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"so drunk i can't remember"

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i have never been this, and consequently do not believe in it: is it not a social get-out clause so that ppl who CAN remember all too well can mutually agree never to speak of it again w/o actually to admit to an "?it"

― mark s, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

my college friend mick woke up in a cell once and when he asked why he was there, was told he was being charged with throwing his shoes through someone's front window, in a part of town he didn't even know existed

the trial report in the paper concluded "mr [x] said he was very sorry, but he still couldn't remember anything about it"

― mark s, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Despite being a perenial boozer this has never happened to me either. I thereforte often suffer with morning after waking ups remembering exactly what I did the night before (including writhing on the carpet, etc etc).

― Pete, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I was talking about this the other day after BB Kate could not remember getting to her own bed. It has never happened to me either in any dramatic way. I can always remember what I did/where I went/where I went to sleep and why etc etc.

Sometimes I can't remember conversations - I will mention something the next day and be told I had mentioned it five times the night before. This is awful. But even then I usually remember when someone mentions.

― Tom, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I always used to think this wasn't possible, but in the last few years (usually due to whole bottles of vodka) i have had instances where I have no recollection of the previous evening's events!!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It is possible and has happened to me (unable to remember just how exactly I got home etc) however, I'd say that a lot of the time when people say they can't remember, they can but are using the get- out clause you mention

― jamesmichaelward, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I have had this occasionally, mostly in connection with tequila which seems to induce black outs like no other booze. It's not usually large chunks which get forgotten, just minor details e.g. how did I get home / into bed etc. I also forget who I was with & what I said or did (bits, not everything). I have insisted that people weren't out when they were and that I didn't say things I did. Hurray for booze.

― Emma, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

for about a year in college i lived with someone who had severe issues w/ the bottle - one night when everyone was asleep he drank heavily and then broke everything in the living room and then sprayed everything in sight with a fire extinguisher! including my bicycle!! and then on the bicycle thru the thick white fire extinguisher dust he drew the words: "hi geeta (smiley face)" (!!!)

the next day he smiles blankly and sez to me: "i don't remember a thing!"

― geeta, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

do you seriously not believe in it mark? ??

― halo halo, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes it happens for real and no it's not very nice. I rarely forget whole episodes (e.g. going to a different part of town) but often have no memory of hours at a time / involved conversations.

In combination with The Horror (aka the fuh-fuhz, aka free-floating anxiety) this can lead to very fretful mornings. My friends sometimes have to reassure me that I didn't do anything *too* bad. They lie.

― Tim, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I can usually remember what happened when reminded of it by others, but might not have remembered on my own. I don't think I've ever not remembered after being prompted.

It's funny how it's usually the stuff that's best left forgotten that IS actually forgotten. And it's funny how these are the PRECISE things your EQUALLY DRUNK friends remember about what you did. For example last Saturday... erm, no perhaps not.

― Dr. C, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It is real. I have lost a few hours here and there, but nothing too catastrophic.

― RickyT, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

it is TOTALLY REAL and i have lost time, conversations, locations, arguments and even on one occasion painting my entire arm with red nail varnish. it is not nice at all.

― katie, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

with minor stuff, like tom's conversations, yeah sure (hey!! imagine the trouble WE have what he just said etc etc) (haha) and w. automatic stuff (like going to bed) but no, not really

obviously alcohol progressively disables you, and the later stages, where you're totally horizontal and groggy and lizardbrain motor functions only, i can imagine that is kind of blurry, but any stage where you conceived and undertook a major project — geeta's soused bicycle — that has to have been imprinted. I accept that accessing it properly may be difficult, because the remembering self is somewhat not the enacting self.

What I mean is, it's there, even if yr unconsciously tiptoeing round it because it was TOO HUMILIATING to your sober dignity.

I'm not talking special-brew alkies who have poisoned their whole system for years: that's about rupturing the local narrative flow and the purpose of narrative flow (care of the self), till the days blur into weeks blur into years.

― mark s, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

If I forget an evening after a certain point, I get flashbacks, which is really awful!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Actually, I've just remembered that this can be a positive thing as my brother has trained himself to be able to do the washing up when drunk (and without breaking anything) this means when he wakes up in the morning (unable to remember the night before) the washing up has mysteriously been done for him

― jamesmichaelward, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I often can't recall the details of getting home from boozing. e.g. last night. However the second worst experience I have ever had on drugs (too much white wine while still on a course of prozac!) caused me to lose a lot of time and I'm still learning about things I did/said in that time.

― Alan T, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I've only ever been drunk once. I watched England vs Romania on a black and white TV, and was sick alot. I then dropped out of uni. That's why I don't drink.

― jel --, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sure this does happen (it is too well recorded to be a complete fabrication) but what really interests me is that apparently due to the chemical imbalances brought on by alcohol, you will often be able to remember these blank spots when you get pissed again. Same is apparently true of drugs. Weird.

