Experiences - Amnesia From Alcohol

[Xxnightmare23xX]

hey.. I just joined drug forum..


but.. yeah i was wondering.. while ur drunk do u sometimes forget things u said to someone.. cause while i was drunk i said things to people I didn't even remember saying .. like ex. I was talking to my friend and i said hash pipe5 times.. ((for sure I was drunk.. not stoned)) lol.. and well she doesn't smoke and didn't understand it.. well then the next day one of my friends asked me why I kept saying that.. and I didn't remember..

[str8ballin]

Yeah,I say and do shit like that too when I get drunk.I always regret the shit I do the next day because I act pretty stupid when Im drunk.heh

Alcohol truely will make you do things that you normally wouldnt do while sober!

[white_lighter]

yea forget what you said and what you did there called blackouts i hate that feeling not knowing what i did the day before cause i remeber i had one witha group of females im not sure what happend but i just remember tad bits of somone pouring water on me and another one taking my clothes off lol male date rape i say

[Psilocybe S.]

I've never forgotten anything while drinking. And I've drank alot more than alot of people. Like, maybe I wont remember it right away, but eventually i'll remember during the next day.


See, what i've noticed is that people will come up to me later, and sayI said all kinds of shit, but being as I dont forget, I know what I've said. This has happend a good 10 times, so I figure alot of people think they can take advantage of a drunk.

[soer]

when i drink i forget almost everything .. ill remember vaguely tho if someone tells me about the nite ..

[thydarkprevails]

only when you black out...and that's never good

[joevette]

That's one of the fun parts of drinking!

[Whit]

Hi all,

This is a long post so for the short version scroll down, and for the long, please read it all!!

LONG VERSION

Can't find anything specific to my question so it's time to ask the big question! (wait changed my mind, it's now two questions)

Was partying hard on my last birthday, plenty and plenty of free drinks!

It was the kind of birthday you might call a "milestone", so for some unknown reason, I thought, right then, hit me with what you've got. Before this date I'd have been drinking for atleast two years, frequently drinking way too much and ending up very very P1553D.

My first year of drinking made me look invincible. 17.5cl of vodka, no problem... 3 stupidly large glasses of wiskey, easy peasy.... sambuka shots, all night....

Second year of drinking was just your typical teenage drinker... still too much but a bit more responsible now... straight spirits are a thing of the past unless it's being sick I was aiming for!

Anyway third year onwards brings me to this very "special" and also to my final year as an alcohol lover!

The birthday in question.... Think I drank around one cider, several shooters (god knows what was in them now), and PLENTY of my fav, Vodka Redbull, and then my last drink of the night... a nice fat tripple vodka snatching £17.50 out of my own wallet! I was throwing back drinks all night, wondering why the hell I was only feeling tipsy!

So up to the bar I go.... Triple Vodka please..... Glug glug glug (shrug off the looks of everyone around me at the bar ), and well yea that was my night.... well all I remember of it anyway.

I can remember prety much everything perfectly up until I had that triple and about a minuete after that, I was well and truely out for the count.

The story of the night from here on in relies on what my closest friends tell me. Aparently I met back up with them and within a minuete I was unable to support myself.... two minuetes and I'd been kicked out of the club, my friends (thankfully) looking after me. PLENTY of vomitting (all over myself and the beautiful streets of Manchester).

I woke up in the morning and was unaware of any strange occurances from the night before. Only upon finding my friend slumped against the mirrors in my bedroom and asking him if he had a good night, did I find out about the night before and my clothes!!!


SHORT VERSION

Basically, I drank more than I've ever done, and I can't remember ANYTHING past a certain point, through till when I woke up the next morning.

I was wondering what it is that actually causes this memory loss from alcohol? Is it the poison damaging the brain? I also had a VERY peculiar rash on my forearm for a few days after.... no idea what that was.

My second question is, what causes me to no longer be able to drink such large amounts that I was capable of in my first year of drinking? I am aware it's likely to abuse of alcohol (which is admitadly what I was doing), but is it due to a weakened bladder/stomach?

