The White Out.

[Motokid250r]

Anyone familiar with the term? I am...sadly. Its happened to me and some friends a few times and it is scary. It hits you like a wall. All of a sudden your vision tunnels followed by extreme nausea turning the person white as a damn ghost....white out. Then depending on the severity of it you can loose consciousness. A buddy of mine passed out as he was standing up while my other friend kept him from hitting his head. It happened to me one time... the worse time was when i simply dont remember how i ended up on the floor.

I had blacked out in mid fall. I woke up minutes later in a pool of sweat. The sensation then quickly goes away as soon as it hit and your back to normal. So this worries me... did i hit my head? Had too... Am i fine? obviously... but i want to know why this happens and how to prevent it. MOST of the times Ive seen it happen and with myself were times when we were drinking and combusting... unfortunately. But the time i described above was after a large vape session. So what is it? Would this be considered an overdose?

Its quite the anomaly because it happens so random and goes unexplained. The one time almost scared to the point were i thought about trashing my buds and throwing in the towel. But it hasn't happened in months and my vaping has been up in down in terms of consumption. So what i would like to think is that maybe its what you eat... or dont eat. Could be a blood sugar thing could be a blood pressure thing.. i dont know. I just dont want it to bring on some sort of medical issue. Anyone else have similar experiences?

 

[Rusty778]

I've blacked out before from smoking. It tends to happen from dehydration and smoking or vaping exacerbates it. I recommend drinking plenty of water everyday

 

[towelieeeee]

Could be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_response ?

 

[Nycdeisel]

Could be http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasovagal_response ?

Interesting

 

[SD_haze]

You take a handfull or more of the causes of fainting, add in some anxiety and a bunch of weed, and then stand up too fast?

white-out.

I've fainted twice in my life and both times cannabis was involved, but it was far from the only thing.

First was ~20 minutes after a blunt, got up from the ground (where we were smoking) SUPER fast, and was nervous about this game tournament I was about to partake in.
All of a sudden standing up I started feeling really light headed...got tunnel vision, and next thing I remember I was on the ground.
I had fainted straight down on concrete and didn't hit my head...extremely lucky.

Second time, I had been on the couch for 2-3 hours and had taken half a gram of hash edible in the morning. Got up really fast, walked to the kitchen, started feeling dizzy...next thing i remember I'm on the ground.


Both times I was dehydrated and hadn't eaten so low blood sugar.
Hydration and eating a small snack before/during/after a sesh can almost 100% prevent this type of fainting, but be mindful how you get up if you've been in that position for a while (this definitely applies more to TALL people, especially tall skinny people)

 

[t-dub]

The technical term is orthostatic hypotension. I went through this when I used to take Micardis (blood pressure medication). From Wikipedia: "Medication: Orthostatic hypotension can be a side effect of certain anti-depressants, such as tricyclics[8] or MAOIs.[9] Marijuana and delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can on occasion produce marked orthostatic hypotension."

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms, which generally occur after sudden standing or stretching (after standing), include:

Dizziness
Euphoria or dysphoria
Bodily dissociation
Distortions in hearing
Lightheadedness
Nausea
Headache
Blurred or dimmed vision (possibly to the point of momentary blindness)
Generalized (or extremity) numbness/tingling and fainting
Coat hanger pain (pain centered in the neck and shoulders)
And in rare, extreme cases, vasovagal syncope (a specific type of fainting).

They are consequences of insufficient blood pressure and cerebral perfusion (blood supply). Occasionally, there may be a feeling of warmth in the head and shoulders for a few seconds after the dizziness subsides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthostatic_hypotension

 

[J.R.R.Tokin']

I've only passed out once in my life and mj was involved...

It was the first place I lived in on my own, I was 19. I was soo excited to be free and had a little list of things I always wanted to do at but couldn't because of living with the family. They included silly things like having 3 breakfasts in one day for breakfast, lunch and dinner; having just deserts for dinner; spending the whole day in my birthday suit; sleeping on the sofa in my boxers after getting plastered.

Anyway, one of those things on the list was to have a long, hot bath with a good book and a fat J. I ran the bath super hot, so hot that I had to slowly inch my way in over the space of 5 minutes. I'd already rolled the jay, set the book out and lit several candles. I lounged in the hot bath, reading and toking away for about half an hour before it all got too much for me.

I finished the J and lay back. That's when I started feeling itchy and irritable and had a cold sweat on my forehead even though I was in sweltering water. I decided to get out the bath. I put out the candles, pulled the plug and stood up...

