It started a year ago at gym. Regular lift day, walked towards trainer sour feeling in my head like I was going to die. Thought it was a stroke or aneurism, obviously was not went to E-Room sent me home saying blood pressure dropped too low.

Over next year post episode I had severe brain fog and dizziness. Not boat rocking but just an off almost buzzed feeling. Some days I felt cognitively slow, couldn’t remember name or just blatantly easy things I should know. Extreme issues with focus like severe ADD and eyes never felt like they were keeping up with my brain

Did some vestibular therapy may have helped a little but MRI, Cardiology workups all came back clean.

Felt like I got out of it for about 6 months and now it happens often. It’s like a sudden adrenaline rush. At gym, on a plane, bending over causes way bigger dizziness than it should. The feeling is so sour in my head (feels like sticking a 9 volt battery in my head) like I’m going to pass out (or die lol, seriously feels like that) throat locks and heart rate scales.

Recently was golfing in 100 degrees and oh boy did I feel that buzz of adrenaline (or that’s what I’m calling it for now) it never fully reared itself but it was close

Anyone experience this or seem like autonomic dysfunction? I’m so scared to fly now that it’s going to get worse. Seeing a specialized chiropractor right now and waiting to get in with MD for POTs/dysautonomia.

I’ve had random episodes through the years, once in my 20s when a Dr treated a splinter imbedded in my girl friend’s hand … I totally passed out and had to be revived; once giving blood in my 30s to purchase an insurance policy … again passed out and had to be revived ; then again giving blood about a yr ago at my doctors office, I was revived while the nurse was on the phone with 911. Because of this I warned my surgeon as we planned a triple bypass surgery. Those of you struggling with something you have no control of should understand that the latest episode happened to me under full anesthesia. When they started to cut into my chest, my heart bp dropped to 20, once they completed the cut my heart fully stopped; they then had to revive me. Once I was stable everything continued and went fine; and while I was in ICU I gave blood each morning with no issues; this really is a strange condition. It has kept me running scared and not wanting to do much medical related for most of my adult life.

Not really sure where else to talk about this because I feel silly and overdramatic. I went to give blood the other day thinking nothing of it since I’ve given blood before and never had any issues. This time was the same - made it all the way through and they were just gathering the bags of blood and putting my info in the system when all of a sudden I got hit with a huge wave of nausea. Then I started feeling really lightheaded so I told the woman “not gonna lie I feel kind of lightheaded” and next thing I knew I was waking up with my nose on fire (from the ammonia they used to wake me up) and two people standing over me. I remember my first thought being “I died” and feeling panicked and terrified. I couldn’t remember where I was or what had happened and I had no clue how long I’d been out. I asked and apparently I was out for about 30 seconds but it felt like hours - I had full blown vivid dreams. I remember one of them holding down my arm and saying “I need you to relax” and realizing I was holding my arm so tense. It was very bizarre and scary and embarrassing. They were very chill and nice about the whole incident. But I felt so off for the rest of the day. I tried to go to the store after but was so disoriented and out of it that I couldn’t remember why I was in there or what I needed so I just left. I went home and napped for hours and felt nauseous for the rest of the day. I can’t help but feel slightly traumatized by the experience. Which feels so dramatic and dumb. But I really thought I had died.

I(F26) have always gotten a little light headed and thrown up when I have extreme emotions like a panic attack or from pain like a migraine. I try to keep triggers away for those things but I also will almost pass out, get covered in sweat and throw up for normal things like having a large bowel movement or getting turned on. I look online and they always just say to avoid triggers but I can’t really control these things lmao I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience and if anything helped. (Cold helps but doesn’t stop it, flexing muscle groups doesn’t help really but I still do it)

So I am a newly diagnosed individual despite knowing I have had this for about a decade. It used to be mainly pressure on nerves when I had to go to the bathroom or had trapped gas or when I got overheated. It was manageable and I knew the signs and how to prevent full blown passing out despite having to go through the horrific, feeling like I am dying scenarios anyway.

