Waking up after a night of drinking is akin to waking up in a desert.
Your mouth is dry with intense thirst. There’s some material like sand in your shoe. It’s hot, unbearably hot. Your body is on fire. You can’t see and start hallucinating.
Is it death or dehydration?
While this moment might seem like rock bottom, it isn’t. Because sometime shortly after the physical effects wear off, the psychological effects kick in.
Hangxiety is an unofficial name for the anxious feeling you get after drinking alcohol. As the substance wears off, you can become anxious, panicked, moody and tired.
It causes an inner monologue of hatred and fear and regret.
Hangxiety begins with the feeling that everyone hates you and it goes a little something like this: ‘Do my friends hate me? They hate me. They’re probably on Facetime now talking about how much they hate me. Everyone hates me including my mother, father, brother, cousins and that random man who looked at me at the bus stop two weeks ago.’
Then it moves to panic: ‘This is death. I’m dying. I’m already dead. Is that the light? I can see the light. Hello God, Jesus? No, it’s just the light from my phone. What’s that pain in my arm? It’s death I know it. Call the ambulance. No, call my mum. My friends hate me. Is this hell? Does anyone want to order a chinese?’
Hangxiety makes you think about every bad decision you’ve ever made and every embarrassing phrase you’ve ever said since you were 15.
It’s a dark hole of alcohol induced despair, but is it real? A self-proclaimed ‘science nerd’ on TikTok certainly believes so.
Sophie Ward (@sophs.notes) has gone viral on the app after explaining why hangxiety happens.
In the clip captioned ‘Hangxiety is a real thing,’ Sophie explained why its normal to feel more anxious after alcohol.
‘Hangxiety is a real thing caused by real chemical changes in your brain,’ she said. ‘When you drink chemicals in your brain are affected, namely glutamate and GABA.
‘These normally have opposing effects on the brain, glutamate making it more active and GABA making it less active.’
She continued: ‘Drinking alcohol simultaneously increases the amount of chill GABA we have whilst decreasing the amount of wired glutamate. This means your brain is acting super slow-mo, giving you slower reactions and lower inhibitions.
‘The morning after, your brain tries to rebalance. It becomes super sensitive to glutamate, which makes it hyperactive and you anxious, whilst becoming less sensitive to GABA which would normally step in and chill you out. It’s basically the reverse of what was happening while you were drinking and is a recipe for hanxiety.’
Many in the comments noted that hangxiety made them quit drinking alcohol.
‘This is why I stopped drinking. The anxiety isn’t worth it,’ wrote one user.
Another commented: ‘I’m five years sober because of this.’
More found solace in the information.
‘I feel so much better now,’ said one worried follower.
‘Wow. I really needed to hear this. I always think people low key hate me,’ agreed another.
To confirm Sophie’s hypothesis, we asked Dr Keith Grimes, a GP with Babylon Health, if what she is saying is true.
‘Yes, it is,’ he confirms. ‘It’s a good explanation of why people may have increased feelings of anxiety when nursing a hangover.’
He says existing symptoms of anxiety can intensify the feeling. ‘People with higher background levels of anxiety may have worse symptoms,’ he explains. ‘And they are already more likely to drink more to help alleviate anxiety symptoms in the first place, especially in social situations.’
How to prevent it? Dr Grimes advises there is only one thing for it.
‘Drink less the night before, be kind to yourself if you do experience the symptoms. Most definitely resist the urge to have a drink – it’s a gateway to cycles of further anxiety, further drinking, and so on.’
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