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Thousand-yard stare
Informal term for dissociative gaze / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about a military-related term. For the band, see Thousand Yard Stare (band). For the album by The Fauves, see Thousand Yard Stare (album). For the Chicane album, see Thousand Mile Stare.
The thousand-yard stare (also referred to as two-thousand/hundred-yard stare) is a phrase often used to describe the blank, unfocused gaze of people experiencing dissociation due to acute stress or traumatic events. It was originally used about war combatants and the post-traumatic stress they exhibited but is now also used to refer to an unfocused gaze observed in people under a stressful situation, or in people with certain mental health conditions.[1]
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The thousand-yard stare is sometimes described as an effect of shell shock or combat stress reaction, along with other mental health conditions. Still, it is not a formal medical term.[1][2][3]