Being "blackout" drunk

charlie_p · 2015-11-11T18:22:15+00:00

It's very real. It is terrifying to wake up the next morning and have no recollection of what happened after a certain point, how you got home, etc. My last blackout was bad enough that I had to really think about who I was as a person and why I was getting that drunk so frequently. If it's happening to you regularly you need to quit drinking. One of the best decisions I ever made, no joke. Hope this helps someone.

Apexk9 · 2015-11-11T17:52:50+00:00

Yes. My night is remembered in flashes of awareness. One moment I'm drinking champagne 4...3...2...1 then I'm dancing with some chick and making out in a different room... now I'm sitting with 5 women... bouncer asks me if I'm ok obv the standard wasted answer comes out as I flail my arm... 2 bouncers carrying me down a flight of stairs.... being left on a curb... some dude trying to rob me... calling my friends to let em know I got kicked... us all getting street meat... and the yaking on the way home.

So my blackout drunk still gave me fragments of memories.

NiftyDolphin · 2015-11-11T17:58:17+00:00

Is it a myth/convenient excuse for fucking the wrong people or what?

Not a myth. I've done it a few times in my life.

Because if it was possible to lose consciousness while still functioning normally, that would have huge philosophical implications on the notions of free will, responsibility, agency and such.

Nope, we're all machines. Someone on ELI5 explained it once. IIRC, the hippocampus is the brain's DVR. You experience things, it goes to the DVR and then whatever shit is "important" enough gets stored as memory.

Drinking too much will impair the hippocampus' functions. So basically you've turned your DVR off. The TV(your consciousness) is still "on," it's just that nothing is being recorded.

O_Son · 2015-11-11T19:22:48+00:00

I've been blackout drunk a few times and I've also spent far too much of my life investigating human consciousness, over the last several hundred years consciousness has been defined in various, sometimes contradictory, ways; I consider human consciousness to be introspectable mindspace, where the brain generates a map of the world around the individual and also the individual's body itself. This allows the person to consciously manipulate the body within the mind and make a decision as to the best possible behavior in a situation without physically acting since in most situations in life only one action can be performed in time- there are no "redos" so to speak.

As I see it, there are several issues with being blackout drunk and if it has important implications on the notion of free will, I think the main issue is "was I there?" As in was my consciousness still able to direct my behavior when I was blackout drunk? Because it may have been but my ability to remember my decisions may have just been temporarily destroyed by the alcohol on the memory centers of the brain. Also since alcohol decreases inhibition, my free will may have just been operating at a very uninhibited level, and since my memory is severely damaged for that period of time any opinion that I have after the fact could've just been my conscious mind making it up afterwards.

The most recent time I got blackout drunk I was at a music festival for the weekend and it was unusually cold even for this time of year and it was my first time going to anything like this so I was uncomfortable so I went overboard. I talked to my friends the next day and they knew that I'd been drinking but they couldn't tell I was blackout drunk even though they hadn't been drinking much, they said I had said one thing that was slightly racist and that we had later talked for over an hour in my friend's car and he had no idea that I was still drunk at that point. I have no recollection of either of these things, but I also can't say that it wasn't me who was there as I have no evidence of not being there and my friends thought I was there.

So in the end I think a part of my conscious mind was there, but how much of it would be very difficult to say. I would say that it's somewhat like waking up groggy from not getting enough sleep, but the decreased inhibition makes it much more likely for the person to do something without thinking about possible long-term consequences. I find blacking out to be one of the most disconcerting things that have ever happened to me, and I've only done it about once every other year when I make poor decisions for some reason aha.

AmlanceJockey · 2015-11-11T17:10:51+00:00

I always understood blacking to be the same as being drunk, just the next day you have memory holes.

favours_of_the_moon · 2015-11-11T17:28:31+00:00

I normally experienced that the first two weeks of college every year.

I'd be going to class and people who I did not recognize would be high fiving me like DUUUUUDE! lol

Rayjaysdick · 2015-11-11T20:27:23+00:00

Yea I used to do that. My ex would regale me with stories of the night before...and I couldn't believe I had done that shit lol

TRPTheRedLion · 2015-11-11T20:45:28+00:00

I've blacked out. I've passed out. I've did it all. I went through a divorce and got laid off, so I turned to drinking. I became a shell. I gained 100 pounds. Depressed. Became a drunken beta shitbag. I use to think drinking like that was "manly." I was being a man by getting shitfaced.

No more. I stopped drinking. I'm losing weight. It's more manly and RP to be in control of your actions rather than letting that kind of shit control you. Blacking out is a very scary place.

kabylewolf · 2015-11-11T17:26:10+00:00

I've been blackout drunk once.

