Ok, so being you’re average 20 year old college student, a group of us got togethor last night to watch the game and drink. While I didnt’ drink as much as I’ve done before, I blacked out after the 5th inning and I can’t remember anything past that point. From what I’ve been told, I stayed in the room until the 9th or 10th inning, went downstairs to my room, went to the bathroom to puke, came back and passed out on my bed in my clothes until a friend of mine woke me up and told me to get changed and go to bed. I was told I had conversations with people that I don’t remember even seeing there and luckily didn’t do anything stupid or make any asshole comments. What I want to know is what causes blackouts, why this could have happened if and any other facts you guys can give me. Background on me-6’3, 180, drink on the weekends, can put down a lot of drinks usually a little more then most of my friends-and have never blacked out before. so what’s the deal?
Did you happen to have any valium, xanax, klonopin, or any other benzo? Those will make you do exactly what you described.
nope, no medicine, just absolute and budweiser
Were you drinking on an empty stomach?
yikes. stick to one thing. no wonder you got sick. oh well, you’re in college to learn, right? Now, before some anti-alcohol or skewed view types come in claiming you’re an alcoholic, let me take a moment to point out. Alcohol is a poison. It’s also a Central Nervous System depressant. Now, your brain, being a rather major component in the whole CNS gig, became affected by a dosing of a poison depressant. The question should almost be, why don’t I black out every time I drink? Some rather skewed studies have linked blackouts to alcoholism. Some rather astute studies have linked blackouts to college. You learned a lesson. Don’t drink so much. Puking aint fun. Neither is making an ass of yourself and not remembering (a fate you luckily avoided). Continued blackouts may be a sign of a problem, but I think a lot of people, just testing their limits as college student will, blacked out in college, never to black out again.
Thanks carmen, and ruadh, being the typical college student that I am, I put down half a pizza before drinking. I’m just confused as to why this happened last night and not some other time. I drank a lot last night but there have been a few nights where I drank a lot more. I basically know my limits but didn’t even feel it coming until it basically hit me all at once. Friends of mine who were there last night and were laughing about it this morning have told me they’ve blacked out before and had it last maybe a a couple minutes, a half hour, sometimes just forgetting they went out somewhere or did something. Another thing I’m wondering is, why it lasted for so long?
I just re-read carmen’s post and have yet another question: how does alcoholism cause blackouts?
Alcoholism doesn’t cause blackouts, blackouts are a symptom of alcoholism. In other words, if you have alcohol induced blackouts on a regular basis you may have a drinking problem.
If I recall correctly, blackouts are caused by the NMDA antagonist properties of alcohol (which appears at high doses); this interferes with glutamate neurons, which are important in learning and forming memories. The fact that benzodiazepines (which are much ‘cleaner’ drugs than ethanol) also cause blackouts suggests that the (indirect) GABA agonist activity is also related to blackouts. (GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter, and alcohol increases its effectiveness.)
If you’re going to be doing hardcore college-style drinking, try not to go to extremes. Highly embarrassing things can result from a blackout. One time I tried solving equations to figure out how long I would remain drunk for, with no knowledge of K[sub]m[/sub] or V[sub]max[/sub] for liver alcohol dehydrogenase. College students also have a way of remembering the things you don’t. Signs, jokes and even nicknames are the most common methods of this, but the production of t-shirts is not unknown.
So in other words, gas doesn’t belong in a gas can, but gas cans contain gas?
…Bad analogy, but you know what I mean.
Someone who is not an alcoholic can drink to the point of blackout. However, if a person experiences blackouts, that’s a sign that he or she may be an alcoholic, since moderate drinkers don’t imbibe enough alcohol to cause one. Binge drinking can also be a sign of alcoholism, since it points to a lack of control over one’s intake.
Three hours ago, I was in a hospital ICU, visiting one of my oldest friends. He’s 46 years old and he’s in liver failure due to alcoholic cirrhosis. He’s probably not going to qualify for a transplant because he didn’t quit drinking until he got sick, some two months ago, and they understandably won’t give a new liver to someone who’s likely to destroy it. He used to have blackouts, too.
I’m not saying I think you’re an alcoholic. It just came to mind is all.
See this link From Duke University about blackouts. I have a few quibbles with it; you can read about my quibbles with it in the second link, a thread here devoted to discussing blackouts.
http://www.duke.edu/~amwhite/blackouts.html
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=210225
Tricky thing with blackouts is that you don’t know how much you drank, because you were, well… blacked out…
From what I remember (very vaguely, of course) there’s even some slight retroactive amnesia - where you may not even remember starting drinking
So maybe you drank somewhat more than you think you did ?
Wow, been there, done that. Of course what you drank (going forward, try not to mix your alcohal) but I know that your stress levels can impact this. For instance, if you start out drinking in a good mood then chances are you will be silly happy by the end of the night. Start in a bad mood and you will be a very hostle drunk. Perhaps you were sleep deprived and/or extra stressed prior to drinking that night.
Wow, been there, done that. Of course what you drank will affect this (going forward, try not to mix your alcohal) but I know that your stress levels can impact this. For instance, if you start out drinking in a good mood then chances are you will be silly happy by the end of the night. Start in a bad mood and you will be a very hostle drunk. Perhaps you were sleep deprived and/or extra stressed prior to drinking that night.
I heard double-posting might mean you need some help, too…
Same thing happened to me last year except it started in a football stadium and ended with a subway ride and a best friend to come find me in center city Philadelphia.
I’m 33 by the way. It’s never happened to me before that and I definitely didn’t drink what I was capable of. I think it’s a stress thing.
The after math is this: I lost a great pair of gloves, a pretty good cooler and a taste for molsen ice.
Consider yourself lucky that’s all you lost…
Happened to me last weekend and I lost over $4000.00, wasted the last 19 months of my life and trashed at least the next 3 years. Not to mention the fact that I have to completely change my goals in life.
Blacking out is not a good thing… strange how one hour can be so disaterous and destructive to a person’s life. Especially an hour you can’t even remember.
… at least I only ruined my life. I guess it could have been worse.
Wow, there must be a hell of a story behind that last post!
Just one blackout does not necessarially mean you are an alcoholic - but it DOES mean you have to do some serious soul-searching. It DOES mean you had too much that night.
I’d say, as a start, cut back drastically on alcohol or, even better, go on the wagon for a couple months. It won’t hurt you. If you lose your “friends” because you aren’t getting drunk every weekend they aren’t your friends - get better ones.
If you can’t cut down or stop drinking for a couple months you are out of control and you DO need to seek treatment of some sort - but no one on this board can tell if you fall into this category, that’s something you have to figure out for yourself.