Have you ever experienced a "black out" when you were drunk?

[andylawcc]

I guess we have an uncrowned Alky king --- all hail Brigden.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I have a couple times, and I NEVER want to drink that much again.

 

[Krakerjak]

I have experienced two versions of "black-outs".

First where you just drink too much and the next morning you remember what happened last night for the duration, but there are spots missing.

I consiously go to bed and wake up with just a spotty memory. Just brief moments or details if you will. I find that in this case I'am easily able to recall what happened by getting filled in on fuzzy parts by friends or just simply trying to remember.



The second occurs where I just simply cannot remember what happened the night before starting from a certain point in the night. Even the events prior to this time are spotty in my head. This type of black-out seems to occur if I have drank TOO much TOO fast. It is definetly unnerving waking up the next morning without a single memory since 8pm the night before. Additionally, you can tell me until you are blue in the face something I did that night after my memory blacks out but I cannot remember.

This is definetly not fun and in some peoples case can be very dangerous. For me, I don't or haven't ever vomited from drinking too much (and boy have i had lots before). I also don't really get too bad of a hangover, just dizzyness, very dehydrated and feel very sluggish. In a way I see this as worse because you don't really feel the full effect of your poor decisions the night before and tend not to learn from your mistakes.


Lastly, i have not had all that much in the category of alcohol in the past 3 years though I have not sworn it off. I just simply don't live a lifestyle that puts me in a situation where i may be tempted to get trashed out of my mind. In the back of my mind I am a bit worried since two of my dads brothers were former raging alcoholics and I'd be darned if a day goes by where my dad hasn't had at least 1 or 2 drinks.

 

[lobadobadingdong]

I did for two days....alcohol poisining, then I was sick for another week. never again.

 

[goblue420]

your brain is like a hdd imo, when u drink too much the hdd turns off and u keep runing on ram until of course when u sober up and reboot :beer:

 

[sxr7171]

Once, and I know my limits now. You kinda of remember the very last thing you did before blacking out - which in my case was to tilt my head up at some point and just fall. From that point on you remember vague details like friends trying you help you out, but your recollection amounts to about 3-4 specific memories of about 2-3 seconds duration each for an entire 4-5 hours. So you kind of have half a clue about things and the order they are happening, but you really have no control over anything. The only things I remember were actually of a more violent nature such as my friends washing my head in cold water to try to wake me up, so I basically only remembered parts where they made a particular effort to help me regain consciousness, and "violent" methods are usually used, like cold water, slapping etc.

Also people told me that I did stuff that I cannot remember at all.

BTW, I chugged 3/4 of a Smirnoff bottle straight from the bottle to have this happen. It's drinking too quickly that will get you everytime. Now I switched to Grey Goose and I have maybe a measured drink every 30 minutes or so (when I drink).

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Dezign
I hope I don't ever experience a blackout myself, it doesn't sound like much fun. 🙁 I like being conscious/aware/in control of my thoughts and actions, and the fact I could do things without remembering them is pretty scary. How do you know how much to drink before a blackout? Is there any way to tell/measure, or is it pretty much trial and error?

Why would you drink at all if you like being conscious and aware? They are polar opposites. People drink to remove their own inhabitions, to lose control, and to forget. There really is no other reason except for 'fitting in' aka 'socializing'.

If you don't drink yourself stupid, you shouldn't be worrying about blackouts. If you do drink yourself stupid, you obviously don't like being in control.

Should people be held accountable for their actions while blacked out? Unfortunatly, yes. Unless you were drugged or possibly if it was your first time drinking. Otherwise you should know your limits and if you choose to drink beyond your own limits on a regular basis, then the consequences are purely your own fault. (By "you", I mean anyone, which in this case is your friend).