I'd like to add that I now no longer like alcohol that much anymore, I think it's a prety nasty drug really, although I do occasionally drink sensibly now.

Mini me's found much more enjoyable substances to enjoy!

Thanks for taking the time to read my massive and probably boring post!

Peace!

[geezaman]

Memory loss of drunken nights is part of the joy (if your in a mood to make the best of it) after nights drunk at friends houses, SWIM is often left with odd pains or injurys, strange sent txt messages and messages scrawled out on paper that no longer make any sense, (but obviuosly at the time of writing were crutual to SWIMs existance). Its wonderfull if its been a drunk night with friends to the next morning peice togeather eaches fragmnts of memory and discover what you all got up to.

SWIM once woke up his clothes coverd in black that seemed to be charcoal, he hadnt a clue why, a few hours later when everyone was awake, someone recounted that at on point SWIM completely drunk had been chased around his freinds house and garden by an equally drunk freind weilding a charred gate post, while screaming "I am Ahab" (that had been attempted to be burnt in a fire a week before hand) SWIM ws told he was chased around for about 15 mins but remembers nothing of it.
happy days, happier nights.
peace

[Whit]

Lol, agreed on everything you described.

Thing is, this is different. This is a period of 3 - 4 or so hours that I didn't even know had passed!!!

It is always a laugh until you realise that without being lucky enough to have some good friends with me, I could well have been dead or woken up down an ally with a sore arse.

Manchester has many types of people I wouldn't like to meet while I was out of it!

[Pondlife]

Your experience is all-too-familiar. Most people who go on a serious bender end up with some amount of memory loss; serious alcoholics can lose whole days.

When I was at Uni, we had a theory called "the big white gorilla". In the morning after a serious night out, we'd wake up to find that the gorilla had visited us, messed up the room, thrown our clothes around Etc. Sometimes he left a calling card like a road cone, one of those flashing amber lights, or a bar towel.

The best drink for summoning the gorilla was the infamous snakebite. More about that here: http://www.drugs-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31431

[geezaman]

Now SWIY is making SWIM do some self questioning, because SWIM pretty much every other time he meets up with that group of friends looses 3+ hours of his life, the intervening times being when more interesting drugs are on offer. SWIM knows that these friends regularly drink to that stage/state, SWIM has just sortof become numbed to the fact of memory loss of nights because it happens so often.

SWIM only drinks to this degree when with these freinds and when they are staying in, But SWIMs freind really worrys SWIM for exactly the reason you describe, He will drink to that stage on his own and regularly walks the canals I pod in ears full blast, So is completely unaware, and without a chance of defending himself, SWIM doesn't know how the area in which his freind does this compares to SWIYs situ in manchester, but SWIM knows even in the middle of the day he is very wary of this area.

If that was SWIMs first experience of loosing so many hours due to alcohol, then its another experience under their belt, and a greater knowladge of what alcohol can do. Maybe if theres a greater being in controll they'l give you an extra 4 hours to make up
peace
geezaman

EDIT- SWIM thinks that pesky gorillas been visiting him too, looking to his left right now there is an amber road light, that SWIM dosn't remember taking... SWIMs own gorilla summons comes as "ratbite" =snakebite made with strong cheep cider, with 3 shots of vodka added. 2 pints of it gives the gorilla an ETA of around 50mins, the first pint usually taking all of SWIMs strength to consume, the second like drinking water!

Reputation Comments on this post:

lol "ratbite" - classic name

[Pondlife]

Originally Posted by geezaman

He will drink to that stage on his own and regularly walks the canals I pod in ears full blast

That does sound quite dangerous from a robbery point of view. It's always best to travel in a group when you're wankered.

Strangely there is very little danger of getting lost, as the homing instinct doesn't seem to be affected by alcohol. SWIM has had a few occasions when he's been absolutely shitfaced but still managed to get home and has absolutely no memory of how he managed it. Back in the day, we called this the "beer scooter" effect.

SWIMs own gorilla summons comes as "ratbite" =snakebite made with strong cheep cider, with 3 shots of vodka added.

