What does it take to be able to faint ?


olq-plo's avatar
I don't know the taste of loosing consciousness, what it feels like to see reality disappear in response to something that traumatized your body or your mind, I remember ever since I was a kid I was always curious what it feels like when I see it happen to others :confused:

I've had a couple of really painful or really scary experiences in my life, sometimes my blood pressure drops in a phobic situation so low that I can barely see anything and can't really keep standing, but that's not really fainting right ?

How come certain people loose consciousness so easily ? My mom once collapsed because she injured herself a little with a knife in the kitchen, I've had way more serious injuries as a child and even broken a bone (I actually did, closed a metallic door on top of my thumb), never collapsed. Maybe the thought of dying wouldn't be so scary if I could know what it feels like to loose consciousness in a painful situation.

I tried to hold my breath long enough to lack oxygen and faint the other day but it didn't work.

Did it ever happen to you ? Are you one of these people who collapse on a whim ? 
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sonicgirl018's avatar
Back in middle school i used to have fainting spells. never could  find out why
shiroganejpg's avatar
So, I have terrible blood pressure-- I mean, terrible. My first ever experience with fainting was when I was fifteen, and I had been sitting on the floor of my bedroom watching videos. My father stopped at my door and said he'd had a bad day, so I got up to give him a hug - I started feeling dizzy, kind of sick, and really warm while he held me, and I kind of remember saying "I feel really dizzy" before everything turned white. Next thing I remember, I was on my bed, apparently after having passed out in his arms.

I also have a side effect of fainting spells called reflex anoxic seizures. I don't understand them very well, but I do know that what happens is, basically, when I stand up too fast my blood pools in my feet. It doesn't reach my brain, so I pass out and start having a seizure. It only lasts 20 seconds or so, and then I'm fine. Really scary the first time it happened though, especially because the first time, I didn't even stand up too quick - It just happened one morning. I woke up in my bed and my mother spoke to me, and I couldn't understand her - I passed out a few times, managed to crawl downstairs, and then seizured on the floor. I went to the hospital though and they sent me home after eight hours with no conclusion. I saw a neurologist too, and as soon as I explained what had been going on, he said it was a reflex anoxic fit.
I also had a fit in school, after someone through a stick at me??? We were walking along and some kid threw a stick at his friend, but it went off course and hit me in the knuckle. You know that kind of pain, like when you hit your funny bone, and it knocks the air out of you for a minute? That was what it felt like-- But then my hearing went very static, and my pupils dilated and that meant everything started turning white. I said to my friend, "I'm going to pass out", and the school caretakers came and tended to me lmao.

ANYWAY, back to fainting. =P

Like I said, I have poor blood pressure - but on top of that, I am also very underweight. This is kind of a sucky mixture. There was a time where  passed out two to five timer per day! It really sucked, but we made some changes (ie. elevating my bed, stair guards, etc.) and it helped. I wa diagnosed with cancer (which explained why I was so underweight) and I gradually put on weight during my treatment, with the steroids and medications. I did pass out once of twice during my treatments, I think, when I had my second infections - But I don't remember them clearly.
I do remember that, a few days after my second(??? It's fuzzy) chemotherapy, I was sitting in my hospital room, and I had started to feel quite sick. I told the nurses, and they gave me a tablet, but it didn't help. I had a meeting with my new social worker, which lasted about an hour and a half- I'd been feeling worse and worse through that, and by the time they left, I called the nurse in again. She left to look for a tablet, but after she left I knew I was going to be sick, so I wandered to my ensuite. I was ill, and had been sitting on the floor, but I felt myself hitting the floor and convulsing, and then I woke up on the floor. 
I also remember fainting after an injection- which doesn't usually happen for me. I think that happened because I was dealing with an infection then, too, so my body was just on overdrive as it was.

I still gray-out a few times every day, but my black-outs are restricted to maybe once a week now. A gray out is when you get come close to passing out without actually losing consciousness- so when people stand up too fast and get dizzy/lightheaded, as far as I understand, that is graying out.

