I had a root canal a few years back in which the numbing agent worked Not At All. The dentist had to file the inside of the canal for what seemed like an hour, and with each stroke the file hit a nerve. Felt like an ice pick going through my tooth directly into my brain.
I did not pass out, but I did come close to grabbing the dentist’s scrotum and giving it a twist.
Similar for me. Blood doesn’t bother me, and I don’t have a particularly weak stomach. I can give myself injections (for allergies) without a problem.
But…
Being injected BY SOMEONE ELSE (or having an IV plugged into my hand or arm, or having blood taken) is no problem at all as long as I look away. If someone else is doing the needling to me, and I peek, the vasovagal faint response immediately follows.
Go figure. The worst part of it is that for me, the vasovagal reaction starts with a painless but horrifically unpleasant sensation of nausea and dizziness, followed by a gradual loss of consciousness.
I’m one of the people who has a vasovagal reaction if I someone draws blood and I watch. I seem to recall reading somewhere (but I can’t remember where it was or find it now) that the evolutionary reason is that the body registers blood leaving the body and tries to minimise the damage by lowering blood pressure thus reducing the speed at which blood flows out.
Perhaps, but this is moving onto pure conjecture on my part, the brain reads “severe pain” as “there’s probably a wound” and does the same thing, i.e. lower blood pressure to limit blood loss.
I don’t consider myself squeamish but have passed out twice from pain: once after catching the webbing between my thumb/first finger in the hinge of a cupboard door and once while getting a cortisone shot (the type where they press the needle down to the bone).
The first was very sudden–I went upstairs to the bathroom because I thought I was going to vomit from the pain and the next thing I knew I was waking up on the bathroom floor.
With the cortisone shot, it was more gradual…I remember focusing really hard on something else because of the pain and seeing everything go black/fuzzy, then the doctor having me lie down on the table.
OTOH, I have done stuff like breaking my ankle falling out of a tree and sustaining a major cut to the back of my head without any passing out whatsoever.
I have gotten leg cramps in the middle of the night that were so bad I passed out for a few seconds(guessing on the time, of course). It has happened about 5 times this year.
I nearly passed out once from pain. I had injured my back earlier in the day, and later (stupidly) attempted to lift a very large bag of cat litter. There was brief shooting pain and then the whole loud buzzing, colored spots obscuring my vision thing. I had to crouch with my head between my legs for a minute.
Damn. Something else to worry about.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned the scene in The Departed where DeCaprio shoots a bad guy in the knee, who moans [something like] “This hurts unbelievable. I’m supposed to go into shock!” That’s kinda the hopeful thought that went into my head when in put up the OP.
“Playing dead” involuntarily isn’t necessarily a doomed proposition. Many animals have this trick in their survival kits - off the top of my head: raccoon dogs and some snakes, and many others, I’m sure. A “dead” target doesn’t stimulate an attack by a predator, although scavengers (yes, the line between the two is blurry) might be delighted.
There are many cases of people surviving animal or human attacks by playing dead, and so becoming unthreatening / going unnoticed. Sometimes “fight or flight” is the worst option.
The USAF has run a POW training program for its pilots since the mid 60s. I had the “privelege” of attending in the early 80s. There was plenty of still-fresh corporate knowledge from the Viet Nam POWs which kept the info & experience pretty much reality-based.
The official stance was that while some people on some occasions had passed out under torture, you could not expect that would happen to you, and if it did, the respite would be very brief.
For what it’s worth, when I was mauled by a large animal I was awake and screaming the entire time until they put painkillers in my IV. I do remember vaguely thinking, “Darn, I’m not going to pass out, am I?”
Can I hijack a question into here? Why does pain hurt so much? It doesn’t seem very evolutionarily advantageous. Some pain, to warn something’s wrong, yes. But give me one evolutionary advantage for the amount of pain inherent in stubbing your toe.
Snapped a leg off in '05 after a mountain-biking wipeout (not even a very spectacular one, just an unlucky bounce), didn’t feel a thing, even though I could wiggle my left foot around in a most unnatural fashion. The ambulance arrived before the adrenaline wore off, so I chuffed on NOx and laughed my arse off all the way to the hospital, whereupon I was left with a nitrous bottle and dumped in a triage ward. I must have emptied the bottle, because then the pain kicked in, great waves emanating from my shatted tibia and permeating every fibre. My breathing started to get faster and faster until I was hyperventilating, there were loud oscillations in my ears, and my vision was getting darker and darker. Then I passed out.
Before I blacked out I thought it may be prudent to holler for help (well, gasp out each word between breaths), but no sign of any medical staff, the only other person I was aware of was some bloke in the triage bed next to me talking on his mobile phone, and my state was doing strange things to my time perception, as his voice sounded really woozy and drawn out. But then I came to, finally got shot up with morphine (the 3rd dose did the trick), and it transpired that the guy next to me really did have the worlds most tedious voice. I laughed my arse off all over again.
Anyhoo, am I right in thinking that enough of a pain shock will flatline the brain into stoney deadness? I’m thinking Edward II meeting his nemesis the red-hot poker here, plus anyone who’s been cleanly decapitated. There’ll be enough oxygen in the blood for a few seconds of disconcerting conciousness, if one doesn’t black out from the pain of course, and I’m assuming not everyone will wuss out like me.