You literally just don't recall. There are parts of the events that just aren't there but your mind makes the connection anyway with those gaps so you don't even think you're missing anything. Until people fill you in. It's really weird.

As for being in control. Some people lose total impulse control when drunk, it'll get worse when blackout drunk obviously. I don't really get that no matter how much I drink, I just get sloppy.

All depends on the person.

[deleted] · 2015-11-11T17:48:38+00:00

It happens sometimes. Last time it happened to me was last summer. I remember some things from that night but the memories go in and out. Like, for example, I remember being in the alley with my friend, pissing and talking about how fun middle school was. Then I remember him and I being in a car with these two girls, then I remember a guy pulling out a gun on us. I have no idea what happened between all that shit but we must've done something real stupid.

Nojuiceiswearbro · 2015-11-11T18:11:39+00:00

Yes once, never again.

TRP7203 · 2015-11-11T18:35:03+00:00

I've had this around 3 or 4 times since I started college.

kutluk · 2015-11-11T18:37:30+00:00

i didnt ever have that black-out either (or if so, i will fill you in)

i never had a strong memory. unless it's a thing that i would really care about, it will take seconds for me to forget about it. my average memory operates like this and when i'm drunk, my mind decides what's important and what's not totally randomly. i can remember how many beers did my friend and his gf drank (which i would not ever look for specifically), but i'd have to listen to call recordings about the things i mentioned to my brother on the phone (luckily, i usually record my calls when i'm drunk. sometimes a life saving habbit that is).

i've never experienced black out drunk, i would want to though. no matter how much i tried earlier (ev. th. alcohol is expensive around here) i was not succesful. and then i always felt good about being tipsy...

Metalaggeddon · 2015-11-11T18:42:28+00:00

Blacking out is literally losing consciousness. It is not a myth. It's different from just situational memory loss.

I was at one point drunk enough to have rolling blackouts, "drop to the floor, up in ten, active for five, drop to the floor again".

Never ever since. Fuck that noise. Not to mention what I probably did to my liver.

As for metaphysical implications, none worse than lockes psychological continuity theory.

leftajar · 2015-11-11T19:00:26+00:00

No. Never, ever in my life. And I'm a lightweight, for a guy. After reading the rest of the comments, it seems I'm in the minority.

haxjag34 · 2015-11-11T19:23:17+00:00

not a myth, I have witnessed it many times with simple shit like "do you remember cooking that meal at 3am..." and they are shocked because sometimes the last memories they have are hours earlier.

RedPillJax · 2015-11-11T21:34:19+00:00

Oh, oh yeah.

I used to (and sometimes suspect I still do) have a bit of a nasty relationship with the ol' fire water.

Yes, blacking out happens. I've woken up with tattoos I genuinely don't remember. I've gone for dinner with an ex, ordered a third bottle of wine - and then it's curtain call until I wake up in the morning and play dude where's my car followed by how badly did I fuck up last night.

It's not a fun thing to happen. I have a massive alcohol tolerance, but it still happens if I don't pace myself or get too into it from time to time - which is less and less frequently as I come up on thirty.

doctorlw · 2015-11-11T21:46:28+00:00

Blacking out for many people is a loss of memory past a certain point, not a loss of consciousness. Most people black out much more often than they think when drinking, they just won't remember unless they truly acted out and their friends call attention to it the next day or they remained out for a truly impressive amount of time without being sent home and the time simply cannot add up. You do not actually lose consciousness, which would be passing out.

Browning out is where pieces of your memory are gone, but others remain so you have a hazy understanding of how the night went. Still, you understand the logistics of it and can even recall some of the holes in your memory when sparked by some visual or verbal queue. This is far more common than a straight blackout. But, for all intents and purposes, this is the same as blacking out in the sense that your memory was compromised.

Not sure how you can get through college without this happening at least once, but I've blacked/browned out more times that I can count. I did not notice most of them until I got good at recognizing the signs. Most people I've met have blacked out at some point in their lives, and the vast majority many times. In places like the Midwest, most people would probably view you as a social pariah if you had openly admitted to never being intoxicated to the point of blacking out.

