Blackouts when angry

I, too, have a similar issue. It occured to me quite often as a child over the smallest things (no ice in the ice water i asked for) and had not occured for about eight years straight.

I have begun to have these anger-induced-blackouts again, recently. Once about every six months if i were to guess, but these would be just the ones i'm told of. Earlier today i was cleaning and slowly becoming bored of it. A younger friend of mine purpously dropped something on the floor. Normally it would be no big deal, and I am still confused why, at such a calm state as I believe myself to have been, I had flipped. I had, as I was told, grabbed him by his coller and glared for two minutes straight, with him almost begging me to let him go.

As I said, I do not remember this. The last thing I remember was cleaning the floor, and then I was done. If it were not for trying to talk to him later in the day I would not have known I had done anything.

Please, if you learn anything let me know. I would be forever endebted to anyone who can give me a name to what is causing this in me.

I too have had things like this happen to me. like one time when i was like 6 or 7 my sister grabbed me and i just went off i remember going to the kitchen and getting a knife then the next thing i know i have her in a corner at knife point threatening her. or like one time when one of my friend got really mad and was coming at me and i wouldnt hold still so two of my other friends held me in place and as he got close i felt the rage growing.when he got right up on me i blacked out, next thing i know the two holding me are on the ground and im chocking the one. when i went to let him go and try to stop my arm got tighter around his neck. luckly i was able to stop before i really hurt him. another was when this girl who was mad at me tried to kick me in the ball (which is my weak spot for getting set off) i knew this so i tensed my whole body getting ready for the pain but also to hold the anger back but then something took over and next thing i know her foot is in my hands and im throwing her off the top of the bleachers.i did stop before i did it thought.

Hey just thought i would share what i know on this. most people that I have met that have this or have something very close to what you desribed (my self included). most have a rather tough early childhood (abuse parents, kids at school, older siblings) and have there frist waking blackout during this time. the frist one is with most people there most violent. they tend to be withdrawen from other people having few friends.

now foir the all importent quesion "why". although i have nothing concluseive i have a few theorys. most people will say that the abuse past will result in it but most people that go thru that do not devolp it. my fits-best theory is that its genetic (resesive).

this may help you it did me. i find that im able to reman in control if i cause pain to my self(mostly bitting into my hand) i sould say this does not stop it just extends the amout of time you have to get away. before doing this i suggest looking up the anotmy of hands to find where to "bit" as not to cause permant damage.

Blackout when angry, it is normal situation in any age. it is better to mange in such situations.

I've had this in the past. I seem to recall that there was another instance or two of this occurring, but the only one that I 'remember' as such was in my final year in high school (2011).
Fitting with the theory that it stems from an unpleasant childhood, I was bullied not since prep, not since kindergarten, but since day-care, when I was 2-3 years old. Various people bullied and harassed me right up until my final year of school, and it's had a huge impact on my mental health and my self-image. The teachers at school never managed to stop any of the numerous bullies I had over the years and I really didn't feel like they were trying. The teachers would just tell them off and send them on their way. I'm a fully-privileged, white, heterosexual male. I went to a school that, above all, was meant to cater to people who didn't fit in elsewhere, a school that made a big point of advertising a 'strong anti-bullying policy'. I'd hate to see what happens to people of other sexualities and I felt helpless and alone. Most of my small group of friends even partook in antagonising me regularly, albeit to a lesser degree. I didn't seem to take my parents splitting up particularly badly when it happened in my late primary school years, but I guess it could've affected me more than I know.

Okay, enough life story. In my last year of high school, this new guy in the grade below me would give me a kick or a punch whenever we encountered each other, despite engaging in reasonably friendly conversation, and although it wasn't with all his strength, it wasn't gentle and it did hurt. He used violence as though it was a normal part of social interaction. I kept telling him to stop, and even gave a bit of a retaliation once or twice, but he never let up. I was sitting with a group during recess and he sat down in a chair near me. The moment I said something to someone else, completely unrelated to him, he kicked me in the shin. I kicked him back, then he swung his leg up and hit me in the chest. Then, all I could see was dark noise, a bit like television static but a slightly brown and very dark grey, almost black. My eyes must have still been open, though, because a few seconds later I found myself standing over him, being restrained by a couple of other people. I knew I must have attacked him. He developed a black eye. I don't think I've ever punched anyone else in the face.

