Why don't I remember anything when I drink

Going out for a drink with our friends or partner and consuming a few extra 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 damage in our body, in the short and long term. One of the effects of drinking too much is the famous lagoons.

"Why can't I remember anything when I drink?"It is a question that perhaps we 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 you let's drink.

Index

1. Blackouts from drinking alcohol: why do they happen?
2. Types of blackouts
3. How to recover memory after a binge
4. When I drink I am another person

Drinking blackouts often occur when you drink too much alcohol or you have drunk too quickly. When the level of alcohol in the blood is very high and increases rapidly, it takes care of

Drinking alcohol and not remembering anything is dangerous, that is because, although there is a part of the brain asleep, our mind and our body continue to function in some way. We behave differently, aggressive and can even get into trouble without remembering the next day. East type of amnesia Alcoholic is not something to be taken lightly, we can lose control of our actions and then not remember anything.

In order to avoid this phenomenon The next time we want to go out for a drink, we must 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.

There are two types of memory loss and these usually depend on the degree of drunkenness we had the night before:

• Partial or fragmentary gaps: they are the most common memory losses, these resemble small gaps in the memories of the night before. For example, we may not remember a particular song playing or to talk to an unknown girl in the bathroom queue.
• Total gaps: also known as blackoutThese lagoons are the most dangerous since they eliminate large parts of the night en bloc, as if certain hours had never existed. The more alcohol you drink, the more difficult it is for the hippocampus to generate memories, which is why a total gap is usually a sign of an extremely high intake.

It is interesting to comment that, no matter how accustomed we are to drinking, we can generate tolerance to many levels, but we cannot make the hippocampus (the area destined to generate memories) generate tolerance to the alcohol.

The first step after waking up after a night out is to stay calm. We may wonder things like "What happened last night?" "Why don't I remember anything when I drink? ". They may also appear anxiety symptoms and a lot of concern about what we have done the night before. What's done is done and losing your temper is not a good solution, the next time we go out we will have to take into account that unpleasant feeling to avoid drinking too much alcohol.

Remembering a drunken night is not easy and usually it is not achieved at all, however we can do some exercises to recover memory or, if not, to have brief flashes of the night previous:

• Talk to your friends that were there. Maybe they didn't drink that much either, they remember better and can explain in more detail what you did last night.
• Check your mobile phone, see who you called or if you sent a specific message that may give you a clue.
• Ask your friends if they did Photographs or look in the gallery of your phone.
• Review the steps you did Before you got to bed, where did you drink first, what bar or disco did you end 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 the memories and creating the story of the night before from them can help us feel better.

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 we drink we feel that 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 neurons decision makers are upset. All this makes us become another person when we drink.

These personality changes can be slight and even funny at first, it is possible that with two more drinks we will be slightly more friendly and open. However, the personality changes caused by drinking alcohol are dangerous and can generate altercations while we are intoxicated.

Excesses are never good and less in drinking. The next time we wonder Why don't I remember anything when I drink?We will have the scientific answer. However, the real problem does not lie in the lack of memory, but in the 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 urge to drink uncontrollably.

This article is merely informative, in 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.

If you want to read more articles similar to Why don't I remember anything when I drink, we recommend that you enter our category of Cognitive psychology.