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What's the truth about fainting?
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David Carbonell, Ph.D.
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Jul 31, 2006 21:49 PDT
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THE ANXIETY COACH®
Helping People Thrive in an Anxious World
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Volume 7, Issue 7
IN THIS ISSUE
Dr. Carbonell answers a reader's questions about fainting.
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INDEX
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1. Dave's Note
2. What's the truth about fainting?
3. About The Anxiety Coach®
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Dave's Note
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July 31, 2006
Dear Reader,
This month's article is a response to a reader's question
about fainting.
I get more questions than I can answer individually, but if
you have a question you think might be a good subject for
an article here, please send it to me!
If you're a professional looking for some good workshops in
the area of cognitive behavioral therapy, look no further
than the annual conference of the Association for Behavioral
and Cognitive Therapies, which will be in Chicago Nov.16-19.
For information, visit http://www.aabt.org/.
And if you're looking for my "Panic Attacks Workbook", you
can purchase it at: http://www.anxietycoach.com/book.htm
See you next month!
Dave Carbonell
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What's the truth about fainting?
by
David A. Carbonell, Ph.D.
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A reader writes:
I know fainting can happen at the sight of blood or during a
person's wedding which are situations of stress or nervousness.
I have seen it happen with my own eyes to perfectly healthy
people. How are those different from the stress one feels when
he panics? How is it not possible to have so much stress from
the thoughts one has from the attack, that he faints?
My answer:
Let's first review what fainting is. Fainting is the body's
self protective response when your blood pressure drops a
lot. If your blood pressure drops a lot, you may not get
enough freshly oxygenated blood to your brain, because it
sits at the highest point of your body. That's no good!
Your brain needs a steady supply of freshly oxygenated blood.
If your blood pressure drops so low that your body can't get
enough blood up to the brain, fainting literally brings the
brain down to the blood. Fainting is not a disease, or a
threat, but a self protective device.
You ask about fainting at the sight of blood. This is an
example of what's called a blood/injury/needle phobia. It's
a more purely biological condition than a true phobia. Here's
how it works.
Whenever we see blood, our blood pressure drops a little.
This is another protective device, because whenever we see
blood, there's a chance that it's our own. If you're
bleeding, it's good for your blood pressure to drop, because
you'll clot faster, and lose less blood.
People with a blood phobia just have too much of a good
thing. Their blood pressure drops a lot, not just a little,
and this big drop in blood pressure is what creates a faint.
If you have a blood phobia, you generally know about it by
your mid twenties, because you'll have a history of fainting
(not just thinking about it) in such situations.
What causes fainting at a wedding is less clear cut. It
usually involves people who haven't been eating and drinking
properly, because they've been so involved in the wedding
preparations. This affects their blood sugar and the amount
of water in their body, making them better candidates for
fainting. They've also been standing, often tensely, for
a long time during the ceremony. People who stand for a long
time with their knees locked, such as band members at a
football game, or soldiers standing at attention, may also be
prone to faint from the effect of blood pooling in their legs.
You ask how the emotionality of a wedding is different from
the stress of a panic attack. A panic attack is an instance
of your body's fight or flight response. When you have a
panic attack, your body produces the same physical changes
it would produce if you were threatened by a predator, like
a lion. It pumps adrenalin into your system, moves blood
away from the skin and digestive tract, and into your large
muscles, changes your breathing, increases your pulse, and so
on. When you're threatened by a lion, these physical changes
give you the energy and motivation that can help you fight
off the lion, or run away. But when those physical changes
occur in the absence of any external threat, you have all
this energy and nothing to fight or run from. That's panic.
People don't faint because they feel threatened. If they did,
early humans would all have been gobbled up by saber tooth
tigers a long time ago. People who saw the World Trade Center
fall down in 2001 would have fainted in the street and been
swallowed by the debris. But they didn't - they ran to save
their lives. Fainting is not a defense against a threat. It's
a defense against low blood pressure.
What do you think is happening to your blood pressure when
you have a panic attack? It's going up, not down - not a lot,
but it's doing the precise *opposite* of what's required to
faint. This is why fainting during a panic attack is so rare.
In order to faint during a panic attack, you have to have
some other condition which overpowers the natural increase
in your blood pressure that occurs during a panic attack.
Is it impossible to faint from stress? No. Some people, a
very small number, do have a condition which can lead them
to faint in response to high anxiety. It's called a syncope.
People with a syncope can faint during a panic attack, and
that's a problem they have to learn to manage in some other
way. But if you have a syncope, you will have an actual
history of fainting in your adult life - not just thoughts
about fainting.
While it's extremely difficult and rare to faint during a
panic attack, it's probably the most common fear of people
who panic. This is because they feel light headed and dizzy
during a panic. Even people who have never fainted in their
lives will assume that these symptoms mean they're about to
faint.
Those symptoms of feeling lightheaded and dizzy don't mean
fainting at all. They mean the person is not breathing
properly, and the faulty breathing is what produces those
feelings. If you're troubled by these symptoms, be sure to
visit http://anxietycoach.com/breathing.htm for more details,
and a good breathing exercise.
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THE ANXIETY COACH®
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The Anxiety Coach® is a publication of the Anxiety
Treatment Center, Ltd. The Center is a small group of
clinical psychologists who specialize in the treatment of
anxiety problems. The Center has offices in Chicago and
several nearby suburbs.
Dr. Carbonell, a licensed psychologist, is the founder and
director of the Anxiety Treatment Center.
The information contained in this publication is not a
substitute for consultation with healthcare professionals.
Each individual's health concerns should be evaluated by a
qualified professional.
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SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
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http://www.anxietycoach.com/newsletter.htm.
If you would like to see past issues of our newsletter,
you will find them in the archive at:
http://www.topica.com/lists/anxietycoach/read.
To unsubscribe, follow the link at the very end of this
newsletter.
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CONTACT INFORMATION
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David A. Carbonell, Ph.D.
Anxiety Treatment Center, Ltd.
E-mail: dire-@anxietycoach.com
Web: http://www.anxietycoach.com
1340 Remington Road, Suite D
Schaumburg, IL 60173
847.605.0453
© 2006, Anxiety Treatment Center, Ltd.
All rights reserved.
Anxiety Coach® is a registered mark of Anxiety Treatment
Center, Ltd.
Distribution Rights: The above material is copyrighted,
but you may retransmit or distribute it to whomever you
wish as long as not a single word is changed, added or
deleted, including the contact information. However, you
may not copy it to a web site without prior permission.
Reprint permission will be freely granted, upon request,
to periodicals and non-profit educational and service
organizations.
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