However, that is so hard; it's almost unreasonable to suggest that as a cure for such a mind boggling and crippling condition. I, too, have suffered the ongoing effects of the most god awful hangovers. I'm 26 and have been a moderate to heavy drinker going on 9 years or so. Up until a year and a half ago, I was fine. I would drink endless amounts of alcohol with no subsequent side effects out of the norm.
Unfortunately, one morning after a night at the bar I hit the gym. During the course of my workout I began to feel really dizzy and anxious. My heart was racing and the feeling of impending doom set in. To avoid the embarrassment of any such medical episode in the gym, I went to the locker room, gathered my sh*t and got the hell out. After an unbelievably stressful drive home, I made it to my place and immediately ate a banana and chugged some water. Big surprise, I was neither deficient on vitamins nor dehydrated. I was having my first panic attack. As a last resort, I grabbed some vodka and took some swigs. Almost immediately I calmed and was able to reflect on what the f**k just happened.
Long story short, from that point forward, if I crossed a consumption boundary, I was crippled for the following 3-4 days. Symptoms included all the classic anxiety and depression symptoms (shaky, dizzy, blurred vision, paranoia, depression, heart palpitations, hot/cold flashes, you name it) You can almost set your watch by it, if I crossed that boundary, it WAS going to happen.
Here is where I will disagree with every single one of the previous posts. It has been suggested in this forum over and over again that the condition is nothing more than a fabrication in one's head. Not true. This condition is triggered by a chemical change in a person’s brain. I could only guess it decreases the serotonin levels in the brain which regulate things such as paranoia and anxiety. In fact, many anti-anxiety meds boost serotonin levels.
You may ask why these chemical changes occur after alcohol consumption. Well I'm no doctor, but I would guess any person who has done minimal research would know that the liver is the first barrier in the metabolism of alcohol. The liver is also the regulator for your brain's serotonin levels which regulate anxious and depressed moods.
My point, while everyone is different, some are more susceptible to depression and anxiety possibly due to serotonin levels, the alcohol really disrupts that process.
At this point, probably the only way to keep you balanced physically and mentally, is no drinking. I'm still struggling with the cycle of drinking-depression/panic-feeling better toward end of week-then repeating the cycle.
Good luck, everyone, because this sucks a fat whale penis.
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The cure, of course, is to stop drinking and treat the anxiety with medication, and deal with what in life is really the root cause. I personally believe that anxiety manifests when one is not making life decisions that need to be made... like staying in an unhappy relationship, staying in a bad job, etc.
I also believe that this type of reaction, as well as a degree of craving for something, be it a food, wine, beer, is somehow related to an intolerance or allergy of this thing. I recently decided that I was intolerant to wheat. I never had a digestive problem with it, but I would run, do weights at gym, eat ~1200 calories a day and not lose a pound. I had been doing so well on a low carb diet, but felt I needed to add some healthy whole wheat products into my diet. That ended up backfiring for me.. the weightloss stopped, and I was retaining water. In thinking about what was different, I decided to lose the wheat products, and the water weight came off, and I began losing weight again, even without exercising as much. Funny thing is, of all foods, I crave pastas, breads the most. But I just don't do well with them. I think this could be the same thing for some people who crave wine, beer or other spirits. I would suggest taking a month off of drinking... give your body time to be away from it. I know it sounds difficult... Like you have events to attend where drinking will take place. Just have water or soda.. most people won't notice or care. Then see how you feel after this time... your sleep will be so much better, you will be calmer. And if and when you do eventually have a glass of wine or a beer, you may be surprised that it tastes "stronger" than you remember. You may not even like the taste anymore.
For those of you who only drink once in awhile, but get this nasty anxiety, the only thing that really helps is taking a benzodiazapine like valium, klonopin, or xanax the next morning. Just be careful since you can set up a vicious anxiety cycle doing this as well.
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Hi, This is unreal you have described me to a tee i thought i was the only one with theese symptoms
First of all I am NOT an alcholic.This is somthing diffrent.I have always had it ,.When i was younger and my friends had normal hangovers ,I had terror ,fear horror ,problems were exagerated im my mind.Iwould worry needlessly over little things but they would be huge to me(only for 3 -4 days after drinking after i would be fine)Strangly if i had a cigarette during that period the anxiety would enhance as well .
So you may ask why not give up drinking ,well its a social thing and i enjoy it once a week, the hangover is to scary for any more than that.
Well 20 years down the track and im a bit further forward,i honestly think this is a unique problem that people confuse with other things though i have somthing that helps BIG time .Nytol ts not addictive and you buy it from the chemist.Also the folowing morning I take two co codimol pain killers and a lucozade sports dring to replace lost minerals.\i swear to you this is the only thing that helps me and it took me years.
