anxiety after drinking alcohol

It's scary I get this all the time feel like is want the ground to open up and swallow me :/ these aren't hangovers these are living nightmares

What an amazing site and this post in particular homes in completely on what to not put a finer point on it ruined my life.

I started drinking at 16 or 17 and at first don't remember anything more than the usual physical problems (or the 'hangover') mentioned by the quoted poster. Then once when I was 18 I'd been out on an all day Friday and Saturday binge and woke up on Sunday feeling very weird, the smallest unpleasant thoughts became massive and to be honest I felt like I was going mad/going to lose control or something. This didn't leave me that week and in a few days I'd used alcohol again to cope with things. This was the start of a spiral into 12 years of weekly 2-3 day binges progressively more or and more to the point of blackout and the associated arrests, hospital admissions with physical injuries (being run over , hitting my head, getting beaten up etc all drink induced).
And of cause the sheer hell of the post binge 3-4 days of paranoia, depression, anxiety not being able to function socially, acting like some sort of weirdo at work as i struggled with these symptoms. Over a few years I went from being a popular, well-adjusted teenager to a completely screwed up person who could only function at all if drunk and towards the end was alienating many people he came into contact with. The not being able to look people in the face when in this state gradually became permanent and was probably the single biggest reason as to why I HAD to drink to go out.

Anyway to cut a long story short after many feeble attempts I finally got the drinking under control at 30/31 and completely changed my life moved away went to university and eventually got myself a professional career. In all the years from 1996-2013 i'd only lost control from drinking once and blacked out once (back in 1998).

Things were far from plain-sailing though and there were a few recreational drug problems in the first few years until I realised they were as bad as the drink. And obviously also the legacy of those 12+ years of abusive drinking - ie the fact that my emotional development had stopped when my drinking became a problem at 18 and it took many many years for me to "catch up" emotionally. My nerves were shot to pieces and ability to function socially was also very damaged and probably for good. All this eventually ruined any relationships I was in.

However finally at the age of 47/48 I was prescribed Sertraline which so far has helped like nothing else before however mainly because I loved the idea of a couple of drinks in the cosy British pub I still thought I could have the occasional drink - rarely above two pints (which was my cut off point in stopping my binging cycle) but as the years of relative sobriety progressed this could occasionally increase.

And that leads me to why I'm on here today as 3 days ok after a very stressful 24 hours I got in and drunk a ridiculous amount of vodka and gin ('d had them in the house for guests) very quickly (tbh I don't know what came over me) and had my first blackout for around 16 years. In those hours it's a complete blank but I know I was randomly dialling people i knew/vaguely knew. So you can imagine the state I've been in for the last few days made all the worse by the fact that I'm now 48.

Well enoughs enough and I'm not risking the sheer hell i've been going though and the chance of upsetting family and friends again for a "sociable couple of pints" so from here on in that's it for me and alcohol.

Omg I thought I was alone I have the same problem I'm not an alcoholic I don't drink everyday but I can tell you this when I drink I drink to get drunk which is not cool for female next day I have a hangover of course my body is tense I can't breathe I'm extremely nervous I can feel tingles running down my body feel scared have so much regrets all this negative feeling I just the ugly physically mentally its crazy only when I have a hangover I told my doctor about it she gave me xanax I took this pill well I had a hangover feel better

some people need alcohol to make the come out their shell or to have fun... and thats why they dont have this problem,, or maybe they do but they just live with it cause theres nothing else better for them to do....

You can set your watch by me.

What a great thread. I'm like "mee too". Here's how it works ...

I sit around with folks and do some drinking in the evening. Lets say I cross the too much line, which I know perfectly for me means 6 beers. Under that, life is fine the next day. over that and issues will be knocking on my door.

So, let's say its a great night. I have 10 beers. I'm relaxed, having fun. I go to bed and fall asleep fast. I wake up just fine, maybe a bit "slow" about things, but hey...I did get drunk.

At about 10 am the first "attack" will hit. I can be perfectly fine, reading something on the computer and whammo.. I'll get dizzy, my heart will rap, I'll feel like any minute I could explode. I don't get any horror thoughts or worryabout what i've done or said, it's all physical. For the next 2 - 4 hours, I feel like any moment I'll explode. Die. Stroke out.  I'm racing like mad inside.

Then it will fade away slowly and I'm fine by evening.

I've had these attacks that were so bad I'd have to stop the car and start running down the sidewalk, anything to try and stop the feeling that my heart was going to explode out of my chest or that my mind was about to overheat and blow up. A truly horrible feeling.

