Black out

[Fenris]

Last night my dog started barking around 3.30 am, I yelled at him to shut up and he went to the front door and wouldn't stop growling. The girl I share the house with (my ex) looked out the front window which is next to her bed and called out to me that someone was at my car.

I have an old car which is not worth much and I certainly don't leave anything valuable in it, sometimes I don't even bother locking it. The guy was trying to steal petrol, he wouldn't have got much as it was almost empty. I think he targeted my car because it is old and decrepid looking so there was not much chance of it being alarmed which it isn't.

I considered grabbing my large sickle from under my bed but decided not to. I opened the front door and pushed open the fly screen which is stiff and really noisy. The guy seemed to panic a bit and ran for his car, by this stage I was really angry and I grabbed whatever I could find on the front porch and started lobbing things at him and his car.

He sped off with the doors still open. As my adrenaline rush subsided I started to feel unwel, a bit sick in the stomach and light headed so I sat down. The next thing I remember is my ex propping me up from behind, I was so confused like I had taken a massive hit of DMT without knowing it or I had just been hit by a car, I felt ill, light headed and dizzy and slowly came back to normality. Apparently I had layed down, my eyes glazed over and I was making sounds like a goldfish gasping for air, this was just before I was propped up so I don't remember it. I think the whole episode lasted no more than a couple of minutes.

I felt really thirsty and was very pale & pasty looking. I went back to bed but my heart was pounding heavily and I couldn't get back to a good nights sleep.

I woke up this morning with a bit of a headache and still feeling a bit wiggy and not quite with it.

Im not sure if I should go and see a doctor, ive had my blood pressure checked before and it is normal. Im sure it wasn't normal last night.

I don't know whether I should just put it down to bad luck or going from asleep to angry and exerting myself in a 60 sec or being tall and slim and prone to low blood pressure under certain circumstances.

This is the third time this has happened to me, the first time I was taking my own blood sample with a hypo while in a physiology lab at uni The second time I was terribly dehydrated due to my own stupidity and alcohol abuse, I got up at 2am to get a drink because I felt sick, I passed out before getting to the bathroom.

I think it will be an easy day at work with plenty of cups of tea for me.

Is this something to be worried about?

[mark80]

seems like mild shock. IF it only happens afetr extreme circumstances it is most likely shock,

Your second incident was porbably due to hypovolemia, alchol blocks renin-angiotensin-aldosetrone which blocks the bodys ability to reabsorb water, thats why youi pee alot wehen you dirnk. thus without being able reasorb water your blood volume is dropping to dnagerous levels.

[Amulte]

its sounds like this time you went into shock. i can see other reasons for your other situations.

go to the doc and get checked out, but my inclination is that this time was shock from the overload and adrenaline and such.

your 1st time could have been blood related (ive known a few blokes who pass out at the sight of blood), the 2nd time was your body trying to prevent you from further killing it.

best treatments for shock are gaba, benzos or a tiny drink just to ease the nerves so the dont overload themselves.

short post but in a rush atm, sorry.

[MindExpansion]

I think that while the other incidents have other possible reasons, you should proabably see a doctor. It could be that your heart was racing from the adrenalin and your blood pressure got so high it led to a black out but one way or another there are many serious things that can cause you to pass out so it is probably worth having a full cardiovascular checkup. Better safe than sorry when these may be the first warnings of a future heart attack (Not trying to put a downer on things but I want to enforce the idea that these things often shouldn't be taken lightly, without becoming a hypochondriac). Sorry to hear you had such an unpleasant night though, look what petrol prices are doing ey, the guy should have gone and stolen a bike instead, less maintenance lol.

Peace,

Mind

[Fenris]

The situation is being looked into and I believe I am on the right track, I think what I had was Vasovagal syncope http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_syncope . There are a few other ideas I have where I will need to accumulate some physical data before taking this further.

