Alcohol How did I get so hungover from drinking one beer?

[burn out]

First of, I am an ex-benzo addict and ever since coming off benzos years ago I have been very weak and my GABA receptors don't work properly and I get hangovers very easily. However, I have drank alcohol many times since (always in small amounts) and never gotten this hungover from such a small amount.

Usually I can drink a beer or 1-2 shots of vodka or whiskey and have no problems with hangovers from it. However yesterday I drank one beer in the afternoon and as soon as it wore off I began to feel super hungover. The hangover lasted all evening and into today. I still feel very hungover now, over 20 hrs later. How is this possible?

The beer had been sitting in my house for about a year. Is it possible it is because the beer was so old?

 

[Spurs_1882]

I don't think it's anything to do with the beer being old. Particularly if the hangover has an anxiety-component. In that case I would say it is to do with your GABA receptors.

I have had alcohol WD from one beer before, as utterly crazy as that may sound. Not a terrible WD, but two days of irritability, anxiety, depressed mood, brain generally feeling off, cravings, insomnia etc, and maybe another week of a milder version of this. For me it was definitely to do with the fact that I used to be an extremely heavy drinker, and I got the kindling effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindling_(sedative–hypnotic_withdrawal) from repeated withdrawals. In my first years of drinking, I could get drunk every night and never get hungover. Towards the end, around 8 years of heavy drinking later, I would get hungover from one beer, and one night's binge (which at that time was probably around a bottle of spirits or maybe 15 pints of lager) would put me in WD that was severe enough for me to need benzos the next day to deal with it. In fact, come to think about it, I would also get mildly hungover just from eating food which had alcohol in it at one point.

Did a similar thing maybe happen to you with benzos? I also think if you are an anxious person (I am) you are more likely to get worse withdrawals from GABA-ergic drugs, because your nervous system is often already damaged by panic attacks/other constant stress. I read a study saying this but can't re-find it.

Even if a similar thing did not happen to you with benzos, I'd still wager it's something to do with your GABA system. These can be very strange beasts, and can often act quite unpredictably when they've been damaged. I think that it's probably for the best that you leave alcohol alone, if you're only drinking such minuscule amounts it's unlikely you'll miss it much anyway. I never drink nowadays, though I can still take benzos and pregabalin and be fine with that (I'm not taking them recreationally though).

 

[LucidSDreamr]

i would have horrible horrible alc withdrawals from not that much alc for a few months after quitting opioids....it eventually went back to an almost normal level of hangovers...im 5 months clean now...the hangovers are still a bit worse than they ever used to be on opioids or before using opis.....the worst and new part of my post opioid hangovers is the severe physical anxiety...feels like i drank 10 cups of coffee

 

[burn out]

Hi thanks for your response. I'm feeling better now and you're probably right, it had nothing to do with the beer old. Its good to know I'm not the only one who has gotten a hangover from such a small amount. I probably should avoid alcohol.

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

I can get some pretty serious hangovers from small amounts of alcohol if I drink any at a time when I am quite dehydrated. In these cases, I start to feel hangover effects as the alcohol wears off.

I have gotten a pretty serious hangover once after drinking a single beer. It was after a very long day of work which involved lots of hard work and sweating in a hot environment. I barely drank any water that day. I drank the beer before bed, went to sleep and awoke hung over a couple hours later.

The cure, for me in these cases, is to slowly sip water. It takes awhile for any improvement to occur, but I keep sipping and eventually I feel better and better.

When I'm properly hydrated I can drink a lot without a hangover as long as I pace myself correctly.

I dunno if this is your problem too, but figured I'd give my experience.

 

[morphine-dreams]

^same goes for me. Dehydration makes me feel like utter shit, makes hangovers feel 10x worse. I always try to drink a lot of water or gatorade between alcoholic drinks and the next day. Good nutrition and adequate sleep go a long way too.

 

[SS373dOH]

If you don't leave beer at a constant cool temperature, it keeps fermenting, thus getting stronger.. It was probably a super skunky beer, and yeah the benzo history doesn't help.

