SoberLife90

You definitely don't have to black out to be an alcoholic. Most importantly an alcoholic like myself cannot start drinking without craving more mentally and physically.

Berrybean

I don't think I had many - just on Gin or wine days really. Cider or whisky were my 'tipples' (haha) of preference, and I don't think I had blackouts so much with them.

The reason I say THINK I didn't, is that my OH has blackouts. It allows him to continue his belief that he's never obnoxious when drunk, and everyone loves him when he's a 'Jolly Drunk Bloke'. When I mention to him things that happened, or that he did or said, he just remains adamant that I'm making them up.

If he lived alone, unless he'd got into big trouble, he wouldn't even know what it was that he'd forgotten. I wouldn't know that he does have blackouts at the end of every drinking night, so he wouldn't even have to deny it if you see what I mean. As it is, he chooses to believe that I'm just 'messing with his head' (and , of course, anyone else that remembers events differently to him is just deluded
*Eyeroll* ).

Soberwolf

You really don't want to suffer a blackout for me it was waking up knowing something really bad happened & you just can't remember it then the avalanche of evidence that comes rolling in starts to make me shake uncontrollably which in turn made me want to run as fast as I can to get a drink to make me feel 'better' again which I used to do each & every time

**** that hurts writing that but that's what blackout drinking was like more like zombie drinking I was lost & I don't wish that on no one

Trust me if you havnt suffered a blackout don't tempt fate with thoughts of it will never happen to me I'm 33 & I never thought I would almost die in a fire because of my drinking

If you would have said SW youl nearly die in a fire when I was 30 I would have laughed at you because like you I never thought it would happen but it did & I really almost died I have burn scars as a reminder of how lucky I am

Best thing you can do is stay sober your no exception alcohol has no bias or discrimination its that real people die

Gottalife

I've never blacked out, that I can remember anyway!, Actually I had a couple of times where I remember making it to bed and going to sleep, then waking up in a black out and doing wierd stuff. Trying to pee in the wardrobe, fell flat on my face and broke my nose, came out of the black out and wondered what the heck was going on.

But 99% of the time I remembered everything. Often I wished I had blacked out.

AnvilheadII

i never drank in the mornings, never drank before or during work. drove drunk a LOT but never got a DUI. got hauled out of a bar once at 16 but not arrested, they just tried to sober me up and took me home. had a boyfriend break up with me once due to my drinking, but he came back the next week.

each of us can find something WE did NOT do while drinking.....but it's the DRINKING that is the problem.....

nomis

Would black out virtually everytime I drank. Awful way to live, not being able to remember your life.

dwtbd

In my 'partying years' (teens to mid twenties, drinking as 'fun and lifestyle ) I'd not remember post 9 pm when all evidence supported being active until the wee hours, coming to in the morning somewhere, anywhere different than my last memory and trying to figure out how I got where I was was 'normal' and sickly humorous .
Mid twenties to late thirties only blacked out once a month or so , but passed out several times a week. The blacking out came back more frequently throughout my forties.
Those episodes stopped for good a couple of years ago , I quit
Quit and stay Quit, best advice I can come up with

dwtbd

wanted to add to the above , that blacking out(or not) has nothing to do with being an indicator of drinking alcoholically . The best advice I can manage still stands , be a Quitter

sobermax

Soberwolf - those words could have come from my mouth. My blackouts always meant I had done something REALLY special.

Never, never going back.

Thanks for the chilling reminder.

tursiops999

Hi secretchord. I had only one true blackout, while drinking scotch when I was 23. After that I drank only wine and didn't have blackouts. I had a "brown-out" I guess, toward the end of my drinking, when I drank way too much at a professional event and my memory of the end of that event is dim, but not missing completely. I quit at 53, a few months after that brown-out, because I knew that alcohol was causing big problems in my life. (I could have ruined my professional career by getting drunk in front of my bosses). I don't think blackouts are required, for me to know I have a problem.