![]() ![]() When the emergency responders arrive, tell them as much information as you can, the NIAAA says. Either way, it’s best if they’re on the ground so they’re not at risk of falling and hurting themselves. You can also lean them forward, the NIAAA says. “Ideally, another friend will call 911 and get paramedics en route,” she says. If your friend is vomiting while unconscious, Davis recommends placing them on their side to lower their likelihood of choking. “If you have to look for more than a few seconds to tell if someone is breathing or not, and they do not wake up when you shake or shout at them, call 911,” nationally registered paramedic Heather Davis, associate director of the UCLA Center for Prehospital Care and program director for the UCLA Paramedic Education Program, tells SELF. Reduced physical responses, like a lack of the normal gag reflex that prevents chokingĭon’t take long to evaluate your friend for these signs. ![]() Pausing for 10 or more seconds in between breaths.Breathing fewer than eight times a minute.According to the NIAAA, other signs that your friend has overdosed on alcohol and that you should call 911 include: Keep in mind that your friend doesn’t actually need to be passed out in order to be in danger. “If the friend doesn’t respond, they’re likely unconscious and could be at risk of death.” “In either case, it needs to be hard enough to cause pain,” she says. If calling your friend’s name and shaking their shoulders doesn’t work, Stoner suggests rubbing their sternum (breastbone) with your knuckles or pinching their earlobe. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that alcohol’s sweeping effects can impact mental functions like decision making along with physical ones like your ability to stay alert. As the CDC explains, alcohol is a depressant that impacts your central nervous system, which is composed of your brain and spinal cord. “Alcohol’s main effect on the brain is sedation,” Darria Long-Gillespie, M.D., an emergency room doctor and clinical assistant professor at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine, tells SELF. Why does alcohol make people pass out in the first place? This is how to tell if a friend’s life is in danger after drinking too much and what to do next. But if someone is passed out from alcohol, there’s a very real chance they’re in life-threatening trouble. You might also worry that making a big deal over it will brand you as a buzzkill. You might not be sure if your friend is truly passed out or if they will sleep off the booze and be completely fine. We get why you might be hesitant to spring into action. From there, though, the way we started to describe drunk people became much more entertaining-and head-scratching.No matter how aware you are of alcohol’s potential dangers, a friend passing out from alcohol can turn a theoretical risk into a very real and frightening one. ![]() The grandfather of "drunk," "fordrunken," is a Middle English word that appears in Chaucer's tales. In it, he traces the history of synonyms for many common words, including, gloriously, those of "drunk." The above comes from the delightful new book Words in Time and Place by language expert David Crystal. It was like they were "three sheets in the wind." (Similarly, "two sheets in the wind" was for someone who was a little bit less drunk, and "a sheet or so" meant they were just tipsy.) "Two sheets in the wind" was for someone who was a little bit less drunk. In fact, around 1821 people realized that this might be the best possible way to describe drunken sailors-or drunken anyone, for that matter. When the sheets came loose, the vessel would zig-zag to and fro, meandering around the sea like a drunken sailor. These ropes were called "sheets," and they served to keep the ship steady in the wind. If you were on a ship in the early 1800s, you might notice that the three corners of each sail were bound down with ropes. ![]()
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