It was quite shocking to me. I didn't mean to hit him. I didn't even know what I was doing until it was over. Some people didn't believe me when I tried to explain this, and that really made me feel awful. I was sort of pleased that someone had been hurt for antagonising me, but at the same time, I didn't feel like I had stood up for myself, even though it would have looked like I had by anyone else's account. I had lost control of myself in those few seconds. I have no memory of hitting him, I never saw what happened, even though my eyes must have been open. He didn't really deserve to be hit, either, because he was just insecure and felt he had to subdue someone in the grade above him to feel or look tough, or some such. He probably thought I'd be an easy target since I'm a bit underweight and I clearly don't exercise, but adrenaline and rage can bring surprising strength, even to a fairly scrawny creature like me. I suppose, in a way, even though it frightened me and probably those who saw it, too, the blackout was a boon, even though I was blamed for it as though it was my choice, despite trying to explain it. Thinking about all this still makes me quite tense, though.

I'm sorry, I know other people clearly have it much worse than me, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to share my story with these blackouts. And I'm sorry for the lengthy retelling of my history with bullying and such. I figured there was a chance that it would reveal something, but really I take any excuse to vent about it. This isn't a really helpful post, I know, but if someone with knowledge on the subject reads over the thread, well, I figure the more subjects for study, the better.

I hope these blackouts get figured out. It's probably a survival instinct from our primitive beginnings. If you spared the time to read all or most of this, then thank you.

I stumbled upon this thread, looking for information on anger blackouts for my husband. He is a gentle giant but every blue moon, he gets triggered and goes into a blackout spell of anger. He hasn't had one in more than a year or two, but had one yesterday. He felt awful about it, so I began searching the web for answers and help....

His background: His dad passed when he was 3 years old. He lived a good life, spoiled materially but disciplined firmly by his mother. He was a straight A student, the star ball player... the skills came naturally but his mother pushed him in those areas, making him play ball three seasons a year when he didn't want to play anymore. He was always much larger, taller and broader, than kids his age. His mother refused to allow him to fight back when he started being picked on, so the bullying got worse. He would get furious, because he could have beaten those kids easily, but knew he would be in huge trouble at home if he did. (He once hit a boy back and was whipped at home for it.)

His mother passed away suddenly during the summer before his freshman year in high school. I imagine all the anger from all the years plus the anger from his mother's death was tremendous. He went back to school as a freshman and those same boys began to pick on him in the same old fashion. He threw one into a locker and busted him up pretty good. He took one out on the track, tripping him and then smashed his face into the pavement, breaking his jaw. All of these were what I would consider "normal" given his situation. (Acceptable? Not really... but given his anger, the bullying, etc - his reaction would not be viewed as unusual.) The other kids quickly took the hint and left him alone. He played JV football for a year and then went to the varsity squad. The brute sport helped him release his anger in a productive manner.

In his early 20s, he would go out with friends at local bars. One night, there were two girls in an alleyway who were yelling at two guys to leave them alone. My husband (this is before I knew him) and his friend went to help the girls. (Very admirable.) The guys wouldn't leave and a fight between the guys ensued. I believe this was his first 'blackout fight', as he calls them. He told me that everything went black and eventually he "came to" and the guys were laid out on the street. He's had a handful of these episodes before. They are always a result of the start of a physical altercation. He never throws the first blow but will always throw the second and the third and the fourth.... He is a big, strong guy. I don't see why anyone would think to mess with him to start with.

It's been a couple years or more since his last 'blackout fight'. He told me that they didn't scare him, per se, but that it did bother him when he had no recollection of the event and had to be told by a third party later what he did. A blackout of that nature would unnerve anyone.

Yesterday, while at work, he had a blackout. He didn't get physical, Thank God, but he yelled at all of his coworkers. He is a fairly laid back guy. He's very spiritual and turns over his stress to God. Anytime a stressor comes up, he prays and feels that his load has been lightened. He gets very frustrated at his work. He is in the aviation field and work must be done to strict federal guidelines. He is precise and has a strong work ethic. He couldn't tell me what happened exactly... he doesn't even remember what led up to the event.... Normal workday crap, as he put it. But something stressed him and he snapped. I received a text from him towards the end of the tirade. He was using every curse word in the book, and telling me that if his coworkers came near him again, he'd kill them. I WAS STUNNED. He's vented about work before but NEVER with threats like that!!! That wasn't him. He didn't reply to my text response, asking him to calm down and call me (since I was concerned).