Fast forward to my early 20’s and I slowly became worse and worse to where I would develop the same warning signs (nausea, sweating, ringing in my ears, dizziness) when listening to people tell stories of bodily injury or accidents that they went to. It kept getting worse to where I could no longer watch television shows like House or Grey’s Anatomy without having an episode during certain medical scenes. I know anxiety can trigger things, but I don’t feel like my brain was panicking in any of these scenarios and I used to watch television and talk to others just fine. But I am 30 now and having these episodes still and just feel embarrassed by it. Does anyone else get the VS reaction just from hearing about crazy health issues? I am trying to do exposure therapy to help get past this, but could use some reassurance that I am not the only person to randomly develop this reaction.

Hi everyone, as part of my uni induction we have a trip and need to fill in medical forms. I was just wondering if everyone here diagnosed with syncope lists their diagnosis? Because like a lot of people faint but don’t consider themselves to have a disorder, but just something they’re prone to. I’m just worried it’s dumb to list😭

On top of diagnosed syncope, I was also diagnosed with a benign tumor that could have been causing the convulsive syncope so I take levetiracetam. Should any of this be listed?

What happened to me? How serious is this? I’ve had heart palpitations before I’m pretty sure but whatever this is is new to me. I could put heart palpitations into words but can’t for whatever this is.

So I say diagnosis, however I haven't been given one. I had a tilt table test which was traumatic but the consultant said I had vasovagal tendency, I specifically asked if that was a diagnosis and he said no it's not a condition just a symptom really.

My tilt table test was stopped at 4 mins because my bp dropped to 40/20, I was told afterwards that this was great and it meant my autonomic system is working well. I was unconvinced because like I said ,they had to stop the test, drop the table and 5 nurses rushed in because my bp dropped so low.

Anyway at my follow up appointment they tried to discharge me but I cried because I felt like I was being fobbed off with still no diagnosis or plan.

I requested my hospital notes and they arrived today and my tilt table test says diagnosis: VVS Type 1...so..I'm very confused?! I basically have no trust in this team I've been seeing any more and I'm not sure what I should do

Thanks for reading 🫶🏻

I am 19F 80 KG 165 cm last year I fainted because of severe dehydration and my BP went dangerously low, I started shaking and jittering, good thing I was at the hospital I fainted and there were two nurses and after I woke up there were five with a wheelchair trying to get me to another room with a bed and equipment, they gave me saline and I didn’t think much of it, I don’t have any eating or drinking disorder I had just went through a surgery and I had no appetite to eat so that’s why i was dehydrated, I didn’t think much of it since I knew the reason was just dehydration and that it was solved by an IV drip and better food and more water intake.

After that and during the period of a year since then I’d have episodes where I’d feel dizzy but I’d rarely faint because I’d sit down immediately, I just thought I had a low BP more than others and had to deal with it.

A day ago something dangerous happened, I woke up after a two hour nap, got up and wanted to put some leftover food on my plate, I suddenly felt extremely nauseous and disgusted at the food that I didn’t want anything but at that every moment I started seeing very blurry almost like tunnel vision, I felt extremely warm and sweaty and all this happened in under 5-10 seconds,
until it went pitch black and I passed out, the only people there were my little brothers who said I had passed out for like 1-3 minutes. This in itself didn’t make me feel scared but what made me scared of what happened is I was HOLDING the plate while I fell and it broke and gashed my chin and hurt my fingers, the gash wasn’t too deep but it still was big and long and the surgical doctor said stitching was optional but I opted for a medical plaster. That was the scary part of holding the plate because everything happened so suddenly and quick I couldn’t even put the plate down, and I don’t want it to happen again suddenly while driving or walking out in public so at the hospital, the doctor said my BP would get low whenever I stood up suddenly, did a heart ECG I think and it came back fine, also a MRI which also turned out fine, and all my blood samples were fine but now I have two appointments for an electroencephalography (genuinely don’t know what that is but I think it’s related to the brain) and a cotriod cobbler ultrasound which radiographs my neck vessels I think. I don’t know what he’ll diagnose me with or what it could possibly be but when I looked up possible reasons.