One thing that I don't understand is, given my lifetime accumulation of crazy ass experiences and the number of times I could have been dead by mis-adventure, how can a non violent almost non verbal encounter lead to such a rediculous outcome?

Anyway I am looking further into this.

Thanks for the replies

[marsha]

harden up princess ;) xo

[apothecary]

Do you snore? Sleep issues can often cause increases in blood pressure as you sleep. Sudden waking from sleep into a 'fight-or-flight' scenario could bump this to a level where your vasovagal syncope type stuff usually happens...

[t st tantra]

had something similar recently,couldnt quite sort out the trigger ,this gives me something to work with.thanx.

i've had episodes of feeling faint ,sitting or standing 4 most of my life.have no memory of ever blacking out,but i guess i may not remember it.usually recognised it and instinctively got my head down low.

recently it was different,a lot of symptoms including alternating lightheadedness and tingles in the feet,nausea and some shortness of breath,half hour chronic,another hour to reasonable.

always felt it was not life threatening but fear/adrenaline made me uncertain.

couldnt talk at first but told someone just incase.

been with a friend who had just dropped,head injuries seem less likely as the legs just go and they drop straight down.

t s t .

[Amulte]

One thing that I don't understand is, given my lifetime accumulation of crazy ass experiences and the number of times I could have been dead by mis-adventure, how can a non violent almost non verbal encounter lead to such a rediculous outcome?

ive noticed that myself, in my life ive had some hair raising/pant wetting adventures including but (not limited to)a gun pulled in my face and not had such responses, but ive had similar 'black-out' experiences from verbal conflicts and confrontations and such. the 1st time it happened to me i pulled my girlfriend at the time out of a rip when she couldnt swim, didnt phaze me much but my body reacted in the same way you describe. i think it really depends to what the psyche can and cannot deal with, weather it knows it or not. its a defense mechanisim of sorts, just after years of humanity it doesnt work properly.

Edited June 27, 2008 by Amulte

[Evil Genius]

Hi Fenris! It sounds like Orthostatic hypotension! bye Eg

[ThunderIdeal]

"been with a friend who had just dropped,head injuries seem less likely as the legs just go and they drop straight down"

forget that. i have bashed my head pretty good passing out (tile floors, although much worse is possible like the corner of a table on the way down)

i frequently become confused and lose balance when i rise too quickly, usually necessitating that i sit back down, sometimes leading to a black out. always confusing, yet pleasant in some ways.

[ayjay101]

Fenris,

You sleep with a sickle under your bed and consider using it?!?

You throw things at someone as they run/drive away? Then call it a non-violent encounter?

You also mention alcahol abuse...

Is this something to be worried about?

I'd say so

sounds to me like your aggression is over-stimulated for some reason

I'm not trying to be a smartarse here, I just went through similar shit myself. When I get instantly worked up like that, the adrenaline nearly knocks me out on the spot.

Good luck.

Edited July 1, 2008 by ayjay101

[Fenris]

Fenris,

You sleep with a sickle under your bed and consider using it?!?

You throw things at someone as they run/drive away? Then call it a non-violent encounter?

You also mention alcahol abuse...

I'd say so

sounds to me like your aggression is over-stimulated for some reason

I'm not trying to be a smartarse here, I just went through similar shit myself. When I get instantly worked up like that, the adrenaline nearly knocks me out on the spot.

Good luck.

The sickle is more for shock value. If someone broke into my house and I confronted them I would probably get stabbed. If someone broke into my house and I confronted them with my sickle they would jump out the nearest window out of fear before they would consider stabbing me. I didn't buy the sickle, I found it years ago in an old and liked the horror movie quality it had.

What would you consider an appropriate response if you found someone had opened your petrol cap with a screwdriver and was trying to siphon your tank? I thought throwing stuff at him was fairly restrained. If I was caught in the same situation I would expect to get beaten to a pulp. Note - I don't condone needless violence.