I've had this since my early twenties. Before that I could down a bottle of scotch and be fine all the next day. In fact, go do it again. But one time out of the blue I was hit with this feeling a few hours after waking from a drunk and it scared me to death. I was convinced I was having a heart attack. It's happened every time I get drunk ever since. So, I try and keep things to a minimum. I try not to exceed two mixed drinks or 4-5 beers. I simply don't want the hours of panic/rush/racing/dizzy/ palpatations that I always get. It stinks.

I realize writing yet another similar story is pointless, as they are all pretty much the same, but anyway...

I have been a serious binge drinker for about 5 years. During the summers I would have about 300-400ml (about 15oz) of hard liquior each night. It was all fine until a few months back. What really made things bad though was new years when I drank about a pint of whiskey. The night after was just horrible...I'm pretty sure I walked for over 10 miles in my own home form one room to the next just to try and distract myself from the horror. Pulse about 180, sinking feeling, feeling like fainting, about to have a seizure or I don't know....

After this I stopped completely. It took me about three weeks to be able to leave my home. I tried it before a few times, as soon as I got a few hundred feet from my house I would start panicking and return...so crazy. Feeling completely insane. Now I am finally fine, although I still have some 'fear of anxiety', as funny as that sounds...basically I am afraid it's going to happen again, which does cause some anxiety, but nothing serious.

BTW, I think the vast majority of people on medications, especially benzos are making a huge mistake, before taking anything like that do solid two months without any alcohol...not a drop..Exercise, take vitamin d3, b, c eat good. THEN get a prescription. Benzos are a slippery slope from what I've read. If you think the anxity hangovers are bad, wait until you try to stop taking xanax...

 

Take care

I with you guys. Totally. And im in the dumps right now.

I'm 29 years old and have been a binge drinker since I was a teenager. Back then, when I was 18, 19, 20ish I didn't really get hangovers. But as I've gotten older it's gotten worse every year, and specifically in the last 2 years it has gotten really bad. My typical week is I drink about 10-12 beers on friday night. I'm then in a constant panic attack throughout the rest of the weekend. Racing heart, palpitations, extreme anxiety, fear, obsessing over what I did while drunk and feeling guilty, etc. All the symptoms you guys listed. My least favorite symptom as the night terrors which I typically get on the first night and sometimes even into the seconds night. It makes it very hard to sleep, which is probably a big part of what prolongs these hangovers. Anyway typically by Monday I start to feel mostly normal again and by Tuesday I'm back to close to 100%. Repeat next weekend.


This past weekend somehow turned into a 3 day long binge. I had social obligations and the only way to get my hangover down enough to leave the house was to have a couple drinks, and then everyone was drinking at the party so one thing led to another and now here I am Monday morning feeling terrible, knowing I probably have another 2-3 days before I'm feeling okay again. I guess this is what the start of an alcohol problem feels like.

Continued from above:

I also wanted to add one thing that I haven't seen listed yet to see if anyone else can relate.

When I eat food while in this state it can often make me feel much much worse.This is mostly just true during the first day, but sometimes on the 2nd day too.  I don't understand this at all.

Sure, I especially get palpitations after eating foods high in carbs after drinking - bread, potatoes, sugar, etc. Likely, the whole anxiety problem after drinking is 50% related to low/high blood sugar and eating high-carb meals often causes an insuline spike, leading to even lower blood sugar. After drinking, eat only low-carb low-glycemic foods - steak, eggs, salad. Eating biscuits, sweets or a lot of bread is a good way to make the anxiety worse.

Like many on here, I too suffer with "The Fear" hangover, as I call it. I started to get glimpses of it about 27 years of age, and now at 35 I will assuredly get a self loathing, fear ridden hangover if I've drink two nights of the weekend on the trot. I've come to expect it, and some hangovers are worse than others. Something I've noticed as I get older is that the length of the fear increases. For example, if I go out Friday and Saturday, and then maybe have a few glasses of wine on the Sunday, I will not be feeling right until Wednesday. I feel guilty, I feel like a failure, everything is magnified and I am just left with this horrible sense of sadness and worry. I sometimes get palpitations, and I often get what is known as 'air hunger'. It's an irritating sensation where you feel like you are not breathing enough and so you find yourself taking these really deep breaths to try and get enough air into your lungs. Very odd and quite probably an issue in my head, but it manifests itself in a physical way.