Also im really careful what i say and do when im drunk now as that is where the exagerated confusion comes from.Any one else have this probelm WHAT THE HELL IS IT???3 glasses of wine then messed up for 2 days aint right!there must be a perment cure out there somewhere or am i alone with this totally s**t affliction??It is such a stong feeling of being tense and afraid.I become moody on the second day until a sweat usually breaks and things get better from there
Robert
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I've found all this really helpful. I love a drink, but after my work xmas party last year I got fair hammered and couldn't remember what I'd said or done. Now, I'm really well behaved when i drink and I knew deep down I would have done nothing, but because we broke from work for 3 weeks I wasn't able to speak to anyone to find out, so for the next 3 weeks I felt nervous and anxious which kinda ruined my holidays. Funnily enough, once I had a drink the feeling went away. I thought that once I got back to work and spoke with people the feeling would go away, but it is now August and I'm still feeling anxious through the week for no reason at all which really pisses me off. Seems to be the same as what everyone else is saying, after a big session on the weekend I feel like c**p, a few beers helps ease the problem till I eventually wont drink for a few days during the week, then around comes the weekend and I do it all again. I know the obvious answer is to not drink, but for starters I love going out for a drink, I never get myself in to trouble and I always stick within my limits, it's just shattering that all of a sudden a drink leads to me being worried over nothing. Is it a good idea to go to the doctors and see what they say about it? I haven't told my girlfriend about it because I don't know what it is, maybe I should start with that?
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The fact that it affects your brain is not a question its a fact! Alkies generaly dont make very good decisions because there trying to build a thought process with an impaired brain so what ever rubbish is churning about in there is getting built upon and learned from. This im sure is why you have those silly arguments over nothing much and cant understand why everybody else is getting pissed off.
Anxiety is just a side affect of having a scewed up mind for whatever reason (in my case im sure its something to do with people dying in my family when i was young or my mum being an life long alkie) either way drinking totaly makes it all better short term but compounds the problem long term.
I think once you know whats is going on you can start to deal with it. Anxiety,Alcohalism or just good old fasioned escapeism. Im not going to give up drinking its awsome! and I might end up living for ages and that would be boring! But you do have to find some kind of trade off. Drink only once in a while(once a fortnight) and skull a couple of pints of water before you go to bed! Seriously if your reading this your probably over doing it. Or some kind of bleeding heart ex-alkie! Your bodys is just trying to tell you to slow down. Not going to polish a t**d here its normal. just be honest with yourself! and three big glasses of wine is actually a bottle champ!
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21 year old female on the same page as you guys. Just recently I decided to NEVER drink again (ok...except weddings and huge events) and I've felt such a relief. Up until a couple days ago I had a bachelorette party, drank maybe 5-6 drinks - woke up feeling guilt, terror, anxiety galore, and sick to my stomache, EXHAUSTED and major headache (basically the feeling of death from hell)
I was diagnosed with pure O OCD 6 months ago and have been prescribed Cipralex to lessen my anxiety and depression..
Just so everyone knows - alcohol is the worst for anxiety sufferers. It opens up your nerve system and basically defeats all therapy and/or medication you've been working with (if you have been at all).
If you have been suffering with these feelings after drinking (and hey I'm no doctor) - but maybe you should stop drinking for a good 2 months and see if you feel better as a person (happier, less anxious). Also, start to study if you feel this sense of paranoia during times when you are NOT drinking? If so, there are tons of ways to get better. Yoga, excercise, meditation, and sporty events that do not involve drinking help A LOT.
Drinking is the worst for anxiety...the worst. Same with weed.
I know how you all feel and as one of you mentioned "I wouldn't wish this pain on one of my worst enemies" - that's exactly how I feel about my OCD/Anxiety. My prayers are with all of you.
We're just..."chosen people"...with over developed nerves as I call it. We need to put our senses to some better use either than letting our worries and guilt take over!
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There was a time that I went through lots of uncertainties etc and started to develop some pretty bad anxiety. After a while I started to recognize that I would have panic attacks a lot more when I was tired as opposed to being well rested. The days that stood out most were those after I went out drinking the night before, especially if I would try to compensate my tiredness by drinking caffeine.
Being tired and drinking too much caffeine are very common triggers for people to become anxious (for other common triggers see ***edited by moderator*** web addresses not allowed) . What I believe the majority of people here experience like I did before, is that once people have become anxious after drinking several times, it becomes inevitable to be afraid of it the next time one goes drinking cause it has happened (so often) before.
I am sure that many, if not most, people here have had this problem much longer and worse than I have, but by the hand of some very simple (sounding) tricks I have managed to overcome my anxiety completely. There is a lot of stuff out there on the internet of people who have been able to overcome their anxiety and I think it just depends on the person what will work best for them. What helped me a lot was finding someone to talk about my problem and finding out that it was very common. Learning to "let go of the fear to lose control" (which of course sounds much easier than it is cause it is the root of the problem) and starting to have faith in my own counter thoughts (either telling myself that I will not let this attack happen or trying to shift and keep my mind on a different topic) eventually helped me to totally get rid of this terrible problem.
So to sum it up I thing that many here have developed the connection between the feeling of being hungover and anxiety. This is aggravated by the fact that the tiredness that goes with being hungover actually triggers anxiety in general.
Im not sure if I have said anything here that people didnt know or whether it is actually true but I feel like it helped me recognize the root of my problem and if it helps only one person I guess this was worth the time.
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