Put simply, what causes alcohol blackouts is directly related to how much you drink in a specific period of time. That is to say, anybody who drinks large quantities within a short span is likely to experience a mild to severe blackout.
If you are experiencing alcohol blackouts, you may have some form of an alcohol use disorder (AUD). At Crestview Recovery, we seek to provide comprehensive addiction treatment and information that empowers individuals to understand how important recovery is for their wellbeing.
To gain vital insight into understanding what causes alcohol blackouts and what that means for your health and state of addiction, keep reading.
What is an Alcoholic Blackout?
Blacking out refers to a period or periods of memory lapses caused by excessive drinking or binge drinking. These intoxicated “blackouts” induce forgetfulness of conversations, activities, and behaviors during and after an evening or session of drinking.
What Causes Alcohol Blackouts?
Think of your brain as a computer processor. Like a computer, your memory is processed in one area and sent to another area of the brain to be permanently stored and remembered. Neurons are the vehicle that sends your processed memory to the “permanently stored” region of your brain.
Alcohol consumption interferes with this memory transmission process and, depending on severity, causes different degrees of alcohol-related memory loss. These degrees vary from short-term to long-term memory retention processes. Therefore, what causes alcohol blackouts is alcohol’s effect on memory.
What are the Two Levels of Alcohol Blackouts?
As mentioned, blackout severity depends on individual tolerance, BAC level, and other time-to-consumption variables. Bearing that in mind, here are the two main levels of blackout severity.
Full Blackout
A full blackout means one’s memory of all behavior, conversations, and activities cannot be recalled until the body’s blood alcohol level normalizes. What causes alcohol blackouts this severe is that your mind is so alcoholically-inhibited, your brain is incapable of retaining memory. The only way then for the brain to recuperate is to sleep and go an extended time without drinking.
Partial Blackout
A partial blackout when drinking or partial memory loss occurs when you consume alcohol beyond what your body is used to. However, a partial blackout does not inhibit your body’s memory enough to forget long periods, behaviors, and activities. With partial blackouts, forgotten behaviors and conversations are usually remembered when triggered by other recollections. Most other memories will gradually return as BAC levels normalize.
What Factors Influence Blackouts When Drinking?
There are a variety of factors that contribute to your risk of having a blackout and how severe the blackout can be. It’s usually a combination of more than one reason. What causes alcohol blackouts is determined by one or more of the following contributing factors.
Adolescent and young adult drinkers are much more susceptible to blacking out than more experienced or middle-aged drinkers. Further studies also imply senior drinkers over 65 may also be susceptible to severe blackouts when drinking too much. Bear in mind, regardless of which age group you fall under, everybody who binge drinks is at risk of blacking out.
The heavier you are, the easier alcohol is absorbed by lipid cells in your body, thus reducing the likelihood of blackouts. What causes alcohol blackouts to be more severe in lighter-weighted individuals is the fact that they have fewer fat cells to absorb their intake. Therefore, lighter-weighted alcohol consumers are at a high risk of a drink-induced blackout.
People with a low alcohol tolerance feel the effects of drinking harder and quicker. This puts low-tolerance drinkers at a severely high risk of experiencing a blackout. Most dangerously, that also means drinkers with a low tolerance are more susceptible to severe blackouts.
Combining Drugs and alcohol is dangerous for many reasons, including exacerbating the effects of both to blackout-level proportions. Most dangerously, mixing alcohol and substances is a deadly cocktail that can claim your life or claim your life. If you or a loved one have a drinking problem in conjunction with a substance use disorder, seek help now. We have top-notch dual-diagnosis programs that can help anybody achieve long-term sobriety at any phase of recovery.
It takes an average of 10-20 minutes to feel the effects of alcohol consumption, which isn’t a problem for most. However, for some who consume a lot in a small amount of time, that can quickly compound into a potential blackout problem. It is strongly advisable to wait between drinks to avoid dangerous blackout effects.
What causes alcohol blackouts more than anything is harder alcoholic drinks such as scotch, vodka, and other purer forms of alcoholic beverages. Because of their higher alcohol content, it also takes less consumption, especially for individuals with a lower tolerance, to get to blackout levels of intoxication.
What are the Common Signs of an Alcoholic Blackout?
There are telling factors of impending or occurring blackouts to help you help yourself or someone else before it’s too late. If you notice any of the signs to be mentioned, handle the situation with the utmost caution and notify the appropriate professionals at your discretion.
