Vaso-Vagal Discussion

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My experiences in case it helps anyone else...

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From: rookie

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I'm not 100% sure when i had the first attack, but i think it was actually before my first obvious attack. I remember i was arguing with someone on the internet, and i was losing quite frankly, and i became very overwhelmed with humiliation (keep in mind this was not a big deal, just political crap), and i suddenly became almost dizzy and confused to the point that I took a break from the internet. A couple of years later I was at work, working a stressful job, and suddenly, I started to become very focused on a memory that i had. If I recall, someone was sitting on a couch in the memory, and i was trying to focus on what they were saying. In reality i was in a cube at work, and i knew it was a memory, and i just couldn't quite put my finger on what the memory was... i almost had it... as this was going on, i suddenly realized that i couldn't really hear what was going on around me, and i was extremely hot, and couldn't focus on anything, then suddenly i got cold, sweaty, and thought i was about to throw up. I jumped up, ran to the mens restroom, and opened a stall... as soon as i got there, i felt fine, aside from feeling uneasy about the previous couple of minutes. I went back to work and finished the day and figured it was just a one time thing. In the following weeks, it happened several more times, and I think i had the same 'vision' or memory each time. Eventually i told someone about it, and then another person, and eventually people close to me knew something was up. I'm typically not overly trusting of doctors to do anything other than run me through the test mill to make a buck, so I just did nothing. One day I had a particularly bad one and almost passed clear out. A woman i work with saw me, said i looked like death, so she took me to the ER for fear i was going to have a heart attack or something. At this point we had no idea what was up. After release, I went to my GP, told him what was up, he ran me through a few tests, and i eventually took a tilt table test. On the tilt table i didn't feel great, but i was holding it together until they gave me adrenalin... at that point, i started to feel the same dreamy deja vu feeling then vomited on the poor nurse and they eventually laid me back down. The doctor offered to treat me with medication to raise my BP I believe, but I declined (I tend to be mostly anti-med too), and after a few more episodes, my life went back to normal aside from an episode every 3 months or so. Eventually i quit the job and now I have one maybe once or twice a year. Some weird things to note... I never have passed out completely, but i certainly have come close. I always have either the same memory, or i think its the same memory, and i focus on it extremely intensely, not realizing at first what is happening until i'm way deep in that memory. I always sweat afterward. If I hear the song i was listening to that day at work when i had the first one, i feel like i'm going to have one, but i don't. There is an air freshener in an office at my current job that always makes me feel like I'm about to have one as soon as i smell it, but in a few seconds i come back to normal without having an episode. I'm lucky to not have a very bad version of this, and i feel for those worse than me. I've come to think of it as sort of a cool twist on life that everyone once in a while i take a short trip for free. I have no idea if there could be any relation, but some other things I've dealt with in life are terrible OCD that I've since shaken somehow (outgrown maybe?), terrible sensitivity to carnival rides (I'll puke on a merry-go-round), and occasional depression/mood swings.


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Last changed: April 26, 2013