What is hangxiety? - Video transcript

Hey everyone, I'm Kristen, the anxiety therapist, and today I'm going to be talking about hangxiety, which is hangover anxiety. Um I think a lot of us are familiar with the physical symptoms of a hangover, but what doesn't get talked about a lot are the emotional symptoms of a hangover and this is what hangxiety is, it can affect anyone and you know, anyone can maybe drink a little too much the night before and then try to piece the night together or replay things, making sure they didn't offend anyone or say something stupid.

But when it really becomes a problem is if you have a diagnosed anxiety disorder or depression or even people who tend to be more shy are prone to worse anxiety and what happens is the following a day of drinking, you will experience um sort of this intense worry, feelings of dread, it might show up as panic or depression, agitation, irritability, impulsivity and it's pretty persistent.

So it's not something that just kind of goes away quickly, it will kind of linger and hang around. Um so what is going on? What causes this? Well, alcohol affects the neurotransmitters in our brains and those are responsible for a lot of our bodily functions. So when we drink alcohol we get this rush of dopamine, which is the feel good reward chemical in our brain.

But the problem is that this rush is very short lived and then when that dopamine dies down, the anxiety rises to the surface again. Um, alcohol also interferes with serotonin and endorphins in our brains and those are responsible for mood regulation and it also interferes with Gaba, which is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter.

And so what happens is this then works overtime and the brain tries to adapt to achieve homeostasis and everything just kind of gets thrown out of whack at that point. So unfortunately, the really, the only way to avoid anxiety is to decrease the frequency or the amount that you're drinking um you know, that that doesn't mean you can't ever have fun, but I think just to be cognizant and to kind of be aware that if you are going to go out for the night and do some some heavy drinking, just kind of be prepared the next day that that you might experience some anxiety.

Um some other ways to kind of combat this is to just make sure that you're well hydrated. You know, maybe drink a glass of water in between each beverage the night before or the next day. Just make sure you're drinking a lot of water and staying hydrated, um definitely try to get some rest, avoid caffeine, you can do if you're feeling physically up for it, do some exercise, do some deep breathing techniques, you can take a walk outside that can be helpful or do some meditation.

So a lot of these are just typical coping mechanisms that we would use to address anxiety in general and they can be helpful when you're experiencing anxiety as well, but ultimately the only way the only way to avoid this is just to not drink excessively. So I hope this was informative. Like I said, this comes up a lot with my clients and they're pretty astounded by the impact it has when they cut back on drinking.

Um, so hopefully, you know, you will, if you find yourself experiencing anxiety, you will give some of these tips a try and will feel better soon. Um thanks for checking out my blog, I will see you next week.