Cute or Gross (C or G, I guess): I'm Talking About Fainting

This is kinda... uhh... odd. He doesnt do/make you do things that'd CAUSE fainting spells does he? (eg breath holding or something). Cos that'd be very bloody dud.

Fainting is pretty horrible innit.

*your corset is too tight
*one of the gentlemen just said 'dammy!'
*your man arrives at your door and you thought he was dead!
*he tells you he shall go mad with grief if you do not marry him at once!
*he's doing something daring and dangerous, like wrestling a tiger.
*it's a hot day on Box Hill when your party takes a stroll there.
*you have just been told that you are the legitimate heir of the Ponsonby-Wallace fortune: and that you are a duchess!
*You are in the queue to congratulate the vicar on another fine sermon, and you conveniently 'faint' into the arms of the man whom youhave decided will ask you some day for your hand in marriage. Later that day, he visits you in your bed, bearing flowers and a card.

I'd be pretty weirded out if someone was really turned on by something that was really unpleasant to me.

anyway, I was trying to see if maybe Jewelly had a panic disorder... I'm currently trying to treat the fact that I irritionally am more prone to fainting than I should.

As for the guy ... well, I haven't talked to him today. Not so sure I want to break up with him; he's not perverted about it and would never MAKE me faint on purpose (as a girl did in junior high by cutting her hand and showing it to me, so that she and her friends could have a giggle). So, I dunno.

The blood/injury phobia is pretty much the source of my fainting too. I've actually tried to desensitize myself to it (with the help of some medication) and I had some degree of success, but then I was put under a lot of stress via work the past three months, and I've regressed a bit.

The part where the fainting thing attaches itself to other stimuli is worrisome, because it accelerates and soon enough, you become agoraphobic, which was exactly what I had to suffer, and I had to see a psychiatrist ASAP about it, as it was about to affect my ability to get to work.

So I think I completely understand your issue, Jewelly. I've been born with it myself pretty much.

I think you should drop him for precisely this reason.

"Don't worry about it, it happens to the best of us, heh heh, you're still a little hottie - eh hold on you got a little in your nostril"

okay what specifically do you mean by "gets off on it" and "finds it sexual, to an extreme degree"?
I think if you're really bothered by his fetish, you shouldn't be with him

He finds your physical helplessness and inability to defend yourself to be a green light for sex because the rest of the time (when you are conscious) he probably fears you (and all women) to some small degree, which has a... shall we say... dampening effect on one's sexual drive. Your fainting releases that fear and his libido surges to the fore.

I've been seeing this guy for, like, 2 months. A few nights ago he comes to my apartment to go out and I'm still kind of getting ready. I occasionally have ... (god, why am i telling strangers this) ... colon and bowel movement problems. I was having such problems, in the bathroom, sitting on the toilet, while my sort-of boyfriend was waiting for me in the living room. Constipation, extreme stomach pain, etc. I fainted. And apparently my fainting ... shall we say ... relieved my constipation. And I gather it was quite a relief. The guy heard me cry out and make whatever noises, and then THUD, and then silence, and he got worried. Finally barged into the bathroom and found me unconscious in a pool of shit.

CLEANED ME UP while I was unconscious. WRAPPED ME IN A BLANKET. CARRIED ME TO BED. And was picking up the phone to dial 911 when I came to, and assured him I was fine, no ambulance necessary.

I assumed I'd never hear from him again. When he called the next day to make sure I was OK, I assumed he was just being a nice guy -- a gentleman -- but who the fuck would want to continue seeing a girl after THAT?? When he called me that night, I asked him that very question, and he told me he'd never met a girl who fainted as much or as easily as I do (I'd told him non-shit related fainting stories) and he thought it was sexy.

So: he was very sweet to me during the hands-down most humiliating experience of my (humiliation-packed) life .... BUT .... he apparently has a fetish about me fainting.

I honestly don't know what to do about this. I mean, of all the guys to shit all over yourself while fainting in front of, I guess I lucked out that it was him ... but .... uhhhnnnn!

I mean, if it creeps you out, then ultimately it doesn't matter; even if you decide not to be bothered by it, you're going to associate him with that creeped-out feeling. But if he said something fairly mild and nonspecific about it, you may be taking your feelings about fainting itself (and/or feelings about how you're afraid it affects peoples' views of you), which you don't like, and transferring them to him.

