What Is Hangover Anxiety?

While a hangover typically refers more to the physical symptoms of significant alcohol consumption, hangxiety refers more to the potential mental effects—like the tendency to feel anxiety and distress the day after drinking. Below, we’ll cover the symptoms and causes of this potential post-drinking effect along with tips for managing it and/or reducing your alcohol consumption.

What is hangxiety?

Hangxiety is not a clinical diagnosis but a colloquial term that refers to symptoms of anxiety a person may experience after significant alcohol consumption, like a heavy drinking session. It’s estimated that up to 12% of adults who drink experience anxiety as part of their hangover symptoms. 

Someone who already experiences some type of existing anxiety or mood disorder may find that their symptoms are worse when hungover, since exhaustion, sleep deprivation, dehydration, and the cognitive effects of alcohol can decrease their ability to cope. This may create a vicious circle of anxiety symptoms. 

Hangover-related anxiety or being anxious after drinking may manifest as:

• A racing heart rate

• Shaking

• Sweating

• Restlessness

• Feelings of dread

• Feelings of guilt

• Feelings of shame

• Emotional distress

• Panic attacks

An individual may experience these psychological symptoms in addition to physical hangover symptoms, such as fatigue, headache, nausea, increased blood pressure, excessive thirst, and muscle aches. Though the reason some people experience hangxiety while others don’t is yet unknown, some research does suggest that those who are resistant to experiencing hangover symptoms in general after drinking are less likely to experience hangxiety as well.

The science behind having hangxiety

Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the central nervous system once you start drinking, and it can take hours or even days for normal functioning to return. Until then, certain abilities—such as decision-making, memory, attention, and reaction times—are unlikely to be fully engaged, which may make dealing with any distressing emotion more difficult. Significant consumption of alcohol can also decrease the levels of dopamine in the brain the next day. Since this neurotransmitter appears to play a key role in controlling anxiety, its lack may make you feel nervous and result in hangxiety symptoms.

Additional factors may also contribute to the likelihood that someone will experience hangover-related anxiety, or to the potential severity of their symptoms. For example, the concern that they may have done or said something they might regret and the inability to remember everything that happened could cause a person to feel embarrassment and experience increased levels of worry. Attempts to mitigate other hangover symptoms, such as consuming caffeine to combat fatigue, may be responsible for further increases in anxiety the next day too, according to the National Institute of Health.

Tips for coping with hangxiety

There’s no treatment that’s completely effective for symptoms of a hangover, including increased anxiety. However, if you regularly experience symptoms of anxiety after drinking, there are a couple of basic strategies you can try to mitigate the effects. 

First, you may want to consider whether your levels of drinking qualify as excessive as defined by health authorities like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). If so, it may be worth decreasing your alcohol intake or trying to stop drinking altogether, and seeking help if needed. This is because excessive drinking, alcohol dependence, and using alcohol to cope can be related to distressing hangover symptoms like anxiety spikes as well as to serious potential health problems, from high blood pressure and stroke to cancer and liver disease. 

You can also try various strategies for managing anxiety in general next time you experience these feelings in conjunction with a hangover. For example:

• Do a deep breathing exercise. The box breathing technique is one of the most popular breathing exercises commonly used to relieve anxiety, and you can practice it wherever you are and whenever you need to.

• Get some physical exercise. If you can, engaging in some form of physical exercise may help you mitigate feelings of anxiety both in the moment and over the long term. This is because it can release anti-anxiety neurochemicals to boost mood and counteract the stress hormone. It may also ensure the healthy functioning of GABA receptors, which may decrease anxiety as well. 

• Rest. Getting enough sleep can help ease the physical symptoms of a hangover—and since research indicates a connection between adequate sleep and decreased symptoms of anxiety, resting when you feel hangxiety may help ease those symptoms as well. Taking care to hydrate by drinking water and sports drinks could also help your body and mind recover.

Getting support for anxiety and/or decreasing alcohol consumption

If you’re experiencing symptoms of anxiety that are interfering with your daily functioning—whether they’re related to alcohol consumption or not—you may benefit from meeting with a mental healthcare provider. They may be able to help you address your symptoms and develop healthy coping mechanisms for dealing with them, such as recognizing and replacing distorted thoughts, managing stress, and implementing relaxation techniques. If you’re interested in getting support in decreasing your drinking, a mental healthcare professional may be able to help with this as well. 

In many cases, you have the option to meet with a therapist online or in person, depending on your preference. Some people find that attending therapy virtually is more convenient for their schedule since appointment scheduling is flexible and there’s no travel time required. With a virtual therapy platform like BetterHelp, you can get matched with a licensed therapist who you can speak with via phone, video call, and/or online chat to address the challenges you may be facing. 

Research indicates that online interventions may be effective in supporting clients who want to develop a healthier relationship with alcohol. One paper on the topic indicates that there’s evidence that digital interventions for excessive drinking may be “effective in reducing mean weekly alcohol consumption and in achieving adherence to low-risk drinking limits.” Other research also suggests that online therapy can be as effective as in-person therapy for addressing symptoms of anxiety.