Had a few "blackouts" and such, looking for ideas/experiences

Okay,

This is my first real thread here as far as personal information and what I normally would divulge. But recently in my life I've made alot of changes in how I live my life, and one of them is to live it openly and honestly in the constant search for truth in the world around me and truth with myself and who I am.

That being said, I have a few quirks about me, I don't feel heat pain properly (some would call it a high threshold, I think it's a pain in the butt), I am set off very badly by ANY sugar substitute, and also get the same migraine symptoms at start when around stronger or certain perfumes or scents.

Also, when I think about or focus on something that makes me queasy, it can make me blackout for just a few seconds. When I was younger and had a full dental x-ray done, I passed out as the x-ray was finishing it's sweep and it was everything I could do to hold on to the bars on the side before I slumped.. I think I just don't do well with x-rays as I had the same x-ray done a year ago and although I didn't blackout that time, I felt the start of it, spots, light feeling, etc. Also when near microwave ovens that are running it makes the front of my head feel hazy or masked... I just kinda stay out of the room when they're running and I'm fine.

Also at a grocery store I was working at about 10 years ago I was on a loading dock that someone started moving while I was on it, I fell off the side with one leg and fell with my left knee still on the platform, when I reached my hand out to keep from falling off the side all I had to grasp was the metal grating... It pealed the skin from my index finger and my middle finger, and I wrapped it in my shirt and went to the front. I felt like I was going to pass out and I put myself on the floor in a corner, passed out, and then came to about 10 seconds later and I felt alert shortly thereafter. I grabbed a coke and left work, it was bad and I should have gone to a hospital, but I hate to go there and I was young and dumb....

This is all just to explain that I'm sensitive about things like blood and such, and it's odd because if I did it to myself I really have much less of a problem then watching it happening to someone else. (like those shows on discovery where they show operations and the like) I know I have a low blood pressure and my sister and I both pass out when Drs try to take our blood and it's normally a difficult process to have done because once you pass out, your blood pressure drops even more and it's harder to get a vein.

I've put most of this behind me as it's happened far enough in the past and isn't a very common thing that I feel that it warrants a deeper investigation. Recently in my life I've become much more into meditation and the world beyond the physical. I believe myself to be well grounded in the "real" world as well though because, as I understand, you need to achieve a happy medium of both worlds and it's not healthy to get wrapped up completely in either. I could go on and explain that, but it's really not the point of my thread.

Last night my fiance and I were sitting at my computer talking and looking at some wedding invites. Really, we were just talking more so and we were talking about loved ones we had that had NDEs, the passing of our grandparents and such. She's very interested in alot of these things but it's never really been a topic of much thought so the "fear factor" isn't completely gone on these topics.

While we were listening to some music and getting ready to wrap up the evening and goto bed, I started getting that light head spotty feeling again. I'm pretty familiar with the feeling and it has happened before without any influence that I can think of, it's only occurred twice like that ever, this being the second. The 2 times it's happened without some type of influence that I'm aware of (sitting in my chair) have been slightly different, in that it doesn't feel like a blackout as such, it is more of a whiteout, and I also have a good amount of control over it.

When I started to feel it I propped myself up and I told my fiance to stay with me and that I didn't feel quite right. She sat next to me and I decided not to fight it at all. (I had fought it a little at that point to retain coherence until I could tell her) After that I slipped into what I could best describe as the start of an OOBE but not quite.. I could hear the music playing, although it doesn't sound quite the same as it normally does and I knew what was going on around me, I was aware my body felt lifeless and I felt incredibly warm and relaxed. It felt like I was in the trance for hours and I was just enjoying the feeling as I enjoy the relaxation that comes from deep meditation and such, at least that's the best parallel I can draw to the feeling. I became aware that my fiance was crying so I fought it as best as I could to comfort her and I told her I was okay and not to worry and cry. She said that my body was lifeless and my eyes had appeared to roll back in my head and it freaked her out because she wasn't sure what was wrong. After I had comforted her I returned to my position and went back to "the other place" again. I stayed there for what seemed to be hours again, but then I noticed she was upset once again. I came back for the final time and fought it off. The feelings completely subsided and I was fine after about 1-2 minutes. I felt very very exhausted physically and I felt warm, but within 15 minutes I was normal again and we had moved to the bedroom where we could goto sleep.

She's pretty shaken up by it all, and here's the odd point and I'm not convinced it triggered it. I had asked her to rub my back and there was a sore spot where she was rubbing, not painful, just semi sore.. But when I felt her rubbing on it I focused in completely and that point and it gave me the gross out feeling that makes me queasy, just like when I see blood or those durn shows on the discovery channel... And right after that is when I felt myself "slip".

Question is, I have had a physical and I do check out fine, and really have no residual effects from these experiences, no headaches, no soreness, no fear created from them. So I would like to ask others, have you had experiences similar that may help shed some light on this?

I'll be happy to provide more info on the situation/experience and also any personal information that may help me figure this out.

Thanks for taking the time!

It's a lenghty read and I didn't realize it until my 6500 characters were up, lol, but I posted this in the paranormal section so that I could start the search for metaphysical answers or like experiences now. The physical side of this can and will be followed up by me and normal channels for that, so I don't want people to think that I may have a physical problem and am searching for some "other" answer that is more brightly colored then perhaps a CAT scan revealing a brain tumor or something... lol..

