Have you ever fainted?

[I_smell]

I think I fainted just now. It's kind of embarrassing and I'll probably avoid telling people in real life, so here's an internet thread instead!

A couple days ago I went to watch Django Unchained with a friend, and he said "Oh- I just remembered, you can't handle seeing blood. You're really weak to stuff like that."

and I said "What? No- where'd you hear that? That's made up!" and apparantly he just remembered it from somewhere. Why does everyone say that? It sounded like made-up bullshit to me.

A couple days later-- right now: I was reading some conversation on the internet, and a guy mentioned something about how he has to get some surgery. The thing he's describing made me say "Oh crap, do I have that!?" and obviously I went to Wikipedia. I assume it was reading up on this surgery, cos I suddenly felt really sick, like I had the flu. Then Blinked. Then my head's boppin' against the floor, I'm weak and confused, and there's blood in my mouth. Everything's kind of knocked off my desk.

I felt sick for a couple minutes, and now I look like I got beat up-- even though I've just bin sitting around the house today. So I guess now I have to explain to everyone "Oh, it's nothing, I fainted while sitting at my desk."

It was pretty scary for a sec. I ate something right after. Man it's gonna be bad news if I ever have to do chemo or something!

[TychoCelchuuu]

I weight almost nothing and I'm kind of tall so either it's that or something else but I usually faint or almost faint when I donate blood. It's pretty wacky. At least I know it's coming so I can just pass out on the chair then come back in a few moments.

[I_smell]

It's a very unpleasant experience!

[Gormongous]

Yeah, I've never fainted when getting blood drawn, but every time I come very close. Colors fade, I get tunnel vision, my head swims, my limbs lose feeling... My body dislikes the look and feel of needles enough to trigger a shock response, which unfortunately means that they'll usually have to try a few times to find a place with enough blood pressure.

Bodies are weird.

Oh, a dude in my high school theatre class once snuck up behind me and put me in a headlock. I passed out before I knew what was going on and woke up like fifteen seconds later on the floor. But that's not quite the same.

[jeremywc]

I don't do too well with the sight of my own blood. A few years ago, I had surgery to repair an abdominal hernia. I had taken the week off from work to recover and decided spend the time sitting around the house playing EverQuest. I remembered I was supposed to take the bandages off on the third day, so I started slowly peeling back the tape in between following my friend to some raid we had decided to participate in.

As I removed the bandage, I quickly realized the stitches had come loose and the incision point was not being held together. The room started spinning and I immediately passed out. When I finally came to, I was bleeding all over myself and my friend in EQ was asking me why I wasn't moving. I managed to get to the bathroom and clean myself up without passing out again.

And then we finished the raid and I got some loot. Priorities.

[anthonyRichard]

Got a tooth pulled in what turned out to be an unusually difficult procedure. Lost some amount of blood and was still bleeding a bit when I somehow decided I was fine to walk home. It was a very hot day outside & I had a long way to walk. The cavity started bleeding again. I am a stupid man. Must have appeared to others as some kind of shambling corpse with blood pouring from my mouth before I collapsed. Losing consciousness while being aware of said consciousness draining away against your will is utterly terrifying.

[Roderick]

Only ever fainted when I was young and bumped my head. But I have experienced what Gormongous described, which is a state of shock. I don't know if that preludes fainting though, with me that's just when my body goes into shock after experiencing acute, sharp pain (once inside my ear when having it cleaned at the doctor's, once at the dentist's which was very annoying). Tunnel vision, static noise in my eye, bloodless face. Wears off after a few minutes, no biggie.

[Nappi]

This topic is such a bizarre read. I will contribute:

I woke up one night, many years ago, feeling a bit weird and decided to go to the toilet. When I was walking back to my bed I suddenly just couldn't keep going anymore and collapsed. Next thing I remember I was upright again clinging to a table so tightly that my father had serious difficulties in making me let go. Once I got to my bed, everything was perfectly fine again. The doctor said that what I experienced was some sort of intermediate state between being awake and asleep, which sounds a bit bullshit to be honest. I haven't had a similar episode since.

[brkl]

I have not. I am not a girlie man.

