blacked out drunk?

[mustang17]

Well, first let me say that I'm 22 years old. I drink alot, hell, I'm young and just finshed school. I'm used to drinking 6 nights a week. I 'm down to three. I have held my current job for nearly a year. I don't feel I have a problem with drinking. I make it to work everyday and NEVER crave booze. In fact, it makes me sick to think about sometimes. Is it a proublem that I blackout alot? It seems every time I go out I get so drunk I just don't remember a thing. I hope this is just a phase, not a common theme. I'm starting to feel bad because I'll be with the woman I love and not recall a thing from the night. Sometimes I'll wake up and have no clue what happened. I have to ask her what happened the night before. Needless to say, it makes things harder for us. (very pissed off woman, even when I say nice things)

Is this a sign of things to come? Does every hard drinker have this problem and get over it? Many of my friends have this problem, I thought it was kinda normal. I know I have to curtail my drinking a bit, but am I in trouble?

I hope I outgrow drinking to excess, but I'm afraid college may have been my downfall.

Please offer hope.

[silverv6]

I hate to say this but it sounds like you got a drinkin problem

try to not drink for at least 2-3 weeks and see if you have the same problems and if you still do you problably need to see a doctor about it

[Crazy Horse GT]

Man I hate to have to tell you this but: YOU HAVE A DRINKING PROBLEM.

Sorry about the caps but I went down the same road.I didn't drink until I joined the Navy, then I made up for it. I used to drink almost a gallon of Jim Beam per day!

Yes , I did my work on the ship. I had blackouts all the time. I knew if I woke up on the ship I was in trouble. If I woke up in my apartment, somebody carried me there. It took me a few years & alcohol rehab to stop.

I won't lie - I slip every now and then- New Year's Eve etc. but I just drink beer when I do. It's no better, but the hard stuff makes me sick to smell it. My advice is too seek help. I can't tell you are a alcoholic - you have to decide that yourself - but believe me, when you get into your 40's you'll feel it bad in your body.

Just my .02 worth I'm trying to help...not get on your case, O.K.?

Take care & Good Luck to you

[TXinPA]

I used to drink alot when I was in college, it didn't help that I dated an alcoholic. I finally decided it had to stop when I started loosing my memory. I could read a paragraph out of the newspaper, and not remember what it was about, almost like I wasn't comprehending it. It isn't something you outgrow. You have to realize you are missing out on many good things in life by staying messed up all the time, even when you are "sober". You need to stop before you get in ever deeper. See a doctor, go to those meetings, etc. I'm sure you can find a website on the net somewhere that will give more information.

NOTHING GOOD EVER CAME FROM BEING DRUNK!!!

Time to give it up!!

[69fastback]

I hade tons of balckouts when i was in korea.
when i used to drink Soju all the time i couldn't remember a dang thing the next day. U do drink to much though. I keep it to once a week myself. Just pick friday or saturday and go aout and have a good time and leave it at that.

[srv1]

hey 17. i used to havee blackouts too! its normal, but it is caused by drinking too much!!! cut it down to Friday ans Saturday nights to drink only. you may still black out, but at least your liver will be a little forgiving. as for the women thing, CUT DOWN YOUR DRINKING!!! just go out and get a buzz going, dont get plastered off your asz so you cant remember anything!! what good is it if you bring a hottie to your place and cant remember what you did AT ALL last night with her? you mentally want to be there on that part, dont you? so cut your drinking down, and dont get so plasterd. you will find out that just getting a nice buzz and having fun it more worth it overall. trust me on this one.......

[GONZO99TA]

sounds like you are at the beginning of a problem. i used to drink alot when i was younger(who didn't?). the problem is why do you feel that you need to drink till you black out? why not test yourself and next time you go out only have a few (3-5 drinks) then call it quits for the night. if you can't control yourself then you may want to seek profesional help. these days i have no more than 5 drinks in a night out. don't see the point of getting sloppy drunk anymore, there are better ways to have fun.

[joe4speed]

If you drink so much that you black out, then yes, you should cut back. You don't want to become one of the people I see in my bar EVERY night, and at the rate you seem to be going you will be. These guys are right, just cut back, it takes a conscious (sp?) decision to quit or slow down. Good luck to you, and I hope you fix it before it's too late!

