Is there a connection between states of high anxiety and feeling faint? Can someone lose consciousness while going through anxiety crises? If you regularly suffer anxiety attacks and you’re worried that anxiety will make you faint, this article will help you ease your mind.
There are many people who worry they might faint while going through a moment of increased anxiety. If that’s something you have ever been concerned with, rest assured: as severe as your anxiety is, it will very unlikely make you faint. It may make you feel as though you’re about to faint, but that’s just a psychological effect. Although, this effect may turn out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy unless you learn how to handle yourself.
The chances are quite low that you’ll actually lose consciousness while suffering anxiety attacks. In fact, your anxious state will actually contribute to preventing your body from shutting down. As you might have noticed, your heart always pumps harder during your anxiety attacks. What you might not know is that fainting is generally caused by low blood pressure. In other words, anxiety and fainting are very much incompatible phenomena.
It doesn’t mean, however, that people absolutely can’t faint while going through high anxiety. In fact, there are two known scenarios where anxiety attacks may cause someone to faint.
Vasovagal syncope: this is a specific and uncommon anxiety disorder which may cause someone to strop breathing – which in turn may cut the brain’s oxygen supply, thereby indirectly causing loss of consciousness.
Materializing your fear of fainting: if you’re indeed terribly afraid of fainting, there’s a slim chance you’ll actually force yourself to faint if you let yourself get carried away by your anxiety. This is however, extremely rare.
In both scenarios where anxiety might indeed lead to fainting, there are certain distraction techniques that might counter the loss of consciousness. If you ever find yourself obsessing you might faint while experiencing anxiety, make sure to breathe deeply from the abdomen, and go for a walk – seek some kind of distraction. Try doing whatever it takes to prevent your fear from taking over, and you’ll soon notice your anxiety is fading.
