Temporary loss of sight and hearing after light/moderate alcohol consumption.

Hello heather,

You know 2 glasses of champage is not a whole lot of alcohol unless you have alcohol intolerance.  Long-term use of alcohol can lead to hearing problems and possibly visual problems.  I'm assuming you aren't old enough to have embibed a life time.  Chronic alcoholism usually brings about cerebellar disease which means you have trouble balancing and tend to fall over a lot like the winos you see on the street.  It could be that you have blood pressure problems (could be high or could be low) and the alcohol is making that worse.  Sudden changes in blood pressure can definitely cause loss of vision and hearing.  Sit in a chair and put your head between your legs as low as you can.  stay there for a few minutes.  Now sit up quickly and see if you vision doesn't blurr and your hearing sounds muddled.  I think you'll get the idea from that.  You might want to have your blood pressure checked.  Most pharmacies have machines you can use for free.  Your resting blood pressure should be 120/80.

This exact process of events happens to me every time I have 1 drink (sometimes I don't even finish). Still trying to figure out what it is, I've never known of anyone else with this problem until reading your description. Hope we can figure it out.

Alcohol consumption should always be moderate in consumption .

This just happened to me last night and it scared the living hell out of me. I was standing listening to my friend talking and then my hearing and vision just went away and I couldn't hold myself up but once I sat down I got cold sweats and took a few deep breaths and then was completely fine. Wasn't even drunk

Anyone ever figure out what this is? It just happened to me. I had just a couple of drinks and then after a half hour of not drinking I was just talking to my friends and I went blind for a few minutes. I didn't lose my hearing, but I did break out in a sweat.

Yes, it's the same from me. I was not drunk but suddenly i could not see for a minute or so. My hearing was quite ok. And same i break out a cold sweat after the episode. Does anyone know what this is?

This happened to me after 2 pints of beer. Also had temporary vision and hearing lost. Broke out in SO MUCH cold sweat... really need to know why this happened

The same thing happened to me. I had one glass of wine, felt completely fine, then maybe 30 minutes or so later got dizzy, hearing became muffled, and blacked out. As soon as I opened my eyes I was still very alert, but had broke out in a cold sweat. The glass of wine was with seafood/steak dinner.. don't know if it's related. I'm very concerned. Wish someone knew the answer.

Hey, I posted a while back, and I'm guessing with NYE just having past, I would say we'll have a lot of visitors to this site. Over NYE, I had one drink (sugary) while we were having a sushi dinner. Since it was over dinner, I was drinking slowly and knew that I only wanted one drink. I believe cause of that I was able to stop drinking before I lost my vision again or broke out in a sweat. Instead, about 30 minutes after eating, I felt "weird" just like last time (this one post ***this post is edited by moderator *** *** posting of web addresses is not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use describes it as almost feeling like an anxiety attack of just physical symptoms but actually not having any mental anxiety). My heart started beating fast but this time I knew what would make me feel better which is sitting down on the ground (I think getting the body at the level of your heart helps a little bit). I went to the bathroom and sat on the ground after a few minutes I felt better but I was shaking like crazy. I think if I had more than one drink I would have gotten to the point of going blind again.
I've now learned about reactive hypoglycemia and postprandial syndrom which kind of fits but doesn't acknowledge temporary blindness or hearing loss, but I believe those are symptoms that you get right before blacking-out.
Anyways, next time I go to the doctor, I'll have a dialogue about it and see what a doctor thinks. I'll post back but that won't be until March.
PEACE

If it is the blood pressure it makes sense to me. It happened to me several times and my resting BP is 80/60. Considering a low blood pressure, the alcohol does give the BP a rapid change. I stopped drinking for a few years now.

This happens to me every time I drink alcohol. Well, just the hearing loss. I've actually never even been drunk before because I just hate the way alcohol makes me feel. Not only does my hearing become greatly reduced, like I'm underwater, my legs immediately feel weak. It only lasts about 20 minutes, probably because I stop drinking immediately when it happens. I've been prescribed pain meds after my c-sections and it has happened to me with them as well! I know alcohol is absorbed into your inner ear fluid so maybe this somehow is linked to hearing reduction with mild alcohol consumption in certain people. I'm in my late 30's and it's been happening since I can remember. I'm in excellent health too. The only other thing is I do have low blood pressure and low heart rate.

I had a two drinks at a sports bar in Kirkland Washington. Approximately 10 minutes after my last drink i decided to drive home ( wrong move ) about 5 miles down hwy 405 at 60 mph i lost my vision! I was on a long straight so i kept the car in that direction and slowed to about 5 mph. My vision slowly came back to me and i was able to drive home. I was not intoxicated and could not believe this happened to me. This again happened again about 5 years earlier. ( not in a vehical ) The second incident on the freeway happened about 15 years ago. I gave up any cocktails since!

Exact same thing happened to me yesterday after 1/3 of a cocktail (gin and beer). One hour after dinner I started feeling dizzy and my heart was racing, then my vision became blurry...all I could see was lights but not the actual object. I sat down for a minute to rest then I blacked out and collapsed. Finally, after drinking a whole bottle of Gatorade I was slowly getting back to normal.