Excessive alcohol consumption is detrimental in many ways and one of the reasons why alcohol abuse is a serious condition is because it can lead to memory loss. However, for this to occur, the person would need to be drinking alcohol several times every single day of the week and a lot of people understand memory loss and excessive blackouts to be a warning or early "high-risk indicator" of alcoholism.

Alcohol causes considerable impact on the brain's ability to construct and retain memories as it forms a barrier for them to form and be recalled. It also inhibits the functioning of the brain and impacts the ability to think clearly.

There are several differing levels of alcohol-related memory loss with the first being fragmentary memory loss (also known as 'brownout'). This is the most common level and is when alcohol is drank excessively and the person cannot then remember the events that took place during that time unless given prompts to help instigate recall, for example 'Do you know what happened last night?' or sometimes even more specific clues like telling them who they went home with etc. This can be quite a daunting situation as the blurry memories of the previous night start to resurface from your memory.

The next level of memory loss is blackouts which occur as a result of heavy alcohol consumption. In this case, the person is unable to recollect memories of anything that happened even if they are given cues. This is because, at that point in time, the brain could not complete the memory formation process and therefore s/he has lost a section of time which they will never be able to retrieve. This can also be quite traumatic and frustrating especially when the individual is required to remember a serious occurrence but cannot do so.

A serious result of extreme drinking can be alcohol dementia, otherwise known as Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome. Individuals who consume alcohol on a very frequent basis (those with a high daily intake) tend to have low levels of thiamine, which can be controlled with vitamin B1 supplements if caught early enough. This deficiency causes nerve damage in the peripheral and central nervous system. One symptom that can help identify presence of this disease is that the person fabricates highly detailed stories of events or experiences that never actually took place.

There is also research that has taken place to support the notion that excessive alcohol consumption increases an individual's risk of dementia later on in life and memory loss is a major element of dementia. The study found that those who drank more than 14 alcoholic drinks per week were at a higher risk of developing dementia at a later date. Furthermore, Alzheimer's Disease, which is the most common variety of dementia, takes place due to the premature death of brain cells and even moderate drinking of alcohol has been revealed to accelerate the rate at which brain cells perish (and once a brain cell dies, it cannot be renewed / replaced).

If you are a drinker or have a problem with alcohol you will need to learn how to stop drinking alcohol to avoid any more harm. Memory loss is a warning indicator that excessive drinking is taking place and it is a serious issue that should not be ignored. If it is left untreated, alcohol abuse can lead to learning difficulties and even brain damage.

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