Who here has fainted?

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I just went in for a flu shot the other day and fainted. Officially, this mechanism is called a vasovagal syncope, and is usually triggered by specific things like shots.

Because it is related to the nervous system, I thought I'd ask: how many of you here have fainted, and why?

I've fainted when I was in the emergengy ward at my local hospital one time because it was 12:30 at night and I was sitting in the chair, waiting for a blood test. I was sleeping on the floor when a nurse came to take me to my "bed".

Almost. I had the most painful, nauseating migraine ever, in college. The lesson ended so I walked home. I felt so sick and faint it was unreal. Luckily I didn't faint or throw up, and I managed to collapse into my bed.

Once when I was about 11 years old, I suddenly came down with the stomach flu. After vomiting once, I walked up the stairs to my parent's bedroom and began crawling towards the pillow on the bed. I suddenly felt too tired to go any further and everything went black.

I don't remember much about when I woke up or even what happened during the rest of my illness. The only thing I remember about it is that I was so ill that I eventually started dry heaving. And then the following week, I broke out in a chickenpox rash.

I fainted once at summer camp. I had cut my finger peeling vegetables and the sight of my own blood made me faint. When I came to I wanted to know if I was in heaven! I have no idea if they ever informed my parents of what happened.

My sister faints, sometimes on long plane trips. It is usually a combination of fatigue and stress and possible dehydration. She has been examined upside down and backwards and none of the doctors found anything concrete.

i did in assembly once at high school. I was feeling dizzy, then i lost it for a second and stumbled, regained control and i was a few lines forward. I think it was heat related.

I haven't.

I think 4 times, total. But I have an autonomic nervous system condition that makes that more likely (and does other things as well).

One time was when I was being taught how to give myself sub-cutaneous injections (the whimpiest kind of injection). I got the needle halfway in and then... plop. Eventually I was able to do it without passing out, though.

Once when getting an injection.

Another time was on a tour of an old silver mine at a ghost town called Virginia City. It was at high altitude and the temperature was over 100F. There was probably also a little dehydration involved. About 100 feet into the mine the tour guide suddenly switched off all the lights except for his flashlight, to show the conditions the miners worked in. Plop.

And another time was from standing in line for 4 hours to get into a restaurant (my parent's idea -- I would've been happy to go to Burger King after 30 minutes), after skiing all day and skipping lunch.

I did once, at school. The teacher thought I was joking.
I also did when I was six, when I was ill

I came close, just once in my life. I was about thirty, and sitting on the doctor's examining table watching him stitch up a very deep gash in the fleshy part of the palm of my hand. It was full of local anaesthetic, so I wasn't feeling anything. He had asked me if I'd rather lie down while he did it, and I said no, that I was interested in a good view of it. Then I could see the tunnel vision closing in black from my peripheral vision, and was afraid of falling off there if I did faint, so I told him I'd better lie down, and did. But I didn't (quite) faint after all.

I've fainted twice once when I was about three and once when I had bronchitis. Now that I think about it though, when I was three no body was around. They found me on the kitchen floor and there was no underlying cause. That might have been a seizure. Huh. I never thought about that.

When I was a teenager I would feel faint whenever I saw or heard a description of strange things happening to the human body, like for example people turning blue from lack of oxygen or a tourniquet being applied to an arm. Needles didn't bother me, just the tourniquet. The distortion to the arm when it bulged out from the tourniquet freaked me out. Even now writing about it I feel a little odd. But the only time I actually passed out was during science class, when we were watching a video of the inner ear throbbing. I don't know why.

As an adult I have only fainted once, when I was pregnant and eating dinner at the Keg.

I can remember fainting twice in my life.

Once, when I was getting my hair cut and I had to stand for almost the whole of the session (until I toppled over ) and another time when I was ill and passed out on the floor. It's not a very nice experience, but it makes me think of those times when you drift off to sleep and then suddenly jerk awake, which is much better then fainting in general.

I've litteraly fainted from being too stressed out.

Only once have I gotten so dizzy I fainted, and I woke up on the bathroom floor with a throbbing head no memory of what happened. It all took less than a minute, so I assume I fell over and hit my head. For some reason, whenever I stand up too fast, my legs give out and my head swirls so much I tip over.

I remember in the first grade getting a bad enough nosebleed that girls started screaming and me briefly passing out? Or maybe just feeling faint? Someone took me to the nurse's office and I guess they fixed it somehow or uhh ? I've never had a nosebleed anywhere near that bad other than that.. I haven't had any 'real' ones, though sometimes my mucus is somewhat bloody

Strangely, or not, that's the only memory I have of first grade, whereas I have various memories of every other grade I've (apparently) been in. I also recall the first grade classroom as having about twice as many students as any other class I was ever in. I recall the first grade classroom as more 'clinical' overall whereas the others seemed more 'friendly', including kindergarten and preschool.

More data for the tabulations