― Pete, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I can see the appeal of the "it's the unconscious mind hiding your humiliation" theory but it doesn't seem to stand up to the indiscriminate nature of the blanks: sometimes the most humiliating (apparently) part of an evening is the bit I remember best. Surely there must be other perfectly good explanations fo rthe phenomenon, biochemical or otherwise?

― Tim, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Usually I start chucking up way before I'm drunk enough to slur words, let alone forget stuff but when I was about 20 I managed to increase my alcohol tolerance to the point that it happened to me three times.

One time I woke up totally naked, lying on top of a bed, alone in a bedroom that I did not recognise. Then a mother walked in and saw me. A very awkward moment. I still don't know what went down that night.

Another time I apparently threw a drink in the face of a bouncer with whom I was very good friends. It took him a while to forgive me.

I don't remember what happened the third time.

I took this memory loss as a grave warning and reduced the amount of drinking I did and it has not happened since.

― toraneko, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Even better than forgetting chunks of the evening due to booze is inventing whole NEW chunks of the evening in a half-asleep (or fully asleep) dream world and waking up the next day unable to remember exactly where the line between reality & dreams is. I have this quite often and it is mighty confusing but also quite a relief usually to realise that I didn't really do what I dreamt I did.

― Emma, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

used to happen all the time at uni (i've been beaten up real bad and hhave no recollection at all) - not so much now - id love to think its the girlfriend slowing down my wanton drinking - unfortunatley it is her vodka missive by the top of the page

― born clippy, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Ahem!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I too did not believe in this so much. BUT. yes. a couple of months ago when I was in the czech republic I managed to get so drunk that I went back to my flat alone, put a pot filled w/ pasta+water on the cooker and got into bed w/ all my clothes on. when my friend arrived home and took the completely cook-ed pasta from the cooker, he said I got up and started sleeping, curled up, in different spots around the room and that, at one point, I grabbed his secondhand guitar between my legs and tossing it across the room managed to break some of the beading off. apparently I eventually crawled towards his bed, looked him in the eye, snarled and got back into my own bed. the next morning he told all and laughed. of course I did not believe him for a quite a while. but, unfortunately, there was another witness so. I couldn't just escape it by telling him he was lying.

― RJG, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't forget stuff generally, but what Emma says about half sleep/dreams is so true. Some mornings I have to spend a good half hour trying to work out the reality/dreams equation. Especially after Red Bull or worse a cheap substitute.

― Ronan, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Have you ever woken up from a dream crying cos something terrible has happened & then realised after a while that you were actually asleep?

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Red wine always produces weird & v vivid dreams for me!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah, especially in teeth falling out dreams. I wake up in the dream going 'phew! it was all a dream and my lovely teeth are still in place' then put my finger in my mouth and they all start falling out again. Then I wake up shaking and sweating and spend the whole of the next day prodding my teeth looking for any signs of wobbliness. Sometimes I think my subconscious is out to get me.

― Emma, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh god I have this huge fear about losing my teeth & I hate it when I have dreams about it!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

pp i would say dont drink red wine - but i find this almost impossible to utter from my lips so i would say drink the red and bare with the bad dreams

― born clippy, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh def! Bring those babies on, the red wine is sooooov worth it!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

After Homelands UK I was going on the tube home at 8 or so in the morning and I started drifting off to sleep, and then I had this sort of sonic dream that the noise of the tube's escalating speed was some kind of music, and obviously it was all heading towards some mental climax, and just as it hit this in my head I opened my eyes and was about to say something to my best friend who was there with me like "wow some tune" and then I stopped myself.

Yeah I know that's such a rave on man feel the vibe story but it was very funny, I opened my mouth and jumped up and he's like "yeah?"

― Ronan, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i have teeth crumbling dreams which scare the shit out of me. i hate it when your dreams put you on edge for no good reason, because the adrenalin is going i guess. i had a bonkers "on the run" dream last night in a city with no doors, and someone had nicked my mobile phone (known as "rhyme crime" for some reason) so i was utterly lost. just so you know

― Alan T, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't had one of those 'someone is chasing me' dreams for ages. Mine always used to take place in an underground car park for some reason!!??

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Not much of a boozer, but I sure suffer from toker's Short-Term Memory Loss...

― Andrew L, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah? I never had that!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

new "i have to take my exams with no trousers on and now my teeth are falling out RUN!! RUN!! why are my legs so heavy?"| answers

i haf worked a brilliant elaborate off-the-cuff Theory of the Mind and the Memory on the bus to work, but must get some work done before I put it before you. You will larf at me non-stop BECAUSE IT IS SO TRUE!

― mark s, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Quick get the work done, I wanna hear it!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think I've ever got piss-ass drunk enough to *do* stupid things (or stupider than I'd do sober at least), never mind forget about them. After I've gone to bed, yes I do get [almost] hallucinations of the evening continuing, though usually it's too weird and/or interesting to confuse with reality (though I did have a really vivid argument with Starry after TBII).

― Graham, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I have never been this myself. Supposedly this means that we are the genetically lucky ones and can booze a fair bit yet will never become alkies! Hurrah!