 

[Staver]

When I was doing some research on Distilling for a personal project I came across this information:

Chronic users develop a tolerance to ethanol. Ethanol depresses the central nervous system irregularly in descending order from cortex to medulla, depending on the amount ingested. The range between a dose that produces anesthesia and one that impairs vital functions is small. Thus, an amount that produces stupor is dangerously close to a fatal dose. Effects are potentiated by concomitant ingestion of barbiturates and other depressant drugs.

Intoxication levels (broadly) are found in this manner:
Mild (Blood alc content 0.05%-0.15% - one fourth of the people at this level are clinically intoxicated) results in decreased inhibition, slight visual imparement, muscular incoordination, and slowed reaction time.
Moderate: (BAC: 0.15%-0.3% - 50 to 95% of the people at this level are clinically intoxicated)- results in definite visual imparement, sensory loss, muscular incoordination, slurring of speech.
Severe (BAC 0.3%-0.5% -fatalities begin to occur in this range)-marked muscular incoordination, blurred vision, approaching stupor.
Coma (BAC above 0.5% - death is common in this range)- Unconsciousness, slowed respiration, complete loss of sensations.

 

[KokomoGST]

As FallenHero stated a while ago... "Anyway, just do us all a favor, and if you drink, stop drinking before you crap your pants. Thanks."

 

[stev0]

Originally posted by: Dezign

Originally posted by: Hardcore

Originally posted by: Dezign

Originally posted by: Harvey
Your friend, Josh has some serious problems. If he regularly blanks out after drinking, either he's habitually drinking way too much, or if it doesn't take that much to do it, he shouldn't drink at all. Get him to an M.D. or a shrink. Sooner is better.

Oh dear. 🙁 Harvey, do you think a shrink/psychiatrist is really necessary? Could this be a sign of deeper issues, or can his body just not handle such quantities of alcohol?

Is he Asian? On average, Asian livers can't process alcohol as efficient, so that could part of the problem. But yeah, ANYBODY who regularly drinks to blackout has problems, and shouldn't be drinking such quantities.

No, Josh is Caucasian (mixture of German, Irish, etc.).

I hope I don't ever experience a blackout myself, it doesn't sound like much fun. 🙁 I like being conscious/aware/in control of my thoughts and actions, and the fact I could do things without remembering them is pretty scary. How do you know how much to drink before a blackout? Is there any way to tell/measure, or is it pretty much trial and error?

german irish you say? 😀

you don't really know how much to drink, when you build up such a great tolerance, alcohol goes down so easily that you really don't realize how much you've drank till whenever you wake up. this has happened to me on more than one occasion, it's really hard to say what happens, usually i'll remember the first part of the night, then it starts to get blurry, like you can sort of remember things that happened but your not sure if they actually happened, then you get to the point where you blacked out, and you just don't remember that happened. usually i just think the party or whatever was going on ended when i cant remember... but then a friend will call me up the next day and is like "man i was just calling to see if your still alive ... ect..." and at that point you realize you drank too much.

there has to be a point where you can mix genetics into this whole mess. my father can pound down a liter of JD and still be able to walk a straight line, say the alphabit backwards and talk without a slur, on more than one occasion i've seen him kill a liter and a bottle of wine and be up at 5am fishing the next morning. there was a party last summer where i drank almost an entire 1.75 of jim beam, there was seriously an inch of alcohol left in the bottle the next morning, and remember most of the night, we smoked some weed too so i'm blaming that for the fuzzy recollection of events. but i was walking around and talking with people fine, when i asked the next day everyone said i didn't seem that drunk.

since then the most i've drank in a night was a 6pack of beer, i wasen't trying to brag or anything, but was giving an example and wondering if any of this can be because of genetics...?

edit: btw i'm german irish too 😉😀

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: lobadobadingdong
I did for two days....alcohol poisining, then I was sick for another week. never again.

and you're here to tell about it. i know a guy who died as a result of alcohol poisoning. 🙁

 

[Calin]

I never drank so much as to have black outs. I remember coming home from the city once, and "blacking out" from sleepiness on the bus.

