Everyone spaces out from time to time. While spacing out can simply be a sign that you are sleep deprived, stressed, or distracted, it can also be due to a transient ischemic attack, seizure, hypotension, hypoglycemia, migraine, transient global amnesia, fatigue, narcolepsy, or drug misuse. If you have repeated episodes or experience a lack of memory, loss of bowel or bladder control, or strange behavior while spacing out, it's important to seek medical help.
Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Blumenfeld H. Impaired consciousness in epilepsy. Lancet Neurol. American Heart Association. Updated October 31, Cleveland Clinic. Transient Global Amnesia.
Updated September 13, National Sleep Foundation. The American Institute of Stress. Szabo K. Transient global amnesia. Front Neurol Neurosci. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for VerywellHealth. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data.
We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Red Flags Seek medical attention if your "spacing out" includes any of these symptoms: Repeat episodes Memory loss Odd behavior Loss of bowel or bladder control Being injured during an episode.
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How Epilepsy Is Diagnosed. All About the Different Types of Amnesia. How Migraines Are Diagnosed. This sort of spaciness can, on one hand, be the result of changing hormones in adolescence. On the other hand, you say you suffered from harassment and abuse. This would make you a candidate for dissociation. Note that zoning out can also be part of long-term PTSD from trauma. Have you talked to anyone about this?
Someone you trust? A counsellor? It would be a good idea if you had the courage. Since I was about 10 years old, I started to hold my breath where I do completely zone out. Typically tilt my head to the left, place my fingers on my neck and hold my breath. If someone talks to me I am unresponsive even though my eyes are open and snap out of it.
Moving into some college, I trained myself never do it in front of people and only sitting down. If i do this standing up, most likely I would fall. I am 31 and suffer from a lot of anxiety from different places in my life. I also do this about times a day depending on my activities. I have never met anyone nor have doctors ever defined it. Hi Lauren, it seems as if you have created a way to feel calmer, as a sort of survival tactic against anxiety.
It would be the same sort of habit as something like thumb sucking. You would basically be attempting to stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system holding your breath stimulates the vagus nerve.
If you dealt with the anxiety, we are willing to bet that with time this habit will fall away. I have a husband who is under a lot of stress with his work. He is not happy about it. Is he having problem with his brain or is it due to too much stress.
He could not believe what he did to me other day. Now I am really worried. Do you think he needs to see a therapist?
Was it in the night? Was he at all sleep walking? It could be one of many things. Long story short, anyone who is under too much stress needs support. He might need to talk to HR to see what they can provide. His insurance might cover some counselling, for example. If not there are many private counsellors who see people over this exact issue, work stress.
Assuming you have no health issues and there is not a need to see a GP there are medical conditions that can cause spaciness then do consider going to see a therapist. They can help you get to the root of this. I check out for all the symptoms but it seems like my entire life is on autopilot instead of just zoning out here and there. I was conscious the whole time just not getting any of it.
Most of my memory is gone when it pertains to my family, or things brought on or affected by the religion aka everything. I still remember lyrics to weird al songs and can recite lines from cartoons with my brother with perfect memory!
Is it disassociation? Or something else? There are a bunch of things to consider here. You are living under huge amounts of stress and qualify as experiencing trauma. Extreme religion tends to feed one a steady diet of fear and control, which is one side of the stress, absolutely.
And it often takes a lot of time to get over being in a cult when we reach adulthood. But you then very casually mention your mother is mentally ill and tried to commit suicide. If a child thinks they almost lost their mother, yes, they will dissociate in order to protect from further pain.
This is likely all compounded by having a teenage brain, which is going through hormonal surges which causes further brain fog. In summary, all things considering you sound very practical and sharp, so cut yourself some slack. Stop expecting yourself to be perfect and start giving yourself as much credit as you can for what you are achieving. You are getting by which is in itself amazing.