― Colin Meeder, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I only ever remember doing really stupid things after cheap vodka at student nights, I was walking through Temple Bar in Dublin singing that song from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and then all these other people joined in.

Dublin at night is like a mental asylum, particularly Temple Bar. I remember one night coming home down Grafton Street and seeing about 100 people singing football songs and dancing around with massive grins like we'd won the world cup or something. Anyone who walked by in any other country would be scared but in Ireland all the passers by were dancing and singing aswell and there were two pathetic looking policemen wondering what the fuck was going on.

It's an experience, going out in Dublin, the nightbus can be like a party.

― Ronan, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Temple Bar is great for being drunk! I went to Dublin for a friend's b/day & we got so drunk it was great. The stupidest thing we did was all wear some tasteful horns! Most amusing!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

haha Temple Bar is always full of English tourists, they used to go to the Kitchen nightclub and be like "where's bono". But they'd always buy you drinks and ask if you wanted to come to a strip club after for their mate's stag do. Never went.

― Ronan, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Apologies for all of those English tourists! I do love Dublin tho!

― Pinkpanther, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I read somewhere that at a certain point after so much alcohol, the brain stops storing memories; to analogise using a video recorder, normal sober memories are taped using pristine tapes; after a few bears, the dirty tape heads cause chunks to not record properly. By the end of a big session, the video has just stopped recording.

Don't know if it's true, but it was quite scary when I read it.

As for the get-out clause, I genuinely believe that you can do many things when drunk, but it's not a get-out. If you know that can happen, the problem was getting so boozed up in the first place. But maybe that's the ex-Catholic in me talking.

― Nathan Barley, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I occasionally get this, and it's not always embarrassing episodes that I forget (members of Sinister might dispute this though) so I don't subscribe to the subconscious self-protection thing. To avoid having to think of myself as an alcoholic, I relate the phenomenon to the same brain function that made me sleepwalk as a child and wake up in a completely different part of the house having negotiated a bunk bed, closed doors, stairs etc.

― Archel, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, I quite often forget passages of time but nver the whole night, and yup, have done things only to be reminded the next day with me denying all knowledge, when combined with the Fear that Tim describes this is bloody excruciating (see last night of ATP 2001 for details as I lay there not remembering anything I'd just done and worrying that I was going to choke in my sleep atr the same time.)

― chris, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Ooh and I always have weird morning dreams, especially when I've been drinking, which since I have normally either fallen asleep with the radio on or slept through the radio alarm, are bizarre amalgams of whatever stories are on the Today programme. (Excuse the long sentence.)

― Archel, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Believe me this can happen. It's often horrible. On the other hand, alcohol does produce weird/cool dreams... once I dreamt I'd been playing the trumpet for about a week and Miles Davis hired me. I sounded pretty good too.

― Andrew, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

OH NO! TEETH DREEMS!

― STeve.n., Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The end of Trig Brother last year was a bit furry around the edges. I do recall Al Ewing snogging me, though.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Are you still suffering from PTSD?

― RickyT, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The scratchiness of the beard left a mark, doubtless.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

How would you know? Remember what happened to Tracy in The Phildelphia Story .

― felicity, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Al Ewing is a memorable man, Felicity. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Haha James we are soulmates*, in that I used to get drunk a lot when I first went to uni and then I dropped out and haven't got drunk since. I never forgot anything much more than I normally do anyway, I just realised I didn't enjoy being drunk.

*My contribution to the rising creepiness levels.

― Martin Skidmore, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never been drunk; this happens to me all the time.

― davidh(owie), Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Oops.

― davidh(owie), Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

As someone who has been at stages of my life quite a 'serious' drinker, I can say that there are many many things I cannot remember, but that generally they are horribly mundane. However, I did lose two hours in The Goose in Brixton at the end of 2000 after 15 pints of Guinness, and there are photos of me kissing people I cannot remember ever seeing in my life which I swear blind have been doctored to make me paranoid about my brane.

However, I do remember shitting myself in public about 18 months ago in Northampton because I was so pissed, which is the kind of thing you would hope you'd black out.

― Nick Southall, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

It's happened to me many times. It's pretty awful. The all-time worst (why oh why am I saying this and yes it's true) was waking up with some strange guy in my bed and having no memory who he was, how he got there, or what we might have done. Yikes.

― Sean, Friday, 26 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

If I forget an evening after a certain point, I get flashbacks, which is really awful!

one day when there was an unfolding series of such flashbacks, one of them was that I had gotten a group of us to folkdance...I think folkdancing is great but it was pretty embarrassing.
One of my worsts was no memory of getting to a venue after another one and then when I went home, the next day I didn't realise until my friend told me (and then I only partyly remembered) that I came home and spent hours going from my bed to the bathroom to spew then to my friends bed, bathroom to spew etc also there was some vomit on the wall above my bed, just a tiny bit, pretty disturbing evidence.

