anxiety day after drinking alcohol

[mattc15]

has anyone else experienced this? it just started happening to me maybe 6 months ago, but now every time i drink, the next day i have terrible HA. Is this from the alcohol or is it all in my head. I also experience chest pains day after drinking, i dont know if this is from the anxiety or not

[Meewah]

Hi

I used to get Palps after drinking. It mainly bothered me after drinking one or two drinks. If I had excess it only made the next three days terrible.

I have stopped drinking altogether because when I have one pint I find my chest tightens and I feel a really strange feeling of fullness in the chest that really scares me. I have to say I do not enjoy the feeling of not being in control 100% after a drink. It is as if I need to be totally in control of my self all of the time just in case I have to deal with a life threatening situation at any time.

Does this make sense?

Hope this helps.

Mee

[shep]

Hi

I have suffered from anxiety for a few years and notice that it can be worse after an evening out with alcohol. If I drink too much alcohol I can feel very dehydrated the next day as well as 'not with it' in my head and suffer with what I call miss beats from the heart.

I have learned to train my thoughts that this is normal and not going to cause any health problems.

Happy to discuss with anyone suffering with this.. :-)

[monkeybutler]

i completely know what you're talking about!
usually if i feel anxious i can deal with it fairly easily without it escalating into a panic attack, but after drinking (even if its a few beers during the day) it is a lot more difficult to stop the irrational worrying, and i tend to feel a lot more anxious.
probably has something to do with the depressant quality of the alcohol.
meewah - i notice the same feeling in my chest sometimes when drinking, i usually put it down to gas from the bubbles in the beer (if thats what i was drinking) I think the carbonation in beer tends to affect me more than most people
and shep - the day after derealization and palpitations have become part of the hangover for me, it's definitely not pleasant but you're right about it not having serious health effects.

[Seanpat]

I dont know how much you drink but I had this for years while I was drinking. I quit two years ago and my panic/anxiety went completely away. It is back now but not as bad. The day after heavy drinking I had terrible panic attacks, heart palpitations, sweat etc. The prevalance of panic attacks and anxiety in alcoholics/alcohol abusers is very high. They dont know really know why. One thing I am positive about is that alcohol made all of my anxiety issues WAY WORSE. The short term relief I got from the drinking paled in comparison to the next few days. Just my two cents.

[melody]

My theory is that I had unbearable thoughts. I drank to get numb. The unbearable thoughts/feelings came back a lot more intensely over & over. Sometimes it's important to fact the things it feels we can't face so our life can go back to normal.

I am hardly an expert. I am a person who numbed out her feelings for a few years, then had 6 months of hell off alcohol off alcohol after total humiliation in front of all my friends. Then everything fell into place logically. My feelings are still on overdrive. I have the hugest amount more understanding more than I ever would have thought possible. It's still frustrating but it makes a lot more sense. Alcohol is fake happiness. Real happiness is possible, but I had to face all my unhappiness before I could find my happiness.......

Everyone finds their own path. I'm sharing in case any tiny bit helps anyone. I wish you the best of luck

[mattc15]

thanks for all the input so far. so the heart palps are normal a day after drinking? this is the part that worries me the most. For some reason all day i think that my heart will just stop and ill drop dead. I dont know why i think that, its very scary. Is this even possible? Im only 22 as well and I do drink more than i should. for example last night i had about 12 beers.

[monkeybutler]

Yeah i've had that fear as well, and I'm 20. As far as i've heard though, heart palpitations are inconvenient and uncomfortable at worst.
I know that even a little amount of alcohol tends to make anxiety symptoms worse, and for me it tends to be the derealization and brain fog the next day, though i've had palps as well.
it's hard to cut back completely at this age especially when a lot of social occasions involve mass consumption, but when you know the symptoms next day are those of anxiety and nothing else it eases my mind, though to avoid the discomfort of the anxiety i try to at least drink less, or drink a lot of water before bed to minimize the hangover
good luck!

[andypee]

i have had this many times, i almost believe alcohol is the route cause of my anxiety. i drink too much and i know it but can't seem to avoid it :(

[cassy1989]

I rarely drink but when I have it has made my anxiety alot worse. My advice would be to avoid drink completely tbh.

My brother is a recovering alcoholic and he also suffers with anxiety and his mental health was so much worse when he was drinking!

Andypee do you receive any help for your drinking?

x