Then reach out for any support you can. There also might be free helplines and support groups for teens locally in the UK there are several all in this article — bit. Look for forums online of other people surviving being in the JW world. Do what you can to get through this and get to college, where you will finally have the chance to make your own choices. Try not to think extreme thoughts.
There are always solutions. Worse case scenario, if you have to take a year off school before college to work, say, try to see that you are young, that you can get there, and that what matters is that you keep putting one foot in front of the other, not how you compare to what others are doing.
They are not you. They are not going through what you are. Having been diagnosed with dissociation, my husband is awaiting an appointment to see a psychologist to gradually explore his childhood traumas. The severity of his dissociation has increased to the detriment of our relationship as well as that of the family.
Lindy, it all sounds super hard. So what matters here is trusting your instincts. For example, you feel your husband has long term PTSD, flashbacks or not. If this is so, exploring childhood traumas right away could be detrimental and re-traumatise him.
All this aside, we see another perhaps more pertinent issue going on. Unfortunately, therapies work when someone wants to do it. And another question to ask here is, do you need some support yourself here? Even just to deal with this stress and look at the dynamic of your relationship? Sometimes the best way to help others is to help ourselves first and set an example. Just a thought.
My wife zones out a lot. Once she was walking home blindly and almost got run over. There are times when friends are talking to her and she blocks out and sometimes starts crying when her friends are joking around and laughing. I have been seeing this since she was in 8th grade, but it seems as if it is getting worse.
What should I do? Hi Pawan, have you talked to her about it? What does she think it is about? Does she feel she needs some support? But if she was willing to chat to a counsellor it would be helpful. Crying when others are laughing definitely sounds like there is a psychological issue there.
There are physical conditions that can cause brain fogginess and emotional swings. My traumatic experience, my son died seven years ago in an accident at home.
Earlier this year, around his birthday, which is the hardest time of the year for me, I thought my client was going to say something about the death of my son, at HER court hearing. I was supposed to testify at the time and my brain shut down. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you! Jennifer, we are sorry to hear about your tragic loss. That is an awful lot to go through.
PTSD is a very physical diagnosis, and can include dissociation, breathing tightness, floating, feeling sick, exhaustion, all of it. Have you gone for diagnosis? Because it is one distinct trauma that triggered your symptoms you might want to look into a therapist who offers EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprogramming.
It can help lower the physical response you are having. As for the Benadryl, we would recommend you talk to a medical doctor about that, we are not qualified to say. We wish you courage. I zone out, forget things, and miss details on a regular basis. I constantly feel like an idiot. Today I even ran a red light. In my hometown where I know my way around. Naturally, I tried to be extra focused on my driving all the way home.
After having a close call, this would normally be easy. My husband thinks I have ADD, which could be true, as it is similar to this.
I had depression, few friends, and the way my mom treated me would probably qualify as emotionally abusive at times. I frequently zone out in class unintentionally. I also hate showing my real emotions, leading to some people calling me fake.
I just want to leave the world if that makes sense. Also, my mind blanks out when I talk to other people too. I never feel like I belong. Even though I love my friends, I never belong in only one friend group, but my friends vary drastically. Note how you admit your childhood was traumatic then try to justify that it was not that bad. Repressed emotions take a lot of energy to keep repressed, leaving us with few resources in the present moment.
Have you looked into low cost options in your area? Hope that helps! Was it a counsellor or psychotherapist? Did you feel comfortable with the therapist and have any say in who you worked with? Therapy can be a bit like dating, we need to find a good match and it can take some time. Often moving out and striking out on your own helps immensely, such as going off to school.
Have you tried a school counsellor? Do you have friends you can talk to? Another great tool you can use anytime for free is Mindfulness, proven to help with stress. You can learn with our free guide to mindfulness bit. Why is there something wrong with you?
Or because you are stressed and anxious? High school is HARD. People deal with it in different ways, and some are better at hiding it than others. The problem with obsessing on how different we are is that is forms an energy that pushes everyone away. What if, for just one day, you tried to find the one thing you had in common with every person you meet, instead of focussing on the difference? What might you learn?