― halo halo, Saturday, 27 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark - it's real. I recently found out there's a video of me from some years ago where I'm eating a raw onion, drunk, showing off, kissing people - don't remember it at all. The worst time I woke up on a couch, covered in mud - did not know how it got there - wearing only one shoe - apparently I'd been running round and round a house screaming and fallen down a bank - someone had taken my pants off - but who? The only person in the house was the sleazy old father of one of my friends. And it was this responsible man who'd encouraged me at two in the afternoon to start drinking whiskey while we played poker ... I don't think anything bad happened but who knows.

― maryann, Saturday, 27 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

The worst thing, though, is when you can remember. Unfortunately, I can remember things like walking along behind a bunch of my artist friends screaming at them that minimalism was evil and that the reason their art was a failure was because they didn't believe in the devil and stupid, pretentious stuff like that. You are always SO pretentious when you're drunk. Not being drunk is a liberation. From libation.

― maryann, Saturday, 27 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Never happened to me (& I am vaguely suspicious of claims of memory loss, but then I also don't believe in paranoia/comedown for their respected substances either . . .)

― Ess Kay, Saturday, 27 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

15 pints of guinness?!?! no way! nick that's like ingesting a dozen loaves of bread!!

― geeta, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't it just. I thought I'd had about 8 or 9, but an independant observer tells me I had at least 15, starting at 3pm and finishing at 8.30pm when I got dragged to Brixton Academy to see the band I was meant to be in London for. I didn't drink another thing all night, danced like a maniac, and finally passed out at about 2am in someone else's posh hotelroom with a curtain over me. Rock n roll!

― Nick Southall, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

mark s, Colin and Ess Kay, I am crushed you do not remember our nights of passion. I guess you were too drunk or something.

― felicity, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Had I known I would not have taken advantage of gentlemen in your condition.

― felicity, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Felicity is now instantly the friend of all the straight and bi males on the boards. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

my point is, How would you know? Are you mentalists who go out handcuffed to 100% truthtelling alibis or something?

I used to not believe in this either until someone regaled a group of my friends with a hilarious story involving the time a few years ago when we were doing wipp-its and etc., etc., ha, ha, ha. Except I have never done wipp-its. Or so I thought . . .

― felicity, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

drinken passion = classic example of mutual decision to say "we can't remember" PRECISELY BECAUSE WE CAN

― mark s, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i can remmber ebrything i did when i got drunk friday, including taking off my clothes... wait, was i drunk by then?

― Chupa-Cabras, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Other people are lying cads. I, on the other hand, truly cannot remember. But I'll take your word for it.

― felicity, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I think my "problem" is I don't get drunk enough, & when I do get drunk I don't feel like sleeping/crashing so I make a point of staying awake/etc until I sober up.
(& how do you know you're actually sleeping in yr bed at night!)

― Ess Kay, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

because of the coyote date still there in the morning?

― felicity, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(& I am vaguely suspicious of claims of memory loss,
you people don't give much credence to science in this regard????

but then I also don't believe in paranoia/ comedown for their respected substances either . . .)
comedown would surely apply to more than one substance...I don't understand how you could not believe in it - do you mean comedown as in you are left in deficit of something (endorphins or other things, whatever) so you end up further "down" than if you hadn't had the substance? or...?

― halo halo, Sunday, 28 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember, Felicity. I also remember FAKING IT THE WHOLE TIME!! HA!!!

― Colin Meeder, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Ess Kay do you not believe in the "comedown" of, say, speed? Yikes. Lucky you. I do. God. I gave it up cos of that y'know.

― Andrew, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

X: "Anyone seen my Rennies, God, it's like the fifth one I've had this hour."

Mark S: "You got a heart problem or sumthing X?"

X: "Yeh, always indigested."

X leaves room.

Mark s to Y: "Is X's problem psychosomatic? I mean he always takes them pills. Could he have fooled himself into believing that, or just wants a weakness for pity?"

Ie. mark s = one of those healthy people who refuse to believe the ill are ill.

NOTE: This is an analogue.

NOTE2: I am one of these people; I get it from my dad.

― david h(0wie), Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

this has happened to me on occassion. I saw an email I had written while in a state like this but had absolutely no recollection of doing so. It was pretty coherent and very eerie, to see words and thoughts part of my brain had formed while the rest of me was sleeping.

― Ms. S., Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I lost most of the first night of Bowlie. The thing I was most impressed with was waking up in my glasses, having previously had contact lenses in, and finding the lenses had been cleaned and put in their case.

― Ally C, Tuesday, 30 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

What happened last night?

― RickyT, Wednesday, 31 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

two years pass...
I was quite sure that forgetting a night's events due to alcohol consumption was total balls up until very recently. Since hitting 24 I seem to be able to get super-humanly pissed on only a small amount of booze and next morning have no recollection of the night's events.
This can be extremely disconcerting when I get people saying things like "What you said to me last night was really cool/sweet/rude/irritating" and I just have to pretend I know what they're talking about. Why is this? I used to be able to recall the entire night in the goriest of details but now?!

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 09:22 (twenty years ago)

I'm 24 and it still hasn't happened to me. I'll be sure and report back here when it does...

