Author: Alex Thompson

Alcohol Use Disorder and PTSD: An Introduction PMC

It may be especially challenging to mention treatment with a PTSD alcoholic spouse because they are a husband or wife, not their disease but by showing care and compassion, you could provide the motivation necessary to begin treatment. Between six and eight of every ten (or 60% to 80% of) Vietnam Veterans seeking PTSD treatment have alcohol use problems. War Veterans with PTSD and alcohol problems tend to be binge drinkers. Binge drinking is when a person drinks a lot of alcohol (4-5 drinks) in a short period of time (1-2 hours).

Veterans over the age of 65 with PTSD are at higher risk for a suicide attempt if they also have drinking problems or depression. What to do in such cases when memory disappears after blackout drinking? With the help of ecosoberhouse.com, people will be able to leave their bad habits. Contact professionals and they will help you create a new life. Different psychotherapeutic techniques and therapies may be used to treat comorbid AUD and PTSD.

How to prevent blackouts

Questions about blackouts during routine medical visits could serve as an important simple screen for the risk of alcohol-related harms. If you or a loved one is struggling with alcoholism and co-occurring PTSD, recovery is possible. The experts at The Recovery Village offer comprehensive treatment for substance use and co-occurring disorders. If 100 people have a traumatic experience, around 10 percent of those people will get chronic PTSD with intrusive flashbacks that they cannot control, Anderson said.

1. You should know, though, that drinking makes it harder to concentrate, be productive, and enjoy your life.
2. Contact professionals and they will help you create a new life.
3. PTSD impacts 3.6 percent of adult Americans, approximately 5.2 million people.
4. Because blackouts tend to occur at high BACs, they commonly stem from binge drinking, defined as a pattern of drinking that increases a person’s BAC to 0.08 percent or higher.
5. Many people with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience blackouts, among other symptoms.

Nearly 52 percent of men diagnosed with PTSD report similar problems. The National Center for PTSD estimates as many as 75 percent of trauma survivors experience an alcohol use disorder. Because blackouts tend to occur at high BACs, they commonly stem from binge drinking, defined as a pattern of drinking that increases a person’s BAC to 0.08 percent or higher. This typically occurs after 4 drinks for women and 5 drinks for men—in about 2 hours. In fact, many people who have blackouts do so after engaging in a behavior known as high-intensity drinking, which is defined as drinking at levels that are at least twice as high as the binge-drinking thresholds for women and men.

PTSD and Alcoholism Statistics

Nevertheless, there are ways to manage alcoholism and prevent ptsd alcohol blackout. In the next section, two studies focus on the prevalence and correlates of AUD and PTSD in racial and ethnic minority communities. The Emerson et al. (2017) study is the first to examine the association between AUD and PTSD in American Indian and Alaskan Natives (AIAN) as compared to non-Hispanic Whites. High rates of PTSD among AIAN women and high rates of comorbid AUD/PTSD among AIAN men, in particular, are highlighted and discussed in terms of the need for targeted screening and intervention among AIAN communities. Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs indicates that as many as 63 percent of veterans diagnosed with alcohol use or other substance use disorder also meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. While PTSD does not result solely from trauma experienced with military duty, PTSD and alcohol abuse in veterans are occurring at higher rates than in the general population.

1 in 3 veterans currently getting treatment for substance abuse suffer from PTSD. From 2003 to 2009, there was a 56 percent increase of veterans getting treatment for alcoholism. Blackouts are not necessarily a sign of alcohol use disorder, but experiencing even one is a reason for concern and should prompt people to consider their relationship with alcohol and talk to their health care provider about their drinking. Research indicates that blackouts are more likely to occur when alcohol enters the bloodstream quickly, causing the BAC to rise rapidly.

Victims of PTSD are more likely to develop alcoholism to self-medicate symptoms of trauma. Some studies suggest that up to 40 percent of women and men in the United States who have PTSD meet the criteria for an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Factors contributing to addiction to alcohol and PTSD sufferers include the severity and type of PTSD the person experiences. Moreover, prolonged exposure therapy (PE) is an evidence-based method for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. The patient repeatedly encounters trauma over a series of sessions and is then asked to report the thoughts and feelings they experience. Alcohol, in particular, is used by numerous people living with stress disorders to relieve or at least suppress their PTSD symptoms.

Drinking alcohol, especially to excess, is likely to have similar effects on mood. Someone who experiences changes in mood or depressed feelings when drinking alcohol in addition to PTSD symptoms may be more likely to continue to drink excessively. They may feel that alcohol will prevent experiencing negative moods. As a result, some experience flashbacks and intrusive memories from war and use alcohol as coping mechanisms. Sixty-eight percent of Vietnam veterans who sought help for PTSD suffered from alcoholism.

Further, women are more likely to experience a traumatic experience due to disproportionately being affected by domestic violence, sexual abuse, and sexual assault. Women affected by PTSD are more likely to use alcohol after the trauma experience, whereas men seem to be more likely to use other substances. Studies show that the relationship between PTSD and alcohol use problems can start with either issue. For example, people with PTSD have more problems with alcohol both before and after they develop PTSD.

It all comes down to the amount of alcohol in each drink you’ve consumed and the way the alcohol affects you. As the hippocampus works to log events, its memory cells are communicating with each other and changing through a process called synaptic plasticity. Alcohol dampens synaptic plasticity, and therefore the ability of memory cells to communicate.

How to Handle and Prevent PTSD Blackouts

Eyewitness testimony is most reliable soon after an incident and when people are sober, because of the general memory deficits caused by booze. As time passes, all testimony becomes less reliable not only because of forgetting but due to witness contamination. To understand how long-term memories form, think of your brain as an Instagram account, except if your camera was constantly filming to collect memories. Traumatic memories represent an exception, as they tend to stick with us as a sort of survival instinct.

The development of alcoholism and memory loss in PTSD

In this factsheet, we will take a sober look at this common but deeply concerning consequence of alcohol misuse. Going through a trauma—whether or not you develop PTSD—can lead to alcohol use problems. Up to three quarters of people who survived abuse or violent traumatic events report drinking problems. Up to a third of those who survive traumatic accidents, illness, or disaster report drinking problems.

The rest of us get over it, and the memories rarely come to mind. Yet your ability to record memories doesn’t shut off completely. Research shows that memory consolidation remains somewhat intact even up to a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent — the legal limit.

Once you pass the legal blood alcohol concentration — which usually happens through binge drinking, typically four drinks for women and five for men in the span of two hours — the efficiency of your memory decreases until you black out. During a blackout, you can hold conversation and engage with people, but on the inside, nothing is being recorded to your memory. Dual diagnosis conditions such as addiction to alcohol and PTSD should be treated together for the greatest chance of recovery from both. If you or a loved one needs help with alcoholism, contact a treatment provider today to discuss available treatment options.