Blackouts, or, Highlighting in Pink
- An alcohol-induced blackout is a period of amnesia in which the intoxicated brain cannot form memories. It’s as if the brain’s ability to transfer memories from short to long term storage is blocked.
- The sort of amnesia blacking out causes is anterograde amnesia, in which events occurring after the amnesia are forgotten, as opposed to retrograde amnesia, in which events prior to that which caused the amnesia are forgotten.
- While blacked out, a person engages in behaviors (walking, talking, etc.) as they normally would.
- There are two types of blackouts: en bloc blackouts and fragmentary blackouts.
- Blackouts en bloc are when the drinker cannot remember any details of the period in which they were intoxicated despite anyone’s best efforts to remind them.
- These types of blackouts usually seem to have a “distinct onset,” though the drinker usually falls asleep before they are over.
- Though the person in this type of blackout can carry on conversation and recall things that happened a short, short while ago, he or she will not be able to remember something that happened, say, 2 minutes ago.
- Blackouts that are fragmentary leave the drinker with a spotty recollection of the previous night’s events.
- People that experience this type of blackout remember things here and there but do not know pieces of their memory are missing until someone reminds them. The person can usually vaguely remember at least some of the events after being reminded and thinking about it for a bit.
- The latter form of blacking out is by far the more common.
- During a blackout, there is no loss of consciousness, as there is when one is passed out.
- Blacking out is not necessarily associated with a high level of intoxication. One may appear only moderately intoxicated, though the next day he or she will have no recollection of the previous night’s events.
- Instead, blacking out is related to a rapid increase in one’s blood alcohol concentration.
Why are some people more prone than others - genetic predisposition? drinking on an empty stomach? being 2 fast 2 furious? prenatal exposure to alcohol? The world may never know, but one thing can be certain
