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hang overs and anxiety

psytaco

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Joined
Nov 20, 2005
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Melbourne, Aus
I was wondering how many other people here get really anxious when they are badly hungover?

i went out last night and had alot to drink. I didn't take any other drugs, just drank alot. Most of today I have been really anxious, which I am prone too generally, but I find when i get a bad hangover it gets to the stage of being pretty unbearable. if I just have a few drinks then I am fine the next day, no difference. it is just if I drink alot, and it is worse the more I drink. I am visiting family so have no valium on me, and also am wanting to take a few days off taking it so as not to get physically addicted again. I'll probably just have to ride the anxiety out, and am trying to limit my use of drugs like codeine and benzos to deal with anxiety, boredom etc because ultimately it doesn't solve anything.

So yeah, anyone else get this?

Also, does anyone know what the neurochemical mechanism behind this is? I am guessing it has to do with depleted GABA after drinking
 
If i actually drink enough to get hungover (not often at all these days i barely drink) I find the hangover symptoms cover my anxiety in a sense, (not in a good way, I would prefer to be anxious) all I can think about is how sick I feel and how mentally drained/how sore my body feels to worry about anxiety. Your idea of drunk might not be the same as mine however, I drink moonshine. Weed does wonders for nausea but it has the potential to make you more anxious just like alcohol.

I do however pop a benny after a couple of hours after waking and drinking a lot of water, that is when i get anxious when my hangover subsides slightly (benzos will help relax my muscles which is awesome for a hangover, but that's why they are so dangerous in terms of addiction)

After reading a couple of your posts, you sounded just like me when I was curious about benzos and before you know it you will be addicted, but I managed to cut back to one 5mg at one stage (before i started taking dexies daily, which I might add is the worst thing for anxiety, it should be illegal to prescribe them for people with chronic anxiety just thought id throw that in there). *waits for the I told you so*

To be honest bro it all depends on how you have used drugs in the past IMO, I abused all the drugs i got my hands on in the past even ones that weren't physically addictive like benzos, so I guess you could say its all about willpower you have to be committed to never go above a certain dose that you initially set (I recommend 5mg) and when you feel tolerance rising, take a break, that's however hard with such addictive drugs but certainly not unheard of. I know a few people that stick to their one dose of 2 or 5 mg Valium per day, have done for years.
 
How often do you drink? I used to experience anxiety during my hangovers and I thought it was considered rebound anxiety since alcohol reduces anxiety a lot. If you are drinking often then it may be that you are experiencing mild withdrawal symptoms that would include anxiety.
 
I was wondering how many other people here get really anxious when they are badly hungover?
So yeah, anyone else get this?

Also, does anyone know what the neurochemical mechanism behind this is? I am guessing it has to do with depleted GABA after drinking

Just off hand I think both benzos and alcohol act on gaba receptors in some way, and maybe getting drunk is like taking a lot of benzos then suddenly none. you get a rebound effect. But as the other guy said, a good cure to that next day anxiety and even nausea is to take a xanax/valiumj the next morning. I think the brain see's benzos and alcohol in a similar fashion and so benzos help you taper off the alcohol withdrawl.
 
bobbydarren: your right. both alcohol and benzos work on GABA. alcoholics are actually prescribed valium when they are detoxing to help ease the withdrawals and prevent things like siezures.

Tommyboy: don't drink that regularly to be honest. Last night I drank alot. I would say 10 beers at least. but say in an average week I might drink once or twice. more often these days its just a couple of beers either over dinner or by itself when catching up with mates. Otherwise it is like last night, alot of booze. but yeah, generally don't drink more than once or twice a week.

breno: been addicted to benzos before, so it less curiosity that I am talking about them at the moment, and more just trying to use them in a way that reduces insomnia/anxiety whilst avoiding physical dependence. coming off valium was one of the most difficult things I have ever done, and I do not ever want to repeat that experience again.
 