The alcohol abuse I referred to was one Saturday when at 11.30 pm I realised my only fluid intake the whole day was beer. My drinking is usually fairly moderate; it is rare for me to consume more than 3 or 4 pints in any one sitting.

I did take what you said on board regarding aggression. I asked my ex if she thought I had a problem with aggression, her answer surprised me. She said I repress most of my emotions, I don't get angry when I should get angry, I don't show how upset I am when I am upset. Apparently I bob along at a neutral baseline. She also said that when I do get angry which is very infrequently that my response is perhaps excessive given the situation.

I am slow to anger and the only time I can think of when I lost my cool was when some kid shone a green laser pointer in my face & eye at a doof. I went off at him but it did not escalate into any physical violence although we did have a minor scuffle when I tried to disarm him of the laser. Lasers can cause permanent eye injury and should never be shone in anyone’s eyes regardless of how low intensity they are. They are not a toy.

I always thought of myself as a fairly placid and tollerant sort of person.

[ayjay101]

If you have a sickle in your hands when approaching a potential bogeyman - even if it's just for show - there could many disastrous consequences. I mean this is someone who has broken into your house, possibly with weapons or backup of their own that they'd be much more likely to use if they see you with such a powerful looking weapon. It could make a non-violent situation violent immedately. Or assuming they grab the sickle from you, what then? Or what if you feel threatened enough to use it yourself? You're gonna seriously fuck someone up with a huge blade like that - something that is likely to come back at you in more ways than one. Or even if they ran away when they saw you holding it, I'd be wary of them coming back with something bigger and better. You just don't need that shit floating around...

You mentioned that the guy had already taken off when he heard you open the front dor, and you being a tall person with a loud dog, prolly not much more would have been required. I understand the need to scare the guy away from doing it again, but I'd be surprised if he came back anyway... if you yelled abuse at him he prolly would have pissed off never to be seen again.

We sound alike in character dude. I am very quiet and non-confrontational too. But recently a few frustrating factors - and by bottling many small things up I let my aggro out by threatening to bash a cousin of mine at a family function, then I put my fist through a restaurant window! How fuckin embarassing. When talking it out with my missus she surprised me by saying the same as your ex did to you, that I'd been like that for a long time. I identified several other causes too, the main one being that I had been pumping iron a lot (every day) and then stopped suddenly. It was also the fifth day in a row I'd been blind drunk - I normally avoid drinking, but we'd had a rare run of 5 special events in a row. Anyway, I consulted some other friends about it, which really helped me get out of that abusive path I was on.

[ThunderIdeal]

i've enjoyed your contribution to the thread... but are you serious about the sickle? don't you acknowledge how messed up the situation could already be, sickle or not?

"It could make a non-violent situation violent immedatel"

or it could make a violent situation non-violent. no way to tell really, but if you have the sickle you have partial control over that outcome.

"Or assuming they grab the sickle from you, what then?"

you aren't really much worse off than you were before. you're at the mercy of a thug, and you regret not swinging the thing while it was in your hands.

[ayjay101]

you aren't really much worse off than you were before. you're at the mercy of a thug, and you regret not swinging the thing while it was in your hands.

...except now the thug is armed with a SICKLE in their hands and they are provoked to use it, because as far as they're concerned you were going to use it on them. If they weren't there for violence initially (and chances are they weren't) they sure are now.

Thankfully we don't live in a world where attackers burst into homes in the middle of the night and violently attack people. If someone does break in, most likely it's to try to steal something and get away fast. Most burgulars dont want ANY confrontation, but if confronted with an angry person with a weapon, the chance of violence is many times what it was before, no?

In this particular case the guy was outside, stealing petrol from an old bomb. There was no immedate threat of violence at all. He took off as soon as he heard someone coming.

Why are there so many shootings in the US? The more weapoons there are around, the more likely other weapons will be used too. By your logic we should all have weapons around just in case?

[ThunderIdeal]

i don't know about everyone. by my logic I should have weapons around just in case.

i admire your stance though.