question out of the way, blushing is caused by your sympathetic nervous system – the same one that kicks in when you’re stressed or frightened – triggering your fight-or-flight response. So there’s this hall of mirrors effect: you know you’re blushing, other people know you’re blushing, and they know you know you’re blushing.” The good news is that, whatever it feels like, you might not actually be blushing much more than anyone else. “The aim of TCT and CBT is to manage anxiety about blushing rather than the blushing response itself,” says Drummond. “I think of blushing as a ‘letting off steam’ response, as it shares the same physiological mechanism as flushing during exercise,” says Drummond.