# Intentionally Passing Out
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 21, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996 "2002-09-21T15:50:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/1 "2002-09-21T15:50:20Z")
I don’t know if any of you are familiar with this, but I just became introduced to a method of intentionally passing out. I was at a party yesterday, and this was demonstrated by a few people. What happens is you stand against a wall, lean over as if you were going to touch your toes but really relaxed so you just hang there; then you take 25 long, deep breathes. On about the 25th breath, you inhale deeply while standing straight up, crossing your arms across your chest to make an X, hold your breath, and close your eyes. When you do this, a few people press your arms against your chest really tightly while your holding your breath. Eventually you pass out and relax as if you were asleep. They keep you propped up against the wall until you wake up, which takes anywhere from 2 seconds to 15 seconds. When you wake up, you have the feeling of disorientation for a few seconds, and you feel like you were asleep for a while. I remember that when I did this, I had a dream that seemed like it was about 10 minutes long, even though it only took about 10 secodns for me to wake up. Also, for me, when I woke up, I sort of spit saliva out of my mouth (probably due to the fact that you really don’t have a chance to swallow in between breathing deeply, then holding in your breath).
Well, the real question is: Is/Can this be harmful? What could result from this?/What did I already do to my body? It’s a really fun thing to try, but I don’t want to continue doing this if it could result in and short term/long term damage. I’ve done it twice. Please advise if it would hurt me to keep doign this. Thanks in advance.
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### Author:  [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/2 "2002-09-21T16:04:33Z")
IANADoctor, but I’d imagine that intentionally depriving your brain of oxygen can’t be a good thing…
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/3 "2002-09-21T16:07:19Z")
I don’t know if it’s harmful or not; surely it can’t be good for you.
When I was in Boy Scouts we had a similar trick. One person would bend over and breathe deep and fast for a while. Then they would stand up, take a deep breath and hold it while someone squeezed them from behind. The results were exactly the same as you describe. It worked everytijme.
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### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/4 "2002-09-21T16:27:56Z")
Can anyone provide a cite that says the detrimental effects? I tried googling prior to posting the thread but couldn’t fin one cite about it. I suppose I wasn’t searching with the right keywords. I used “how to intentionally pass out”, “how to pass out”, " how to faint intentionally", “hot to faint”, “chest cross arms deep breath”, “faint deep breath chest”, and other various combinations. Any cites will be of help.
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### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/5 "2002-09-21T16:32:07Z")
Try ‘hyperventilating’
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### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/6 "2002-09-21T16:33:45Z")
Cripes, people are still doing that stupid stuff? I knew a couple of people in Jr. High who did that every gym class.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/7 "2002-09-21T16:43:15Z")
No, it’s not good for you, and I am a doctor. Intentionally inducing unconsciousness by depriving your brain of oxygen and/or washing out all the carbon dioxide in your system is not a survival characteristic.
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/8 "2002-09-21T19:07:31Z")
If you want to do this, make sure you do it before you have children. You might become a Darwin Award nominee and thus not pass along this insane behavior to your children.
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### Author:  [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/9 "2002-09-21T20:16:40Z")
I don’t think this is a good idea.
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### Author:  [@WSLer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WSLer)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/10 "2002-09-21T22:09:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by xvxdarkknightxvx \*
> [B It’s a really fun thing to try, but I don’t want to continue doing this if it could result in and short term/long term damage. I’ve done it twice. Please advise if it would hurt me to keep doign this. Thanks in advance. \*\*
/Comic Book Guy/
Dumbest Idea Of Fun Ever!
A couple of the _cool_:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: guys in my gym class in **JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL** did this and thought they were _the shit._ Of course this was back in **1983-84** and everyone thought breakdancing was _the shit_ as well, and we all know how long breakdancing’s popularity lasted, right?
Side note: Many of these same _cool_:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: guys ended up on welfare and ta least two have died from drug overdoses/alcohol abuse.
So much for being cool in jr high/ high school.
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### Author:  [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2002, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/11 "2002-09-21T23:40:41Z")
People did this in my Junior high too, including one girl who passed out and clunked her head on the concrete.
It didn’t seem like either a fun or cool thing to do.
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### Author:  [@dave316](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dave316)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/12 "2002-09-22T01:37:27Z")
hey xvxdarkknightxvx if you kids really want to have some fun try doing atomic sit-ups i bet you can’t do one !
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### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/13 "2002-09-22T06:12:34Z")
I asked for cites and I get _this_? Thanks a lot, jerk-offs. The only person who helped a little was Qadgop. OK, so you’ve reached a general consensus that it **can** a stupid thing to do. I’ve seen no evidence, only mocking. “I don’t think this is a good idea.” Wow, what’d you do, read the other people’s posts and then formulate this on your own? An how about this “If you want to do this, make sure you do it before you have children. You might become a Darwin Award nominee and thus not pass along this insane behavior to your children.”? OK, so that’s just a little bit insulting. I don’t believe you all are justified in your reactions, but I believe I’m justified in mine. Way to show just how competent you idiots can be. Retards.
