adminDr Mazvita Machinga Mental Health
On November 29, 2015 between 6.15 am and 7.30 am, I listened to a programme on Radio Zimbabwe.
What was discussed has motivated me to write this weeks’ article. The programme explores various issues happening in communities.
Apart from responding to this Sunday morning story, today’s article is also relevant for this holiday season. This is the time many people drink and socialise with family and friends. In this article, I am talking about alcohol intake, memory loss (blackouts, amnesia) and the brain.
During the Sunday programme, they discussed alcohol drinking and some unusual events that happened to the drinker. When asked what had happened, the drinker was not even aware, he had no idea. This is what we call blackout. Alcohol can have a dramatic impact on memory.
Please be reminded that when people take alcohol in large amounts (castle, lion larger, chibuku, kachasu, 7 days, vodkas, spirits etc ) , one of the negative effects is a rapid increase in blood alcohol concentration is blackout or memory loss.
It is an unquestionable fact that drinking large quantities of alcohol often precedes blackouts/ memory loss. It is like a memory switch in the brain turns to off when a person’s blood alcohol content reaches a certain level.
What is a blackout?
Blackouts occur quite often among alcoholics and social drinkers. It is an alcohol induced memory loss. Alcohol primarily disrupts the ability to form new long-term memories. This means you will not remember some events in your life.
Research has shown that when people take alcohol, memory impairments begin during the first few hours of drinking, when the blood alcohol concentration levels are rising.
At low doses, the impairments are often subtle, though they are detectable. As the amount of alcohol concentration increases, so does the magnitude of the memory loss.
Large quantities of alcohol, can produce a blackout, an interval of time for which the intoxicated person cannot recall key details of events, or even entire events. Blackouts occur when alcohol blocks neurotransmitters that send memories from short-term memory to long-term memory.
This is different from passing out or drinking to the point of becoming unconscious.
When a person is in a blackout they are functioning as normally as another intoxicated person would be functioning. They are able to have conversations and act in ways that do not indicate that they are experiencing a blackout. Blackouts are not identified until the next day, when the person realises that they are missing part of their life.
Depending with the blood alcohol content, the duration of blackouts can range from hours to 3 days.
Blackouts are a warning sign that an individual is drinking in a dangerous and a potentially fatal manner. They should not be ignored because one day you will end in big trouble.
Why does it happen?
Blood alcohol levels increase as a person drinks. Blackouts happen when a person’s blood alcohol level (B.A.L.) goes over a certain level. The more alcohol the person consumes, the higher the level. The body can process about one drink per hour, so any additional drinks add up to the alcohol content in your blood.
The obvious problem is that the person can’t remember what they did. If the blood alcohol level was high enough to cause a blackout, it was also high enough to impair other things, like judgment (should I sleep with this person? Should I drive my car?)
This is not the best time to be making important decisions. A blackout is a warning sign from the body that the person had too much to drink.
It also makes it difficult for the person to know what went wrong. “Did I get a home safely, or was I in danger?” “Was I taken advantage of etc?” This is what may have happened to this radio participants- blackout.
How can blackout
be prevented?
One key is to stay sober. It’s okay not to drink alcohol. If you choose to drink, then know how much will you drink? What?
With whom? Drinking without a plan can often mean drinking until drunk. By then, a person is more at risk for a variety of consequences and issues, blackouts being a serious one . . . but many others can be just as dangerous.
It does not matter what you think you can do, what matters is what your body can take and what is safe and healthy drinking.
This season, you do not need to get so drunk to the extent where you are blacking out and passing out in the streets and make people drag you home. That is not what we call fun. Instead you become a burden and some people have to take care of you.
Today, drinking to the point where you blackout or throw up is common during holiday festive, so do not be in this group. Realise that you are putting yourself into danger as you are not noticing the effects to your body. So be careful of blackouts, stop drinking before you blackout.
For more help on staying sober and counselling contact Dr.Mazvita Machinga Ph.D , a qualified psychotherapist in Mutare at 0771 754 519 or email [email protected]
Online Reporter