 

[mike.vick]

^^^ No, it doesn't ferment anymore cause it is airtight, to say the least. BUT, yeah, it's normal to feel like that especially with past benzo dependence.

 

[SS373dOH]

It's the changing of temperatures, not the seal...

 

[tightlywound]

okay forgive me for being rather OT...but I've always wondered why some folks get really bad hangovers and some almost never get them. I know prior alcohol/benzo/GABAergic dependence can be a big factor, but I know plenty of people that have never been dependent on alcohol/GABA drugs or even regular heavy drinkers who are prone to hangovers.
but me -- I've gone through a brief period or two of frequent heavy drinking, and while I almost never drink these days I used to get drunk on relatively regular basis, and I've only had a hangover ONCE in my life, and it really wasn't too terrible. it was after 15 shots of Jack Daniels drank in almost immediate succession (there was a bet involved, and bear in mind I only weigh like 100lbs). I normally have a really hard time sleeping while drunk, but I kind of passed out, for only like a couple hours at the very most, woke up at like 430-5am and was like "HOLY SHIT THIS MUST BE WHAT A HANGOVER FEELS LIKE," rolled over and went back to sleep after moaning and groaning for a few minutes, and when I woke up a few more hours later I felt 100% fine again.
man! what a horrible 15 minutes! after that experience I will never understand how people can get hangovers regularly and still want to drink! hah, look at my junkie ass talking. ;P
but for real, usually after a night of really heavy drinking I'll wake up still a bit drunk, if anything at all. never had a hangover before or since that night.
and yeah...I've just always wondered why some get hangovers and some don't.

again, forgive the OT.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

Maybe has something to do with metabolism.
Ethanol -> Acetaldehyde -> Acetate
Acetaldehyde has been proposed to have a major impact on a hangover, so if you metabilize ethanol fast, but don't process acetaldehyde fast enough this will lead to acetaldehyde accumulating and making the hangover worse.
As said before prior GABAergic dependence and dehydration make a hangover worse too


I tried taking L-Gluthatione, L-Theanine, hydroxyzine, 2L water and a multivitamine after a night of heavy drinking and didn't have a hangover,just a bit of anxiety and I usually have a really bad hangover that lasts 1-3 days including fever, bad anxiety etc

 

[bomber]

First of, I am an ex-benzo addict and ever since coming off benzos years ago I have been very weak and my GABA receptors don't work properly and I get hangovers very easily. However, I have drank alcohol many times since (always in small amounts) and never gotten this hungover from such a small amount.

Usually I can drink a beer or 1-2 shots of vodka or whiskey and have no problems with hangovers from it. However yesterday I drank one beer in the afternoon and as soon as it wore off I began to feel super hungover. The hangover lasted all evening and into today. I still feel very hungover now, over 20 hrs later. How is this possible?

The beer had been sitting in my house for about a year. Is it possible it is because the beer was so old?

I don't think it was a hangover. Perhaps you were just ill or something you ate hurted you.

 

[speedballs_over]

OP, after ten years on benzos as i taper i cannot drink. I get terrible anxiety, shakes and other shit.... Not unusual.

 

[Coolwhip]

If you don't leave beer at a constant cool temperature, it keeps fermenting, thus getting stronger.. It was probably a super skunky beer, and yeah the benzo history doesn't help.

That could only possibly be true for unpasteurized, unfiltered beer and even then there generally isn't enough sugars left in the beer to allow fermentation to continue.

As far as the hangover goes, eat something salty like bacon or fries and drink a bunch of water, you probably just got a little dehydrated...but the type of beer and what you ate with/after it can also cause worse or prolonged hangover symptoms. You can make yourself feel pretty shitty by knocking your electrolytes out of balance(think pounding headache, weak limbs, perspiration, etc.) and heigtened GABA rebound could result from your past benzo use(worse headspace, depression, anxiety) but a true, please kill me god, hangover is from acetaldehyde and congeners(why cheap beer, or stout beers can cause worse hangovers) and I doubt one beer would leave enough of either to be a problem.