CRIES FROM THE ABYSS
Alcohol Blackouts Revealed

by Donal F. Sweeney, M.D.
with Robert A. Liston

Long silenced by shame and stigma, alcohol blackout victims speak at last. In letter after letter, hundreds of them, they tell us more about blackouts than has ever been known before—what happens in a blackout; what brought it on; who has them and how often; the suffering and ruined lives associated with blackouts; the depths of our tragic neglect and ignorance about blackouts.

In graphic and intimate terms victims describe quarrels and physical abuse of loved ones, wild rides and tragic accidents, indiscriminate sex, rape, violent crimes, even murder, indeed, all manner of uncharacteristic and unwanted behaviors that are truly destructive, brutish and bizarre. And they have no control over or memory of it.

In Cries From the Abyss victims tell us that much we have believed about blackouts is incorrect. The long association of blackouts with heavy drinking and advanced alcoholism is dead wrong. People can black out on two beers. Others black out every time they drink.

They lose their sense of self. It seems to them another person, a “monster,” takes over their mind and body, performing acts they would never do. And, without memory formation, something like this does occur.

Abyss reveals a most serious public health problem that affects everyone, whether they drink or not—one grossly neglected and ignored by Medicine, the Law and Government.

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One voice from the Abyss: “When I drink alcohol, it’s like I die. Another person takes over my body, talks for me, walks for me, thinks for me.”

Another: “I wrote myself a letter while I was in a blackout, saying how much I hated myself and that when I wasn’t looking I was going to kill myself. It was like an evil alter ego talking. It was really scary.”

And: “My biggest regret following my son’s death is that I didn’t confront him in a big way about how dangerous it is to drink until you don’t know what you’re doing.”

Not just words: A man ran down a hotel hallway and through a glass window, falling 16 stories. Fortunately he lived to recognize he was in an alcohol blackout. Another drove for miles, reached home and went to bed, unaware the headless body of his lifelong friend sat next to him. When a woman learned she had scratched, bruised and repeatedly bit her best friend during an unremembered quarrel, she asked, “Who is this monster living inside me?”

Cries from the Abyss relates another hundred incidents. The victims do not remember any of their actions—nor did they intend or want them. They could not stop themselves because they were in an alcohol blackout, one of the more common effects of drinking, suffered by millions on any given day.

They did  not forget what happened. They will never remember, because alcohol blacked their ability to form memory. Without memory formation they lose self-awareness and self-control. They are zombies.

Yet their pre-blackout memory remains intact, enabling them to walk, talk, drive, travel, quarrel, get into fights, wield a knife or hammer—and never know it. There are reports of an airline pilot flying passengers cross-country and a physician performing surgery while blacked out.

“I went to a bar and woke up in a prison cell, not remembering a thing!”

Blackouts devastate individuals and families, and the price tag is enormous. Yet the police and courts, doctors and hospitals, know little or nothing about them. Blackouts have fallen through the cracks of medicine. The research most often cited is 35 years out of date and does not reflect current neuroscience. Such neglect and misrepresentation can no longer be tolerated.