Alex faints a lot. It pisses him off.
He can finish off using his powers and then with a snap of a finger heās dropped like a rag doll with zero warning. When his powers outgrew him and became too immense for him to control, aged eleven, the fainting started. Ever since he pretty much faints every time he uses his powers for longer than a minute.
The more control he gains over his powers the less he faints. He faints because even though he has this bottomless well of power none of it is getting to his life support,Ā everythingĀ is going into the plasma, and itās starves his body of the energy it needs.
Once the plasma activates, the life support stops.
Charles eventually had Sean and Hank on hand whenever Alex practiced his powers so they could catch him when he fainted, and Alex got in trouble when he practiced alone because good god, Alex, what if you fainted and cracked your head open!
The length of time he spends unconscious varies by how long his body has been deprived of life force. Sometimes its only a few minutes, other times when heās truly overdone it, Alex has been out for two days unconscious under the glare of Hankās specially designed lamps. He usually has a window of about ten seconds after stopping plasma use before he faints, but again it varies. He never faints during plasma use, itās only once he stops, which is how he can make things worse because heās unaware that heās pushed his body too far leading to more and more damage.
He has a little celebration whenever he doesnāt faint because it means heās made progress. Massive progress.
He eventually learns to keep a split stream of power, 90% into the plasma, 10% into his own health and he rarely ever faints after that.