I am also 100% certain that you are experiencing mild alcoholic withdrawal during these hangovers that's causing the anxiety.

I am certain because this is exactly what happened to me when I used to drink a lot.

Alcoholic withdrawal combined with hangover is surely one of the nastiest ways to wake up EVER! My god, I think I have PTSD from how nasty that shit was :)
 
Sonny Jim said:
I am also 100% certain that you are experiencing mild alcoholic withdrawal during these hangovers that's causing the anxiety.

I don't believe this is necessarily the case. Or - it depends what you mean by withdrawal. I don't believe it necessarily has to have anything to do with a dependence developing.

I did a lot of research on this phenomenon a few years back because it always happened to me, and I found the anxiety can be a direct effect of the alcohol and its metabolites, rather than anything to do with developing a dependence. But, I can't remember the process, because my memory is well and truly fucked. I'll try and have a look when I get a chance.
 
a good friend of mine experiences this after drinking. gets panic and anxiety. i've never experienced it, because i didn't tend to experience anxiety in my drinking days, but i haven't had a drink in years.
i think it is fairly common, or at least not uncommon.
 
I was wondering how many other people here get really anxious when they are badly hungover?

i went out last night and had alot to drink. I didn't take any other drugs, just drank alot. Most of today I have been really anxious, which I am prone too generally, but I find when i get a bad hangover it gets to the stage of being pretty unbearable. if I just have a few drinks then I am fine the next day, no difference. it is just if I drink alot, and it is worse the more I drink. I am visiting family so have no valium on me, and also am wanting to take a few days off taking it so as not to get physically addicted again. I'll probably just have to ride the anxiety out, and am trying to limit my use of drugs like codeine and benzos to deal with anxiety, boredom etc because ultimately it doesn't solve anything.

So yeah, anyone else get this?

Also, does anyone know what the neurochemical mechanism behind this is? I am guessing it has to do with depleted GABA after drinking

I always got miserably depressed the day after a big night with alcohol. Even if I didn't do anything particularly embarrassing the night before, I just always got an overwhelming sense of just self loathing.
I thought I was the only one, it was actually one of the main reasons I stopped getting drunk.
 
Try drinking a glass of water between every 2 drinks, and take your time with the water, might help you still get drunk but not shitfaced?? less alcohol less anxiety, i dunno
 
Dude I get this as well. If I get drunk the night before, I tend to wae up to a very grey atmosphere, where I have general nausea and anxiety for no reason. This lasts almost the entire day and I blame it on the shit quality of sleep I get on alcohol and the hangover in general.
 
hey oops I didn't mean 100% I meant almost 100%, typo

but I am pretty sure that mild alcoholic withdrawal is actually a lot more common morning symptom for regular drinkers than most people realise.

one thing I'll add is that supplementing with a strong B group vitamin and heaps of water might help the lower level stuff.
 
footscazy

do you mean the often described cycle (seen it on TV a few times) where they talk about alcohol being a stimulant at first, then a sedative and sleep can happen, then when it where's off people tend to wake up and feel unable to sleep/uncomfortable?

from memory (gotta read up on alcohol) some alcoholic withdrawal symptoms have a metabolic/nutritional component (it's a b-vit deficiency) which adds to the stress and damage to the nervous system but I am considering this a part of the withdrawals as well.

I am really interested in this topic, anybody got some good alcohol toxicology links? or better yet, personal or known accounts of alcoholic withdrawal you can share.
 
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yeah i tend to get anxoius the day after drinking especially if i crash where the party is.i think its mainly cus the night before im so pissed i dont give a shit about what people think of me then when the hell'ish morning comes all the retarted things i did the night before rush back to my memory and i feel somwhat embarresd about what i've done.but yeah nothin a few beers, a valium or a big feed cant fix :)

im not the biggest drinker either but when i do drink i tend to overdo it witch causes me to do shit i wouldnt normaly do.somtimes resulting in good things somtimes resulting in embarrising things :p
 
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