Red Face

As an adolescent, Russell's face and neck would turn crimson at the slightest thing. In his twenties he began suffering from an extreme form of blushing (idiopathic craniofacial erythema). It sent out all the wrong signals - to friends, family and to the opposite sex. And it triggered something worse: Social Anxiety Disorder. Up to one in 10 people develop this irrational fear of other human beings. From university to the workplace, Russell desperately tried to hide his secret from everyone. In a forlorn attempt to be 'normal', he grabbed every remedy going, from drugs to herbs to bottles of absinthe. By turns wry and shocking, dark and optimistic, Redface is the eye-opening true story of one man's struggle with his mental health. And how he found his own way forward in a world built for others. It will fascinate readers who are socially anxious, their friends and family, and anyone who wants to know what it's like to travel to the edge of human experience and back.