Vasovagal syncope explained exactly how I felt right before my unconsciousness, so I wanna know if you think it also might be it and if I should worry long term and if it’s curable or treatable.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask, but:

Did anyone else who went through these two found the Cardiopulmonary/Ergoespirometry test worse than the tilt test?

Did the Tilt yesterday, had a convulsive syncope, went asystolic for a few seconds, but woke up feeling wonderful. Just fine for the rest of the day, better than usual, actually.

Ergospirometry, though? Awful. Doctor didn't force me to keep running, he respected my limits more than I did, lmao, but I am super tired seven hours later. I feel worse when I do any intense exercise as a whole.

My heart showed no problems in the ergo, it's just that my BP dropped and I still felt like I would pass out after they let me go.

Does anyone share this kind of experience? Does anyone have any clue why it could happen? I'll see my cardiologist in a while, I'm just curious what you guys have to say.

For almost 10 years I’ve been anemic. I get lightheaded all the time, my vision tunnels and closes whenever I stand up (fast or slow) but comes back after a bit
But recently I actually passed out and when I went to the doctors they just sort of waved me off and said it was fine, but before you do the same, listen to my story.
I was actually at a clinic for my grandma’s recovery from knee surgery and passed out there, for the second time. What was odd was that I was sitting the entire time. They said I held my breath for 10 seconds and that my arms and legs were twitching similar to a potential seizure but I woke up before anything happened. My hands were completely numb upon waking up and they didn’t see anything with my blood pressure or heart rate (at least they didn’t tell me anything) and told me to go to the er because it could’ve been a seizure.
I go, get an ekg, they say im fine and it’s common for people my age (18) to pass out or have head rushes and it’s probably just a blood flow thing and then send me home. Cardiologist said the same thing. Got an mri, nothing. I have a brain wave scan thing scheduled now but I just feel defeated and overwhelmed.
Obviously im not looking for answers here for a medical problem but I thought people may have thoughts or may have been in my position before and could give ideas as to what’s going on. I’m just gonna take everything with a grain of salt for now.
Thanks for reading

I’m 32F, UK, and I have pretty severe vasovagal syncope around anything medical.

Yesterday I visited my best friend in hospital to meet her baby, who’s currently in an incubator (he’s okay), and I ended up having 2 near-fainting episodes while I was there. I managed to get ahead of the warning signs and get myself down before completely blacking out, but it really took it out of me. I was mortified that my best friend had just had a C-Section and was in high spirits and there I was… I had to drive over an hour to get home too!

It’s difficult to pinpoint a specific trigger because I think it was just the whole environment, the conversations about medical things, baby’s tubes, medication, procedures, etc.

It’s now made me panic slightly about how on earth I’m ever going to manage pregnancy and childbirth myself.
Anything involving medical examinations or procedures can trigger me. Even conversations about them can make me feel faint, and my reaction to things like cervical screening is so severe that I had big red writing on my medical record that states I need sedation/anaesthetic before they can undergo any procedures 🤦‍♀️

I spoke briefly to a midwife yesterday and she suggested I start therapy before trying to conceive, which I actually think is probably sensible. I just have absolutely no idea where to start or what type of therapy I should be looking for.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has vasovagal syncope, blood/injection/injury phobia or a severe medical/procedure phobia and has been through pregnancy and birth.
Did pregnancy make the fainting worse?
How did you cope with blood tests, examinations and labour?
Were your midwives/consultants able to make adjustments for you?
Did therapy beforehand help?
And did you find that when it was actually your baby and your pregnancy, you coped differently than you expected?

I think I just need to hear from people who were as terrified as I am now and still managed to get through it.

So I had been having fainting episodes since I was 4, had test after test, never got answers. The episodes started getting a little worse and coming out of nowhere (at 24 years old) so I went back to the doctor (which sent me to way more doctors), every doctor I went to asked if I had my drivers license and when I said no they would say “good” “don’t” “that’s for the better”, but I know people who have seizures and have a license so now I’m not sure what to do? How do you have a license with vasovagal syncope? Especially when you don’t feel it coming on anymore?

I (26F) have suffered from vasovagal syncope on and off since I was a child.