― From a Land of Grass Without Mirrors (AaronHz), Sunday, 31 October 2004 09:32 (twenty years ago)

It started happening to me when i was about 24, had only happened a couple of times prior to that. it has progressively gotten worse too.... these days and can lose whole chunks of an evening - periods of 4 or 5 hours. although i've yet to lose an entire evening, i've no doubt it could happen.

― gem (trisk), Sunday, 31 October 2004 09:37 (twenty years ago)

Since I hit 24 I've drunk a lot less. I did lose a few evening before then, though.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Sunday, 31 October 2004 10:35 (twenty years ago)

there is someone on my work intranet with your name Nick - is it you?

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 10:45 (twenty years ago)

I don't think I've ever lost chunks of time from drunkenness. Usually, like with last night, memories come trickling back in slowly, and I can eventually account for all of my actions. This is not always pleasant or reassuring.

I was told once that losing time like this might come from lacking a certain kind of enzyme? So it happens to some and not others...But if it comes on as you age, more or less, I'm not inclined to believe it. (The person who told me that used to get drunk while hosting a party for instance, and walk around all night getting people drinks etc and then not remember any of it.)

― sgs (sgs), Sunday, 31 October 2004 10:45 (twenty years ago)

trouble is I think, ppl are forgetting that even when we are stone cold sober our memories are imperfect. I went to a party last nite and was drinking, but didn't get drunk. I suspect that I do not remember all the conversations I had simply coz they were not particularly memorable. This sounds awful I'll admit, it is not that they were boring conversations per se it is just that when yr in a situation when there are lots of ppl you don't know and you go through the who are you?/where do you live?/what do you do for a living? routine several times over then you're less likely to remember it than if you have an in-depth conversation about 12 ft lizards taking over the world.

― MarkH (MarkH), Sunday, 31 October 2004 11:00 (twenty years ago)

I had to do the whole meet/greet the missus's friends thing last night and I guess it was a bit weird. Problem with these situations is if I'm sober then I will satellite around and not speak to anyone. I got really pissed and probably made a total prat of myself. So now I'll probably be known as "that twat who's going out with k3lly and thinks he's funny but he's not he's just a twat".
I am now at work and have that horrible feeling of dread that grips my stomach and tells me I did everything all wrong but don't know what it was.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 11:25 (twenty years ago)

I "cooked" frozen pommes noisettes one night while pissed. I woke up the next morning and realised with horror that I had left the oven on all night in our new flat. Of course I had burnt out the element. I pretended I didn't know how the oven got broken.

― Captain Obvious, Sunday, 31 October 2004 11:33 (twenty years ago)

i've been hooking up with someone, and there's been all this frustrating anticipation and sexual tension, which is unabated despite ending up with bed with him twice because both times i was so drunk i didn't remember most of what happened the next morning. he says it was great but i guess i'll have to take his word for it.

― argh, Sunday, 31 October 2004 12:13 (twenty years ago)

I'm pretty sure it's not me, Dog Latin?

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Sunday, 31 October 2004 12:15 (twenty years ago)

This happened to me after playing the "never ever" drinking game (which I always lose) with some other delegates at a conference using vodka "shots" in tea cups (after a night of champers and finger food). I think the last round I remembered was "I have never had sex with someone I didn't know for at least a two hours beforehand" and the next thing I knew I woke up and asked the girl whose room I was sharing who had vomited on my bed.

Apparently however the festivities went on for four more hours, the last half hour of which I spent unconscious and locked in the bathroom.

― Tim Finney (Tim Finney), Sunday, 31 October 2004 12:49 (twenty years ago)

I'm 24 and I've only just started having this happen, too. Only when I drink a LOT, though.

Is 24 a magic number?

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 31 October 2004 13:35 (twenty years ago)

Since hitting 24 I've found a lot of weird and wonderful things have been happening pretty much overnight. Smoking pot makes me not only paranoid but also very confused whereas before I could just chill with it. It just makes me feel unpleasant now.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 31 October 2004 14:26 (twenty years ago)

Sigh.


I just felt some pain in my hand, and looked down to see that I have a giant, swollen BRUISE on the PALM part of my hand. WTF? I blame Night Train.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 31 October 2004 14:53 (twenty years ago)

Not the Amis novel, either.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 31 October 2004 14:53 (twenty years ago)

This happened to me too many times (usually following multiple tequila shots or tuaca). I laid off the liquor and have been (fairly) successful at none of the alcohol at all for a bit now.

The worse times included photographs of public displays I had no recollection of and one-night stands I have no memories of. Beware young alcoholics.

