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

I just came across this because the same thing happens to me and I drink probably once a month, if that... She wasn't asking for someone to tell her that she's in denial about being an alcoholic since she drinks once a week. Unless you have a legitimate answer you should keep your opinions to yourself

LOL you don't have a problem if your priorities are straight as hers are. Telling her take a good look at her life yet she's a college graduate in culinary and runs a restaurant. Addiction isn't a problem until it actually affects your life. She already took a long hard look at herself by analyzing she's a well made college student as well as acknowledging the blackouts. Drinking at that young isn't healthy but drinking once a week doesn't hurt and doesn't make her an aalcoholic. Doctors actually recommend wine or beer several times in a week. You know what does make an alcoholic? My father drank 2 30 cases of beer a night. That's an alcoholic. An alcoholic wants to drink 24/7 and wants to drink when under stress. Chasimg the dragon. She's not chasing. Blackouts are caused by more than alcoholism. Anxiety and social disorders can cause blackouts. I know because I am an alcoholic and the son of a drinker who has drank for 20+ years straight. And I suffer several mental disorders. ADHD depression extreme anxiety. It's not the substance it's what disorders you have that affect it. I drink the same amount every night no more and still will blackout.

My now ex girlfriend had this problem. She could drink just fine for the first year I knew her, but after that, she would black out almost every single time, even after only a couple drinks sometimes. She used to have a quite the tolerance, given that I'm 40 and she was 21 she should have been lapping me. But she was passing out as early as 9:30 and was blacking out 30-45 minutes after she blacked out, sometimes to the point of faceplanting on the table.

At first I thought it was just she drank too much and exceeded her limit. But watching her faceplant into the table after half a drink made me pause and reconsider. A 21 year old heavy drinker should be able to make it through at least 3 drinks before being even close to blacking out - let alone faceplanting into the table and falling down all over the place because she insisted on continuing drinking while she was in blackout, despite my consistent strong suggestions that gravity was no longer her friend and it was bedtime. She even passed out in a nightclub once, and those places are LOUD.

There are two tests you should get. 1 is a liver function test. Alcohol tolerance slowly increases but then as the liver is severely damaged the tolerance drops rapidly to below that of even a teetoaller. The other is a hematrocrit test, which tests red blood cell count and can detect anemia. Both conditions can make one more suceptible to blackouts. The latter can be fixed with iron supplements, especially during menstruation. The former, the only fix is abstinence from alcohol for a significant portion of time, if not forever.

In the end, me and the girl broke up. It was getting annoying looking after my girlfriend like a 21 year old toddler and having the morning "conversation" asking her how much she remembered and filling her in of what she forgot because she was blacked out. She didn't always do something stupid, sometimes it was fine, but at times I was carrying her to bed 4-6 nights a week because she was blacked out and refused to stop drinking and go to bed until she passed out cold. It ruined our sex life, it was embarassing to me, and unbeknownst to her, it was even more embarassing to her although she didn't remember any of it.

The absolute worst was a night she was blacked out and smoked her head on every kitchen appliance in my house with the speed of an NFL football player doing a tackle. She even cracked the bathroom shower tiles with her skull. When I brought it up to her for her own medical safety, she was blacked out and flat out denied she had anything to do with it - despite that I was standing outside the bathroom, heard the loud thunk, ended up entering and picking her up off the floor knocked out cold and carrying her to bed. It wasnt the money of fixing the tile, it was that she was obviously concussed. It wasnt until she was seeing stars at work that she beleived me a few days later.

And all this after a relatively small number of drinks. She'd black out after 2-3. That is not normal.

Get the LFT and Hematocrit tests as soon as possible. Bring up what is happening to your doctor and get a BRAINSPECT exam as well. You may have prefrontal cortex lesions from an injury you aren't aware of.

I miss that girl. I just couldn't take it anymore.

I m 19 same happens to me I have no single clue what happens but I litterly forget everything and my friends tell me what all I did and I m like no that was not me I don't even remember a thing

Actually, what you are describing is a late stage alcoholic. There are many highly functioning alcoholics. Very, very successful people who you would never know had problems. And guess what, 40 years ago, your fathers drinking and behavior is not what it is now. The fact is, this girl could very well be an early stage alcoholic (who's drinking, especially due to her age, appears very normal). So to dismiss this possibility out of hand is extremely uninformed by you. I suggest you do a little research into the stages of alcoholism...

Again, late stage alcoholic. Your father didn't start with 2 30 packs a day. The fact that she's on a freaking forum asking about alcohol actually is a pretty good indication she isn't totally in control of her drinking. I am very successful and highly functioning. Guess what? I'm actually not a weak-willed scourge on society as you UNINFORMED IDIOTS would like to believe - but I am an alcoholic. It's a freaking degenerative disease that manifests itself in different ways in different people.

Your story is very sad as you are completely uninformed about your disease and clearly not getting help. Your disorders steam from your addiction to alcohol, not the other way around.

Wow, I'm just stunned at you people who think if she's not downing a bottle of vodka a day, then she's not an alcoholic. Guess what?! If you are an alcoholic - you were before you even had your first drink. You are predisposed to it. You don't metabolize alcohol like everyone else. However, alcoholism and getting blacked out easily can be two separate phenomena. I happen to suffer from both, blacking out before I'm even tipsy, and then finishing the bottle because I can't stop myself. But many alcoholics don't black out, and many non-alcoholics do have blackout problems. But holy sh*t, don't say for certain she is not, because guess what? 1 in 10 is, which, considering her story, makes it very likely that she is.

