chicory

I am wondering if you pass through a blackout before you pass out.
Is it different from being so drunk you pass out? I am reading that it is something different, am I correct?

thanks,
chicory

bubblehead

Blackout usually means you drank to the point you dont remember a certain timeframe or what you did or said.

mwstylee

Black out does not equal pass out. I treat passing out like drinking to exhaustion...just falling asleep.

Blacking out happens when I drink to the point that I become unconscious and something takes over and I am still awake and often do stupid things. I really don't know how to explain it because I don't know how it happens and how it works. It's like sleep walking.

There's been a few black outs where I actually go out to my car and drive to the store and back. Of course you're blacked out so you have no idea it happened, but waking up and seeing my own car parked weird, keys still in the ignition, front door wide open, that leads me to believe I did all that. It is dangerous and stupid.

suki44883

I'm sure you've seen stories around here from people who have said they don't remember how they got home, or that they found out they called a bunch of people on the phone but have no memory of it at all. That is a blackout. You are still conscious, still aware of what you are doing while you are doing it, but when you wake up, the memories are gone, or sometimes you just remember little snippets of what happened. It's really very, very scary.

chicory

That sounds terrifying. I was wondering if people went through blackouts to get to passing out. But I see the difference now. How frightening that must be. I would imagine a lot of people lose their lives when they get to that point.
does it happen more often with a certain type of alcohol, like hard liquors?

just curious about this. I think i saw my son like that one time. and it makes sense of why he does not remember doing or saying certain things. maybe that is denial, or simply a thing that happens when you drink a lot, even tho not in a blackout?

suki44883

Oops. Double post.

suki44883

The night I got my DUI, I drank to blackout. I don't remember leaving the bar or driving home. I do remember the loud CRASH when I hit a parked car because I fell asleep, or passed out. I only remember snippets of doing the field sobriety test, being arrested, being given a pair of throw away slippers to wear and being led to a cell. That's all I can remember of the incident after a little over 4 years.

newby1961

Me to suki. I was at a bar shooting pool and drinking many, many, shots . I remember getting off the bar stool, saying good night, and then the next thing I remember is backing off the pole I had hit. I was going to my friends who lived right around the corner from the bar. Somehow I missed the corner and took a right to early and hit a pole head on. A 7-11 store clerk called the cops and off to jail I went. I remember some of getting arrested as I sang the alphabet.

The next morning they showed me a tape of my arrest and OMG I saw what they truly meant when they talk about Dr Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.

So I would say a blackout is like functioning in comma like behavior. Our brain is poisoned so much by the amount of alcohol that it is truly pickled.

suki44883

I never saw the tape of my arrest. My attorney said it was pretty bad. I was just a couple points away from them taking me to the hospital; I do remember an officer at the jail telling me that. I was very, very drunk.

Justfor1

Blackouts usually get more progressive and frequent. The worst blackout I had was a period of about a whole day. In that time I had lost my wallet, been ticketed for drinking on the subway, public urination and had blood on my shirt. I finally started sobering up in the hospital. It was scary and sobered me up for about 2 months and then I was back at it.

NoelleR

OK-----

What is a blackout? Here, I'll presume we're talking about alcoholic blackouts. Let me first say what blackouts are NOT.......

Blackouts are NOT Passed out; they are NOT being unconscious; they are NOT (like) sleepwalking; a blackout is NOT that the memories are gone.

Blackouts are time frames (or passages of time), through too much alcohol in too short a time, that the memories are NOT formed; they don't return, no matter how much we may wish for them to (or not, perhaps); they can't return because there are no memories to return; they never formed.

Some alcoholics progress to lots of blackout period. However, blackouts are not just for alcoholics. They occur far more often than most folks realize. Many folks in colleges have blackouts (lots of binge drinking and 'fast' drinking games). Yes, some of these folks will grow up to be full blown alcoholics in the future, but many will quit the 'college type mentality' drinking and just be normal, social, non-alcoholic drinkers.

Again, just remember.....if a person has a blackout, it's just a time when memories weren't formed; they don't remember because there are no memories to remember.


(o:
NoelleR

Aegian

A blackout is when the recorder in the brain stops recording. The body isn't on pause though - it just keeps on going (and drinking, and posting on Facebook, and making phone calls and even driving), but the internal mechanism to record those activities for later replay isn't engaged, so no copy/tape exists for later replay.

There is no way of telling when another person is in blackout mode as it isn't the same as overwhelmingly drunk in all instances. It isn't until the next morning when they find they accomplished task/item x, y and z - but have no memory of doing it.

chicory

this is all very sad, because of how dangerous and damaging it must be to the brain, body, and others.
I have read here that many "progressed" to black outs. I guess that means that they progressed to drinking deadly amounts of alcohol. Or is it something that comes also with repeatedly drinking extreme amounts? does the brain become more apt to go into blackout mode the longer the person is a heavy drinking alcoholic?
hope I am not being pesky, but this is interesting, although very sad. I really hate alcohol and what it has done to my family.

suki44883

I don't know all the scientific stuff about it, but I do know what I experienced. From what I understand from having read here, the longer one drinks, the quicker the blackouts come. I've read several accounts here that people find they get drunk faster now than they used to, so I guess the brain is kind of like a sponge. Once it's saturated, it just can't absorb anymore, and over time, the amount it takes to reach saturation is less and less.

chicory

Thanks everyone. I am glad that you survived that, and are here in recovery-hugs!

midgetcop

I can only speak for my own experiences, but towards the end of my drinking I found that I was having more frequent blackouts, despite the fact that the amount I drank was fairly consistent. I assume it was an issue of reverse-tolerance.

joeclayvowell

sometimes I will remember things right before I pass out but after I black out, I think this is what you mean? I get so drunk I dont remember much, but then I remember some right before I pass out.... if that makes sense....

Nevertheless

I was drinking around a 12 pack of beer a day. I drank at least that much for 30 years. I probably had my first blackout around age 18.The last 10 years blackouts were very common for me. (although I had gobs of them before that). But for me it usually wasn't a big spectacle. I simply didn't remember doing things,although a lot of people wouldn't notice anything. Except my breath would knock you over.
Most people from time to time can't remember what they had for lunch yesterday. It is a lot like that on a far bigger scale. But just because you don't remember what you did doesn't mean you did anything wrong (except get drunk). Of course odds are, sooner or later in this state of mind you WILL do something you deeply regret.
Fred

Bikeguy

I blacked out all the time my last couple years of drinking, in fact it was common for me to wake up and not remember anything from the evening before. Conversations with my wife, kids, movies watched, how much I drank....I had no idea the next day. I'm at 9+ months sober now and it's so wonderful to wake up in the morning with full recollection of my previous day and night, I'm never going to live like that again.