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Monday, 1 November 2004 02:13 (twenty years ago)

I get this particularly if I mix the ganja and the booz. I had one night where much of it is a huge blur, though I do vaguely recall tripping over my friend Dom's legs and landing thigh-first on the arm of a chair which resulted in a saucer-sized bruise the next day (oww). The worrying part is my shag of the time telling me he also came over that night for about half an hour and I was staggering and slurring heaps. I do not recall this, to the point I was convinced he was bullshitting me. No amount of being told detail has made it come back. Thats the worst actual complete memory hole I've had. Not nice.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:09 (twenty years ago)

I dont drink like that anymore fwiw. At that point I was making a severely drunken/drugged ass of myself every weekend and after a few extremely embarrasing incidents (classic one: going to see Fear and Loathing at the outdoor moonlight cinema, going to the loos mid film and GETTING LOST on the way back) gave me a bit of a wakeup call.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:10 (twenty years ago)

I can always remember walking home but I have a hard time remembering why I left. :(

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:14 (twenty years ago)

I'm always so afraid to ask the next morning what I did, because I'm worried it will be stupid and people won't have a sense of humor about it. So I don't ask and am then filled with dread that they are silently judging me but just not telling me.

Really it's just better to get drunk with friends who don't give a damn.

― Laura E (laurae55), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:18 (twenty years ago)

I only have a couple of nights with missing pieces (like Trayce it came from mixing pot and booze, even pot by itself had a major affect on me). No unhappy endings, they mostly end with me sleeping in someone's closet or bathtub.

One night I clearly remember standing near a bar with my friend Wes as he gets a girl I introduced him to to hold a bottle of Bud between her breasts. After that, nothing until the next morning.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:25 (twenty years ago)

it's worse when you ask and they don't tell you everything. when lots of people do this and you have to find out on your own, horribly. :(

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:26 (twenty years ago)

the first time I ever had this happen was when I was 24 at a party. It was just after a film screening and a friend of mine asked me to tend bar, which involved filling up paper cups with Milwaukee's Best from a keg. I'd already been pretty far gone on a Pepsi bottle filled with white russian. Apparently when I was done tending bar/drinking paper cups of cheap beer, someone dared me to ask this "hot but way psycho" girl to have sex with me. Apparently I went up to her and asked "hey Jen, will you have sex with me? JUST KIDDING JUST KIDDING!" and ran off. By "ran off" I mean, ran off out of the house and about a mile back down to my apartment. None of this I remembered at all, of course.

― Riot Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:41 (twenty years ago)

The blackout effect is real. It can really happen. I didn't believe in it until a certain Tequila night -- I woke up the next morning in bed but with my clothes still on, and asked a housemate what happened. I was told that

1) I kept grabbing my female housemate's ass
2) I had taken down a smoke detector and was throwing across the room
and
3) I was barely intelligible and people who tried to talk to me thought I seemed zombie-like

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:43 (twenty years ago)

I was barely intelligible and people who tried to talk to me thought I seemed zombie-like

i get that one. supposedly i speak german. i don't know german.

― manthony m1cc1o (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:44 (twenty years ago)

MESSAGE ON MY PHONE (WOO-WOO)

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 03:46 (twenty years ago)

i found a bra in my sheets this afternoon

not sure what else i may find!

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 04:44 (twenty years ago)

Another thing that's happened to me since hitting 24 is falling asleep due to drunkenness. Whereas before this was nigh-on impossible because if I got that drunk I'd get the spinnies and instantly wake myself up, the other night I managed to pass out while talking to my girlfriend in the kitchen. This has honestly never happened before.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 1 November 2004 09:05 (twenty years ago)

I can lose chunks of my memory after even a couple of pints. I am absolutely, absolutely terrible when it comes to drunken memory loss.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 1 November 2004 09:42 (twenty years ago)

I'm actually quite good with drunken memories.
Sure, if I get absolutely smashed I won't exactly be able to give you a chronological play-by-play of how the night went, but for the most part, I'll know what I did. I might cringe at some of my behaviour, but I know I did it. OK, sometimes people need to remind me about certain chunks and/or conversations, but I always remember them when prompted. I have never been told I did/said something that I had no recollection of whatsoever. This tells me:

(a) I am a light drinker (FALSE - I'm a lush)
(b) My memory is rock solid (FALSE - 6 years of chronic pot smoking doesn't help)
(c) I tend to drink with people who get much more drunk than I do, hence there may indeed be things I don't remember, but no-one else does either, so memories may just be lost to the sands of time. (MOSTLY TRUE - but hard to quantify)

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 1 November 2004 10:36 (twenty years ago)

Blackouts are not good - you are all raving alcoholics.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Monday, 1 November 2004 10:54 (twenty years ago)

what's thad you shhhhay, buddy? naaaaah, we are nod acloholics! bahhh... *hicccup*. leave me alone... you make mee WRETCH! *burp*

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:00 (twenty years ago)

Who, me? I don't remember saying that.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:02 (twenty years ago)

i've woken up from the last two sundays with REALLY WEIRD BRUISES. that i don't know where they came from. apologies to anyone at club FT that i grossed out with the one on my leg.

― colette (a2lette), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:15 (twenty years ago)

i get unexplained bruises a lot. too much to drink = lack of motor control & bad memory. a friend and i figure that millions are to be made in marketing cushiony, drunk-proof furniture for bars.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:44 (twenty years ago)

how about cushiony, drunk-proof clothing?

