Feeling faint / tinnitus / vision tunnelling in "nervous" situations
So this happened once when I was having a chat with an MD. I had just joined the team and I wanted to catch up with everyone just to introduce myself and the last person on the list was this MD who used to run the team but now is in a more of an advisory / oversight position and does something else.
We went into a room to have a one-to-one chat, and I was a bit unsure of what to speak about given his quite tenured position and him frankly being close to retirement. So we spoke a bit about macro, my background, how the team / industry had developed (since he had been there pretty much since the start) etc.
It started off okay but veered into a more of a "let me tear this person down just to see how they respond" conversation where I was quizzed on obscure academic authors related to my undergraduate studies (which would now be 2+ years ago now) and so on. It was quite obviously an attempt by the MD to be difficult and apply pressure to see how I would respond, which in and of itself isn't necessarily bad and he ended the conversation with recommending what to read to become more informed and successful on the desk (context I was joining a desk which is completely different to what I had previously done).
The issue is that in the middle of the conversation, with him starting to break me down a bit / applying a lot of pressure, I started to feel faint, got ringing in my ears, and my vision started tunnelling. But, mentally, I felt that I could absolutely recompose myself and answer his questions and continue a constructive conversation, but I literally, physically, was not able to. My body was not agreeing with what I was thinking mentally, so I tried my very best to get some words out along the lines of "that makes sense", but was not able to say much more due to just feeling unwell.
I am not too sure why this happened but feel like this could be a problem later on? If I am in a client setting and start getting some difficult questions, which I know I will be able to answer, but my body starts to do this? Has anyone ever experienced something similar or know why this would happen and how to remedy?
Google was not much help except for some Reddit Anxiety forum or something but I am not a particularly anxious person and I do not think I have anxiety. I go to work in good spirits everyday especially since starting with this new team, work hard, and give good efforts.
Anyone have any thoughts, please?
You sound stressed, take a Xanax
I don't feel stressed.
You sound defensive, take a xanax
See a dr
Sounds like a vasovagal response. Your body has a big nerve, called the vagus, that runs from your ear down through your chest. It's very large and important, and when it becomes overstimulated it has a vasovagal response, leading to a fight or flight response. Your nervous system over responds, leading to less blood to the brain, and many of the symptoms you described sound similar to this.
I have Generalized anxiety disorder, so I do know what anxiety looks like. Anxiety, in this instance, would likely not just come on all at once like it did here. It sounds much less like anxiety in this instance.
If this was the first time, you can probably write it off as such, but know your triggers, and make sure your MD knows that when something like this is happening again(because it could if the same triggers are present) that you just need a moment to sit down and drink some water.
No OP, but I thought anxiety could be a potential trigger? Especially if such episodes are accompanied by being afraid of fainting/being embarrassed because of that and etc.
Anxiety is much more about the anticipation of stress instead of the action of stress. If someone went from not anxious to anxious mid conversation, that'd be fairly odd. Not impossible, but more odd. It's much more likely a stress response from the body to what it sees as an external threat.
so if one has really bad anxiety and the triggers is from work stress and pressure can one still pursue a career in banking / investing ? Or they would struggle
This is called a panic attack
See a medical doctor.
I don't have the same issue but I have a very mild form of a social anxiety disorder. Started in my mid teens and it took awhile to get better. Found better ways to control it as I aged. Now, it's barely noticeable. Never directly seeked mental health for it but went to a few specialists as a teenager to ensure it wasn't a physiological issue.
Dude ignore all of the advice to hop on meds, your body went into fight or flight mode. This is not PC but for the majority of human history, whenever a threat was faced by people, we either GTFO of there, or throw hands. Your body was telling you to either GTFO or throw hands. We’re in this unique position in society where our culture rewards individuals who are masochistic and extractive, in the past those people would’ve gotten physically dealt with. So, what to do? Learn “conflict resolution.” Anxiety is a normal part of the human experience and you should use that discomfort to try to learn conflict resolution skills. Get comfortable arguing (be respectful but learn to be firm) and most of all, try to defuse tense situations. You should get awesome at being someone who can completely defuse someone’s argument while remaining calm. The reaction that will incite from them (if they’re huffy) will discredit them. Put yourself in more situations like this and learn from it. To disclaim what I said above, I am in no way advocating for violence/physically dealing with conflict in the office. Though it’s very narrow minded to ignore our nature and to use a pharmaceutical to solve all of life’s problems. You will be stronger the more you expose yourself to these situations.
Sounds like a panic attack mixed with a migraine.
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