Contents
Hello dear blog readers! Alcohol on holidays and celebrations — in modern society is an unbreakable tradition. Moreover, regardless of how a person treats him, drinking is sometimes downright necessary. For example, because it is important to remember. Or prove your good attitude, belonging to a certain group of people.
Therefore, today we will talk about why memory disappears when intoxicated. Indeed, with almost every person who even just tried alcohol, this happened.
Types
There are two types of memory loss:
- Fragmentary — that is, there are only small episodes of events, putting them together, a person is still not able to understand the big picture. For example, he may not understand how he ended up in some place, why they are angry or offended at him, where the money has gone, and so on. At the same time, if you tell him the sequence of what is happening at the moment when he was drunk, it is likely that he will remember what was forced out of his memory.
- Complete — this is already a severe form of amnesia, in which memories can be lost, and starting from several hours to days. In this case, the restoration of events in the memory in most cases is out of the question.
Why is she disappearing?
In our brain there is a department, the hippocampus, which is responsible for memory, emotions. That is, if for some reason it does not function as it should, we lose the opportunity to reproduce any events, to experience the feelings that were associated with them.
Outwardly, it looks like a small seahorse. For this reason, it got its name, by merging the two words Hippos, which translates as a horse, and Kampe, curved.
It is located in the temporal region, approximately where the ears are located. And when damaged, it significantly affects a person’s life. For example, Alzheimer’s disease implies malfunctions in its work, which is why people with this disease sometimes cannot recognize even the closest and beloved people with whom they have spent most of their lives.
With severe alcohol intoxication, neural connections in the brain are disrupted. There is suppression of the hippocampus, as well as the amygdala and frontal lobe. These are areas that «deliver» information and also warn of danger. Have you noticed that a drunk person seems to lose fear? What would frighten him in a sober state, he perceives almost with a challenge.
Therefore, a high percentage of the victims of any tragic events are individuals who took alcohol. For example, they often fall out of balconies, crash in car accidents, drown, and so on. Because they are simply not able to correctly, sensibly assess the situation, the likely risks, and they pay for it with their health or life.
Plus, perception, which is an indispensable component in the process of memorization, is undergoing changes. That is, a person becomes unable to notice some moments, there is a selectivity of events. That’s what is interesting — she will discuss, assimilate, everything else will be out of her field of vision. Accordingly, in the memories too.
Factors of influence
- Quantity. Drinking about 15 glasses of drinks, which equals 0,2 — 0,3% of blood alcohol, in one evening is most likely to cause complete memory loss.
- Heredity. At risk are those who have one of the parents had problems with alcohol.
- Gender specifics. Experts have come to the conclusion that women are more likely to suffer from amnesia. The fact is that their body contains less water than the male. Therefore, the concentration of alcohol in the blood increases faster.
- Physiological features. For the same, the above reason, thin people get drunk faster.
- Psychological features. Have you noticed what happens when humble, pleasant and well-mannered people get drunk? They, in most cases, begin to behave in an inappropriate way. Allowing true desires, thoughts and feelings to come out. So, the psyche protects the body from severe stress, which will inevitably follow if it perfectly remembers its “exploits”. Accordingly, it displaces the information that injures, or rather, causes shame, guilt.
- Drug use, nicotine. That is, if you smoke while taking alcohol and use additionally even soft drugs, the probability of losing any memories is quite high.
- Addiction. The frequency of reception plays a significant role. Individuals with alcohol dependence may lose the ability to remember significant stretches of life.
- Age. Adolescents and young people under 25 are the most vulnerable, as the frontal lobe is still underdeveloped.
How to prevent failure?
- Before drinking alcohol, be sure to eat something fatty. Thus, the body will start the process of enzyme synthesis, respectively, intoxication will come a little later.
- Be sure to eat. And never drink on an empty stomach. The food that is in it allows you to slow down the process of absorption of ethanol into the blood. Yes, you will get drunk, but a little later and with minimal health consequences.
- Do not mix as different drinks are metabolized differently. Why is there a failure in the body, violations in the assimilation of information.
Main risks in case of abuse
- Threat to life and health.
- Shame and guilt in connection with actions and words that, in a sober state, they would definitely not have allowed themselves.
- Participation in risky sexual contacts, and this applies to both men and women. Most of the situations associated with violence, in particular rape, occur with drunk people.
Completion
And that’s all for today, dear readers! Take care of yourself and your health, by the way, we generally do not recommend drinking alcohol. And if you have already formed an addiction, then check out this article. It contains recommendations to help you on your path to recovery.
Good luck and accomplishments!
The material was prepared by a psychologist, Gestalt therapist, Zhuravina Alina