My eyes half close in every picture with flash (Nikon)?

I recently got the Nikon d5100, and every picture I take of myself with the flash in, my eyes halfway close and they look droopy. Although this is an slr camera, I've never had that problem with any of my digital cameras. Any ideas?

Turn off the red eye reduction feature and shoot with enough light for the camera to auto focus without needing the auto-focus assist light.

You are anticipating the flash, so shutting our eyes.

If you shoot in lighting that does NOT need flash, you will help yourself.

I hope you are NOT trying to hold your camera at arms length to take self portraits. The Nikon D5100 is beyond that technique.

To get good self-portraits using the fine D5100, put it on a tripod, use a remote shutter release, set up lighting using a key and fill light where you will be sitting and then take some nice self-portraits.

My guess is that you are trying to capture shots of yourself in different locations, showing the different background. This is NOT the kind of shots that dSLR cameras were designed to shoot. For those, just use your little P&S camera and be done with it. Use the fine D5100 for shooting serious, pre-planned, well composed shots.