Does anyone know much about fainting as an adult, caused by seeing something unpleasant?

[4pmfireworks]

I get lightheaded and lose my vision if I stand up too quickly. I know this is very common.

As a child I also used to faint when unwell (high fever, vomiting etc). I can easily go 'woozy' when unwell now but don't faint.

As a teen I fainted when hungover. Fully passed out like a fallen tree. Once lost 4 teeth doing it. I have become better able to notice I'm going to faint as an adult and have not hurt myself this way for years (I also no longer drink like a student in the 90s).

I have fainted a couple of times on seeing a lot of blood, which pisses me off and puzzles me tbh because I don't faint when I deal with my period, and I'm not a squeamish person. I don't feel disgusted or uncomfortable, and the next thing I wake up looking at the ceiling with a bump on my head.

I also remember fainting once when I must have been about 7, and my brother refused to turn off a tv show about a surgical operation. I hated looking at it, left the room and passed out cold.

Twice recently, a TV show has made me faint. Once it was a scene in which an abortion is implied but not shown, and the woman is seen fully dressed, convulsing and crying after the event. Another time it was a similar scene in Baby Reindeer after he is assaulted and is in pain in the shower. Very uncomfortable viewing, but nothing shown on screen other than people in pain - and I'm out cold. Why? What is this pointless reaction?

I feel a bit puzzled by it and I wondered if anyone has similar or knows much about it.

potentially orthostatic hypotension or possibly POTS - you need to see a GP explain your symptoms and further tests

I have Vasovagal Syncopy. I have had it since my late teens/early 20s and used to pass out all over the place. I “grew out of it” and was fine more more than a decade, but it came back. My cardiologist thinks it came back as a result of a horrendously stressful year.
I had a Tilt Table Test, passed out within 40 seconds and was then prescribed Midodrine. Total game changer for me. I’m on the lowest dose, I take it every 4 hours and am literally totally “normal” now. No more episodes and no side effects, apart from an occasionally tingly scalp. I do take precautions in that I sit down for any injections and I cannot watch anything with heights or operations without feeling weird again, but I don’t pass out. Other than that, I’m good.
So it might be worth asking your GP to refer you to cardiology and get the Tilt Table Test. And if you do, do not drive yourself! I felt horrendous after mine for 2 days.

Argh reading this thread is setting mine off

My son has this and has had lots of tests along the way- no POTS, no blood pressure issues, no medication issues. Just keels over at blood or talking about operations or watching any medical stuff or having an injection or [etc]

Have you had lying and standing blood pressure checked? Easy to do at home - lie down relaxing for 10-15mins, take BP. Stand up and immediately on standing take BP. If it's more than 30 lower you have a postral drop. Continue taking once a minute for 5mins to see how long returns to normal. If you have a drop, see your GP.
Fluids and salt have been a game changer for me - apparently normal people don't feel woozy unloading the washing machine. I have a pint of ribena with Himalayan salt first thing in the morning then a litre bottle of squash with electrolyte powder in that I aim to finish before lunch.
I wonder if you have a bit of a psychological trigger but that your threshold for fainting is lower then average, possibly due the above.

That's what I thought. It's not unusual.

I'm a fainter during medical procedures, it's on my notes and I always tell them.

Bit rarely faint in real life once I got pas5 teenage, I get enough warning to be able to avoid it. It must be hard if i5 just hits you.

I faint easily - always have. It is annoying because I am a tough no nonsense person, but my physical response can make me seem like a pathetic wuss. I have low blood pressure - even lower in my pregnancies. I am super healthy and anyone who has taken my blood pressure says that low blood pressure is healthy and a good thing.

I recognise the pre-faint signs very quickly now and have no choice but to get my head lower than my knees - I usually now have time to excuse myself & find a quiet corner to crouch with my head down. If I'm alert a few minutes 'reset' usually does it. Needless to say, I don't work in a field where I am likely to deal with anything upsetting or gory!

POTS?
Hypermobility?
low BP?
Dehydration and low electrolytes?

My DS is 10, since he was a toddler he began taking reflex anoxic seizures, which is a non-epileptic seizure caused by the vagus nerve and has environmental triggers such as pain, fear, shock etc. As he's grown older these have now changed from seizures to just fainting episodes mostly over blood, even seeing cartoon blood or fake blood can cause this reaction. If people are talking about blood he feels woozy and it really frightens him. He has also just been diagnosed with coeliacs disease and I saw OP mentioned you have that too! I wonder is there any connection there. He's had his blood pressure taken and it's always normal, he's had his iron levels checked which were low previously but are now borderline back into the normal range for a child since being GF for 8wks. He's also always pale!

Some people faint at the site of blood and there’s nothing you can do about it - it’s a weird biological response.

However, as you remember the incident when 7 so clearly even now it might possibly be psychological in this instance

I was just coming to suggest RAS as @Nogodsnomasters explains... I have taught a couple of students with it and they can be triggered by a range of things, and present like 'normal' fainting.

I once had to take a question about the skeleton out of a test paper in order to accommodate the lovely young man who would have been sitting it so it doesn't necessarily have to be anything actively gory or upsetting.

Oh yes. I don't faint as much as I get older but the faiting at the sight of blood is really annoying.
Once when DC were little and one had an accident. I dealt with it fine, first aid, blood everywhere and once all was calm I keeled over. Other people think you are squeamish but it's a physical response.
I think DS inherited it. When he was 16 I took him to the optician to try contact lenses. He faited out cold in the chair. He's also fainted as an adult having a cannula fitted.
I have a lot of bloods taken and have had cancer treatment so nothing phases me but I do look away when medics are sticking needles in.

Gory pictures makes me feel faint.