Calin

 

[kenshorin]

Originally posted by: Dezign
Damn. So you honestly don't remember a thing... there are "gaps" in memory from the night before? Can you tell when you're beginning to black out, or does it just happen all of a sudden? Do you think someone can or should be held responsible for what they do during a "blackout"?

Happens to me occassionally. It can vary... sometimes, the next day there are gaps... certain things stay, certain things go. I tend to remember things and be more aware of non-visual things in these times (for instance, I can still remember the type of perfume this girl was wearing six months ago during a blackout, but don't remember her face.) These I can usually tell it is coming as it is slow progression. Other times, there is this threshold where all of a sudden - blank. Happened the other day. Had drank a lot, I remember being in a room talking... then I remember waking up in my bed. Everything from the conversation I was having to me going to bed is forgotten... and from asking around, I guess that it was at least a solid hour and a half that is gone.

And I absolutely would hold myself accountable. Luckily it seems even in blackout mode, I am really just still myself. I'm not an asshole drunk, so that has never been a problem.

 

[PhlashFoto]

ahh, the good ol' days. I have some good stories. :-D

 

[melly]

Yes, who hasn't? Although it doesn't happen to me very often. Periods of unaccounted time, and completely forgetting things that happened. Sometimes it comes back to me months or even years later, sometimes people have to tell me and I'm totally clueless.

 

[gistech1978]

nope.
ive never been completely out of control blacking out drunk.
i ususally puke and pass out long before that can happen.

i have friends who do.
its not a good thing. after a certain point she just walks around headbutting people and speaking jibberish until she passes out.
then either pees on herself or just drops her pants in the middle of a room and pisses on the floor. she has done that several times. pretty sad, actually.

 

[Brutuskend]

No, and I would say if you DO, it's time to STOP drinking!

 

[Mani]

Yep, only time it happened for me was when I was in Cozumel last year after a considerable amount of alcohol ingestion. Apparently I was bargaining with the local shopkeepers in my limited spanish for various trinkets for my friends and I. I guess I did a pretty poor job of it because I left that night with $120 in my pocket and came back with $5 and only a pair of sh*tty sandals and a chess board to show for it.

Worst part was I had to dive early the next morning with the hangover from hell.

 

[Deeko]

haha....I blacked out sunday night. It was fun. The great thing is I never puke or pass out...I just don't remember anything the next day :-D

 

[EMPshockwave82]

yes.. i've only experienced this once or twice, but gaps do exist in the memory of that night

sometimes the memories can be jogged by talking about what i did that night before i blacked out... but not everything... there are still things i cant remember from one of those nights

 

[nageov3t]

only once. I drank an entire bottle of southern comfort on an empty stomach over the course of about 3 hours.

I woke up outside, wearing my trenchcoat and my boxers. The story, or so my friends told me, was that I was puking in the bathroom, but some of it ended up on my clothes, so they undressed me. They brought me outside a little while later because they were worried about me falling asleep (this occured a few January's ago, in Rhode Island, so they figured the cold would keep me awake).

I've lied about blacking out plenty of times, though. It's a good way to get out of stupid things you do when drunk 😛

 

[nageov3t]

I've also lied to other people after they blocked out 😀

Sophomore year of college, one of my friends got really badly drunk at a frat party. We (me and my roommate) took him back to our dorm room and let him sleep it off on the couch.

When he woke up, we told him that he puked all over our floor. The floor was still sticky from some spilled chinese food a few nights before, so he believed it. We got him to mop our floor and scrub down the couch for us. hehe.

 

[conjur]

Did that one time...several big cups of bourbon (Old Crow....ooof) and coke. Lost about 3-4hrs worth of memory...and I wasn't passed out at the time.

 

[wilnbrow]

It's happened many-a-times for myself and my fraternity brothers. It's after a long night of drinking, many things that you wish not happen can happen.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: wilnbrow
It's happened many-a-times for myself and my fraternity brothers. It's after a long night of drinking, many things that you wish not happen can happen.

that's the setup for many a gay porn movie 😛