The Blackout

There are many potential immediate side effects from a night of drinking. People have experienced the punishment called hangovers. Some get headaches, feel sick, get the spins and go through other miserable experiences when waking up the morning after. I would personally take all of those possible morning penalties over the worst of them all…The Blackout. People who have black spots from the night before think they have it good, but little do they know the dangers of blacking out. That’s why I’ve decided to explain what The Blackout is all about and help you prepare to identify it and best protect yourself.

Webster’s dictionary defines Blacking Out as the act of blacking out. Let me elaborate by explaining that Blackouts involve short-term memory loss of a piece of, or the entire preceding night. Your average run-of-the-mill Blackout will usually allow the subject to recall the earlier stages of the drinking experience but can’t remember anything after a certain part of the evening. The major issue with Blacking Out isn’t the brain damage which you might have or your liver failure but the potential that you offended someone the night before or did something you shouldn’t have and can’t remember doing it. Every moment knocks off precious minutes to make that apology phone call or bracing yourself for an ass whooping by whoever. I know that I’ve woken up a few times and felt like I’m in the movie Memento, trying desperately to piece together my evening to figure out what adventure I’d been in. The best advice I can give is to stay calm, take some deep breaths and try to think like a detective for a little bit.

The key to figuring out where you’ve been and what you did is to start looking for clues right when you wake up, every second is crucial. Start by trying to identify your surroundings. Are you in your bedroom or your own apartment? Is this your neighbors place? Are you on a front lawn somewhere or at a stranger’s house? All are key questions to begin the unfolding process. Next, start to look around and see who’s there. Do you recognize the person sleeping next to you? Are there a bunch of people lying on the floor? Is the person sitting next to you in the drunk tank touching you? Finally, start taking inventory of yourself; see if there are any scars or noticeable marks that can uncover a clue. Passing out in your clothes is the best sign, that probably means you were just too drunk to change. If you have a few knife wounds, you were probably in a dangerous fight you didn’t belong in. Claw marks or bites can indicate that a wild animal attacked you, like a bear or tiger, which is common in Manhattan. Finally comes the crucial decision of running away or staying put. If it’s your own apartment, I advise you stay put. If you know you shouldn’t be where you are, don’t want to be where you are, or still have no clue where you are, I advise running away quickly and going home. Or at the least, catch a bus or train home from whatever state you’ve ended up in.

The key is practice and the more times you Blackout, the easier it gets to piece together the night. So listen up kids and start learning how to brace yourself for Blackouts now so you can be more prepared when you’re in a time crunch situation a few years down the road.