Symptoms of fainting

As a sign of impending collapse (fainting), dizziness, paleness, trembling, cold sweat, flickering or blackening of the eyes or ringing in the ear may occur. In the fainting fit itself, the affected persons lose consciousness and may sink to the ground. Twitching and cramps in the limbs rarely occur during the fainting.

Symptoms of the cause of the collapse can also occur (e.g. chest tightness in the case of a heart attack, headaches in the case of cerebral haemorrhage, loss of consciousness in the case of a stroke). Fainting can be faked to a certain extent. One looks for a suitable place that is not too busy and pretends to feel slightly unwell at first: The gait slows down, the conversation falls silent and overall you appear tired and weak.

This all happens slowly, at the same time you grab your head against the alleged headache and breathe deeply against the feigned dizziness in and out. After you have informed your fellow men about the discomfort, you seek out the fresh air. The real “fainting” is probably the most difficult part, since one should fall safely and not want to hurt oneself further.

Since fainting is synonymous with a loss of control, the person pretending to faint will close his eyes and relax his muscles, and afterwards pretend to have amnesia, i.e. not knowing anything about what had happened before. However, it is important to be able to distinguish between when someone is only pretending and when someone is actually unconscious. In the case of a slight fainting, it helps to awaken the unconscious person by tapping on the cheeks.

A simple decision aid is to check the reflexes. If the patient actually faints, they are reduced or no longer present.A simple reflex is triggered by stroking along the lashes: the closed eye blinks or is pinched together in a patient who is not really unconscious. Or one takes an arm and lets it fall.

A malingerer will not drop the arm completely limply on the floor. In any case, it is important – whether faking or not – to take the unconsciousness seriously at first and check whether the unconscious patient is still breathing. This must be done to exclude the possibility that the patient suffers from acute cardiovascular failure and needs to be resuscitated.