{"id":6882,"date":"2020-01-16T12:35:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-16T16:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=6882"},"modified":"2022-03-24T15:54:47","modified_gmt":"2022-03-24T19:54:47","slug":"what-happens-when-you-black-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-happens-when-you-black-out\/","title":{"rendered":"What Happens When You Black Out? You Become Another Person"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What happens when you black out? What are the stages of a blackout? What are its consequences?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a person drinks an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time, the hippocampus in the brain is affected. The hippocampus is responsible for memory, which is why excessive drinking often leads to a state of blackout. Blackout refers to a state in which some or all of your memories are lost. Learn what happens when you black out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

This Is What Happens When You Black Out<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first stage of a blackout:<\/strong>
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The hippocampus starts to be affected when the blood-alcohol level reaches approximately 0.08. The National Institute of Health\u2019s leading blackout expert, Aaron White, says that there is no traceable logic to what gets remembered and what doesn\u2019t when a drinker reaches the early state of blackout. For example, it is totally possible to forget being raped but remember getting in a taxi to go home.  This is what happens when you black out.
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Total blackout: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a blood-alcohol level of approximately 0.15, the hippocampus shuts down entirely. At that point, all memories disappear completely and there is nothing to recall. Even in this state of total blackout, when the hippocampus is entirely shut down, it is possible for the drinker to continue to function like a \u201cnormal\u201d drunk person. In fact, it can be impossible to tell when someone else has reached the point of blackout. This is what happens when you black out from drinking.
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Example of What Happens When You Black Out from Drinking<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Want to really know the startling extent of what happens when you black out? Alcohol researcher Donald Goodwin once gave ten men from St. Louis a bottle of bourbon in an effort to study the blackout state. After letting them drink for four straight hours, Goodwin suggested that the men might be hungry. He handed each man a frying pan, covered with a lid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the men took the lid off the pan, there were three dead mice inside. Goodwin thought that would be a highly memorable, even traumatic, experience. But the bourbon drinkers had completely forgotten the event within 30 minutes, and they didn\u2019t regain the memory the next morning. Disturbingly, this is what happens when you black out.
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Blackouts and Sexual Assault <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a state of blackout, all of the strategies people typically use to interact with strangers are dull\u2014most notably the memory.<\/strong> Memory is usually the first line of defense when talking to a stranger<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n