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

[andypee]

well i'm only 21 and have always just thought it's a phase and something everyone does at this point of my life, this year has been very heavy though, i think i drink now to escape my thoughts and its the only thing that makes me feel normal again.

[cassy1989]

Do you think you could go a day without drinking because its not really about how much you drink, its if you can't do with out it x

[andypee]

there have been months where ive not had a day off drinking or maybe only one, i went through a stage of drinking on my own everynight because i couldnt sleep, but i try my hardest not to drink alone. i am blessed with many friends but this just means meetings over booze with various people!

[cassy1989]

Aww well if it does become a problem just make sure you speak to some one x

[Tink]

I feel more anxious after drinking. I had a few glasses of wine last night, went to bed at 3 and got up at 9. Been feeling very anxious today. My mouth is really dry and feel like I have a lump in my throat. I also feel at times that I am not quite there if that makes sense.

Also lately not just day after a drink but quite alot I feel like I am going to stop breathing and have to really catch my breath especially when I am talking too. I hate it but when I try to explain this to people they think I am just making it up!!!

Does anyone else get this? xxx

[louise_2009]

I have this really bad... it was only through a google search in total desperation today that with relief, I found this site and other people who had it too. I'm sure it never used to be like this. When I was at uni, I was the eternal party girl. I used to mischeviously tell the story of when I got taken home in an ambulance, after passing out in the street and being dragged into some kind souls dorrway while my friends tried to revive me. It carried on for years and after uni I lived with a girl who also had a bottle of wine every night. I wasn't as bad as when I was a student though, although I was desperately unhappy. I went to the doctor eventually in total torment and was prescribed citalopram. I was bad at taking it though, used to forget and still drink sometimes which I don't think you are supposed to.

Anyway, I just remember going through hell and being miserably curled up in my bed after work every day wishing it would all go away and wondering how I could end it. About 9 months or so of this passed and then I had a phone call which just changed everything, my life as I knew it. My brother had killed himself. From that point on I think i just blindly drank every day. I really didn't know what else to do and I just had to numb it. Make it all stop spinning. Weirdly, I felt like I was coping because evryone would say to me 'God you are so strong' etc etc. I wouldn't cry, just kind of stalwartly go on and grit my teeth but also drink.

Anyway, cut to a few years later and I'm still drinking all the time. I gte in from work and think about going for a run, or doing something but instead I end up lonely and drinking. Only the paranoia has got beyond all realms of my control. Usually I drink alone. But on the rare occasion I see people, I end up worrying so much that i literally feel sick the next day. I panic in social situations unless I have a drink in my hand. I finish my drink the quickest and I have to have another. Today I burst into tears whilst sitting in a sunny park. It was the first release I've had in ages, because I truly felt like I was cracking up. Like it's got too dark and I can't see the light switch.

Anyway, it feels kinda calming reading all your stories on here. Thank you for that. I don't know what to do anymore, or why I behave the way I do. It's like I don't trust anyone and just feel desperately alone. I'm sure the paranoia never used to be there the next day after boozing but these days it is AWFUL! Like shaky and thinking of death and just really bloody rotten. Why would this come on like this in the last year or so but not before?

Anyway, thanks everyone, I guess we're all searching for the light! I think it is out there, I dearly hope so anyway.

Louise

[wcb123]

Had this really badly today after a heavy all dayer yesterday. The derealisation and chest pains make me think the heart is failing. After experiencing this for a few years now i think it comes down to dehydration, electrolyte imbalance and bad sleep (alcohol stops you rem sleeping). Its either that or an onset of some kind 0f intolerence.

A dyorialyte, a banana and lots of water usually quickens the recovery. If i sleep longer than 8 hours i can sometimes bypass it. If i wake up early, it'susually game over and i panic the entire day.

[yogibear]

I literally go into hiding for a week after drinking. My anxiety goes sky high! Normal for us I think!

[Fishmanpa]

This thread was started in 2009 but it shows along with hundreds of other threads, just how common the negative effects of anxiety and alcohol can be.

Positive thoughts

[MyNameIsTerry]

This thread was started in 2009 but it shows along with hundreds of other threads, just how common the negative effects of anxiety and alcohol can be.

Positive thoughts

Well it shows how some people have reported negative effects. It's a very small thread for 6 years though.

There are ones for caffeine too. That reminds me, we must all start threads about the tea & coffee we drank without a problem.

How about all those ones on the Meds board about meds making things worse? But then we have a load of people they have also helped.

Confirmation Bias. Only looking for evidence to confirm a belief without considering evidence that opposes it. A common failing that anyone conducted a study or experiment has to cover off or they fail.