I read an article a couple of years ago about a woman who fainted every time someone said certain words (sex-related as I recall) and a guy in her apartment building found out about this and knocked on her door and said a word that made her faint, then raped her.

I associated that with my boyfriend's thinking my fainting was sexy. (He did say that, though he wasn't talking about the covered-in-shit episode). (At least I hope he wasn't).

But I think you're right, I'm reading stuff into it that isn't there. I hope.

(I think you'd have reason to worry if you didn't have a particularly strong personality and this came up; but you do, and you didn't meet him by fainting, so it isn't that he's attracted to weakness.)

But anyway, all that aside, "The Assiest Thread in the History of Ass." was one of the best ever on ILX. So Jewelly should be applauded for her contributions there as well as her ability to faint on demand.

Now that there are more than one, I can make a list of movies I have fainted at:

1. Racetrack. the Frederick Wiseman movie! There’s a scene in it that you’re completely unprepared for and totally shocking but is an otherwise ordinary day for the track vet.

2. The Substance. Started watching it late Saturday night. During the first transformation scene I got lightheaded, stood up and walked a bit, but went straight down like a building implosion. Ms T described it as “you fainted and threw up when Demi did!”

Not on the list: Cronenberg and all the usual suspects

I fainted multiple times as a teen when a doctor told me a medication’s side effects included yeast infections… this was before I had ever had one, and at the time it must’ve sounded super scary

18 years later, and I still haven't fainted, or even passed out (something some of the folx in this thread seem to have thought of as the same thing.)

As a different thing, I meant.

first time I fainted was in 5th grade during biology class. there was this illustration of the nerves inside the copy and something about it really freaked me out. I remember getting light headed and then bam...on the floor. all I really remember is the school nurse telling me to "drink more orange juice".

second one was triggered by the scene in Pulp Fiction where Uma Thurman gets a shot to the heart. it's worse when you actually know it's coming. I was feeling really queasy so I got up to get the blood flowing a bit...TERRIBLE idea, by the way. 30 seconds later I was really lightheaded and next thing I knew I was on the floor. could have hit my head on a number of hard surfaces but I got lucky and fell straight down.

most recent was a year ago, not triggered by any thoughts but rather a hangover. I went to pee and got suddenly was seeing stars. figured I'd go back to bed but, as I should've known, it was too late. I fell face down, breaking my nose, which got blood everywhere, including a bit on the ceiling somehow. when I regained consciousness I wasn't in much pain but I do recall feeling like I couldn't move, half of my brain was in a panic, it was kind of the worst I've ever felt actually. I also got a black eye and I'm pretty sure I was concussed. but it could've been worse, had I gotten one step further I would've smacked my face on a cabinet.

anyway, if I have one piece of life advice, it's this...if you feel unusually lightheaded, don't try to get the blood flowing, just GET DOWN for christ's sake. there's no "uh oh I'm gonna faint" moment, you're just woozy and then you're on the floor

I used to faint all the time in my younger days. I fainted at a Queen gig, at a Marillion gig, and at a 10,000 Maniacs gig which I believe was my body punishing me for going to see them in the first place. This is on top of many many more in everyday situations, although I'd never end up unconscious. I'd just get the horrifying and unstoppable wooziness, followed by seeing stars, nausea and sometimes my sight switching to monochrome which was always Not Fun.

My mum took me to the doctor about it when I was maybe 10. I left the consultation room with her and promptly keeled over. Somehow it all went away in time, I think it was probably anxiety-induced hyperventilating that was causing the issue. The best way of dealing with it was sitting against a wall with the knees up, head down between the legs, slow breaths and yawning (which I suppose pumps oxygen around the body faster).

i don't faint faint but i become faint when Shit gets Too Real (period cramps, discussion of painful subjects, therapy, a choir performance that went on longer than i could handle and i had to hunch down amid the legs of the other altos on stage)

my fingers start to go numb, then my face and toes. if i don't get my head low and breathing under control then the numbness creeps further up my limbs and gets to my tongue and i can't talk intelligibly. the first time it got that bad (cramps, bathroom floor) thank goodness my mom found me because it used to happen to her too, and she let me know i wasn't actually dying and to breathe slowly and shallowly. my brother's kid wasn't so lucky -- they were at school, had no idea what was happening, and got hauled away in an ambulance, poor love.

If I’m standing up for too long. I probably should look into that.