In order to recognize someone who is blacked out, or figure out you may have been the night before requires you to have seen people in that position before, to have been in that position before, or for others to tell you for you to recognize that it happened to you. Most people confabulate and have trouble believing that their version of events isn't correct, even when multiple people tell them or video evidence is provided... it's human nature. That's why so many people in this thread are thinking it just happened to them once. Trust me, it's unlikely it's that few of times unless you have never gone to a college frat party, 21'st birthday, New Years Eve, St. Patrick's Day, Black Wednesday, Indy 500, Kentucky Derby, or football/rugby tailgate type scenario in your life where this is par for the course. Your eyes will go wide if you start carrying around a digital camera with you and get yourself in the habit of taking photos drunk.

And you can absolutely get to a point of blacking out where no one else knows any better. I know from experience. For a decent amount of people, alcohol doesn't have such a great impact on cerebellar function as it does on others... so the prominent visual queues people pick up on like wobbly gait, poor balance, or slurred speech are not present. This also means they can reach a point where memory begins to be affected even though they still look normal to an outside observer. Obviously, this type of person is more likely to actually blackout for a period of time that would be noticeable than someone who starts acting a fool right away and gets sent home by their friends / kicked out of the bar before they can do any real damage. This person probably still blacked out, but instead of missing 3 hours of time they can't account for... they only forgot the 20 minutes of ordering pizza or eating chips on the couch before passing out fully clothed.

All this speaking as someone who was in a frat, used to love drinking, etc. But I'm older now... not to mention it's too expensive and hangovers don't mix well with my career.

fnordsnord · 2015-11-11T22:54:43+00:00

Twice. But I didn't suffer the tragedy a bro of mine did.

He was at an SF convention and Miss California for that year was liquored up and stuffed his face in her cleavage.

He doesn't remember and there were no pictures. If there hadn't been witnesses, he would never have know it happened.

He never EVER got that drunk again. If Miss California shoves her tits in your face, you want to be sober enough to remember.

Dred · 2015-11-11T23:38:03+00:00

It's very real and very scary.

GraphicSeniorNudity · 2015-11-12T00:43:04+00:00

In the lamest way possible, yes.

I was drinking alone and playing halo. Pounding back tequila and listening to music on my laptop. The next thing I remember is waking up in my bed at 8am and wondering how I got there.

My xbox had shut itself off, but the TV and computer were still on. I had apparently watched a movie sometime in the night because it was in my recently watched list, but I had no memory of it. I had a bunch of drunken posts and comments to yikyak that I did not remember making, and a message to my at the time oneitis sitting in my drafts folder.

If you've gotta learn that blacking out is really a thing, I guess that's a good way to do it. But it was a wakeup call to get my shit together.

As for why this happens, I've heard that large amounts of alcohol shut down the part of your brain responsible for memory. So you're still conscious and capable of making drunken decisions, but you have no memory of it.

Derive1334 · 2015-11-12T04:54:54+00:00

As a senior year college student that has been in a fraternity since my first semester on campus, I have had many nights which the next morning I have had no recollection of whatsoever. As a freshman it was almost expected of you to become extremely drunk and make stupid decisions. Sophomore you begin to know your limits but continued the blackout train. Junior year is when it really hit me that blacking out was not normal to be experiencing weekly.

I'm quite embarrassed of how much of a drunken stupor I would put myself in just to numb out the surroundings in my social circle, yet it was acceptable within our group. It took a really bad night full of regret followed by waking up the next in a hangover that a 21 year couldn't even recover from in 2 days and an extreme feeling of shame that washed over myself for the next week.

It took me the long/hard way to learn that I was numbing myself to my surroundings by becoming that drunk. I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemy waking up one morning feeling how I did.

[deleted] · 2015-11-11T19:26:28+00:00

I got black out drunk for the first (last) time ever about two weeks. I didn't eat all day then me and my buddy went out drinking. He is 5' 10" 260 (solid retard strength) im 6'2 ish and 185. I tried to match him drink for drink. After the third beer and 1 shot I was DONE. He said I just kept on drinking. The next thing I know, im in bed and the old lady is giving me water(buddy drove. He wasn't drunk).

Anything could have happened. I could have been killed, arrested, killed someone else and had no idea. My life could have changed, that night all because I didn't eat that day ( also becauseI lost 65 lbs in the last 7 months and haven't been drinking since before I lost weight). Personally, i dont think victimless crimes should be punished in that state of mind. You wouldn't hold a complete retard responsible for the most part, would you? That being said, if their is a victim you should be I dept to them ($). This all pertains to when its done on accident not people who drink themselves retarded on purpose.

Title	Being "blackout" drunk
Author	ContreToutChacal
Upvotes	8
Comments	29
Date	November 11, 2015 5:04 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/3sfav5/being_blackout_drunk/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/being-blackout-drunk.156446 https://theredarchive.com/post/156446

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