Have You Ever Fainted?

[Dr Rock]

I did at school, possibly 11 years old. It was assembly, we were all standing up and I slowly pass out and fall to the floor. Why, maybe lack of sleep or something. I was fine afterwards, and nobody took the piss for some reason.

[Zero Gravitas]

Yeah, I've fainted loads.

Once in a sex education class when someone asked the question "When a man comes inside a woman where does it all go?" but I don't feel as if that was related.

Oh and once when I first tried fencing almost as soon as I put the mask on I was out.

Oh and once at the Lincolnshire Science Fair in 1997, I recovered and we won the grand prize, in fact I was SOO good at it the quiz MC man told me mockingly to "Let someone else have a go", turns out I had scarlet fever.

[madhair60]

yeah ive farted loads of times

[Buelligan]

I am fainting whilst I t

[buttgammon]

Never, and I've never seen it happen to anyone in person so as far as I'm concerned, you're all lying and fainting is an urban myth.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

not fainted but had seizures which is just a spicey fainting

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I'm feeling faint right now.

Twice. Both times when I'd got a bit too high on marijuana. Turns out it's not a good idea to try and keep up with a Dutch person when you've not smoked in a while. The first time I was having a wee and banged my nose on the cistern. Thankfully, I didn't break my conk (or piss myself). The second time, we were out for a walk and sat down for a spliff by by the riverside. I could tell almost immediately that it was too strong for me and lay back in the grass to ride it out. Once I thought it had passed, I stood up to go home and started hearing a ringing in my ears. The next thing I knew, I was sitting back down again and my friend was asking what happened. Slightly embarrassing, but at least it didn't happen while I was crossing the road.

[Mr Trumpet]

Yeah, I woke up with a massive nosebleed when I was 15. I went to the bathroom to clean myself up and had what I can only describe as an overwhelming urge to lie on the floor as quickly as possible. My dad panicked and called an ambulance but I honestly felt alright within moments of going down. The paramedics turned up and my blood pressure was very low and they couldn't find a pulse. The guy told me if I wasn't awake and chatting to him he'd have been worried!

In the end I missed a day of my Year 10 work experience, which was at a military museum run by an old Brigadier. When I told him what happened the next day he was very sympathetic, said he knew how I felt because when he was waist-deep in the swamps of Malaya in the 50s a piece of claymore shrapnel went right through his hand. Same thing really.

[The Mollusk]

Never fainted but a few months back I had a very embarrassing fright which made me go light headed and fall over. I was inspecting a big empty house and I'd been there for a while, just me and the sound of my own voice wandering a spacious unfurnished 5 bed gaff, completely at ease with my isolation as I am in my line of work.

After being there for about an hour and half I went to the lower ground floor hallway and walked past what I thought was just a regular wall but was actually an integrated ceiling to floor mirror. The sudden shock of another human appearing right next to me in my peripheral vision actually floored me. I fully went "bwuuaahhh!" like fuckin Hank Hill and slumped back against the wall and sank to the floor, the pitiful sight of my own reflection staring feebly back at me. Had to sit there for a good minute composing myself and eventually laughing in nervous relief.

But no I've never fainted because I'm not that weak or pathetic!!

[holyzombiejesus]

In science in my first year at secondary school. The teacher chose me to donate blood for all my fellow pupils to look at under microscopes and started jabbing my finger with this pointy razorblade thing. No blood came out so he tried again and down I went.

Later the same year I got kicked in the head by a boy with running spikes on and fainted when I stood up.

Fainted in pubs (both lock-ins, Corbieres and Jam Street - got a scar on my forehead from one of those) and once in the cinema whilst watching a short film about a man cutting his own arm off. Oh, and once on the train a few years back. I'd been reading a novel and there was a bit in it about a man trying to walk on a broken leg, and when I came to stand up to get off the train, next thing I knew I was on the floor surrounded by passengers.

[checkoutgirl]

and once on the train a few years back.

That nearly happened to me once. Turns out standing for ages in a packed train with an empty stomach and a long winter coat on are not a good recipe for continued consciousness.

If fainting comes on relatively slowly then it's easier to sit down and put your head between your legs.

[Norton Canes]

Had what I prefer to call a 'nightclub collapse' once, due to a combination of excessive alcohol, dancefloor overexertion and lack of air. Blacked out, fell forward into the person in front of me and came to a few seconds later after I'd been carted off to a chair. No paparazzi to capture the moment, sadly.

Oh, and I struggled out of bed for a piss once in a weakened state while I was getting over some viral thing. The exertion proved too much and I passed out while passing water. Regained consciousness to see Mrs Canes sponging up the mess, bless her.

Life of glamour me.

[Captain Z]

Oh, and I struggled out of bed for a piss once in a weakened state while I was getting over some viral thing. The exertion proved too much and I passed out while passing water. Regained consciousness to see Mrs Canes sponging up the mess, bless her.

Love the mental image of her walking in on that scene and deciding the piss was the more pressing concern.

[Norton Canes]

She had at least first attended to my modesty.

[Wonderful Butternut]

Yeah I fainted due to a stomach ulcer crashing my blood pressure into the ground.

Hit my head on the way down too. No long term effects apart from occasionally waking up in the morning and believing I am an onion

[lazyhour]

I once fainted in the BBC Radio Comedy department at Broadcasting House.

Grazed my face and everything.