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:56 (twenty years ago)

I always figured this was a self-preserving myth too. Until the day before my birthday this year when I went to meet some friends of a friend in a pub for a glass of wine. Which apparently turned into five bottles of wine between two of us over the course of about 1 1/2 hours. Next thing I know I've come to in the loft of a random Chelsea flat with the skylight open, it's 3.30am and my shoes are missing. I don't remember leaving the pub, or indeed taking my contacts out and carefully putting them back into their container, or ANYTHING AT ALL after about 9pm.

This doesn't happen that often, normally the memories are present in my brain if not immediately accessible, but ah well, that was better than coming to in a phone box like my best friend once did.

― The Lex (The Lex), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:06 (twenty years ago)

Rob, that's called FAT and I'm trying to get there as fast as I can!

― Starry (hello chickens), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:07 (twenty years ago)

I quite often lose my memory as a reult of drinking. I can never remember how I got home.

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:12 (twenty years ago)

I am always the one who winds up having to babysit/pilot my fellow drunks when out. If I have more than about 5 drinks of a night out without alternating with water I *will* throw up (discreetly).

Somehow I am able to get baked without the annoying memory loss thing but I don't half wander around in a fog looking for my keys if I've been smoking. In my case I think it casuses procrastination, not forgetfulness.

― suzy (suzy), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:48 (twenty years ago)

I got very drunk after a good friends open casket wake a year ago. I don't remember leaving the last bar, but I was escorted home, barefoot, jacketless and surly by two cops who woke up my boyfriend by shining a flashlight in his sleeping face so he could take custody of me. Two days later, we drove by my shoes, sitting neatly by a chain link fence surrounding a construction site about four blocks from our home. My jacket (and wallet) were returned to the cops by a woman who found them on her front steps, approx. midpoint between the shoes and my house. I never reclaimed the shoes, and they stayed there for about ten days. My only excuse is the circumstances - open caskets suck. Made it to the funeral with the biggest hangover ever.

― aimurchie, Monday, 1 November 2004 12:49 (twenty years ago)

I am curious - why didn't you pick the shoes up?

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:50 (twenty years ago)

i haven't really got drunk since a Kerrang! party this year where my brother and i drained the free bar on empty stomachs. i can't remember *anything* of that night after my brother started DJing, except for kissing departing dep ed Dave Everley, and saying goodbye to Ray Zell at the door. evidence discovered later suggests i ate a bacon double cheeseburger from buger king en route, and that i got involved in a messy text message to and fro with an ex girlfriend. that and the horrific hangover that followed ensured i just don't drink anymore.

― stevie (stevie), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:56 (twenty years ago)

The shoe thing is funny. My cousin always gauges how good a night she's had by the state of her shoes. One day we went to visit her, and her shoes were outside, in bits, sitting on top of the bin. We knew then she was most probably inside, lying on her couch with a basin by her head.

― Penelope_111 (Penelope_111), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:58 (twenty years ago)

I just felt some pain in my hand, and looked down to see that I have a giant, swollen BRUISE on the PALM part of my hand. WTF? I blame Night Train.


I just remembered that this is probably from when I accidentally locked myself in my room and was frantically pulling on the doorknob.


Last night I couldn't remember how I got to where I was.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 1 November 2004 14:30 (twenty years ago)

The blackout thing has only really happened to me once, a few years ago. In a club, I had indulged about 10 times in the double+mixer=£1.50 offer. I was dancing out of my tree and regained reality attached by the face to some bloke, after which we got thrown out for snogging in the toilets. I swore at bouncers and everything. Ahah, goodbad times. I still drink like a fish, but not spirits in quite such large quantities.

My friend Rosie is queen of drunken memory loss, and it's always fun to make stuff up and see if she believes that she did it.

― Liz :x (Liz :x), Monday, 1 November 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago)

in addition to mystery injuries there's the annoying morning-after game, "where did i put that," involving things like keys and wallet and mobile.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 1 November 2004 14:46 (twenty years ago)

Things are trickling in from last night. In addition to the Krystal debacle as detailed here: six cheeseburgers, I remember dancing a lot (I don't do this) and I can remember 5 people that I smooched randomly on the face, wonder how many more people I did that to. Hope I don't get the herps!

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:03 (twenty years ago)

the annoying morning-after game, "where did i put that,"

my version of this game is much more distressing...

― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:24 (twenty years ago)

The morning after always gives me the fear that I have lost my phone & purse. Amazingly, I always seem to have kept hold of them!

― PinXorchiXoR (Pinkpanther), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:25 (twenty years ago)

my version of this game is much more distressing...

ewwwww

― colette (a2lette), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:27 (twenty years ago)

I thought black outs were common, man. I don't seem to be able to stop it happening every time I go out. Scratch that, every time I leave the house.

― John Cei Douglas (John Cei Douglas), Monday, 1 November 2004 15:27 (twenty years ago)

Yesterday morning I woke up with a big bag of Kit Kats and a fork. I don't really know how this came to be.

― Laura E (laurae55), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:09 (twenty years ago)

"where did i put that," involving things like keys and wallet and mobile.

