These episodes can be distressing and may further exacerbate the individual’s anxiety, leading to a vicious cycle of increased stress and more frequent blackouts. Unfortunately, there may not be much you can do during a PTSD blackout because you won’t have control of your mind or body at the time. If you experience a blackout by yourself, you probably will not be aware enough to control your actions in the moment.
PTSD – Accepting, Coping, Thriving
It’s usually called acute stress disorder (ASD) when symptoms last anywhere from three days up to a month after trauma. Symptoms are more likely to be PTSD if the symptoms last more than a month. Health problems and drug or alcohol use must be ruled out as underlying causes of these symptoms before a PTSD diagnosis. These symptoms aren’t necessarily unique to PTSD, but there might a change after the trauma.
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One of the symptoms of PTSD is physical, emotional, mental, or time based blackouts. Physical blackouts you find yourself on the floor wondering what the hell just happened. They can come on slowly or as fast as turning off a light switch. Trigger induced or just the physical drain of keeping secrets which is often part of the trauma for abuse victims.
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If you have PTSD, this higher level of tension and arousal can become your normal state. That means the emotional and physical feelings of anger are more intense. If you’re experiencing a blackout or brownout, you’re at higher risk for falling, injury and unwanted or unsafe sexual experiences. A person who is blacked out may also throw up while sleeping, which could lead to an increased risk of choking or suffocating. The difference between a brownout and a blackout is that brownouts involve partial memory loss. With a brownout, you may be able to remember certain details from the period of time you were affected, but other portions of time can’t be recalled.
Blackout effects on your body
On the other hand, you may also be tempted to use alcohol or drugs to reduce the level of tension you’re feeling. In people with PTSD, their response to extreme threat can become “stuck.” This may lead to responding to all stress in survival mode. If you have PTSD, you may be more likely to react to any stress with “full activation.” You may react as if your life or self were threatened. When you pass out or faint, you experience a temporary loss of consciousness.
At Healthgrades, our Editorial Team works hard to develop complete, objective and meaningful health information to help people choose the right doctor, right hospital and right care. Our writers include physicians, pharmacists, and registered nurses with firsthand clinical experience. All condition, treatment and wellness content is medically reviewed by at least one medical professional ensuring the most accurate information possible. A generally harmless form of blackout is known as vasovagal syncope. In this condition, there is a disruption in the balance of neurotransmitters that regulate the blood vessels and heart rate, causing a temporary decrease in blood flow to the brain. This is a common cause of fainting that may even occur as a reaction to stressful or frightening situations.
- People with complex PTSD may experience difficulties with relationships.
- Hyperarousal, sleep issues, and avoidance can lead a person with PTSD to engage in behaviors that may be harmful or self-destructive.
- If so, you may have experienced psychogenic blackouts, also known as anxiety blackouts.
- Remember that your PTSD triggers may provoke either feeling, so it’s worth your time to learn coping skills for both.
- Getting timely help and support may prevent normal stress reactions from getting worse and developing into PTSD.
The Role of Professional Help
Additionally, people with PTSD may exhibit heightened emotional reactivity. This can result in irritability, angry outbursts, reckless behavior, and being easily startled. PTSD and CPTSD can make it hard for your nervous system to reset and rest. This results in persistently elevated inflammation, which can lead to brain fog. In excessive amounts though, this stress response can lead to inflammation. The National Center for PTSD describes the relationship between inflammation and PTSD as bidirectional causal, which means the two cause or contribute to each other.
While personal coping skills can greatly help prevent and deal with blackouts, professional help is often necessary for truly effective management. This could involve psychotherapies such as Cognitive Behavioral can ptsd cause blackouts Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), or medication in some cases. For individuals with PTSD, these blackouts may occur during times of extreme stress or anxiety.
Time blackouts are a separate category, similar to mental blackouts but not noticeable until a couple of days pass. Most people experience the sensation of being so involved with a project they don’t realize how much time has passed. Time blackouts I describe as going to sleep on Monday waking up on Wednesday and wondering what the hell happened to Tuesday and why am I in trouble for what happened then. This was the symptom that my counselor was most concerned about.