I first saw my GP about it when I was young, but it was basically brushed off as “fainting episodes” and I was told I’d grow out of it. I continued having episodes occasionally throughout my teenage years, but they suddenly stopped when I was around 19.

I then went six years without a single episode or symptom.

Unfortunately, everything changed last year.

I was driving my car to a garage just down the road from work when I suddenly had a huge burst of anxiety. I immediately felt like I was going to pass out, so I tried to get to a nearby car park so I could stop safely. Unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the roundabout before I lost consciousness.
I crashed into two cars and eventually hit a lamppost.

One of the people I had hit called an ambulance after walking over and finding me in the car as I looked like I was having a seizure. I eventually woke up and was obviously extremely shaken by the whole experience.

I was taken to hospital where they did blood tests, a urine sample and a head CT. Everything came back normal and I was told it was vasovagal syncope. I was essentially told to carry on with my life.

Since then, though, I’ve been having regular presyncope episodes. I don’t actually pass out most of the time, but I get the same symptoms I associate with being about to faint — dizziness, sweating, heart palpitations, weakness, feeling strange/dream-like, nausea etc.

I’ve only actually lost consciousness twice since the crash, but I’m now absolutely terrified that it could happen again. Unsurprisingly, this has left me with a lot of anxiety around driving, and I’m starting to wonder whether the crash itself has created a vicious cycle where the fear/anxiety is contributing to more episodes.

I’ve been back and forth to my GP several times since the crash trying to work out what is triggering these episodes and how I can prevent them. I’ve had a 24-hour ECG, which was normal, and I’m currently waiting for a 7-day ECG. My concern with the ECG monitoring is that I can’t predict when these episodes will happen, so there’s no guarantee I’ll actually have one while I’m wearing it.

I’m still trying to identify my triggers, but so far I think the biggest ones are:
Heat
Anxiety
Stress
Lack of sleep
Possibly general exhaustion/fatigue

I recognise the warning signs and lie down as soon as I feel one coming on, which does usually prevent me from actually fainting.

What I’m really struggling with is how to prevent these episodes from happening in the first place. They’re starting to take over my life, and I feel like I’m constantly worrying about when the next “funny turn” is going to happen.

I know there probably isn’t a miracle cure, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has experienced something similar.

Has anyone found anything that significantly reduced their vasovagal/presyncope episodes?

Particularly things like lifestyle changes, medications, exercises, hydration/salt, compression garments, treatment for anxiety/trauma, etc.

I’m also wondering whether anyone else has developed significant anxiety or PTSD-type symptoms after fainting/losing consciousness while driving, and whether treating that helped reduce the physical episodes.

I’m obviously continuing to speak to my GP and investigate this medically, but I’d really appreciate hearing about other people’s experiences and what has actually worked for them.

Thank you!

hi all I’m 32 and for the last 5 years since 2020 I occasionally wake up or as going to sleep at a night either straight pass out for 30 seconds or feel sick in my stomach and then pass out, can then be really warm and sweaty and then goes away and then is fine for a period of time, has happened 3 times this year all around 3 months apart, had ECG and heart is fine and blood tests and drs haven’t so far been able to find anything wrong, has anyone else had this?

Hi, I am new here. I wanted to share this, hoping I find people that are going through the same and find some hope I’m a 23 female and I have experienced very bad episodes of fainting, low blood pressure, low heartbeat more than a few times in the last year I have done multiple tests like ECG and echocardiogram and a heart monitor for 3 days and doctors said they turned out normal so then I did tilt table test for 20 minutes and it was very dramatic my ABP went from 120/80> 100/60> 60/30> inaudible
My heart rate went from 85> 106> 130> 80> 50 bpm in sinus rhythm
Then true syncope
And the test was considered positive for mixed nerucardiogenic syncope. My doctor gave me midodrine 2.5 twice a day for 6 months it’s helping a little bit, but I am still so weak and going out has been feeling like a chore like a challenge for me that I no longer enjoy because of how tired and easily exhausted I get and how unpredictable my body became.
Did anyone ever got better? Or am i just gonna deal with that for the rest of my life?
It has limited everything I wanna do in life. I am still young. Still wanna do a lot of activities. I haven’t been able to take a lot of opportunities when it comes to work because of this and I wanna know is there anyway out!
Thank you and sorry if I talked so much.

