I’ll admit that I watch a fair number of reality shows and in these shows I’ve noticed that the go-to answer for almost all bad behavior is “Really? I did that? I don’t remember, I was blacked-out drunk.”
The drunk person then expects to get a complete pass on their bad behavior because it wasn’t them that did the misdeed, it was zombie-them.
Mostly this happens on Jersey Shore and Bad Girls Club. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’ve also seen it on The Real World and Real Housewives of Whatever.
I never, ever, ever buy this excuse. It’s such an easy out. How could anyone prove whether or not you were “blacked out” or just faking your level of drunkenness?
Have you ever been blacked-out drunk? Have you ever faked it? Have you ever used it as an excuse for anything - whether you were faking the black-out or not?
Ever known anyone to use this excuse in real life? Did you believe them?
Yes, I have been blacked-out drunk. Apparently I talked about sausage and laser printers a lot, then started to cry. I was still crying when I begin to remember what was happening again.
I have no idea how you’d tell if someone was really blacked out or not.
I’m not proud of it, but I have been blacked out drunk at least 4 times. It was that damned Soju. Anyway, it leaves you with gaps in time. Sometimes, little pieces would come back. Mostly though I have had no idea what I did or where I went. I have usually managed to avoid serious trouble, and so far as I know, I have never told anybody off when I was in a blackout, or broken things.
The feeling is almost like what you feel like when you get a general anesthetic before surgery.
I have, but have never done anything while in the blacked-out state. But I wasn’t completely asleep because I was sitting in the chair the whole time (all of a sudden it was like half an hour later.)
I could easily believe that someone might be in this state where they don’t remember anything at all, yet still retain the ability to act.
Once in my entire life and I promised to my wife to never drink hard-alcohol again.
I drank Baijiu, a white alcohol common in China. It was 78% pure(156 Proof) and I had intended only to take a sip. The Chinese men at the table I was toasting, though, insisted I drink the entire glass. Then another.
Only time in my life I actually lived about 30-40 minutes of my life and completely forgot about it. Didn’t do anything horribly embarrassing, but my wife was mad. And good for her, honestly.
I haven’t touched anything stronger than beer in years. Well, I’ve had about 1 glass of wine a year, but that’s no exaggeration.
That Baijiu stuff, though. Avoid it like the plague.
I dont think that state can last very long because you either pass out shortly after or are generally not interested in doing anything but sitting by the toilet.
I have had a few times where I dont remember how I got home, but that is about the extent of it. If I “black out” I am generally not doing anything and simply just sitting still trying not to die. I have always been conscious of my actions when drinking, even to the point of puking and passing out.
I think that’s my confusion with using blacked-out drunk as an excuse for bad behavior.
I’m sure it can happen but, for example, when I drink I just get sleepy. I’m not about to go streaking through the neighborhood or jumping on a table to dance. I feel like I’d be more inclined to sit in a chair like Ludovic and space before I fell asleep or sobered up a bit.
But, I’m not much of a drinker. I usually get tired before I get fun.
I actually have more fun pretending to be drunk around drunk people than I actually do being drunk. Perhaps my own pretending makes me doubt everyone else’s level of drunkenness.
Memory loss is common for heavy drinking. Completely depends on the individual and the context. I work with college students who routinely don’t remember what happened, often they are arrested and have little or no memory of the incident or the arrest.
It’s still not an “excuse” but when people say they don’t remember after a night of drinking, I tend to believe them.
It happened to me, once. I remember drinking a couple Smirnoff lights and 1 shot of Goldschlager. After that, poof. That night is gone from my memory. I woke up the next morning on a couch, cold as fuck, with vomit on my t-shirt.
It was really scary, waking up the next day. I know nothing bad happened to me, because I was among friends. But I just can’t remember what the hell happened that night. If I hadn’t been among friends, I’d be concerned that I got rufied or something. 'Cause damn. I could have died if I’d puked and aspirated it. I was too embarrassed to ask anyone what the hell happened when I woke up at 5am (and they were still asleep), so I just gathered my shit and got out of there ASAP. After that, I was so embarrassed that I quit the club I was in with them, and I stopped talking to those people altogether.
It definitely wasn’t something I’m proud of. I’ve never really understood the idiot-pride mentality, though. But anyway, blacking out is definitely possible.