I'm a pretty open person when it comes to the truth and I just wanted to make sure that when you read it you realize that I'm not trying to mask a physical problem with thoughts of grandeur.

There's alot of intelligent people here and I am hoping for some insight.

First off, anything that is causing you to lose consciousness, or enter an altered state of consciousness is grounds to go see a doctor.

There are many things that can cause someone to pass out, you could be having a mild seizure (epilepsy), it could be a change in your blood pressure, or blood sugar levels. Another thing that can cause you to black out is the parasympathetic nervous system. Cringing, bearing down, holding your breath, and things such as this can cause your not only your heart to slow down (bradycardia), but can cause you to black out.

Personally though, some of what you’re describing fits the bill of Cataplexy. Cataplexy is a strange and fairly uncommon side effect of narcolepsy. Both of which are considered sleep disorders. A calaplexic person will lose consciousness, and literally enter REM sleep, instantly upon certain stimuli. The most frequent stimuli being those which bring about an emotional response within the subject. Now this happens at different levels and you may not be as bad as the person in the video I am attaching below, but a few of the things you mention are positive responses to questions asked of patients in screening for narcolepsy and cataplexy.

Cataplexy is a medical condition which often affects people who have narcolepsy, a disorder whose principal signs are EDS (Excessive Daytime Sleepiness), sleep attacks, and disturbed night-time sleep. Cataplexy is sometimes confused with epilepsy, where a series of flashes or other stimuli cause superficially similar seizures.
The term cataplexy originates from the Greek kata, meaning down, and plexis, meaning a stroke or seizure.
Cataplexy manifests itself as muscular weakness which may range from a barely perceptible slackening of the facial muscles to the dropping of the jaw or head, weakness at the knees, or a total collapse. Usually the speech is slurred, vision is impaired (double vision, inability to focus), but hearing and awareness remain normal. These attacks are triggered by strong emotions such as exhilaration, anger, fear, surprise, orgasm, awe, embarrassment and laughter.

Again you need to go discuss this with your doctor so he can have a few tests run on you to try and determine, or rule out the different things which might be causing this with you.


[edit on 4/27/2007 by defcon5]

Good info, thanks for that link Defcon, the google video link didn't work, but I did find some videos on there showing Cataplexy effects on different people.

I will do some more research on that and I appreciate your response. The odd thing about it with me is that if I really make the choice, I can snap out of it... But I find it kind of relaxing honestly and I normally won't snap myself out of it so quickly.

The closest thing I can liken it to, is the start of an OOBE, but it's a hard compairson because if I was attempting to induce an OOBE, everything about the environment and setting is wrong, and also it requires no time at all to get to that level. So it's not a direct comparison, but there are alot of similarities as well.

Some of what you are describing also seems to fit the description of seizure activity, aspecally what is called the aura.

An aura is the perceptual disturbance experienced by some migraine sufferers before a migraine headache, and the telltale sensation experienced by some people with epilepsy before a seizure. It often manifests as the perception of a strange light or an unpleasant smell.

You said that these events are often proceeded by a headache triggered by a unpleasent oder. The bit about your eyes rolling back is a pretty good sign of seizure activity as well. With this in mind you may also want to check into Temporal lobe epilepsy.

1.Simple Partial Seizures (SPS) involve small areas of the temporal lobe and do not affect consciousness. These are seizures which primarily cause sensations. These sensations may be mnestic such as déjà vu (a feeling of familiarity), jamais vu (a feeling of unfamiliarity), a specific single or set of memories, or amnesia. The sensations may be auditory such as a sound or tune, or gustatory such as a taste, or olfactory such as a smell that is not truly present. Sensations can also be visual or involve feelings on the skin or in the internal organs. The latter feelings may seem to move over the body. Dysphoric or euphoric feelings, fear, anger, and other sensations can also occur during SPS. Often, it is hard for persons with SPS of TLE to describe the feeling. SPS are sometimes called "auras" by lay persons, and are sometimes thought to just be a prelude to an actual seizure. The latter is incorrect. SPS are seizures.

2.Complex Partial Seizures (CPS) by definition are seizures which impair consciousness to some extent. This is to say that they alter the person's ability to interact with others. They usually begin with an SPS, but then the seizure spread to a large portion of the temporal lobe and impairs consciousness. Signs may include motionless staring, automatic movements of the hands or mouth, inability to respond to others, unusual speech, or unusual behaviors. Because judgement is impaired, persons experiencing CPS may not legally drive vehicles for periods of time which are set by local governments worldwide.

3.Seizures which begin in the temporal lobe but then spread to the whole brain are known as Secondarily Generalized Tonic-Clonic Seizures (SGTCS). These begin with an SPS or CPS phase initially, but then the arms, trunk and legs stiffen in either a flexed or extended position. After this, coarse jerking of the limbs and trunk occur.

the video above should be functioning now...
Anyway, you should go see a Doc, and get a referral to a neurologist who can run an EEG on you.
Good luck, and feel free to U2U me if you need further assistance.
Defcon


[edit on 4/27/2007 by defcon5]