QuestionHi. I have a friend who often faints/goes unconscious. When she
gets stressed she will pass out. The problem is, I am starting to
wonder if this is all for attention.
The other day she passed out a number of times, and at one point was
unconscious for about twenty minutes. When she came round she refused
to go to a hospital and was just very demanding, asking everyone to run
around for her and when another girl had an asthma attack, she said
that girl was faking it to take the attention off her, and tried to stop
us going to help her. She then told us she could hear everything we
had talked about while she was unconscious, and not just little snippets
- she could repeat everything we said. Eventually we took her to
hospital where she again 'passed out', but the nurse said she hadn't passed
out and wasn't actually unconscious!
Can you give me some info on passing out and how likely it is that she
should actually be able to hear us if she is unconscious. Also, all
the medical references I have read say that you should be really weak
after it, but she managed to block doors and things to stop us seeing the
girl having an asthma attack. Finally, if she is unconscious should
she be able to move and flail around - she often does that. I really
need to know if this is likely to be genuine or attention-seeking, and
if it is genuine, what should we do?
By the way, she has had tests done in the hospital and with her GP -
they all said her BP and every test they did came back normal.
Thanks.
Tracey (21 years old)
AnswerTracey,
You present a very interesting situation. All your friend's tests are normal. You ddn't specify which tests were performed. Has she been checked for epilepsy.
Hearing is the last sense to go when a person is dying, so if she is having a seizure or passing out from an arrythmia
it may be possible that she does hear things around her.
Depending on her age and all the different types of tests she has had it is very difficult for anyone to know whether her fainting is genuine.
Has anyone talked with her family about this as they may be able to shed some light on the situation.
If this is just for attention it is very sad however, that is also a problem that should be addressed. There are people who "get sick" for attention.
The unfortunate thing is that if she is doing this for attention hopefully one day she will not REALLY need help and no one will pay attention to her.
I wish I could be of more help but at this point if her physician states everything is normal there is not much more I can say.
I would be interested to know what you eventually find out.
