—a high degree of sensitiveness and emotional capacity; secondly, those causes which, though also partly due to inherited tendencies, are largely fostered by n somewhat narrow mental life. For it seems probable that temperament is not the purely abstract and remote matter that many think it to be, but is, as it was long age boueved to be, intimately related to certain humours or glandular secretions which are commonly regarded as purely physical matters. What, then, is to be done in the way of relief or cure? In the first place, every effort should bo made to improve ibe quality of the blood and to bring the physical life to tho highest point of efficiency. Abundance of plain, nourishing food, a regular, active, outdoor life, coitl baths and such usual measures for tho maintenance of vigorous health should be adopted. Even against one’s inclination, moderate publicity should bn sought, or at least, not avoided, and people freely mixed with. A reasonable view of the triviality* ami undisgraccful nature of tho phenomenon of blushing should ho cultivated, and ono should try to get into the way of nut caring whether one blushes or not.