This is the wisest advice ever given. Baijiu is like the destruction of all joy and happiness in convenient liquid form.
In my experience, someone who is a regular drinker (or an outright drunk), who has a very high alcohol tolerance, reaches a state of blackout much more easily. They’re much better at holding their liquor without vomiting or passing out, so they remain conscious at high BAC levels. The people I know who blacked out most frequently were fraternity members in college, which should give some indication.
I have done things I could not remember later.
I was once punched for something I could not remember. I was told I had it coming.
Being black-out drunk does not absolve you from the consquesnces.
For a very short period of time, I had a housemate with a serious alcohol problem. Shortly before he moved out, and the final straw in a number of incidents that made me kick him out, he came home late one night and very drunk and slightly belligerent. I asked him to leave and he went, but then returned about an hour later, even drunker and uglier. What I remember is his eyes. He was walking and talking, but his eyes were flat and black.
He was shouting at me and was calling me by his ex-girlfriend’s name and I was calling 911 and pleading with them to get there. He left before they arrived.
He reminded me of my dog coming out of anesthetic at the vet’s. She was starting to sit up and look around, but her eyes were just vacant and not focusing on anything.
The next morning he came back. He had been across the city to his girlfriend’s during the night - by transit or walking or bicycle, I’m not sure which, and then back to my house when she kicked him out. He had sobered up enough to be back to his normal self, so I let him in to sleep.
When I spoke to him later in the day, he had no recollection of being at my house during the night. I believed him.
It was a scary insight to into what blind drunk means.
Yes, I have blacked out multiple times in the past. It is scary not remembering hours of a night. People have said I was talking and acting pretty normally during these times, but I remember nothing. I have done things like left my credit card at the bar, or finding a receipt or a phone number in my purse and not remembering getting it. I have never really done anything bad during these times thankfully. But I do remember waking up and having a feeling of dread, wondering, what happened? And having to piece together the events of the night. Blackouts are really dangerous and I am so lucky that nothing terrible has happened to me, especially being a woman. I have since stopped drinking altogether.
No, of course not, I believe that’s against the forum rules, maybe not one that’s enforced as much as others seeing how difficult it is to tell, but I’m not an avid rule-breaker (though I have broken a few :o). Plus, it’s in the middle of the freakin’ day for me, I’m working (well sorta’, I’m posting right now I guess).
I have blacked out twice while drinking. The first time, I only lost a few minutes. I remember talking with my friends, then I was in bed with no recollection of going there. The second time was scarier. I remember walking to the bar, a few snapshots from the bar itself (seeing a friend I hadn’t seen in awhile), then I was leaving with someone. I have no memory of seeing him there or agreeing to go home with him, but there I was. I’m glad the memories pick up at that point, because I would really not like to have woken up in someone’s bed without knowing how I got there. Funny thing was, I had no hangover whatsoever the next day.
But a blackout doesn’t mean you aren’t aware of what you’re doing. During the blackout you’re just drunk as per normal, you know what’s happening as it happens. The problem is that you don’t remember later, because your pickled brain wasn’t able to form long-term memories.
So you can have people who are acting only mildly sloshed, not staggering around and puking and collapsing, who are lucid and aware, but they don’t remember what happened later. You can get the same effect from head injuries or electric shocks–you’re conscious but later can’t remember what happened.
Unashamed heavy drinker here.
Black-outs happen, but are often made up excuses for people to use alcohol as a free pass to behave like idiots. Even if I were to believe that people claiming to be blacked out actually were (98.413% of the time this is pure bullshit – yes, I’ve done the research), they still don’t get a pass.
I’m not sure what movies people have been watching, or what Anti-Saloon League propaganda people have been reading, to lead themselves to believe that alcohol is some mystical, magical potion that makes things beyond your control happen. When you’re blacked out, you’re not a sock puppet; you’re not being controlled by some external force driving your actions, so why should everything you did not be your fault just because you don’t remember it? It’s a bullshit, easy cop-out for cowards.
I remember my first black out, and being terrified that I’d done awful, and possibly illegal things. I walked into the bar next day and apologized to the bartender for whatever transgressions I may have found myself engaged in. He was honestly taken aback. He hadn’t even realized that I was that drunk. Okay, fast forward to many black outs later, and each time having a tinge of fear that I’d committed some unspeakable misdeed, followed by reassurances that I didn’t turn into some crazy person who overturned tables or started bitch fights. The worst offense I’ll ever commit while that thoroughly hammered is unnecessary giggling, and a diminished ability to stay awake.
Then I think about it – Why would I start fights with people? Because I’m drunk? I know drinking kills the inhibitions, but I’m not inhibiting any need to be awful. I’m fully comfortable being awful when I’m sober. I’ve learned to trust the tiny little pilot inside of me that guides me when I’ve guided myself to too much whiskey. I haven’t blacked out in a while, but my worst fear the day after is that I’ve said something stupid, exaggerated a story to the point of implausibility, or have belabored a bad joke a little too much. I never worry about bad behavior because it never happens.
I have been so drunk that I can’t remember what happened on two separate occasions.
The first, I was drinking with friends at a pub on a night when they had free Johnny Walker and cokes all night. All I remember of that night is isolated flashes. Calling my ex housemate. His suddenly appearing at my side as I put my phone down (in my recollection), despite being over half an hour away. Getting put to bed when I got home.