I noticed that some people were looking for solutions without quitting booze. I've found that the best way to minimise the fear is to get plenty of water into you whilst out boozing and before you go to bed. You never sleep properly when you've had a session so you're going to be tired, and I feel that the lack of sleep also adds to the overall paranoia and self loathing. The main thing is to keep hydrated, and sometimes....I know this sounds silly.....I will write on my hand that the night ended well with no bust ups or problems. At least then, the next day you can use it to remind yourself that everything is ok. 

 

ok, i've had exactly the same symptoms as u all guys, but i've come to realize that the only that you can actually do to better your situation is : Please admit it happened and stop beating yourself over it. Yes, you did a mistake, your body feels bad, but as the effects of every other substance, IT PASSES OVER TIME. :) Your body needs around 30-48 hours to recover fully after a night of heavy drinking (depends on the sleep you get at the time) and that's It. You will laugh at your paranoia thoughts the next day and you know it. So instead of letting the anxiety take over you, do something fun that doesn't involve physical exercise, loud noise and stress. You will feel better in no time :)

My guess is besides alcohol doing a major dehydration job on the body, and it is obviously a depressant as well, explains much. Those two elements combined, would likely summon some temporary anxiety, and might make a person inclined to feel like the labels society has placed on the drinker. Especially to much of the drink. That's really a loaded question though for the individual, but if you feel bad enough afterwards, what's the point really? I also like to hope with age comes more wisdom, and in learning that your body just isn't what it use to be. Each person has that level they shouldnt cross, divided up, about 1/3 of that should be plenty to achieve moderation. Another wise tip to consider is never drink in attempt to make your bad feel good or better, instead consider drinking in celebration when happy, to feel happier. 

Hi all.

I'm not sure if this will help anyone, but I have been looking at this for some time. I have "delayed" anxiety after a heavy night drinking. Usually comes on the evening of the night after and can last for a few days. The feeling of paranoia and anxiousness was so familiar, almost like clockwork, that I figured it had to be some kind of repeated chemical imbalance that one might be able to do something about. The symptoms seemed so different to everyone elses hangovers I figured there must be something actually happening in my body, here's what I have found out: A MAJOR factor in feeling anxious, paranoid, palpatation etc when you are hungover could be hypoglycemia, eg your blood glucose level is too low. It seems there may be a few reasons why this happens:1) Huge intake of sugary carbohydrate (alcohol) causes a surge of insulin to be produced to counter it, this surge is actually over done and over the course of time actually causes your blood sugar levels to drop below normal levels - causing the above feelings associated with hypoglycemia.2) Drinking may be causing your pancreas to inflame a little which prevents it from functioning as it should. (It is the pancreas which regulates blood sugar levels) Therefore the insulin surge from the night before cannot be counter balanced by a glucagon surge from the pancreas (glucagon tells the body to release more glucose into the bloodstream) because the pancreas is under-performing.Both of the above contribute to low blood sugar and the associated paranoia, nervousness etc... This is probably why a sugary drink like coke can be good for a hangover (although this is probably a pretty short term solution and the following insulin crash might actually make things worse)I'm not a biologist but this certainly made some sense to me. So, I have just got back from a stag-do with two nights of very heavy drinking and in anticipation of the fear, made sure I had some glucosey type foods for short term recover (be careful not to over do it)... I have also done a lot or research on what foods you can eat that do NOT release a lot of insulin but DO increase blood glucose when you eat them (brown rice, oats in particular).. for more longer term recovery this way you can try to bring your blood sugar up WITHOUT getting the corresponding surge in insulin which makes it crash again.

I also figure that if the pancreas is slightly inflamed, taking ibuprofen is probably quite sensible (a couple of times a day for a few days) in order to try and get the inflamation down and restore normal function... I did a bit of research on this and it was corroborated by a few doctors citing it as a good treatment for mild pancreatitis...So far, this hangover / paranoia / fear has been WAY WAY better than I would normally expect - I have tried to take active control over my blood sugar levels, deflate my pancreas and whether that's just a placebo affect or not, it really, has DEFINITELY helped, the "fear" has been nowhere near as bad as I would normally expect from such a weekend.Sorry for the rambling post, but I would encourage anyone with this problem to look at the science of glucagon, insulin, the pancreas and also "low insulin inducing foods"..Hope this helps someone! Also, I kind of agree, the best solution is probably not to drink so much, but in reality that's not going to happen for me... I tend to be out once a week on average...

As a diabetic, I have tested my blood when having "the fear" and it was not low (7-8), although I will admit that the symptoms are very similar. I can tell when I am going low, and after a 8oz glass of orange juice and 20 minutes, I will be fine, The fear needs more than sugar.