Have you ever blacked out?

have 3-5 times due to heavy drinking. did not pass out but rather lost memory.


went unconscious multiple times as a result of being hit by a car. it was like my memory was just blank in those spots. i was also convinced until my head cleared that my memory was correct. but i was missing pieces of the event. it was like i wasn't even there, or it didnt happen. less

I have a similar problem that was diagnosed as Vasovagel Syncope but was actually an odd loop of my artery that runs near the atlas or the top vertebrae of the spine. It is looped backwards and if I look up and raise my arms the blood supply gets pinched off and the world goes black. I wake up with a killer headache and nausea.
When my Dr. heard what I had previously been diagnosed with she was skeptical and took an scan thinking I might have something more serious. She basically said there's really nothing that can be done except for me not to look up and raise my arms (like when you change a lightbulb in a ceiling fan). If they did surgery to move the artery it could loop or cause more damage so it's best left alone. I then found out that this weird abnormality runs in my family. less

I have a couple of times one year when I was sick for months with one thing or another. First time scared the hell out of my wife. I came to with her yelling my name and crying. That was not fun.

Second time she wasn't in the same room (luckily), but I was feeding our baby girl who was strapped in to her booster seat and I came to on the floor with my daughter/booster seat laying beside me on the floor and her crying. Luckily neither of us were hurt, just freaked out.

It's a really strange feeling. One minute I'm there doing something and the next minute I'm waking up with someone screaming at me. I'm ok if I never experience it again. less

I've fainted a few times--it seems to only happen from a combination of not having eaten enough and being under some sort of physical stress/pain.

The last time it happened was right after I got my first tattoo done--I felt sort of nauseous, but the really disconcerting part is the way everything "grays out"--you literally can have your eyes wide open and not be able to see everything, and sounds get really echo-y and far away. I've never been unconscious for more than a couple of seconds though--although it feels like longer.

More commonly I start to gray out but don't actually faint--I can stay standing and I'm still conscious. I've been prone to it for as long as I can remember. I dance, though not as much as I did as a teenager, and it can make certain positions a problem--anything that requires doing some sort of backbend has about a 50/50 chance of triggering it. I know some members of my family have low blood sugar, so I think that may be part of the problem... less

Exactly! That is what is wrong with me too, but it effects the way I live. I am not allowed to drive or try to work. I am a "liability" apparently. It makes sense.. I can't be driving and passing out. That is dangerous. I can't be working in a kitchen (my profession is baking and pastry) and hurting myself or others. I applied for SSDI and they are finally contacting me, saying that I have a legitimate illness. I thought I had to live with it forever, honestly.

I had scans done, I've been to every doctor and had SO many tests done. MRI, MRA, CAT Scans, Heart Monitor, EEG, EKG, blood work, x-rays of my whole body, ect ect ect and they said my Vasovagel nerve is just really sensitive and the artery is in the wrong place which presses up against things in my body and makes me pass out at random times, usually from stress, heat, standing too long, or no reason at all. It just happens. They told me that it could possibly be from birth and it just appeared now, but it would have eventually. (I almost died when I was born because my Mother was.. on a lot of stuff.) They can't do a damn thing about it or it could severely damage other things in my body or make me paralyzed. Surgery for this type of thing is really out of the question. Even though Medicine has gone so far, it hasn't gone far enough for this one.

It is interesting to hear someone else having this too. It isn't very common. I've talked to new doctors and therapists in the new town/state that I live in, and they don't even know what a Vagus nerve is. It is really incredible to me. It really is a weird abnormality.

I'm really glad that you can live normally with it. It gives me hope. less

Yes. My very first time ever "blacking out" or ever even being hit was when I was 13 and I actually had TWO incidents that same year where I blacked out again and it was both in the SAME place! Weird. I swear I was cursed that year.

The first time, I was in school then and sitting on the bleachers with friends when this guy, who'd harrassed me really badly all year long hit me. I had had enough of him so when he kept harrassing me I threatened to hit him if he done it again. He kept on. I slapped him. I sat back down and next thing, I woke up in the bathroom floor with our gym coach. He beat the daylights out of me. While he was punching me in the face and head, I didn't black out, but there was NOTHING I could do so I remember being slumped over into my friend's lap and covering my head and face. When he started punching me in the stomach is when I believe I blacked out. I finally came to in the bathroom after our coach asking me "do you remember your name?" At first I didn't know where I was or my address, but knew my name. It only lasted for a short while and I was back to normal. Well, back to knowing my information. I wasn't "normal" again for quite a couple of years after that. I dealt with shit all through my middle and high school years after he did that. Other guys would threaten to "pull a "guy's name who beat me up" on me.

The SAME year, in the SAME gym, I blacked out again! We had to play this dumb game where half of the students line up at one end of the gym and the other half line up at the other end of the gym. The coach blows the whistle and you RUN. As fast as you can to the other side. What kind of idiot would even come up with that game? Clearly is you've got a bunch of kids running directly to each other, "as fast as they can" bad things can happen. This HUGE dude slammed right slap into me as I was running. I didn't even know what happened! I was out of it on the gym floor--very humiliating--and came to with the SAME gym coach asking me the same questions "do you know your name?" LOL. That was one nasty year for me in school.

As for blacking out due to anger or drunkeness, I don't do that. It's never happened. I've gotten so angry that I can't see straight or that I might get overly agressive (not like hitting people, but agressive) but never black out from it. I don't quite know why people call it blacking out when they get so angry they don't know what they're doing. I've never experienced that. I've PASSED OUT from being too drunk and going into a deep, long sleep, but not actually passing out like you do when you're beaten up or injured. less

I have Vasovagel Syncope Response. My blood pressure goes down when I stand up too quickly or it happens out of no where.. no warning. I've had it for a year. It basically just means that I pass out 2-3 times a day.

When I pass out, I get extremely dizzy. I feel tingly all over my body and my vision goes black. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground with either a bump on my head or a bruise somewhere else.

Once I black out and come to, I am extremely nauseous. less