How might you then listen to people and be open to them in a way that might make you feel less lonely? As for not wanting to talk when depressed, that is normal. Most people when depressed want nothing to do with anyone. Is it family related? Past trauma? The thing is to seek help. Hi just read this information. I find myself with tired mind, no thoughts, just heavy. My body has energy, I find my self existing just quiet. I am a survivor of childhood sexual, mental, emotional, physical abuse. Was on the street since I was Heroin addict and my mind feels like I am high.
I have been clean 27 years. I also experience colors brighter and leaves on trees animated. I know to just sit still. Its happening more often the older I get. I have a new psychologist she is young and I at times feel as if I am talking but not heard. I am sure I am but just my thinking. This article had information that was simple and helpful. I just want to learn to walk through it without meds.
Thank you for the info and everyone who shared! Dee thank you for this brave sharing. And congrats on 27 years clean! Just to say, have you bought this up with the new psychologist? Told her you feel you are talking but not heard? At the very least you could get to the root of that feeling. Also just to say that seeing things as brighter and clearer can be both an affect of being more still and mindful, more in the present, but also trauma.
Have you ever had a fast shock? Notice that everything around you is sort of 3D, clear? The mind seems to go into ultra focus with shock. We still have a long way to go with understanding trauma, but you are certainly not the first person who has survived trauma who seems to have very acute senses. I always do it. I could be in the middle of a sentence and just zone out and stop talking. Today I almost zoned out while at the mall, not thinking about where I was going. Luckily my cousin started talking to me and brought me back to reality.
Hi Jess. If stress makes you zone out more, it could be that there is an unresolved trauma in your past you might want to chat with a counsellor about. Stress triggers unresolved trauma and we zone out more and more…. I have been through also of trauma as an adult as well. Hi Kathy, we are going to make a big guess that you are in America.
You need to find a counsellor or psychotherapist who can help you work through the traumas at the root of your ptsd and help you find coping methods. We have a lot of articles on here on how to go about doing that, how to find a therapist, etc. You can see a lot of change, but struggling along by yourself rarely leads to any….. I didnt have the most normal of childhoods when i was younger.
My dad left when i was a toddler and I have experienced my mum in both physical and emotional abusive relationships. I was bullied extremely and spent allot of time moving houses and schools and i was extremely down as a child. I was always described as a day dreamer throughout school and college and was told that i would just zone out and be completely vacant.
What i find strange now is that my life is going great I have a great job and a beautiful girlfriend but I find myself quite frequently zoning out and having periods of feeling numb, its getting more serious. The other day i was driving home and i managed to zone out by the time i zoned back in I had already rear-ended another car.
Im just at a loss as what to do. I dont have time in my everyday life for therapy but i can go on feeling numb and zoning out all the time. When do you become a priority, exactly? Or we are happy to spend hours cleaning our car, going out with friends, saving money for a house, but no time on ourselves.
Good mental health does not fall out of the sky, we have to work for it. Something to think about. Or are afraid to? Normal to be afraid then your brain has little juice left for the here and now. So you can keep just getting by, or you can make the time to deal with it….
Someone else daring to see us as worthy if deep down we are sure you are not can cause distress. We need to take the time to process the difficult childhood experiences that led us to believe we are not worthy when we are. I was diagnosed with fugue states over twenty years ago, dissociation is a new term for me but makes more sense. I never saw anyone with any knowledge of the condition, I always had to try and explain it to them! There is no way I am prepared to see a psychologist now to dig all that back up again and run the risk of it creating even more dissociative states.
It feels too late to be resolved. Hi K, we are horrified to hear that you were not offered proper support. Trauma has the tendency to leave the best of us feeling that way. But are you aware that a lot of therapies that deal with therapy do not dive into your past, particularly CBT?