[buzby]

My dad went to give blood at the BTS centre that used to be by the courts in Lord Street. It was a double width shop front where the shop floor was filled with the couches and equipment and the entrance was a narrow corridor down one side with the desk at the end, and archway halfway along with a step down to the shop floor area. As we walked up to the desk, I made the mistake of turning my head to look through the archway and the sight of all the blood being pumped set me off, so I ended up fainting as we approached the desk. Dad went off to give his pint of plasma while I was sat in reception being given a cup of tea and a Rich Tea biscuit by a nice Irish nurse.

I also fainted in Sex Education class while we were being shown a scuzzy old VHS (on a Baird VCR and wooden cabinet TV on the stand) about pregnancy and giving birth. The 'AV Room' was a small converted office with boards over the windows and no ventilation that was very hot & stuffy, and when they did the episiotomy I went out like a light. There was something in particular about the deep red of the spurting blood in the grainy, high contrast 16mm film that pushed me over the edge.

I've been knocked out a couple of times, but they don't count.

[Vodkafone]

If @flotemysost hasn't slowly slumped to the ground in an embarrassingly public setting at some point, I'll eat my big toenails.

[JaDanketies]

Once I was on a boat on the coast of Sicily on a hot day and I threw up on the boat and fainted when I stood up. Blacked out for a second and fell over. 15 years old I think. Never happened since. No idea what the basis of the fainting was. The sickness came over me quickly. Spent the rest of the day in bed but didn't feel particularly bad afterwards. I had travel sickness on that holiday too, which I've never really had.

[Voltan (Man of Steel)]

My dad went to give bllod...

Welsh is he?

[checkoutgirl]

She had at least first attended to my modesty.

Woa, a blowjob. For real respec'.

[Icehaven]

No but I've seen it happen to friends a few times. Once was when a mate was standing on a chair adjusting some curtains, and next thing he was flat on the floor and staring as if he was in a trance. At first I thought he'd just fallen but after a few seconds he snapped out of it and was asking what had happened as he had no recollection of falling at all, he'd just been one moment on the chair then suddenly found himself lying on the floor.
Another time a different friend was getting her first tattoo (on her belly so luckily she was already lying down) and about a minute after they'd started she made a sort of "gnuuuughh" sound, her eyes literally rolled back in her head and she was out cold. Fair doos once she came round she insisted on having it finished, although it probably would have been easier to just leave her unconscious and get on with it.

[The Giggling Bean]

Yes, quite a few times growing up, however the most recent occasion was about 7 or 8 weeks ago. I'd been rushed into hospital with pneumonia and sepsis. Mrs Bean had left to pack me a bag when I was told I'd be staying in. Twenty minutes later I felt the room begin to shift. There were no medical staff around and I remember sitting up in bed shouting "Hello, is anyone there?" before the room started spinning and everything went cold. I regained consciousness with a number of Doctors and Nurses working around me.

Twenty minutes later another Doctor came in, confirming pneumonia and sepsis, then asked me about my fainting incident. I'd got halfway through telling him when I passed out again. He was still there when I regained consciousness and I asked him, "did I faint again?" When he confirmed that I had I told him, "well the first time was pretty much like that".

It's horrible though and I hate doing it. It's the feeling of cold before I lose consciousness that scares me.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

black outs related to self harm as a teenager
recently though ive shit so hard ive fainted a few times

honest to god i blacked out in the bathroom due to bowel infection recently and whern i was coming around the first thought in my head was some Rodney and Cassandra post on here that that'd made me laugh a minute before and then I realised I was toe deep in my own constituency

[holyzombiejesus]

Also passed out on magic mushrooms once. We were watching Sounds of the Sixties and there was an old Bonzo clip that went from black and white to colour. I remember going to the toilet and when I came to, I was face down on my friend's bathroom floor whilst he pissed in the sink and his girlfriend looked on horrified.

When we looked in the brewed mushrooms the next morning, there were little worms in them.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Yeah as a kid once or twice.

As an adult, but some time ago, I got pissed without really eating all day and was at a gig and went for a joint then as I came back in I could feel my sight going. Usually if you sit down you can ride this out but I was in a crowd, had nothing to grab on to and fucking stacked it. Felt like a right dickhead.

[imitationleather]

not fainted but had seizures which is just a spicey fainting

Same.

Fainting's for losers. You're not even banned from driving afterwards!

[All Surrogate]

Nearly, after giving blood. It began with feeling weird, then a cold sweat. The staff got me on a stretcher with my legs elevated smartish, so I never quite passed out.

[Mister Six]

No, but I came close after moving to Beijing and going in for the mandatory blood tests to ensure I didn't have TB or whatever. Total conveyor belt experience - they pull eight or so BIG vials of blood out of your arm while you sit in an upright office chair, then immediately tell you to get out of the room. A cold wave was moving down through my body as I walked to the door, and by the time I was through it, my hearing was dimming and my vision was pulling away to make room for little dancing blobs of colour and nothingness. I managed to remote-control my body over to a quietish corner of the hall connecting the various testing rooms and sat among a gaggle of similarly white-faced youths, keeping a tight grip on reality until the pressure of the void left me, and I was slowly able to fully re-inhabit my body, from the toes up.

Since then I've been really nervous when giving blood in case I actually fainted, and it was only a couple of weeks ago, when getting some pulled for an annual wellness check-up, that I found the nerve to watch the blood flowing out of my arm and into the tube. Felt fine throughout, so at least I know it was my shitty treatment in China, not my own squeamishness, that nearly knocked me out that one time.

[Sebastian Cobb]

not fainted but had seizures which is just a spicey fainting

Not a qualified doctor but I reckon the pecking order goes:
Seizure
Knocked out
Faint