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 Chicane album, see Thousand Mile Stare.
The thousand-yard stare (also referred to as two-thousand-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]
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]