Going out for a drink with our friends or partner and consuming a few too many drinks is something that has happened to more than one of us and on more than one occasion. Alcohol is a very normalized substance in our society but, nevertheless, it can cause a lot of havoc in our body, in the short and long term. One of the effects of excessive drinking is the famous blackouts.
“Why don’t I remember anything when I drink?” is a question that we may have asked ourselves after a season where we have consumed a lot of alcohol. In Psychology-Online, we will explain the possible causes of this phenomenon and what to do to avoid it the next time we drink.
Mental blackouts from drinking alcohol: why do they happen?
Drinking problems usually happen when the alcohol intake has been excessive or drunk too quickly. When the level of alcohol in the blood is very high and increases rapidly, it is responsible for numb the part of the brain responsible for generating memories, neurons located in the hippocampus stop functioning properly until blood alcohol levels begin to drop sufficiently. We can affirm that it is not that we do not remember anything when we drink, it is that We do not generate memories.
Drinking alcohol and not remembering anything is dangerous, that is because, although a part of the brain is asleep, our mind and body continue to function in some way. We behave differently, aggressively and we can even get into trouble without remembering the next day. This type of alcoholic amnesia is not something to be taken lightly, we can lose control of our actions and then not remember anything.
For avoid this phenomenon The next time we want to go out for a drink, we should eat well before drinking, drink slowly and in moderation. There are several studies that also state that we are less likely to have blackouts if we drink beer instead of hard liquor.
Types of mental lapses
There are two types of memory loss and these usually depend on the degree of drunkness we had the night before:
- Partial or fragmentary gaps: These are the most common memory losses, these resemble small gaps in memories from the previous night. For example, we may not remember a specific song playing or talking to an unknown girl in line for the bathroom.
- Total gaps: also known as blackout, these gaps are the most dangerous since they eliminate large parts of the night altogether, as if certain hours had never existed. The more alcohol you drink, the more difficult it will be for the hippocampus to generate memories, so a total blackout is usually a sign of extremely high intake.
It is interesting to note that, no matter how accustomed we are to drinking, we can generate tolerance at many levels, but we cannot make the hippocampus (the area intended to generate memories) generate tolerance to alcohol.
How to recover your memory after a drunk
The first step after waking up after a night of partying is to stay calm. We may ask ourselves things like “what happened last night?” ““Why don’t I remember anything when I drink?”. They may also appear and be very worried about what we did the night before. What’s done is done and losing your temper is not a good solution, the next time we go out we should take that unpleasant feeling into account to avoid drinking too much alcohol.
Remembering a drunken night is not easy and is usually not completely achieved, however we can do some exercises to recover the memory or, if not, to have brief flashes of the previous night:
- Talk to your friends that were there. Maybe they didn’t drink as much either, they remember better and can explain to you in more detail what you did last night.
- Check your mobile phone, see who you called or if you sent a specific message that could give you some clues.
- Ask your friends if they did Photographs or look in your phone gallery.
- Review the steps you took before getting to bed, where you drank first, what bar or nightclub you ended up in, if you took a taxi or public transport…
- Join the few memories you have: Sometimes recovering your memory after a binge can be like doing a puzzle. Gathering memories and creating the story of the night before from them can help us feel better.
When I drink I am another person
If this phrase can define a part of your life, be careful, excessive alcohol consumption can lead to a serious addiction. We must not forget that, despite being legal, alcohol is a very dangerous drug. If when drinking we feel like we are a different person, it may be due to many of the effects that alcohol is producing on our mind. The drink It also affects other parts of the brain, not just the hippocampus (in fact, there are experts who claim that it affects the entire brain). When we drink, the systems responsible for inhibiting us are “turned off” and those responsible for making decisions are altered. All of this makes us become another person when drinking.
These personality changes can be slight and even funny at first, it is possible that with two too many drinks we will be slightly more friendly and open. However, personality changes due to drinking alcohol are dangerous and can lead to altercations while we are intoxicated.
Excesses are never good, especially when drinking. The next time we ask ourselves Why don’t I remember anything when I drink?, we will already have the scientific answer. However, the real problem does not lie in a lack of memory, but in a lack of control when drinking alcohol. It is important to remember that we can have a good time with our friends or our partner without having the need to drink uncontrollably.
This article is merely informative, at Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.
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