He called me later. He doesn't remember the snap. He remembers being at his desk, doing his job... then suddenly he was outside smoking a cigarette with a coworker shaking him by the shoulder calling out his name. That was when he "came to". He was bewildered, and had to ask what happened. The coworker said he'd gone off on everyone but it was justified, and that he'd followed my husband out to make sure he was okay. He starting shaking him and calling out his name because althought my husband was standing there, wide awake, he didn't look at though he was breathing. For one big burly guy to scare another big burly guy to that point... It was extreme.

My husband went in, apologized to each person individually. They all said it was okay, he was justified in yelling. His boss even said the same, saying "I shouldn't make demands on you the way I do". That is all my husband knows of the situation.

I thank God he didn't get violent. He is young, he is big, he is strong. He works on a production floor with machinery and tools, chairs and desks... any number of things that could injure others when thrown.

He left work, feeling ashamed and guilty, but without knowing what he actually did. He felt abnormally exhausted and had to lay down for a nap. The 'blackout' had wiped out his energy.

For the record, he has been terribly angry with me and our children before. (Every guy has been here... every woman has been here.) He has NEVER come close to a blackout, nor has he ever hurt any of us. I have absolutely no fear of him hitting me. He has a punching bag in the garage (he was a boxer for a while) and only once has he even used it during/after a fight. As I said before, he is a gentle giant.

I wanted to post this because so many on here seemed to feel it was just them. His triggers seem to be more severe than some others on here, but the result is the same -- something very unpleasant to them triggers a raging anger fit with a mental blackout of actions during and after the episode.

It's helpful for me to know that many have tried therapy and it hasn't helped, or hasn't helped much. He and I talked of therapy and possibly hypnotherapy to figure out the trigger and how to avoid it. I told him I was worried they would send him for pointless brain scans and other neurological testing that wouldn't result in anything useful.

From what I've been able to research in a short amount of time, I've only found one possible explanation. It's not a 'one size fits all' and it's not necessarily even the correct explanation, but I thought I'd post it anyhow. Might help one single person, which makes it worth it.

Intermittent Explosive Disorder
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermittent_explosive_disorder

I wish everyone here the best. I hope you can manage to figure out your triggers, manage to avoid them, and manage to stop fearing these episodes. Living in fear of them is awful too.

I hope more people will post with any medical findings they discover. I'd love to be able to help my husband so he doesn't have to live in fear and his 'blackout fights'.

I also have experienced similar symptoms to those mentionned in the posts. When I am angry or am in a stressful situation where I feel that my life may be at risk, the next thing I know is that I "wake up" somewhere else doing something else.

For example, once when I was a kid, i was walking in a parking lot. All of a sudden, a car accelerated, heading straight toward me. The next thing I knew, I was 30 feet away from where I was initially, not having the slightest clue as to how I got there. My mother who witnessed the scene, told me that I had rapidly dodged the car and had fingered the driver afterwards (that is something I would never consider doing in any situation).

When angry with my siblings, I have often blacked out and been violent with them, even when unnecessary. For example, I apparently threw a 30 lb electric keyboard on my sister when I was 12. I have trouble lifting it now and can't even imagine throwing it. Most of the time though, I "wake up" before actually seriously harming anyone, but I am always scared at what I might do someday.

I It had been four years since I blacked-out because I have learned to control my anger and to avoid stressful situations, but it happened again last week. I "woke up" on top of someone, knowing that I was about to try to scoop their eyes out with the spoon I was holding in my hand. This incident is what prompted me to try and find help, but no one seems to know what causes these black-outs.

I don't understand why this happens to me because I am normally the least violent and angry person anyone could imagine. It's like I lose control when this happens and I am scared that I will hurt someone that I love. The black-outs usually only last a couple of minutes, but that seems like more than enough time to do serious harm. At least I now know that I am not alone with this problem.

If anyone wants to black out on purpose you can bend over and breath in and out real fast and deep then simply stand up and try to push everything into your head. It works but you really need someone to catch you.