I can't faint on a whim, but I faint involuntarily pretty often. I must have fainted about 200 times in my whole life- and I only began fainting when I was fifteen, three years ago. =P Fun.
xXxshadowsneakxXx's avatar
I got a concussion once, but that's the closest I've got to "fainting". Blacked out for a good few seconds. It's weird being unable to remember what happened during that time.
RaveMajestic's avatar
It always depends on the person, some people just faint easier than others. I'm one of those who has to go through a lot before I faint. I've never fainted before, but whenever I get super anxious and I start stressing super bad and I have a complete mental breakdown, I start to go in and out of consciousness to where I can't feel my fingers and toes. Luckily, the people who were around me snapped me out of it. 
teeyu's avatar
The low blood pressure "not seeing, not being able to stand" thing is pretty much what it feels like the moment before you faint. Plus you start hearing static in your ears and can't really hear the sounds around you....and then everything just turns to blackness and you can't feel a thing.
And when you wake u,p chances are you'll be deaf for a little while. At least that's how it was for me.
I used to faint on a pretty much daily basis when I was younger.
CaninePrince's avatar
Oh, I just did yesterday. Being sick and forgetting to eat is the recipe.

I recall it happening even worse before though. When I'm still in Junior High School, also sick, I woke up at night for some unknown reason and fell. I managed to at least spread my limbs open and slowly regain consciousness, but... was terrible.

If you want to ask how it felt.... it feels like suddenly you lose control over your body and it just fell, sometimes with the eyes witnessing it although also with blurred vision. Then maybe because blood enters brain again, it felt heavy. The feelings of being unable to move and control your paralysed limbs were terrible.
ArtakaWorks's avatar
I dunno, but some of my art supplies give off a scent that make me dizzy when exposed for too long.

Chartpak markers shouldn't be legal :lol:
TrixiePooch's avatar
You faint when either your blood pressure drops and deprives your brain of oxygen, or sometimes when you get up to fast under certain conditions. Things like a high fever or sudden fright can put you under too. Like you are feeling faint. Some recover before actually hitting the ground. Would you faint if your date to the prom showed up and he was Sloth?

Sloth - The Goonies by CSM-101
mopdtk's avatar
it's a really tingly feeling with this kind of static over your eyes so you can't see. it comes from the corners of your eyes then quickly covers the rest. the pins and needles start in the extremities and move up. i got really overheated one morning when i was about 10 or so and fainted, i woke up like a minute later though. i have been in extreme pain caused by cysts but have not fainted since. 
JCoolArts's avatar
The only time I've ever fainted, was in 2012, when I was sick with the stomach flu, and I decided I was absolutely not going to vomit no matter what. (I hate throwing up nearly more than anything)
I leaned on the bathroom counter staring into the mirror, concentrating. I prayed and found the strength to force it not to happen, but doing this took so much will power, that I collapsed on the bathroom floor for a few minutes.
I paid for this decision later when what I would have tossed up, found the alternative exit. Since then though by the grace of God I have not thrown up even once.

It just felt cold, like I had the chills, and like you fall asleep. Your mind doesn't actually turn off, so it's quite like sleeping. I wouldn't seek out fainting though, as it could definitely cause some sort of damage to your system as it tends to mean that something inside of you went wrong.
PhantasmaStriker's avatar
Probably lack of oxygen I guess.  I've never fainted before :/
sezzac155's avatar
"I can barely see anything and can't really keep standing, but that's not really fainting right ?"

I agree with used-rugs That is quite close to what it feels like. For me at least, that sounds similar to what happened before i fainted one time from dehydration when i was a kid. It was like experiencing  tunnel vision (don't know if you have ever experienced that, but it's a bit more common than fainting) and my vision was desaturated of colour.  There is actually a term for that sensation a greyout. As you might have guessed from the word it happens before fainting (which is blacking out.) 

Personally, i don't recommend trying to faint it's not at all fun. And can damage your brain.  
ShuQxx's avatar
sometimes my blood pressure drops in a phobic situation so low that I can barely see anything and can't really keep standing, but that's not really fainting right ?
Yes, that sounds pretty close to fainting. That happens to me before and/or after fainting (from pain) but probably a bit more extremely. Such as I would completely lose my vision and see nothing but white.

