Dissocasion Or Alcohol Blackout?

[Sebastian9]

Three years ago i was having an argument at a bar, and out of nowhere the other guy hit me in the face with a beer bottle. I got a pretty bad concussion and lost sight on one eye. A year ago i went to see a therapist for what i though was unrelated issues, he told me i most likely had PTSD and should see a psyciatrist. He also told me that what i though was just drunken blackouts, sounded more like dissocasion. I stopped drinking a year and a half ago because almost every time i drank alcohol, i would get really anxious, and then suddenly just black out, and i would do and say stuff that made no sense. And the next morning i had no memory of what happened.

Does this sound like dissocasion? And should i see a psyciatrist?

 

[Chava]

almost every time i drank alcohol, i would get really anxious, and then suddenly just black out, and i would do and say stuff that made no sense. And the next morning i had no Link Removed of what happened.

This all sounds like a blackout (I'm a recovered alcoholic...was a major blackout drinker). But I guess a helpful question would be...do you forget what you did the next day after evenings you don't drink? Did this only happen when drinking?

Alcohol affects some of us in weird ways. It woke me up and made me come to life, while others just got sleepy. I could drink hours into a blackout. Some very weird stories of what went on that I will never remember.

If you a trauma history or one-time incident, or suspect PTSD for other reasons, see a qualified psychiatrist or therapist for diagnosis...also for direction or diagnosis if you have reasons to suspect dissociation that don't involve alcohol blackouts.

 

[anonymous]

What you experience will be excluded from the majority of psychiatric disorders because symptoms as a result of substance use are excluded from diagnostic criteria. That is, unless you're "dissociating" while sober, it's not part of a disorder (per dsm guidelines for ptsd and many other psychiatric illnesses).

 

[StellaBlue]

Apologies if this is "derailing" - but I was reading a novel recently where the protagonist experienced alcoholic blackouts and it got me interested in what happens during a blackout. Apparently, during an alcoholic blackout, the brain does not make memories - the person experiences transient or anterograde amnesia...so it's not about forgetting what happened, it's that the memories were never stored in the first place. I am not sure if this is physiologically what happens during dissociation (I suspect it is not), but I find the whole topic pretty fascinating.

 

[The Albatross]

Three years ago... but then you say, "I stopped drinking a year and a half ago because almost every time i drank alcohol, i would get really anxious, and then suddenly just black out, and i would do and say stuff that made no sense. And the next morning i had no memory of what happened."

So in the year and a half since you've stopped drinking, What if anything has occurred?

 

[Sebastian9]

When i say i stopped drinking, i really mean stopped trying to get drunk and going to parties, i still have a beer or two once in a while, and i still get really anxious when drinking around other people. What made me start thinking about what the therapist said was an incident 6 months ago, i was in the same bar i was hit with the beer bottle in, just having a burger and a beer(just one), this was the first time i was at that same bar since i was hit, and also the first time at a bar since i "stopped drinking". I blacked out for a couple of hours and "woke up" in my appartment, completely sober.

Other PTSD like symptoms i am having is, trouble falling asleep, social anxiety, lack of energy, panick attacks(often the day after drinking, or if i try to go to a bar or party sober) and i also lost 70 pounds in the last three years, and i dont know why. I was overweight before, now i am avarage, so i cant complain, but i lost 30 pounds in the last 6 months alone, and that is kind of starting to scare me.

 

[The Albatross]

30 pounds in 6 months is 5 pounds a month... that is a pound and a fraction a week, that is a normal weight loss. You are average weight now, overweight before. 70 pounds over three years... could have been due to the lifestyle you were living before making an effort to curb/limit your consumption of booze. BUT... If that scares you, you should examine your eating habits and see what residual behaviors you have about food and address them appropriately.

Booze often covers up social anxiety however it is a good observation that you realize you were in the same bar when you received an injury and also that it was the "first time at a bar since you curbed your drinking".

So far as the symptoms you report they are consistent with various other disorders but yes, if you are experiencing them I would see a Therapist and report during consult what measures you've taken and what you're currently experiencing.

 

[wish it would stop]

Three years ago i was having an argument at a bar, and out of nowhere the other guy hit me in the face with a beer b...

I am totally going through this and I was wondering what has happened to u since this post. I believe this started after a fight with my husband in a bar we own. I believe I could have had PTSD before (not sure) due to multiple events that happened in my life but the blackout, saying stuff that makes no sense and stuff I do not mean started after the fight in the bar. I can blackout for a time not knowing what happened and if there is still drama after the black out I can black right out again. I hope I can find a way to get past this with my husband by my side but this is hurting everyone around me and myself. Before the back outs started I never said or did mean things to people. Its scary

 

[Lovemyself]

You had a head injury as well as being traumatized. If you were hit so hard in the head it made you black out that is a medical trauma to your brain. You were also mentally truamatized. I have both brain injury due to heart failure strokes to much blood thinner having my head smashed in by my abuser while on blood thinners. It sounds like you have both medical and mental truama.