"ratbite" - classic name. I can imagine how this would summon the gorilla as that strong white cider (e.g. white lightning) is pretty mean even without the vodka.

[Whit]

Thanks for the replies, but my question was more specifically what exactly causes the loss of memory?

[Mint boi]

Whit, My ferret is basically in the exact same situation as mini you! happened a couple of months ago. Two nights in particular stand out!
1st night = 70cl jagermeister, 5 500ml cans beer, half bottle of wine.
woke up dead! only remembered flashes of the night.

2nd night = 28 bottles of beer in 2.5 hrs
Rembers nothing of the night. Except for submarining a couple of the bottles.

It was after that, my ferret realized that drinking so much is just not cool/good/healthy at all. Now he doesn't drink much at all. Couple of beers on a night out. Nights are much more enjoyable. Just enough alcohol to be socially lubicated enouht to srtike up convo's with strangers, but not enough to be really drunk or to wake up hungover!

[Mint boi]

sorry for double post, whit posted just as i did.

Anyway I think that alcohol impairs memory because it effects the hippocampus region of the brain. Which is asociated with memory. (its one of the first regions to be affected by alzheimers)

It impairs the brains ability to convert short term memory to long term!

[Pondlife]

Originally Posted by Whit

Thanks for the replies, but my question was more specifically what exactly causes the loss of memory?

Sorry, the thread did wander OT a bit.

This article from Duke University gives quite a bit of information on the subject. The whole thing is 18 pages long - I've only pasted the overview and introduction from the first page below.

http://www.duke.edu/~amwhite/Blackouts/index.html

Overview
Alcohol interferes with the ability to form new memories. Large amounts of alcohol, particularly if consumed rapidly, can produce partial (i.e., fragmentary) or complete (i.e., en bloc) blackouts, which are periods of memory loss for events that transpired while a person was drinking. Blackouts have long been associated with alcoholism. However, recent studies (e.g., White et al., 2002; White et al., in press 2004; White, in press 2004) indicate that blackouts are much more common among social drinkers, including college drinkers, than was previously assumed. While often confused with passing out, or losing consciousness after excessive drinking, blackouts do not involve a loss of consciousness. Indeed, individuals can engage in a wide range of goal-directed, voluntary, often complicated behaviors during blackouts -- from driving cars to having sexual intercourse (White et al., 2002). Alcohol has only a minimal impact on the ability to remember information learned before becoming intoxicated or on keeping information active in memory for short periods of time. For these reasons, outside observers are often unaware of the individual's true level of intoxication. The history and current status of research regarding alcohol-induced blackouts, including knowledge of the brain mechanisms involved, will be reviewed below.

Introduction
If recreational drugs were tools, alcohol would be a sledgehammer. Few cognitive functions or behaviors escape the impact of alcohol, a fact that has long been recognized in the literature. As Fleming (1935) stated nearly 70 years ago, "The striking and inescapable impression one gets from a review of acute alcoholic intoxication is of the almost infinite diversity of symptoms that may ensue from the action of this single toxic agent." In addition to impairing balance, motor coordination, decision making, and a litany of other functions, alcohol is a potent amnestic agent. Beginning with just one or two drinks, alcohol produces detectable memory impairments. As the dose increases, so does the magnitude of the memory impairments. The purpose of this review is to discuss what is currently known regarding the behavioral correlates and pharmacological mechanisms underlying acute alcohol-induced memory dysfunction.

[Jatelka]

Originally Posted by Whit

Thanks for the replies, but my question was more specifically what exactly causes the loss of memory?

As stated above: Anterograde Amnesia!

Alcohol affects GABA receptors and this prevents new memories being formed for the period that SWIY is under the influence.

Benzodiazepines are notorious for it, as are the Z-Drugs. The Flamingo knows nothing about GHB, but imagines it would be the same!

[Whit]

WOW!

You just gota be proud of that guy ain't ya!


Thanks to mint_boi, pondlife and Jatelka for the info. Just what I was after