I once lost my glasses and had to wear an old prescription for a month. Finally I ran into the guys from the band I had seen that night and I apparently left them sitting on one of their amps. Before they told me they had them I had decided they must have gotten flushed down the toilet while I was puking.

I'm so not missing getting trashed anymore.

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:26 (twenty years ago)

What should I do with the bra I found?

I lost my mobile phone on friday night after embarassing myself in front of Beautiful Hippie Girl. I drank whiskey poured into Genny Light. Ugh. I stipped naked in front of a platonic female friend and fell asleep!

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:30 (twenty years ago)

Do you know who is belongs to? What size is it?

― Laura E (laurae55), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:30 (twenty years ago)

I know who it belongs to.

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:31 (twenty years ago)

Maybe you should return it?

― Laura E (laurae55), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:31 (twenty years ago)

What if I dont want to see her?

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:33 (twenty years ago)

C on it first

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:33 (twenty years ago)

I suppose you could leave it in a bag outside her door. Or keep it around as a prop for future hilarity.

― Laura E (laurae55), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:35 (twenty years ago)

wear it

― tokyo rosemary (rosemary), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:37 (twenty years ago)

She is HOMELESS.

― LE CHUCK!™ (ex machina), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:37 (twenty years ago)

Dude, you should really give it back then. Nice bras can be expensive.

― Laura E (laurae55), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:40 (twenty years ago)

and helps a little to keep warm in the winter months.

― ken c (ken c), Monday, 1 November 2004 16:47 (twenty years ago)

Apparently I kissed one of my friends husbands on Saturday night, I'm sure I'd remember that. Also my Deep Purple cd is scratched tae fuck, I don't remember doing that either.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:18 (twenty years ago)

What is frustrating to me about this is that apparently my memory shutdown function comes on before I get the spins, get stumbly, get sick, or get pass-out-y. I wouldn't mind so much losing memories of praying OH PORCELAIN GODS and passing out in a pile of my own on the bathroom floor, but when I lose memories of MAKING OUT WITH PEOPLE and SERENADING STRANGERS and such, that's where the REGRET card gets played.

I seem to have some sort of strange curse/blessing (blurse?) that requires someone to break out a camera every time I go past the point of now return. It's really weird though looking at photos of things you did the night before that you have absolutely no recollection of.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:43 (twenty years ago)

"point of now return" ha ha

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:44 (twenty years ago)

I am 25, and I still haven't experienced this unable-to-remember business. Sometimes the memory isn't quite vivid, but it's never completely gone.

As far as 24 being a magic number, that's when I developed an intolerance to caffeine!

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:47 (twenty years ago)

I suspect I don't drink enough.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:49 (twenty years ago)

I am 22, and I have experienced this many many times since I was 16. Before that, it was all just fun and games, getting drunk and eating giant bowls of Frosties.

― John Cei Douglas (John Cei Douglas), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:58 (twenty years ago)

I mean, I really thought this had happened to everyone at least once...

― John Cei Douglas (John Cei Douglas), Monday, 1 November 2004 19:05 (twenty years ago)

I didn't think I ever got the blackout thing (from drinking) until hearing a story that I figured out about half way through was about me. Nothing bad - it was a good story and I wish I actually remembered it. This also was when I was about 24 or so. I've since been aware of not-quite-recalling-everything on a few occasions since.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Monday, 1 November 2004 19:58 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...
Last night I came home REALLY pissed so I stayed up on the computer until the room stopped spinning, got in bed, switched off the light and fell asleep.
Next thing I know I am awoken by a mighty crashing sound to find myself standing in the middle of my room and having pulled down my 500+ capacity CD rack from the wall.
My Dad came in to check on me only ten minutes later only to find me fast asleep again with a sea of compact discs and broken racks adorning my floor.
Nothing like this has ever happened before - I don't even know what posessed me to do this and potentially ruin 1000's of pounds worth of music. I don'r normally sleepwalk either.
Anyway, it's going to take me a damn long time to clear these up.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 27 December 2004 01:06 (twenty years ago)

On Tuesday, the morning after a lengthy demob session, I woke up fully clothed in a female friend's bed with neither of us having any clue quite how I got there.

This was all perfectly innocent and nothing untoward had gone on, but it was still midly freaky considering I distinctly remember crashing out on the sofa downstairs, and the telltale signs of my shoes and a half-full pint glass of water were still there.

So either I was abducted, I have a problem with alcohol-induced sleepwalking, or I have taken to drunkenly clambering into girls' beds. I have no idea which, if any, of these is the preferable option. But suddenly this doesn't seem quite so implausible.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 27 December 2004 02:19 (twenty years ago)

I had this for the first time like two weeks ago! It was weird, I woke up the next morning and felt furious with myself for having passed out only five minutes into the party like a total loser. Then I talked to people the next day and they all recounted conversations we'd alledgedly had, I realised I must have been around for two or three hours without the slightest memory after five minutes.

What makes it even more annoying is that I was alledgedly snogging a girl I'd wanted to snog for ages, AND I HAVE NO MEMORY OF THIS. Graaargh.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Monday, 27 December 2004 03:04 (twenty years ago)


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