We recommend you read our article on therapies that actually work for trauma. Am not allowed to talk back and my opinion is always wrong to people. Please I will really appreciate it if you can help this is my first time saying this and I really wish I could find out what my real issue is because its affecting my whole life in general. Hi MJ, it sounds like a combination of anxiety and depression, made worse by the very real difficulties of being a teenager, meaning you are dealing with wild hormone fluctuations that also affect moods.
In fact when we are teens our brains are still growing! And we not only dealing with peer pressure we are also trying to figure out who we are and form an identity. This aside, anxiety and depression are things you definitely could use support around. Which brings me here, think you can still help? Hello, I think I have a problem of which I think is dissociation. This happens frequently every day.
Feeling distant. It happens so spontaneously. I would like to be able to pinpoint what exactly is going on in my head, since it tends to get in the way of things sometimes. Thank you for taking time to read this, I appreciate it. You can do therapy with counsellors in other countries over Skype but you have to be 18 or have your parents permission. In the UK there are many charities for young people, you might find their websites useful.
Mind UK, they are a great site. Especially if you are in a religion or culture that is harder on girls than boys. Things do change when we leave home and have a life of our own, and we have to hold on with all of our might and do the best we can to get to adulthood.
Hi there, dissociation is also experienced by many teenagers. Being a teenager is probably one of the hardest parts of life. Not only is your brain still growing, flooding your body with all kinds of hormonal surges and meaning you are tired and have mood swings, you are trying to figure out who you are and dealing with mood swings.
If you are a naturally sensitive person, you might deal with this stress by checking out. It does not mean you have a trauma necessarily, it can just mean that right now you are finding life overwhelming and this is your response to stress.
These things can also be conneted to blood pressure or other physical illnesses, best to rule that out! If I zone out in a serious conversation with my boyfriend I can hear him but I never have an immediate answer because I cant think of anything to say or how I feel. When I zone out I usually get super tired and yawn a lot, feeling like all I want to do is sleep.
Other times when I zone out my eyes will lock on something without me focusing but i cant turn away unless I really think about turning. My mind is always blank though. If you feel this might be related to past trauma and is actually dissociation, do consider seeking support. My names Ann. The sun was shining bright like it was the middle of a summer day but then I walked inside the door of the house I was raised in and all of a sudden the sun just went away and it was pitch black, not a star in sight.
Then it was like I was in the future about It seemed to be I had no where left to go. But on to the other zoning out thoughts. I failed high school, my boyfriend left me, and my family hated me. And I just came back to reality. Hi, I constantly find myself zoning out. It feels like im outside looking in. It only lasts a couple minutes, then i literally have to shake it off and force myself to focus. Hi Emily, yes sounds like dissociation! As the article discusses, could be past trauma, could just as much be that you are bored with your current life and you are literally trying to escape it….
Hi Ann, dissociation is a classic response to stress and anxiety. I zone out all the time. Thankfully all my friends just accept me like this and tend to find it funny.
I am also an extremely jumpy person. I have been through stuff and think this is a reaction to that. It would be nice to engage better with people.
I was driving home today and zoned out. When I came to I was on the wrong side of the street and cars were swerving to miss me. Nobody got hurt and nobody hit anything, thank goodness. Or are you rather slightly worried.
We guess the latter as you are on here reading this article. They are symptoms that deserve to be taken seriously. Hi Sarah, from what we understand you are saying, it seems you were severely neglected by your birth mother before adoption?
We are surprised nobody around you is taking this seriously, have your parents and teachers not offered to help you get counselling?
Do your best to find some. Do I have this? I also stress clean. Fear and anxiety can intensify dissociative symptoms so if you know more about them then the symptoms themselves can be less intense.
The experience of being somewhat disconnected from your body may also explain to you why at other times your body feels disconnected or weak down one side. For a detailed description of dissociative symptoms you can download an article on the right which describes them for a neurology journal. This article from the British Medical Journal written by a psychologist Elaine Hunter , patient with the problem Jane Charlton and a professor of cognitive neuropsychiatry Prof David.
It is a really superb summary of depersonalisation and derealisation.
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