I black out almost everytime I drink. I am not an alcoholic.

Hi im 30 year old male i also suffer from blackouts.I have been drinking for around 15 years and foremost of that time i probably drunk too much. I have never been able to control my drink once i start i never know when to stop.I have cut down lately and only drink about once a week but still get blackout. I have been getting blacked out now for the last 3 years but lately they have been getting so much worse that's why i cut down i can go out and not remember any part of the night just wake up and i'm back in bed.It is true that you can feel like this only after 3 or 4 drinks.I think i have damaged my brain due to the years of heavy drinking. Going to try not drink when i go out so then it is not possible for me to blackout. And only have a drink when in my own home. I also think i need to tell a few of my friends what is happening hopefully they will understand.If anyone have any advice please contact me. Thanks sorry if my spelling is wrong i have dyslexia.

you choose not to touch alcohol again because its killing your body, fine. This is the age of convenience, and many foods, drinks - even sometimes the air we breathe - is slowly killing us,

Age has very little to do with the problem, and talking with other people doesn't always help because they don't SEE u have a problem with drinking, only u can be the judge of that. I had a lot the the same feeling u describe, I went to aa and it has helped me a lot.

I'm a 28/f, in my early drinking days, (power drinking at 15) I could drink most people under the table....  I have a 2 year old son and up until getting pregnant with him I was drinking once a week, occasionally more. I had blacked out a few times from definite over drinking.  I obviously didn't drink while I was pregnant, and then didn't drink until my son was 1. I didn't ever want to be that "drunk mom", so I just took it off as a social option.. when I drank for the first time I blacked out after just one glass of wine. I have tried other drinks like beer, coolers, and mixed drinks.  I quit drinking because of the blackouts, it's not an excess, I'm not an alcoholic. But the blackouts started when there were hormonal problems (high cortisol-stress hormone), I haven't had a drink in many months, I'm not counting like it is some sort of feat, I am now having issues that point to brain tumor, pituatary tumor (which is very common and usually can be controlled by meds) or brain aneurysm.  scheduled for an MRI and under constant testing lately, I faint, have phantom tastes in my mouth, headache that has lasted for months, pains into the backs of my knees, ringing in my ears, vision issues.. This girl didnt come to be lectured, I think it may be in relation to hormonal levels. 

Hi I just have been reading all the above about memory loss. I had no idea this could been related to red wine. If I have white wine no blackout are memory loss. I am going to try and when I say try nothing on earth can help me more than god. Through god we can do all thins. Without god we are nothing. I want to be something and not be label a drunk

Do everyday exercise, yoga 30 min for one month after that 1 hour exercise,yoga and avoid alcohol drink.live in happy environment.care your health.

I do have this blackout issue too. It happened again today and i only drink 2 small glass of Makgeolli (korean rice wine). I notice it happen only when I drink Makgeoli. 2 weeks ago I have compay dinner and dance and I drunk red wine and beers no problem at all. 

So im just wondering could it be that there is something in the wine that causes us blackout? The blackout is just so scary. I can see anything and i cant hear anything. But im fully awake. My hands and legs are shaking when this happen. It was recover when i sweat alot. It took me like 20mins to recover back. 

 

I to have been having this black out problem that nobody understands.have you ever seen a Dr for it? I'm looking into seeing a neurologist

I suffer from the same issues and want answers, but I knew her wording was only going to lead to a lecture. No clue if you even answers her question or not as your judgment of someone you don't know what too long to hold my attention.

this is just straight up incorrect. you must be the exact person that all of these people are trying to get away from -- the person who never blacks out and/or rarely drinks. You don't know where anyone here is coming from. You can have a couple of drinks 1-2 nights a week and NOT BE AN ALCOHOLIC. Hell, you can have a couple of drinks a night every night and STILL NOT BE AN ALCOHOLIC. For example, My problem is that I rarely throw up...so I end up drinking more than others which inevitably leads to me blacking out. I am looking for help with this. Thank you for trying to warn people, but at the same time, you really aren't helping the people who fit this criteria and you sound kind of judgmental. I'm not trying to attack your opinion, but I'm just saying, please try to understand where we are coming from. I want to drink socially with my friends but I am sick of getting too drunk and doing things I don't remember doing. PLEASE GIVE ME SOME INSIGHT!

Excuse me, I don't mean to be rude in any fashion, but both of my parents are alcoholics. I've had to take care of both of them (including carrying them to the restroom and to bed). While blackouts are an introductory sign to addiction, it isnt for sure. Alcoholics have withrawal symptoms. If these people tried to stop drinking for a week they would have some sign of withdrawals (shakes, headaches, irritability, etc). I have had both of my parents taken to the ER and checked over several days for these symptoms. The doctors said if these symptoms were not present, they wouldn't be worried. I think this girl may need other kinds of help and advice. I can relate to easy blackouts, but I didn't drink for almost a two year span and I had no problem. I'm wondering what else can cause these easy and quick blackouts as well.

(I have underlined and bolded the highlights if you want to skim!)

People are focusing far too much on the alcoholic/non-alcoholic dichotomy. Levels of alcohol use and abuse are on a spectrum, from severe alcoholism (which includes dangerous physical withdrawls), to problem drinking, to government mandated "healthy" drinking levels, to abstinence. Also, people who stopped drinking when medically they would be "problem drinkers" may consider themselves alcoholics (AA also endorses this point of view).

Blackouts are the body's natural response to an amount of alcohol that is excessive, and may be more likely for certain people (via genetics or environmental experiences). The problem with blacking out is that you are more likely to put yourself in dangerous situations, appear to be happily doing something you normally would never do (drive drunk, sleep with somebody unknown, go to strange places with strange people, get arrested or do generally stupid and risky things), or just feel uncomfortable with losing hours of your life and waking up confused.