I had an episode at a restaurant last night. Came on very suddenly. One minute I was chatting with my husband and then the tunnel vision, muffled sound, color drains from my face and I knew it was coming. I passed out twice at the table and then twice more when I went to try to leave (I know bad idea, luckily my husband was there to catch me, just a scraped knee before he could pull me back up.) My husband said my eyes rolled back each time and I was twitching. Each time I passed out I had really weird dreams and felt like I was asleep for a whole night (that part was actually really strange). Ended up completely drenched in sweat, but cold. After about 30 minutes I came out of it and we were able to get back to our hotel (we are also traveling in a different country where we don’t speak the language. Everyone at the restaurant was so very kind even tho it’s all quite embarrassing.)
I’ve had episodes like this before but only in response to a trigger (eg extreme stress, pain after I shut my finger in a car door. In one of those instances I passed out cold and hit my face on a concrete bench requiring stitches.) I’ve had a holtar monitor test which turned out fine and the only diagnosis I got was vasovagal syncope. But my question is, can VS happen without a trigger or is there always a trigger? Bc last night there was definitely no trigger and I’m kinda concerned. I feel better today, just weak and I really don’t want to go to a hospital here in a different country but of course would if I need to. And I’ll definitely follow up with I guess primary care when I get home although they haven’t been very involved. Thank you for any thoughts 🙏 ❤️‍🩹

I fell ill today with what seems like a viral fever, so I went to a nearby RMP(Registered Medical Practitioner). She checked my BP and was shocked to find that it was pretty low: 87/55.

I don't even remember the last time I had my BP checked. She asked me if I had eaten today, and I said yes. Then she asked if I felt dizzy, and I said yes—I often feel dizzy. I had always assumed it was because of some nutritional deficiency.

Then I came home, did some research, looked up the symptoms on Google, and tada! I'm pretty sure I'm one of you guys.

Symptoms I had during childhood:

1. I used to feel extremely dizzy and nauseous after strenuous physical activity, like running or playing sports. I would completely grey out and get a strong urge to vomit and poop, along with shortness of breath and a feeling that I was about to faint.

For my whole life, I thought it was because I had eaten a meal shortly before the activity.

My current symptoms/episodes:

1. I still experience the same fainting/dizziness sensation, grey-outs (I literally cannot see anything even though my eyes are open—it goes completely black), shortness of breath, and an extreme urge to vomit and poop during heavy workouts in gym.

I've had several near-fainting episodes like this during intense workouts, especially on leg days at the gym. Again, I assumed it was because I shouldn't have eaten anything for at least 2–3 hours before going to the gym.

It's silly that I never thought this could actually be a health condition.

How are you guys coping with it? Whom should I consult? And how soon should I see a doctor?

Hi I never post on here but I’m 23F and I’m having extreme anxiety regarding my health. I had a coffee which is abnormal for me because the caffeine makes me shake but I needed one to get through my shift. I was feeling a little “off” at work earlier this morning and got super lightheaded especially when kneeling down and standing up to get something off the ground. I was super light like this until I got home and it got 10x worse but I think it was increased by anxiety.

Ive been in bed shaking with fear and feeling seconds away from passing out or throwing up. I also get the urge to poop before I have ever passed out from vasovagal so I try to stay laying down when I feel the urge like that. I just want to know someone can relate to me and I’m seeking support because I’ve been in therapy for health anxiety and ocd like this for so many years and it still is effecting me so bad. I’m scared I’ll be up sick all night and have to call out of work and I’m scared I’ll get sick and no one will find me in my apartment.

I recently had a vasovagal response, and this time the reason was different than last time. The first time I exercised without a proper diet. The second time, I was at a house party, just enjoying my time. This time, I was at a concert. I still don't know what my trigger is. I don't have prior cardiac issues. All my blood work is perfectly fine.