[Joewintergreen]

Man I_smell, that is pretty whack. What was with the blood in your mouth? Bite your tongue or something?

Closest I've come is being randomly super dizzy and almost falling over a few times for no adequately explored reason.

I was around somebody for about a year who was super severely epileptic, so she'd have at least one full-on seizure most days. Apparently she had more than a hundred in a day one time. Those can be pretty unnerving. edit: oh yeah she also had some disorder where basically every bone in her body would dislocate super easily, so she'd often have to pop something back into place when she came round

[chickenontheceiling]

This topic is such a bizarre read. I will contribute:

I woke up one night, many years ago, feeling a bit weird and decided to go to the toilet. When I was walking back to my bed I suddenly just couldn't keep going anymore and collapsed. Next thing I remember I was upright again clinging to a table so tightly that my father had serious difficulties in making me let go. Once I got to my bed, everything was perfectly fine again. The doctor said that what I experienced was some sort of intermediate state between being awake and asleep, which sounds a bit bullshit to be honest. I haven't had a similar episode since.

Sounds like a hypnagogic state? They do exist.

The only time I remember fainting I was on acid and had forgotten to eat all day. Terrifying.

[Gormongous]

I was around somebody for about a year who was super severely epileptic, so she'd have at least one full-on seizure most days. Apparently she had more than a hundred in a day one time. Those can be pretty unnerving. edit: oh yeah she also had some disorder where basically every bone in her body would dislocate super easily, so she'd often have to pop something back into place when she came round

Oh god, that is monstrous. The most intense and insuperable pain I've ever experienced was the full dislocation of my right shoulder. Dealing with that as a matter of course doesn't even seem livable to me.

This topic is such a bizarre read. I will contribute:

I'd planned to start a "weird medical shit" topic after finding a tonsillolith in the back of my throat last week. I'm a little relieved someone beat me to the punch.

[Joewintergreen]

Oh god, that is monstrous. The most intense and insuperable pain I've ever experienced was the full dislocation of my right shoulder. Dealing with that as a matter of course doesn't even seem livable to me.

she was suicidal for a while there

It's also inconvenient because most people react to stuff like seizures in incredibly unhelpful ways. Never rely on the level-headedness of people around you to keep you from bashing your head against shit if you have a fit, folks!

[Dogface]

Yeah, another tall+skinny person here -- it's pretty regular (maybe once a week or two) for me to sort of 'half-faint' when I stand up, especially if I've been sat/laid down for a while, if it's hot or I just had a bath, or if I'm stoned. I can feel my blood pressure lower, everything goes fuzzy and staticky and I usually go partly or mostly blind for a few moments. Because it's my visual-processing cortex going offline rather than a defect in my eyes, it's a very bizarre experience -- I'm not seeing black/grey/sparkles/whatever, I'm just... not seeing. Anyway, it makes balancing hard so I usually drop down in a 'runner at the starting blocks' position. Kind of an odd thing to have to explain to your friends why you're suddenly doing that. "Yeah, it's cool. I'm just, uh, blind for a sec. Chill."

[Thrik]

God can you imagine if you're getting ultra-delicate surgery done and your surgeon faints for no apparent reason? The improbable yet possible fact this could happen...

[TychoCelchuuu]

Yeah, another tall+skinny person here -- it's pretty regular (maybe once a week or two) for me to sort of 'half-faint' when I stand up, especially if I've been sat/laid down for a while, if it's hot or I just had a bath, or if I'm stoned. I can feel my blood pressure lower, everything goes fuzzy and staticky and I usually go partly or mostly blind for a few moments. Because it's my visual-processing cortex going offline rather than a defect in my eyes, it's a very bizarre experience -- I'm not seeing black/grey/sparkles/whatever, I'm just... <i>not seeing</i>. Anyway, it makes balancing hard so I usually drop down in a 'runner at the starting blocks' position. Kind of an odd thing to have to explain to your friends why you're suddenly doing that. "Yeah, it's cool. I'm just, uh, blind for a sec. Chill."

This used to happen to me all the time, then I realized I should stop getting up so fast and now I'm just more careful and deliberate when I stand up and I'm fine.