Next thing I know I'm n laying on the bathroom floor, my ribs felt like I'd been used as a football and my head was pounding. I had stood up in the bath, fainted and fallen out of the bath, landing on my ribs over the toilet. All I could manage was to pull the towel over myself, curl up in the foetal position and let the pain subside.

Definitely a damn stupid idea on my part mixing mj and extreme heat. Needless to say I have never smoked in the bath since.

 

[Elluzion]

This has also happened to me twice. Once with smoking from a gravity bong and once with vaping.

The first time with the gravity bong was the worst. I completely blacked out TWICE in a row, and then went on to trip the hardest I ever have for 2 hours straight in a chair. I chipped my tooth, and smashed my face into concrete. It was a scary experience, and not sure why I still pursued MJ after that... haha, well glad I did because there was still more to learn from Mary..

The second time I was taking a hit with my knees bent on the ground and stood up fast and took in air and next thing I know I was on the ground. I somewhat induced this and wasn't careful, so I kind of deserved it. Luckily that time I didn't hurt myself.

It is some scary stuff... I am pretty sure it is just from the blood pressure and blood pooling in the legs and then when you stand up you aren't getting enough oxygen to your brain?

 

[Seek]

Hapenned twice to me. Drink always got it better. And also it was when combusting. Never experienced a state near this when vape.

 

[djonkoman]

I've had t once, almost exactly the symptoms t-dub names. I went to a friend's house after dinner, and it happened at 12 in the evening, between when I got there(at 7 or so) and 12 the only thing I drank was one beer, so probably a bit dehydrated, and smoked a joint with a heavy indica(skunkafghan) at 11 or so

I've always thought it was bloodpressure related since it felt just like an extreme case of the dizziness you get from standing up too quick after sitting too long, this also happened when standing up. didn't loose conscieusess but my muscles did turn to jelly and I fell to the ground
I think I have a naturally low bloodpressure since I get minor dizziness when standing up pretty often, and I know my mother has a naturally low blooodpressure so I could've inherrited that

my solution is to always drink enough and be cautious with heavy indica's, I can take strong paranoia-inducing/trippy sativa's just fine, I actually like the paranoia in the rare case I get it, but I just can't handle heavy indica's as well

after sitting down and slowly getting up step by step and drinking some orange juice I was fine, and hasn't happened since

 

[OKcomputer]

Happened to me once after a 13+ hour car trip to St. Louis in August. I didn't drink enough water on the way down, didn't eat enough either, and when we arrived at my sister-in-law's place, the thermometer was over 100 degrees. Proceeded to smoke a fat bowl (this was pre-vaping for me) of bud that was higher quality than I was accustomed too. Still didn't drink any water.

Next, we walk down the stairs to pick up our luggage from the truck to bring in for the night, so I'm carrying 50-75 pounds back up the stairs, totally dehydrated and totally stoned. Get to the top of the stairs, mutter to my wife that I "can't see the seat" (we use this phrase any time we're really stoned to this day), and crumpled into a pile in the corner of the room. Luckily she was there to catch me and prevent my head from hitting anything. After what seemed like 10-20 seconds of rapid fever dreaming, I awoke in a cold sweat with my wife, father-in-law and sister-in-law hovering over me, making sure I'm OK and bringing me water and dove chocolates. Nice to marry into a great family, isn't it?

Anyhow, the moral of the story is drink plenty of water, stay cool, keep your blood sugar stable by eating, and DON'T STAND UP TOO FAST after vaping/smoking.

 

[pakalolo]

It's never happened to me but I saw it happen to my wife. She'd been sitting with her legs propped up for a long time (I think this had a lot to do with it) and I came into the room and shared a joint with her. When we finished she put her legs down and tried to stand up. That's when she collapsed and fainted, scaring the shit out of me. I was reaching for the phone to dial 911 when she came to and convinced me she was fine. She wasn't even aware she'd been out, she thought she'd just sat back down. It's never happened again, but now we're both a lot more careful about standing up suddenly after partaking.

 

[crawdad]

ya ive been in situations where i can just tell if i stand up its lights out so i just ride it out, be it in a hot tub or sitting next to that ant pile that i hope i dont disturb...again. that sudden rush of getting up is a bitch.

 

[Jeppy]

Isn't this a basic "head rush"? We used to do this on purpose when we were kids. Take a bong hit in a sitting or squating position and stand up as you take your finger off the carb. Whooooooooooooo.. One time my friend fell out backwards and cracked his head open on an end table in my room.