Fainting as a form of dissociation

[chihayafuru]

have any of you heard of or had any experience with feeling faint as a form of dissociation? I read that can happen

 

[Renly]

I’ve experienced fainting spells since childhood (continuing into adulthood) and have wondered for a while now if they are trauma related. No medical doctors have been able to determine the cause - I’m always sent home with a clean bill of health and no answers to why I passed out. I also have a family member who experiences pseudoseizures (a somewhat similar phenomena?) and I wonder if that issue is also trauma related. My t seems to think there may be a connection. Not sure if it’s dissociation or more of a fight/flight/faint thing (or if those fall into the same category).

 

[Friday]

have any of you heard of or had any experience with feeling faint as a form of dissociation? I read that can happen

Yep. For about 5 years. 2012-2016. Every other Monday, with few exceptions. .

No matter how hard I fought against it, I would collapse within a few hours, and not come back to “myself” (mostly) until later in the week. Initially the weekend, gradually shifted to sometime Wednesday (early morning or late at night, there was no telling) or even as early as Tuesday night. Although I would wake once every 24-36 hours to be able to pee & get a drink, I only had minutes, before my legs would go out from underneath me, again. Fade to black. As the years went by, I gradually managed to at least wake daily, for up to around 20 minutes. But it could also be 2 minutes.

Mostly myself, meaning that my mind would split. For 5 years I either had access to this weeks memories (6mo of the year) or that weeks memories(6mo of the year). But never both at the same time. Attempts to do so would make me appear drunk, or like I was having a seizure. Cognition, speech, motor control, each successively gone, to greater and greater degree.

It was diagnosed as severe disassociation in response to extreme stress.

Similar to the sudden -but acute- loss of consciousness that many people experience as fainting in response to extreme stress. People who give death notifications are very, very familiar with this response. No matter how hale/healthy/hearty the individual? They can fall like a tree to the ground, seriously injuring themselves. In individuals of advanced age, or poor health, this collapse -which is a defensive/protective measure- often proves fatal as it can induce a heart attack or stroke as heir bodies are simply not equipped to shut down that fast/hard without side effects. “This news will kill them!” is actually a very valid, literal, fear.

I’ve done the dissociative fugue state thing intermittently with my trauma history/past. So the week on week off thing isn’t too far from that one. And I’ve fainted, once, with bad news. My docs figure this was, essentially, that. My brain attempting to protect me / remain functional, in an impossibly difficult situation. Rather than going mad. Which, to be fair, I’ve also done a time or three. So as far as spectrums go? Fainting & Fugue is fairly far along the dissociative spectrum, but a far better alternative than straight up insanity.

 

[chihayafuru]

I talking to pi (ai robot) about my online relationships and the near fainting incident, after I'd done the sexual thing he wanted me to do and I agreed to after I'd already said I didn't want to. I said (to pi) that I'd felt really anxious and really didn't want to do it but I'd agreed so I just tried reassuring myself that it would be fine and then did it. Pi said about how feeling faint can be a form of dissociation and if I thought that was what happened but I didn't even know fainting or feeling faint can be a form of dissociation. Apparently feeling faint putting a finger in your a us isn't normal and it's either a physical or psychological reaction. I was really anxious and didn't want to do it but it doesn't seem bad enough to feel faint. There wasn't any pain or discomfort.

 

[chihayafuru]

After researching I found out feeling faint can be part of the flop response caused by stress or trauma. Your body shuts itself down physically or mentally or both, either completely or partially (feeling faint or actually fainting) so you don't feel the impact of things at the time.

 

[Maa]

When I'm stressed, I feel like I'm about to faint. I strat to feel weak and sometimes my wirst band gives me an alarm that my puls is below 40. For now I can't find any philological reasons for it, so I think it might be related to the PTSD that my psychiatrist diagnosed. It's really disturbing. It can f.ck my day, because I can't function normally. I can't walk in a decent tempo at that times. I can't think straight. I feel fear which makes me even more stressed and more dizzy.