During my narcotic-crack binging insanity lock his ass up days, a counselor asked me if I ever had any blackouts, and my response was “None that I can remember.”
My father taught me how to drink. When I was coming of age it helped us to bond. When I was nineteen, a highway patrolman came to my dormroom to take me to the morgue and identify my father. It seems he was going south in a north bond lane.
I would frequently blackout. Sometimes I would wake up a hundred miles from where I laid down. Once I rear-ended a carload of people. No one was hurt but both vehicles were a total loss.
I didn’t lose any friends or stop having fun when I bought my bicycle. It gave me a new perspective on life. More money, too, SR22 insurance is expensive. That was sixteen years ago and my life is much fuller now. You ought to become a friend of Bill’s (go to AA).
If I drink liquor, I often get blackouts. Never on beer. So I don’t drink liquor.
Also, kgriffey79, I’ve been where you are. If you would like to know where you are likely headed, send me an email. (I just had to try a twelfth step)
Now this is straining my credulity nerve.
If “blackouts” consist of what you’ve described, then they aren’t confined to alcoholics, or even to people that drink.
I’ve on occasion driven to work, successfully operating the car, negotiating traffic, obeying road rules, all of that, and then been asked: “How was the traffic this morning?”, and been completely at a loss to answer.
Similarly with listening in to chatter at lunch at the in-laws: I’m listening, and answering, all the time seeming to be paying attention to what’s being said. If someone were to ask me afterward what so-and-so had said, I wouldn’t have a clue.
Or someone will say: “what did you do yesterday?”, and it’s a struggle to remember anything significant, out-of-the-ordinary or in any way interesting about what happened yesterday.
Really, at such times, my mind’s engaged elsewhere, the auto-pilot is handling what’s going on with the minute details of driving or conversing, and nothing note-worthy is happening to cause anything other than short-term memory to be engaged. The processes that cause medium or long term memories to be recorded just don’t get triggered.
Without looking at a calendar or diary, QtM, where were you when you ate lunch two days ago, and what did you eat? I don’t really want an answer to that question, of course, but can you remember? Who was there? What did they say? What did you say? Was it raining that day? Was it a cold day? What was playing on the radio/TV? Remember any of that?
Demostylus, that’s not a blackout! A blackout is when you wake up thinking it’s Tuesday and you’re going to be going on that business trip. But actually it’s Thursday, you went on the trip, took care of business, and you have no recollection of any of those events!
Understand now?
Wow, blackout, huh? I have never in my life forgotten what I was doing even after heavy drinking. For that matter I’ve never forgotten what I was doing/feeling while taking some very interesting combinations of psychadelic drugs. Time to cut back man, no drinking for a year or so. Think you can swing it? I bet after a year without it you have no desire to go back at the end.
QtM: Not really.
I’m quite comfortable with “blackout” meaning: consuming large quantities of alcohol, doing stupid stuff that others tell you about later, and being unable to remember it.
I was seventeen once, been there and done that.
Is the point that you’re getting at that true alcoholics have such a large tolerance to alcohol that they function fairly normally while drunk, apart from their memories? How is that a useful diagnostic indicator?
I repeat, that is not a blackout. Despite your comfort with that meaning.
**
No, that is not my point. My point is that there is a very high correlation between having blackouts (as I described them) and being alcoholic.
If you reject the definition of an alcoholic blackout, there’s no point in drawing this out.
I’m genuinely interested, QtM, I’m not arguing just for the sake of it. There’s either something in your definition of “blackouts” that I’m missing, or else there are other possible explanations for the “blackouts” that don’t involve alcohol.
The concept of an alcohol induced “blackout” that involves behaviour that others percieve as normal, whilst flying planes, etc., strikes me as strange.
I’m genuinely interested, QtM, I’m not arguing just for the sake of it. There’s either something in your definition of “blackouts” that I’m missing, or else there are other possible explanations for the “blackouts” that don’t involve alcohol.
The concept of an alcohol induced “blackout” that involves behaviour that others percieve as normal, whilst flying planes, etc., strikes me as strange.
Strange but true. Check out this site from Duke University. It differentiates between the ‘cocktail party’ phenomenon of memory impairment while drinking, and a full blown blackout. This researcher sees the phenomenon as a probable spectrum of ethanol impairment, but notes particular syndromes of more severe impairment that tend to cluster around “functional” alcoholics.
I’m genuinely interested, QtM, I’m not arguing just for the sake of it. There’s either something in your definition of “blackouts” that I’m missing, or else there are other possible explanations for the “blackouts” that don’t involve alcohol.
The concept of an alcohol induced “blackout” that involves behaviour that others percieve as normal, whilst flying planes, etc., strikes me as strange.
Wow, you must be interested! LOL.
The cited link does tend to gloss over the phenomenon of greater memory loss with minimal alcohol intake, which tends to correlate with late-stage alcoholism. But it’s a good review of a lot of what is known.
Yes, he is an alcoholic. Read UncleBeer’s linked thread.
Having “a few blackouts” is nearly diagnostic of alcoholism. So is being so drunk that you cannot find the toilet, and urinate in bottles. So is being unable to remember that you have bottles of stale urine in your room. So is waking up so drunk you cannot distinguish between urine and other fluids. Switching from liquor to beer in an effort to reduce your drinking, or the bad effects of your drinking, is also a very common symptom of alcoholism.
Ken - in all seriousness -
If you do not stop drinking, you will die. And your corpse will be very unattractive to look at, and no one will come to your funeral because you will have offended everyone around you who isn’t drunk by what you did while you were drunk.
Join AA.
Regards,
Shodan
Sorry, Shodan but I must disagree to an extent. The later type of alcoholic blackouts involving lower doses of alcohol and longer periods of memory loss with normal functioning are clearly very strongly associated with alcoholism. But lumping all blackout types together reduces the specificity quite a bit, so that we cannot say that such a loosely-defined occurance as “blackout” is “almost diagnostic” of alcoholism.
Check out the link I posted from Duke. I have some problems with some of the ideas presented, but overall it’s a nice recap, even if it fails to differentiate between the spotty memory loss of “cocktail party” intoxication and the loss of hours or days with more severe drinking problems.
Tho I do think the OP’s described symptoms are indicative of a more severe neurotoxicity.
I’m assuming you’re drinking to enjoy life more. Not being able to remember it, or dying and shortening it, aren’t compatible with that idea. Talk to someone from AA.
I dated and lived with a sober alcoholic, and yes, life without blackouts and booze is a lot more fun. If your friends can’t have fun without lotsa alcohol, who needs mortal enemies?
Unlike sober people who will, in fact, live forever.
Just the same, if you experiencing blackouts, you may be unable to casually enjoy the sweeeet sweeeet taste of alchohol like the rest of us.
I agree that you must stop, but can people please stop screaming goto AA. It isn’t for everyone, I hated it with a passion. There are alternatives, ask your Doctor about them. People in AA do NOT know everything. It suits a huge amount of people but there are other options out there. Just my experience.
Merrin
No, AA is not for everyone, but since it is the treatment method with the longest track record, it makes sense to try it first. There is absolutely nothing to lose by trying it; AA costs nothing and incurs no obligation to continue going to meetings.