I am the same don't drink very much because of this but when I do I will intend to have a few but one minute I am fine and the next thing wake up and wonder what has went on. I thought it was because I did not drink so much but obviously not! Would love to find out why?

Thank you...I too am in my 40's (late) and in the past few years, black outs while just drinking a couple glasses of wine have become a bit more of a problem. It is difficult to talk to the people I have been hanging out with the next day because they saw me as a cognitive, functioning, fun friend the night before but then I can't remember certain things. There hasn't been a study or solution for people like us...but folks are quick to just point the finger and call you an alcoholic. Its already embarassing and difficult to explain. I have learned to make sure that I am around people who care about me and won't allow me to get into any trouble or be hurt. I appreciate your comments and agree with you 100%.

Jazz your mistaken. The lass was asking for some simple advice and you come in with your rant...

I have same problem..

Wow thank you! I thought I was losing my mind. It happened 2yrs ago and then a couple nights ago. I remember opening the 2nd bottle of wine and then nothing till 7am and there were more then 2 bottles drank (not by myself either).

YESS! thank u, I just googled this problem because it has been happening to me too, and the judgmental responses blaming alcoholism frustrated me because I too have been blacking out during nights where I drink MUCH less than my friends who are smaller than me but the next day they always remember everything during their drunken stupor, yet I have entire nights wiped clean from my memory. I do not drink a lot because of this, and I never crave alcohol but when I get together with a group of friends to celebrate or whatever this happens. I am 22 5'3 125lbs female and I drink very small amounts. The reoccuring blackouts have been happening for a year, yet I have been drinking for much longer and it has never been an issue. It is weird and scary for me, and though nothing bad (other than mild embarrassment) has happened, whose to say that I wont wake up one day and find myself riding a donkey in Tijuana w a massive headache and not even a story because I wont remember it. I just want to go back to the days when I could drink and have a great time and not feel like I have been ruffeed. So f**k the alchoholism response, drinking can be fun and I can control myself, I just wish I could remember it. And I do realize that my safety during these blackouts is largely thanks to my wonderful friends who tuck me in and get me water, even when they drank 5times more. So anyways, Im just rambling now but I wanted to say I appreciated your response because it made me feel less alone and that is more helpful than a lecture about drinking.

"So forget the label. Anyone who can tell stories about their drinking, who monitors the number of drinks, goes through periods of abstinence to prove they can, limits the number or kind of liquor they have...has a problem with alcohol. Ask yourself honestly...can blacking out from anything be healthy? You are causing permanent brain damage among other things. I am 44 and now do not drink at all...almost a year now. Didn't drink everyday and went several years at a time without drinking at all. Now, I have panic attacks (which I always thought were in people's minds) and insecurity to an almost debilitating level. It makes full-time work difficult...stop now and don't fool yourself. Drinking is a choice. Although it was extremely difficult for me to stop and stay committed, anything is better than knowing I'm killing myself with each drink. I may as well get the gun if I decide to go back."

I must be at the right time of my life and experience that this statement above had a great impact on me! Thank you! I lost my eyesight about four years ago and have been using alcohol to cope with changes in my life, changes in my relationship, and just feeling basic self-pity. Got so bad that I was drinking almost every day and even to drinks would cause me to blackout and act like a stupid ass drunk. I don't want to die like this. I appreciate the words above. No judgement. Just the truth. Thank God you look at whoever you are. I want to live.

This happens to me too and has been happening since my mid 20's and I am 36 now. I didn't drink as a teenager. I can have just a couple and then pow...the next thing I know I am waking up the next day not having a clue as to what happened the night before. It's very scary to me and makes my husband very anxious. I don't drink barely at all now and if I do...I try to keep it to just one or else if I go to far and black out, I know I will have many more.

I have been having blackouts since my 20s as well - my most recently blackout a couple of days ago caused my family to stage an intervention and after finding out the terrible things I did I was willing to go to rehab even though I don't think I'm an alcoholic (easily go months without a drink, don't crave, etc), the only issue with my drinking is the blackouts. Luckily I'm seeing a psychologist who is well informed, the latest research is showing that people who suffer from blackouts have different reactions in their brain to alcohol, there is reduced blood flow to the pre-frontal cortex and the hippocampus also begins to underfunction. These physiological changes occur after only a single drink (before the person even blacks out), then as you drink more the changes become more profound and eventually memory formation shuts down completely = complete black out.
I don't want to abstain from alcohol completely, but will implement some rules, so I'll only drink with people who know I suffer from black outs, they will know how to test if I'm blacked out or not (you can be blacked out while still appearing normal). The test is simple, they ask you to remember 3 words, then distract you or leave the room for a few minutes. If you can't remember all the words it means you have blacked out. Black outs are more likely to occur when there is a rapid increase in blood alcohol level (not really related to the amount you drink but rather how quickly), fatigue is also a contributing factor. So the other rules are no drinking when tired, no drinking hard liquor and drinking slowly. These are the recommended harm reduction techniques.
After feeling a lot of shame, it is a relief to know that it is a physiological phenomena causing black outs. It could occur with only 2 drinks one time and another it might take 20 drinks.
There is no excuse for terrible behaviour, but I do believe that awareness around this should be raised so that people can manage it better. Rather than the typical "just stop drinking", or it's a sign of an alcoholic thinking that just serves to cause more shame.