I’ve blacked out a few times years ago. One time I woke up in the morning and couldn’t remember how I got home. I looked outside and my car was parked in the driveway. Weird thing is, I was covered with sand. In my hair, in my ears, under my nails, basically anywhere sand can stick. I still have no idea what happened that night. Another time I drank way too many shots of Rumpleminze. My friends thought it was a great idea to videotape me while I was wasted. It’s very odd to watch a video of yourself with no recollection of the events ever happening. I would never use the black out as an excuse though. I did it to myself.
Blackouts happen because alcohol inhibits the translation of short-term memory into long-term memory. So it’s not that you’re semi-conscious during a blackout, you’re conscious but you don’t form memories. Some alcoholics permanently damage their ability to form memories and end up like that guy in Memento.
Most people will drink themselves into unconsciousness before they lose their ability to form memories of what they’re doing. But alcohol affects people differently sometimes. Of course, during a blackout someone isn’t a zombie, they’re themselves only drunk. They’re fully conscious, they just don’t remember what they did. And it isn’t that they’ve forgotten, it’s that the memories never formed in the first place.
I’ve had one memory gap in my life. I was opening a garage door, and then for some strange reason I was standing there and then I realized my head was hurting and I couldn’t move correctly. I reached up and a piece of the garage door was resting on my head. I hadn’t fallen down, I was never unconscious, but I didn’t remember getting hit on the head.
I drink a lot (Duh we know already :smack::D), and have had quite a lot in a short amount of time, I’ve also been drunk for about 12 hours straight (give or take), a rare occasion but I’ve done it, at that level you’re not really drunk, you just aren’t sober either and you continue to take a swig or two every few minutes or so. Despite attempts to do so, I have never, ever, ever been so drunk that I wasn’t fully 100% aware of what I was doing at all times (it kinda’ sucks when I over do it and have to call ralph, I’m fully aware in those moment as well :(). Of course, I don’t get hangovers either, never had one in my life, so I don’t really believe in them actually, I think it’s a bunch of bull so you can lay around moaning the next day…pansies :D. This can probably all be chalked up to some Irish blood in me though…
(C’mon, everyone knew I’d post in this thread, ya’ can’t say ya’ didn’t see it comin’)
Memory loss from drinking alcohol? It’s happened to me ohh, over 100 times, maybe over 200 times. Seriously, a few times a year for 30’ish years.
I’m not talking about waking up on a train to New York without pants or anything. Sometimes after consuming 6 or 8 beers I’ll forget things from the night before. Sometimes after 12 to 14 beers I won’t remember going to bed, or an hour or so beforehand.
Pretty innocuous stuff though. As far as I can tell I was the same person, acting consistently within my normal boundaries, I just won’t remember doing or saying something.
Yep, absolutely. The last time, 20 years ago, that I drank way too much, I lost a few hours of time. It was very damn jarring, and the friends I had at the time kept making up stories about what I did. They’d change it frequently, and none of them really had any idea how much that blackout shook me to the core. That’s what made me realize I needed to get a new core group of friends - I couldn’t trust what they were telling me.
Fuzzy memory from too many drinks? Not terribly uncommon if I have more than a couple drinks in an hour. I’m not talking blackouts though, just an unusually tenuous grasp on the details of the evening- it’s more like a highlight reel of the evening in my head instead of a full-bore regular memory.
Total blackouts where I have no recollection? I only have one; back about 5 years ago, my wife (girlfriend at the time) had a new apartment warming party, and I got super-wasted on a combination of wine and shots of limoncello (and apparently vodka; I don’t recall) over the course of the evening. I remember the evening getting hazier and hazier, until there’s a disconnect, and I remember feeling bad, and going to the bathroom to puke my guts out. Apparently there was about 30-45 minutes in there that I was conscious, and having a good time before I came to and went to puke.
Once. Never did it again. And I didn’t even do anything scandalous, I just played Mario Kart. That’s how I found out I blacked out - my friends were laughing about how I was so happy to be second last instead of last and I couldn’t even remember playing.
I’ve been black out drunk a few times - several years ago. The morning after is always an unpleasant hell.
It’s weird, one minute you are there, enjoying your beer…or in one case, everclear, and the next you are naked on the couch. It’s like you are scooped up and deposited in the future.
I’m blessed to say that my wife (future wife at the time) took care of me during most of these incidents (I think I had one or two prior to her) and I don’t plan on ever revisiting that particular chapter of my life (the blackouts).
Come to think of it, I really don’t drink much any more. It’s been a few months since I had more than a beer or two.