I believe there are ways to determine where you fit on that spectrum. First, try to strictly limit your alcohol to an amount before-blackouts/the point of no return. Consider how many units of alcohol per hour you are drinking currently, and how many drinks total, and dial it down until you get to a place where you become enjoyably tipsy, but you don't black out. This may be one drink a night for some, two drinks over five hours for others, or three - four drinks over five hours for those with a genetically much higher tolerance (these are all just examples). Keep decreasing your alcohol consumption until you are able to control your drinking! Try drinking water, soda, or "virgin" drinks in between to limit the feeling of being deprived. 

If you find you are unable to limit your drinks, then try stopping drinking for a month. [I personally didn't have a strong desire to resume drinking until the second week, but by then it was unbearable]. If you can stop for a month, consider whether you want to try gently tapering in alcohol (1 drink a night the first week, increase slowly as needed). If this feels doable for you, you can try this method, some people are able to better control their drinking after a clean break. However, you will need to continue carefully monitoring your drinking (unlike your friends, those lucky bastards!) likely for the rest of your life.

If the idea of drinking one (or another limited amount) drinks a night feels like torture, you may want to consider that drinking in moderation is not possible for you. Likewise, if you try controlling your drinking and fail, or cannot seem to stop for a month no matter how hard you try, abstinence may be your only option if you want to prevent future blackouts from happening.

If you decide to be abstinent from alcohol, your options are AA, "bare-knuckling it", you may find How to Quit Drinking without AA or other self-recovery books helpful, or an inpatient or outpatient treatment center if those don't work. 

Some good books on the subject are Dry, by Augusten Burroughs, UnWasted: A Lush Sobriety, and Drinking: A Love Story. They helped me make my mind up about what i wanted to do and why, even if I din't consider myself "that bad" at first.  You may want to consider AA, because the network of people who also want to not drink is unbeatable. Whether you agree with the twelve steps, alcoholism, or not, you'll always have someone to reach out to when it gets hard.

One final point is that the age of somebody has nothing to do with their problems with alcohol. Some 17 year olds stop drinking for good after discovering their incompatability with alcohol, and some people drink till they die, consequenses be damned. I am glad I am sober today because i stopped before i screwed up my grades at college, lost friends and family, or lost the opportunity to live a portion of my 20s with the ability to make mature decisions about what kind of life i want for myself.

 I just couldn't limit my drinking once I'd had a drink, and I couldn't handle the consequences of my blackouts, so my only option was to stop. I hear my voice in your stories, although what you do with your life is your choice and your business.  I just thought I'd offer some resources.

First, try to strictly limit your alcohol to an amount before-blackouts/the point of no return. Consider how many units of alcohol per hour you are drinking currently, and how many drinks total, and dial it down until you get to a place where you become enjoyably tipsy, but you don't black out. This may be one drink a night for some, two drinks over five hours for others, or three - four drinks over five hours for those with a genetically much higher tolerance (these are all just examples). Keep decreasing your alcohol consumption until you are able to control your drinking! Try drinking water, soda, or "virgin" drinks in between to limit the feeling of being deprived.

If you find you are unable to limit your drinks, then try stopping drinking for a month. [I personally didn't have a strong desire to resume drinking until the second week, but by then it was unbearable]. If you can stop for a month, consider whether you want to try gently tapering in alcohol (1 drink a night the first week, increase slowly as needed). If this feels doable for you, you can try this method, some people are able to better control their drinking after a clean break. However, you will need to continue carefully monitoring your drinking (unlike your friends, those lucky bastards!) likely for the rest of your life.

If the idea of drinking one (or another limited amount) drinks a night feels like torture, you may want to consider that drinking in moderation is not possible for you. Likewise, if you try controlling your drinking and fail, or cannot seem to stop for a month no matter how hard you try, abstinence may be your only option if you want to prevent future blackouts from happening.

I am 33 years old. I stopped being a bartender after almost 10 years and because I wasn't around alcohol I stopped drinking too. A couple years ago I started working at a winery and then started drinking once every few months but noticed that I was getting headaches and not remembering details of the evening before very well. My husband suggested that my tolerence was low and the effects of alcohol were too much for me so I should drink a little wine every week to maintain a toxicity level. I tried this but would forget to drink and so I never found if this worked or not. Now I try to drink with a friend who knows me well so they can help me decide if I have had too much and I try to drink the occasional glass of wine on my own. THIS IS NOT ALCOHOLISM. I am a small woman who is actually drunk when I feel tipsy, which means that I lose control of my drinking after less than two glasses of wine. It may be a slight alergy. I do know that I do better when I drink a lot of water and eat plenty of food. I was hoping for answers in this forum to help me be able to socially drink with confidence, but there are too many out there who are jaded, hurt or dealing with alcoholism for this to be a real discussion. Sad.

Hello, I am 27 years old and have been drinking since i was 14. I have pretty much the same problem as you do. I go from enjoying a glass of wine to being completley blacked out withing an hour, every single time I drink. I only drink about every 10 days to 2 weeks. During the time Iam not drinking, I dont think about booze or plan to get drunk. I dont know what is wrong with us but I believe that we may have changed our normal brain Chemistry when we started drinking at such a young age... before our brains were fully developed. This topic literally scares me. Drinking is a normal part of north american life and I cannot even have one drink because I know i will black out. Very scary and there is really no information anywhere about this SYNDROME. ( Why the heck do I black out every time I DRINK syndrome). By the way... Sobriety is awsome, but not everyone can achieve it in life... no matter how hard they try... so dont preach please. just share if you have the same syndrome