[Fox Body]

Why drink at all??

*shakes head in disappointment* *sigh*

[Mr 5 0]

mustang17:

What's happening to you is this: Alcohol disrupts information processing in a variety of brain regions, including the hippocampus, a structure known to play a central role in event memory formation. Briefly; You're losing short-term memory function.

Not directly life-threatening but not good. Alcohol is the cause of it, as you realized.

Stop drinking and the blackouts should go away. The memories you've lost are gone forever.

I would rather - as the vodka ad says-
'Make it a night you won't forget, not one you can't remember'.

Seriously, you need to stop drinking. How? Will power and the motivation only you can provide. Self-control is mostly all mental. Not easy, of course (that's why they have all those programs) but quite possible, especially while you're still young and haven't destroyed your body or your life.

Do it.
Nothing you get from drinking and being high is worth the price you'll soon pay in physical and emotional damage. Your girlfriend problems are just the beginning. It will get progressivly worse and as it does, you'll move from your present state of intelligent concern into denial that you have any 'problem' at all. It's mostly downhill from there. Even if you can maintain a job and a outwardly normal life you'll spend a lot of time hiding your drinking and you'll have emotional and personal problems that get worse as time goes by. It's a nightmare you don't want to buy into, for any reason.

Drinking is a decision we make. Make the decision to push past whatever motivates your heavy drinking and taper it off, at the least. You can get out of this but not if you dither and stall and make excuses. The very fact that you posted this message is a very good sign.
You know you're in trouble and want to get out of it. Do it. Being almost constantly high isn't macho, kewl or manly, just destructive.

Along with the others on the thread, I applaud your courage in seeking answers and some help. Now take the next step and act on what you know you need to do. Certainly not for us but for yourself, while you can do it without years of therapy and dealing with physical damage heavy drinking causes.

We all wish you well.

[mustang17]

Thank you all for your thoughts. I need to make some choices in my life. I don't want things to get out of hand. Drinking to escape some of my problems in life doesn't work. I know this. I hate to say it, but I don't think I can just quit "cold turkey." I think I'm going to try going out and just drinking a few beers. It's the shots and hard booze that kill me. And I'm only going to drink on the weekend, no more of this after work crap. If I still have the problem with blacking out, or can't just have a few beers when I go out, then I will quit.

Do you think that would be a good course of action to start with? I don't know if I can just quit.

I sure as hell can't live my life like this......

Again, thank you all.

[Crazy Horse GT]

it sound's like you are figuring it out own your own-good step ,as a matter of fact it's the first step,good luck man i wish you all the best on this problem ,take care,if you want to talk about it e- mail me i work 2nd shift ,but i will answer or help anyway i can ,take care,marty.

[Mustangbelle306]

I hear yah about the college part.

I am one of the few that never believed drinking to the point of vomiting/blackout was "part of the college experience" but I see people all around me ruin their lives during the "best time of their life". Bunch of total losers wasting their parent's hard earned money on weekly keggers...

Hope you can overcome what many college students...AKA America's Future (God help us all)..probably will not. Good luck.

[Ponycar_302]

Yep, I was the same way when I was younger. I was in the army stationed in Germany. I didn't drink until I blacked out, but I spent my paycheck on booze. Anyway, I realized I had a problem (or at least the start of one). It sounds hokey, but to stop I just spent my extra money (I always paid my bills first) on anything of interest. Sink your extra cash into your Stang. Before you know it you'll have a faster car, a happy girlfriend, and a kicked habit.

[Tony Frank]

dude i just got a DUI not too long ago, and i was forced to go to AA meetings by the court. i learned some crazy ****. just dont drink so fast at first. one an hour it will give your body time to get rid of most of the alochol. you will be fine

[1BAD89]

Drinking is stupid, just answer me this, Why? The point is.....? Every now and then at a "party" is ok, I suppose? But your just asking for death and problems if you continue on with 6 days a week of hardcore drinking. If you take no-one's advice off this board, please remember this, in all seriousness, DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE.