The second time, I recall everything up to a certain point, then there’s just nothing between that single point and when I woke up the next morning. Somehow I managed to get myself to my bedroom, change from my clothes into my pyjamas and get into bed.
Based on reports from friends, I have no doubt that at the time I was fully aware of what I was doing - in a drunken way. But I have no recollection of these events, they just didn’t make it to my long-term memory.
Sure, I used to black out regularly – while out on the streets. Never did anything stupid (that I know of) and always made it home OK. I usually stripped all my clothes off, though, before passing out.
Oh, so sorry, I didn’t explain, I’ve never had a blackout, I wake up the next morning and can always account for what happened, hell, I can even remember my dreams no matter what, but there is never a moment where I cannot remember exactly what happened in full detail, I can even recall the colors of things I only saw for a few seconds, or even if I fall asleep durring a movie, I still know what happened (don’t ask me how, I just know, it’s freaky actually).
Yep black outs occur. 
I’m dubious however that lost weekends exist.
As a life long consumer of lots of alcohol, I can say:
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Alcohol will never effect everyone in the same way. I don’t know if it’s entirely a brain chemistry thing (some people’s bodies process it in slightly different ways), or if it’s a function of different drinking habits. Maybe some people drink slightly faster and the inebriation compounds in a different way, and the person who drinks just as much but say 10% slower experiences different effects.
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From the age of 16-28 or so I was blackout drunk enough times that it wasn’t notable at all, it was a common, common occurrence. Most of these times it was in the vein of “near the end of the night I have an hour before I crashed I don’t remember, and nothing happened.” But there are also a large number of incidents where I did things, acted like an asshole, fell over things, etc that I have no memory of whatsoever. During all of these incidents I appeared drunk (as I was), but otherwise fully aware of everything around me, it wasn’t a “zombie state” where I wasn’t interacting. I could hold lengthy conversations.
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After the age of 28 I basically don’t binge drink anymore. A little whiskey here and there, a few beers in a sitting, that kind of stuff. That being said, even when I do get deliberately drunk (which usually means 12+ beers or drink equivalents) I’ve noticed I can still blackout from time to time but it’s very rare and only for short periods.
All of that personal experience syncs up with some medical research I’ve read, that basically has said:
-Blackouts are a function of (Amount of Alcohol Consumed ) / (Time) the more alcohol over a shorter period of time, the more likely a blackout. Research has shown that total amount consumed is not very predictive at all, and some people can drink tremendous amounts over a few hours or even a day and not blackout. The people that start to blackout a lot are people like me when I was at the age range above, namely people that engaged in hardcore binge drinking in which I would drink many many shots of liquor in 1-1.5 hours time.
-Once you have blacked out, you are more likely than other people to blackout more and more often. It isn’t known if this is because something physically makes some people more prone to blacking out in the first place, or if blacking out does something to your brain that makes you more likely to blackout in the future.
The Wiki article is actually very good and has links to good research on this: link
If you’re like me and you drink heavily and blackout, you should probably do what I do almost 30 years ago and learn to moderate your drinking (or recognize you have an alcohol problem if you cannot drink moderately.)
People react differently. Some people black out, or become uncharacteristically belligerent, or maudlin, or all of the above. I’ve done all of the above. It’s not fun, nor something to be proud of, but it very certainly happens. Is it an excuse for bad behavior? No, because one has the option of not drinking, drinking less, or choosing a different drink. (Speaking only for myself, hard liquor is a bad idea, but I can drink a prodigious amount of beer with no apparent issues. Something sweet, like mead or cider, can also cause more impairment for me.) But I have certainly seen people do things that were out of character while under the influence, and often not remember the next day or ever.
Like my post above. Exactly.
And BTW I think I love you. 
I’m an upstanding, responsible citizen now, but in my teens and early twenties I drank like a fish and I have completely blacked out from booze probably 50 times, or more. Dozens of Eight, 10-hour chunks of time, gone. I’ve woke up in jail, strange houses, etc. Yea, it happens. Yea, it’s really stupid.
The next day people would recount what I had done the night before and countless times I was like “Waaa? Oh my God!!” So embarrassing. Of course, there’s no excuse for it.
Now, I have maybe 20 drinks a year. Much better.
Yes, no, no, no, and N/A.
I was gearing up for a party and had a bunch of peach-flavored gummi rings soaking in vodka. 6 small glasses, probably 2 shots of vodka in each glass. When people arrived, I pulled the gummi rings out and put them on a plate. Then, I decided that it would be bad to let the vodka go to waste. So I drank them. I remember nothing between that time and throwing up in the bathroom a few hours later.
I don’t drink like that anymore.
I can absolutely understand how this can happen to someone once. I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone would allow it to happen twice, much less do it on purpose, as many of the twenty-somethings around here do every damned weekend.
I’ve never blacked out but then I’m not much of a drinker.
But a friend of mine I used to hang out with was quite a drinker. And he would often black out after he had enough alcohol. He was not unconscious or incoherent - you could tell he was drunk but you could carry on a normal conversation with him. But the next day he would have no recollection of anything. And not just little things - one time we spent a couple of hours at a casino and the next day he was unaware we had even gone there.