It is normal for individuals to slur their words when under the influence. However, if speech becomes slurred to an indiscernible degree, they may be experiencing or about to experience a blackout. When drinking has reached this point, it is vital to not permit them to drink for the consumer’s safety.
A quick way to know if an individual is experiencing blackout symptoms is to ask a question that requires a mentally recollective response. For example, asking what the date, day, or time is is a good place to start to determine severity. Asking questions to recall specific conversations, memories, or instances also helps you quickly assess whether somebody is experiencing blackout symptoms.
Anybody expressing confusion about their circumstances or conversations is one of the most telling signs of a blackout. People who are experiencing a blackout will often find even simple conversations confusing or difficult to respond to. In addition, they may lose awareness of where they are or how they got there. This can be a frightening blackout symptom that leads to a dangerous and rash response.
What are the Dangers of Alcohol Blackouts?
Blacking out poses several dangers to the drinker and those around them. Here are some specified dangers of alcohol-induced blackouts.
While alcohol alone lowers inhibitions and decision-making, blackouts eliminate your inhibitions completely. The utter inability to process or remember during a blackout puts you completely at the mercy of bad decision-making with zero consequential comprehension. In essence, alcohol is in complete control, while your better inhibitions are simply along for the ride. The decisions made during these times can be the most fatal.
In accordance with inhibitory restrictions, car accidents are much more likely to occur, especially with nobody sober around to keep them accountable. It is advisable if you do drink, to have an accountability partner and designated driver you can trust to help keep you from blackout-level drinking.
As simple as it may seem, a lack of limb coordination can get so severe that causes falls to occur. Falls, especially as a result of excessive drinking and blackouts have been known to cause serious injury including death. Thus the reason it’s best to be in a group that prevents you from drinking too much.
Alcohol poisoning occurs when your body’s blood-alcohol content (BAC) has reached a dangerously high level of over .30. This occurs when you drink too much alcohol for your body to process. These high alcohol levels in your bloodstream suppress your vital functions considerably. For example, alcohol’s effects on the central nervous system can suppress your lung functions to the point where you stop breathing. Other vital organs like the heart, can cease to function due to alcohol-induced cardiovascular distress and suppression.
How Can You Prevent Alcohol-Induced Blackouts?
If you do drink, it’s vital to exhibit safe drinking habits. Here are a few key safe drinking habits to help you prevent alcohol-induced blackouts.
It’s vital to have a stronger, reliable friend by your side if you decide to drink. Most importantly, someone you will listen to and trust when you go out. This will help you monitor your intake and have a ride home when necessary. Your accountability partner should preferably be somebody who does not plan on drinking much, if at all.
People who have a drinking problem have little or no control over their intake. This means they have little control over blackouts, putting themselves at risk of blacking out with each drinking session. If this describes you or someone you know and love, seek professional help today. Our caring team of professionals is eagerly awaiting your call.
Preventing blackouts ultimately comes down to you knowing and adhering to your body’s limitations regarding alcohol intake. If you can only have a couple of drinks before you become intoxicated, that is a good point to stop drinking. This is the most obvious, yet most important key to adhere to to prevent any blackout.
Alcohol Addiction Treatment at Crestview Recovery In Portland
If you are wondering what causes alcohol blackouts, it may be because you or someone close to you is experiencing them. When drinking begins to affect your overall health, it is more than likely that an alcohol use disorder is present, requiring alcohol addiction treatment to end the cycle of substance abuse.
At Crestview Recovery, we pride ourselves in providing Portland residents with personalized treatment programs for their struggles with alcohol addiction.
Whether it’s residential care, PHP, sober living, telehealth, individual, or family treatment, there’s a treatment program that will suit your needs. Our admissions specialists can walk you through the admissions process and answer any questions you have about our addiction treatment programs. Feel the comfort and relief of gaining long-term sobriety by reaching out to Crestview Recovery today.
Since 2016, Dr. Merle Williamson, a graduate of Oregon Health Sciences University, has been the Medical Director at Crestview Recovery, bringing a rich background in addiction medicine from his time at Hazelden Treatment Center. He oversees outpatient drug and alcohol treatments, providing medical care, setting policies, detox protocols, and quality assurance measures. Before specializing in addiction medicine, he spent 25 years in anesthesiology, serving as Chair of Hospital Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and Chief of Anesthesia at Kaiser Permanente. This experience gives him a unique perspective on treating prescription drug addiction.
