Alcohol Blackouts: Some people report that an alternate personality takes over in their alcoholic blackouts, but researchers never consider multiple personality

Persons who had alcoholic blackouts emailed descriptions of their blackouts—based on circumstantial evidence and what witnesses had told them—to Donal F. Sweeney, M.D., board certified in internal medicine and addiction medicine. Dr. Sweeney quotes many of these descriptions in Cries From The Abyss: Alcohol Blackouts Revealed (Santa Barbara, Mnemosyne Press, 2008). For example, Heather writes:

“I am 30 years old and out of control. I only allow myself to go out once a week, because every time I do I wake up the next morning and can’t remember hardly anything…

“Once I decided to walk home from a party…I ended up being raped…

“Once I got mouthy with a guy who I thought was being rude to his girlfriend, and he punched me in the mouth, knocking me and five teeth out…

“I freaked out at a Christmas party and didn’t even recognize my own husband…

“I drove 300 miles one night before coming out of my blackout and realized I was in another city.

“I wrote myself a letter when 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…

“I am a church going, conservative, professional family woman…

“The blackouts occur almost every time I drink…It’s like another personality takes over…It’s really strange. I have no control over this ‘other self’…It’s like a different personality comes out of me. I get mouthy, obnoxious, combative, dangerous, hateful, self-destructive, in extreme cases suicidal, fearless, etc. I don’t even recognize friends and family…”

Since a number of the people reporting blackouts to Dr. Sweeney say that it’s like another personality takes over, he has a whole chapter addressing this issue—Chapter Nine, “Who Do I Become?”—but multiple personality is never considered.

Nor does it occur either to Dr. Sweeney or Dr. White—the latter writing for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (“What Happened? Alcohol, Memory Blackouts, and the Brain” http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-2/186-196.htm)—to ask any of the people with alcoholic blackouts if they ever have memory gaps when they had not been drinking.

As I mentioned in a past post, alcoholics who have memory gaps because they have multiple personality—involving an alternate personality who likes to drink—may also have memory gaps related to non-drinking alternate personalities. But, since the non-drinking personalities may be out for briefer periods of time and may engage in less dramatic or disruptive behavior, the person may not mention these memory gaps unless specifically asked.

It used to be thought that an alcohol blackout was a sign of severe, chronic alcoholism. But studies in recent years show that many people have blackouts when they first start drinking. Now I raise this question: In what percentage of cases is an “alcoholic blackout” a symptom of multiple personality in which an alternate personality likes to drink?

The first step in answering that question is to ask people with “alcohol blackouts” if they have ever had even a small, tiny blackout either when they had not been drinking at all or when they had been drinking relatively little. Anyone who has non-alcoholic memory gaps might then be evaluated for multiple personality.

But I think Heather should be evaluated for multiple personality just on the basis of what she is quoted as saying above. How blatant does multiple personality have to be before anyone thinks of it?