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### Author:  [@PBear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PBear)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/14 "2002-09-22T06:30:16Z")
Dude, suppose someone posted the following question: Drank a whole bottle of scotch. Woke up the next day with a HUGE headache and puked my guts out. Do you think it was a good idea?
The replies _might_ be delicate, but not likely.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/15 "2002-09-22T06:37:09Z")
OK, so our answers don’t suit you and you insult us.
Here’s the facts:
1. Your excess breathing (hyperventilation) causes a reduction in carbon dioxide. This causes alkalosis (High pH–opposite of acidic). Alkalosis, in turn, causes increased binding of oxygen to hemoglobin (blood), thus reducing the amount of oxygen available to the body and brain. The brain can receive as little as 60% of the normal amount of oxygen due to hyperventilation. This same process is occuring all over the body contributing to the multitude of symptoms that can occur, i.e. underperfused kidneys, which then may decide to cut back on their job, and my favorite, underperfused sphincters, leading to loss of bowel and bladder control. Lotsa laffs!
2)People pressing on you when you hold your breath triggers the vagal reflex, which causes your heart to beat abnormally slowly. Blood pressure drops, sending less blood to the brain (said blood is already oxygen-poor). Treatment of bradycardia often involves injections of IV atropine, or emergency implantation of a pacemaker. So symptomatic bradycardia is not a condition you want to cultivate.
Possible Results? Cerebral ischemia (oxygen-starved neurons which begin to die) leading to elevated intracranial pressure (not a good thing) due to brain swelling. Strokes. Intra-cranial hemorrhages. Stupor. Coma. Death.
Vomiting is also common while coming out of this state. Inhale your vomit, and you’re a candidate for death, or a long stay in the ICU with a ventilator tube in your trachea and a new hole in your neck for it to fit in.
Is all this likely? No. Possible? Yes. I’ve treated patients that did this sort of things chronically and they never did seem to be the sharpest knives in the drawers. Knock off enough higher cortical cells with each loss of consciousness, and it does add up. And I’ve seen enough people comatose from “choking on vomit” for unknown reasons to suspect at least a few of them were from silly games like you describe.
You want cites from sites? Google “hyperventilation”, “vagal reflex” & “stupid human tricks”.
Have at it then. I’ll think of you when I make my rounds in the infirmiry unit and view the gomers.
Disrespect us again and I’ll have you thrown in solitary for a month! Oh, wait. I’m not at work, am I?
Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!
QtM, MD
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### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/16 "2002-09-22T07:05:14Z")
Qadgop, I never said I didn’t like **your** answer, I just said I would like some cites. I wasn’t insulting you, which I tried to point out in that post. However, I was insulting the people who had nothing good to add to the discussion, only stupid/offensive remarks.
I asked an innocent question and expected a response not unlike the usual way threads are answered on this board. I thank you for your answer, Qadgop, but I also say that all you other morons can either say something intelligent or shut up.
Oh, Pbear, about your comment: "Dude, suppose someone posted the following question: Drank a whole bottle of scotch. Woke up the next day with a HUGE headache and puked my guts out. Do you think it was a good idea? " First of all, when you wake up, you **don’t** have a “HUGE headache,” you don’t throw up unless it’s a rare case like the one mentioned by Qadgop, and this is not a way to get euphoric/drunk. When I say it’s a really fun thing to try, I mean the feeling of going to sleep instantly, something I can’t seem to do when normally trying to sleep. Also, as I really don’t pass out much, I kind of liked the feeling of waking up and not knowing what had just happened. On a side note, this activity is nowhere enar as common as getting drunk. Mostly everyone knows the harmful effects of drinking a whole bottle of scotch; on the other hand, nobody but doctors, and now me, know the harmful effects of intentionally passing out.
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### Author:  [@Ms2001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms2001)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/17 "2002-09-22T07:25:51Z")
If you want a feeling of waking up and not knowing what happened, go to your local head shop and buy some salvia divinorum. It tastes like shit, but it’s better to have a mouth that tastes like shrubbery than a head full of dead brain cells.
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### Author:  [@EmbarrassingDad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmbarrassingDad)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/18 "2002-09-22T07:28:04Z")
Qadgop-
I recall of hearing that it can be dangerous to remain upright after fainting. Specifically I heard of a husband fainting in a delivery room who remained propped up and nobody noticed immediately. When the doctor noticed he rushed over and gently laid the man down.
Any truth to that, or was he just ensuring the man didn’t crack his head open?
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/19 "2002-09-22T16:00:49Z")
**dirty** , laying the guy down will serve to keep him from falling and hurting something, and also help restore blood flow to the brain, where it’s needed the most.
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### Author:  [@xvxdarkknightxvx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xvxdarkknightxvx)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2002, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentionally-passing-out/128996/20 "2002-09-22T16:42:54Z")
Mr2001, what exaclty does this “salvia divinorum” do? Rush the senses?
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