Ive had blackouts occassionally since being beaten up by three policeman in a concrette cell. At first I blacked out a number of times in the following months weeks after the assault but the doctor I was seeing always dismissed it like the blackout that happened that night cause hey it is the police and they are always right and never do any harm to anyone. So they went away with time until a few years ago when I was put on Olanzapine and suffered from severe constipation especially seeing I had asked for them to increase my dose. My entire body would break out into sweats and I would feel like I was losing conciousness. One time when I left the toilet I did black out and fell into a large picture on the wall and smashed the glass on it luckily not cutting myself. I would be sick in my stomach for a few days after a bad bout just lying in bed dreading the toilet. Then last night it happened again. This time I woke in the middle of the night in a daze like i am on the injection I am forced on and needed to take a leak. Not wanting to go in the toilet and wake the people up who were staying in the room next to it I went out into the back yard half asleep. On my way back I started getting dizzy and woke up lying in a little gap between a pile of bricks and big ceramic pipes with nothing but a grazed knee. I told my sister in law about my experience and smashing the picture as she used to be an ambulance driver and she said it was the vagus nerve that caused the blackout and low blood pressure. I think this is only going to get worse for me being forced on these meds but the scary part is when I tell the doctor things/symptoms I suffer from the meds he writes me off as delusional.

I am looking for information that will help my 15 year old son cope anger blackouts or what we call the "Hulk Effect". One moment he is a very kind, loving, respectful, individual and the next a unfeeling, unseeing, raging animal.
My son has been experiencing these episodes since 5 years of age, occurring weekly, then dissipating for months. He had one of his worst ones 2 days ago and for the first time I feared for my life.
Once he had had a good night's rest and was comfortable to talk, I began asking him questions about what had happened. (We have always had a great relationship as he talks to me about everything and confides in me.) He said Mom, " I don't remember anything. One minute I was yelling at you as why I couldn't have any friends over and the next minute that I remember is waking up in the ice feeling very cold". Almost 2 hours of time had elapsed. He had ran almost 2 kilometres in freezing cold weather, about $5K of damage had been done to our home and I was shattered mess.
I asked him to describe to me what happens: he realizes that he is anger and out of nowhere everything goes black, voices become muffled as though he was under water and he is floating in this black vacuum. In a few minutes he becomes aware of his physical environment again. He is confused as to where he is but he regains all his senses he realizes that he is not in the same place. "In a few minutes" can range any where from 10 minutes to several hours.
Observing him, the first clue is that his eyes almost go back into his head, he becomes super strong (ie. he has thrown a 3-seater heavy couch across the room at 9 years of age), he does not hear anything, and does not feel any heat or cold and I suspect no pain either. He also appears not be breathing. His eyes do not track objects well. He appears to be almost in a trance.
On Thursday past, he somehow realized that the police were coming. He ran out of the house only to return 2 hours later with friends. I ordered him and his friends out of the house because I needed to regain my composure. They left immediately. He later told me that he thought someone had been in the house and thrashed it.
I told him that I watched you do it. Police had chased him for over 45 minutes. He on several occasions ran right up to them only to sprint away again. The officers said that he appeared to have not seen or heard them at all. It was a strange encounter. My son does not recall any of this or that the police had been trying to catch him.
My son went on to recount other times when this Hulk event had occurred. He "came too" after becoming aware that he was wet and very cold. He was chest high in sea water and did not know how he got there. He came too laying on a rock several kilometers from home again, not knowing how he got. Still another incident, he became aware of his surroundings after a basketball had hit him. He was in gym class and doesn't remember going to school or gym. The gym incident was after he attempted to stab his twin brother.
He is so scared now. This is the first time he has told me details how he is reacting to the situations. He knows he is getting stronger and he is afraid of what he will do next, use a gun, use a knife, burn the house down, kill something or someone. He feels so incredibly worthless after each episode. I have talked to him to help rebuild his esteem and self confidence each time, but each time that journey has taken longer.
When he was younger, I would count, sing, massage his back, run water, turn music on, etc. to help calm down or stay in touch with reality, because it has always appeared to me that he would go into an altered state. He said my singing was the most helpful. We are trying find a "safety switch" that he flick on so he won't enter the black vacuum and let the Hulk take over.
After attempting to stab his brother 2 years and 4 months ago, he was sent out for extensive testing and admitted to a children's Pysch Unit. He was diagnosed with ADDisorder and underwent counseling for anger management. He said it helped a bit. But it doesn't stop the Hulk from appearing.
When he was younger I also consulted with several Mental and Psych health professionals. He passed all tests with flying colours. They have all said that he is a very polite young boy, almost uncommon for this day and age, respectful and highly functional. I often have wondered if they suspect that his father and I are the ones with the problem.
I am relieved to find that there are others out there that have the same or very similar symptoms. But where is the psych community on this.

A very concerned Mom.

Yeah I know exactly how he feels because it happens to me as well. I have no idea what I'm doing but I'm aware I'm moving on instinct. However, once just before I got angry I heard a voice in my head that simply said "Kill Them". Not even sure who "they" are.