It's probably a brain signal thing. I think it's not really the degree of injury/pain so much as whether it'd be disadvantage to faint in the situation. Evolutionarily, it really probably isn't a great idea to faint after breaking a bone and other serious injuries (if you/your brain can help it). As for your mom fainting from a knick, maybe she's got a blood phobia thing :shrug:

Bullet; Black I've lost conscious several times from pain. I used to get crippling stomach pain. Much much more painful than breaking bones, cuts, dogbites by many many times. But I'd only faint for a few seconds - minutes. Like I said, probably not evolutionary advantageous to faint from pain (as it'd probably increase your chances of getting eaten or something).

Another example was when I was really quite sick w/ a fever of 40C and was on an incredibly stuffy subway train (I had to take an exam that could NOT be rescheduled :|) I think I fainted longest for this. Like 10-20minutes. (Might be longer, I never asked... I was at my exam location (by my dad) by the time I woke up so it could've been 40min-1h20min)

The first time it happened (from the stomach pain) I was walking (really very normally) and I just dropped around some chairs+tables. I got back up, my brother asked me if I was OK, I said "yeahyeah, fine", continued walking, and fainted again for a longer few seconds I think. It was nice, I felt no pain during those seconds. It was much later when I noticed I'd gotten bruised all over from falling on the very sharped cornered hard word table+chairs.

But (apart from the fever/suffocating one) it's like nothing. It's like blacking out when you're drunk or something. Just a chunk of time missing and blackness. I personally wake up from them real alert but with zero idea what happened.
olq-plo's avatar
What was causing you this horrible stomach pain exaclty ? :confused:
ShuQxx's avatar
Acute gastritis + peptic ulcers. So basically my stomach acid was burning through my stomach.

All thanks to my dad's genes. 
Fulgur-Draconis's avatar
Breathe fast, do it a lot; or deprive yourself from oxygen by breathing from a bag or something...

By the way, it's dangerous. Everytime you faint your brain suffers significant damage. More so if done through oxygen stuff.
NebulaDreams's avatar
Get food poisoning.
Zeppelinrose67's avatar
Passed out once when I was a kid, Not on a whim, though, took a hot shower on top of my system battling a pretty bad infection--not smart.
Ended up feeling lightheaded, black spots bloomed, invading my vision and I fell in the shower (thankfully we had a cheap hot-water tank so I had to split the shower with my mom who caught me). Lost consciousness for a minute--well, I could hear my moms voice but I couldn't function, so whatever state of consciousness you'd call that.

But by the sounds of it you've already experienced about as much as anyone remembers, anyway.
Legacy-Galaxy's avatar
I haven't ever fainted. Judging by the detailed descriptions of light-headedness, dizziness, black (or in one case yellow) spots taking over your vision, some people can't even hear or feel the impact...
IKrines's avatar
Fucked genetics, that is all. Or lack of oxygene. Or low bloodsugar. Or heartattack.

I have lost count of how many times I have fainted, as I tends to have seiszures, while sitting still for a long time. And the worst thing is it is not dangerous or treatable, liening down would help, but nowhere to lie on, so. Just faint for a few seconds, wake up, faint for few seconds, wake up etc. And I get worst headache afterwards.

But the first time I fainted, I did it properly, 12 hours of unconciousness, high fever and tour through the Hospital, that I don't even remember except waking up. Lesson: Take painkillers.
silverwraithh's avatar
why would you want to do that :paranoid:
I have a blood pressure of a corpse so it happened a few times if I get up fast that I kinda felt dizzy for a bit but even that happens very rarely :paranoid:
JinxRemoval's avatar
This is not safe, but there is a way to make yourself faint. My friends and I used to do it when we were kids cuz we thought it was fun. You need 2 ppl. The fainter lays on their back, then takes a deep breath and holds it in while the other person applies pressure to their chest.
Zeppelinrose67's avatar
Sounds similar to "the choking game" my brother and cousins used to do it all the time (explains a lot in my opinion).
Idiots even tried getting my sister--who wasa toddler at the time--to let them do it to her Stare Thank God she had more brains than they did.