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

this is a touchy subject........if your having -problems- with remembering,then chances are you have a drinking -problem-
drinking problems are far from the stereo typical wino on the street corner ,in reality it only means that your having problems becouse of drinking .......your having problem

when you black out ,it's sorta like what mr 5.0 said......except you are alot closer to health problems and even -death-.....when your blood alcohal level reaches a certian point ,parts of your brain start shuting down,your memorie is the beginning stages of your brain being damaged and shuting down ........the later stages of this are alcohal poisoning and death .......please...take this seriosly and make some changes to your drinking habits .....if you don't you have a pretty good chance of waking up dead!!!....

i say this becouse it's a fact .....not just my opinion.....i've had friends die from alcohal and becouse they were drinking in a simular way to what you descibed.........i just attended a funaral a week ago ,he was an old friend that was making his way to mardi gras.........on the way he died..... lost one friend becouse he chocked on his vomit ,i lost another friend caus he passed out with a cigerette and was to out of it to wake up when he set his house on fire

i've done alot of drugs and alot of drinking in my life (and i mean alot),when i was around 23,24 y old i started seeing it causing problems i decided to cut back on it ,for the next couple of years i went on and off with drinking heavy and lightly..........my drinking was still causing problems.......the problems didn't stop till i quit -cold turkey- and got proffesional help........i didn't drink a drop for allmost a year and had to stop the drugs all together.......i'm definatly a better person for it........i still drink now and then but in moderation and not on a regular basis and i havent done any drugs in allmost three years.......every body's different and some have to stop for the rest of there live's ,in order to stop the problems ..........
for me i love drinking and partying but i know where it leads me.....stoping the direction i was going was definatly a good thing for me........i don't have to deal with hangovers,i have more money for stuff(mustang parts too).......and i don't wake up in jail near as much now .........i'm pretty lucky that i made that decision.....i truly believe i'd be dead if i didn't .......every time i hear of a friend dying i realize how that i'm actually pretty lucky that i didn't die in my partying years

well i hope my experience will help you with your decicions......everybody's diferent so only you can decide what road you want to take ,my seggestion is if you can't cut back to only a few drinks a sitting ,then get some help from others who faced the same thing ........you can find an aa meeting in every town almost every night,(look in the phone book to find where and when)......if your wondering if you have a problem with drinking ,aa would be a good place to talk to some peaple that have had some problems and some experience with helping others answer that same question

james

[blue00gt]

I go out almost every weekend myself and generally do some drinking with friends. I know it's hard to do, but like someone else mentioned, don't drink so fast. It is putting down the hard stuff in a hurry that overloads your body and causes you to blackout.
Think about it. You probably drink because you like the way it feels. If you have a few and are feeling good, why drink more? Once you have a few, just pace yourself and 1 an hour will maintain your enjoyable state without putting you over the top. Unlike horsepower, more is not always good.

[7up]

This is amazing, I would have never thought I would learn so much from a mustang message board. I acted the same way in college and still do sometimes, but I used to think it was cool when I could drink 24 shots of McKormicks Vodka in one night and not get sick or blacking out. Or when I went to Mexico for spring break and drank everynight until I couldn't drink anymore. I really didn't think it was a big deal until I stopped drinking so much and realized how different I was when I just got moderatley drunk a few times a week. Which is still too much.

JUst this weekend my friend passed out behind a bar for an hour while we waiting on the sidewalk for a cab. He was puking his guts out the whole time, finally the cab comes. We have to stop three times for him to puke and its a ten block ride. Then we get to his place and he passes out on his parents nieghbors yard(we are both 23, it is sad he is living with his parents). I ask for his keys to get him in his house and he gives me his chapstick(I'm suprised he even heard me). The next day he couldn't remember anything that happened after we left the bar. The problem with blacking out is never know how much of an a** you made of yourself the night before.

[mustang17]

I must say, most everyone has been helpful and supportive. It's comforting, in a way, to know I'm not the only one with this problem. I'm glad that some of you have had this problem and were able to overcome it. I believe I can do the same.

For those of you who have said "why drink at all". To that I must answer, I don't know. Everyone has there reasons.

I know I need to pace myself more and if I can't do that I have to quit.

Since I wrote my original post I haven't had a sip of anything. I wanted to try and test myself to see how much I rely on booze in my life. The good news is that I think I could go quite some time w/o a drink. I want to see what happens when I get bogged down with work, hopefully I can stay strong.

I can't tell you all how much help you've been. It's good to get some different opinions or the topic.

Thank you for all your replys and suggestions.

-Eric