[Nachimir]

I_smell, I have an ex who becomes faint at the sight of blood. She's never found a way to really manage it, other than avoiding triggers. Did the gore in Django Unchained affect you at all?

I'm fairly skinny, and can get light-headed if I stay still for a long time then suddenly get up. It's only made me faint once ever, where I was in a bathroom and probably lucky not to hit my head on something. It never happens randomly though; getting up fast is always the specific and discernible cause. I actually quite enjoy the sensation of being lightheaded, and do a few things to make it safer: I straighten and tense my legs when it happens, bear down with my core muscles to push blood toward my brain, and generally make sure I'll fall back onto something soft if I do lose consciousness.

[Armchair General]

My advice I smell would be to discuss this with your doctor. This may have been a faint, but finding blood in your mouth can be a sign that this may have been a seizure - tongue or cheek biting often happens with seizures.

I'm not firmly saying this is anything to worry about, but it might be worth talking to your doc about it - seizures are important.

[toblix]

I've never fainted (that I know of!!!) but I once got this hilarious nosebleed, and here is its story: I was stupidly trying to do the thing where you sit kneeling on the floor and jump directly up into a standing-up position. So, in the kneeling position I put my arms behind my back, leaned forward and quickly activated what I assumed were the proper set of muscles that would catapult me like a ninja into a standing pose. Instead I jammed my face into the floor, and my nose started bleeding. Maybe you had to be there.

[subbes]

I can make myself faint by holding my arms over my head for too long (because of the extra bones in my neck that I think I've mentioned before), but the worst close-to-passing-out thing was when I was getting acupuncture: the acupuncturist was trying to put needles in the top of my feet, and I just could not even bear to think about it and started hyperventilating and involuntarily going fetal.

In retrospect it would have been pretty funny to watch.

[miffy495]

I went to school when I really should have stayed home sick back in the 12th grade. It was career day. About halfway through some lady telling us about how great her desk job at an oil company was, I started to sweat profusely and fell out of my chair unconscious. I think that was the only reason anyone will ever remember that lady's talk.

[castorp]

Some years ago at a party my consciousness went away for maybe a second while I was trying very hard to lean against a wall. Probably had something to do with the pot in conjunction with the alcohol-energy-drink-mix, but who knows. Luckily I was around friends who caught me, or I'd have fallen flat on my nose. Scary, but not too much, as there was an obvious explanation, and it never happened since.

And yeah, I_smell, what Armchair General says. Sounds scary.

[I_smell]

It could've bin a siezure, cos I tried to get up immeadiately but it felt like I was continuously falling over like I'm in a moving truck.

I've not seen a doctor since I was about 4, so I don't know who my doctor is what I'm supposed to do about it.

I_smell, I have an ex who becomes faint at the sight of blood. She's never found a way to really manage it, other than avoiding triggers. Did the gore in Django Unchained affect you at all?

Nope! That's why I mentioned it; I've bin on the internet forever and hit as many shock sites as anyone else, but I guess this specific thing got me. Thinking about cartoonishly over-the-top gross things doesn't phase me at all.

I've never fainted (that I know of!!!) but I once got this hilarious nosebleed, and here is its story:

I got a nosebleed once coming out of a strip club, it was really hilarious for everyone who wasn't me.

[Donk]

During a bad flu when I was a teenager, I woke up and went to the bathroom and when I got out I collapsed on the floor. I remember it feeling rather pleasant.

[osmosisch]

I've fainted due to hitting my head after accidents twice, once getting hit by an ice-skater and once getting hit by a car on my bike. Besides that, I've once fainted after cutting my middle finger to the bone right at the base while shelling walnuts, and then going to clean the cut by hitting it directly with a stream of cold tap water. Not my brightest idea, that.

Oh, and I'm not allowed to give blood because my blood pressure's low enough that it would be guaranteed to knock me out.

Every time I absolutely hated the sensation of swimming/clawing my way back to consciousness and having to make an actual effort to remember who I was and what was going on. The unmoored, chaotic feeling was terrifying to me. Yuck.