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758077 tn?1282595561

hangover anxiety

Hey guys..
I have been having a very bad reaction to alcohol all day. I am a weekend drinking, not always binge drinking, but yesterday I was at a day festival, and then went out, so I did drink rather alot. Today, I had a strange hangover and i'm still having it.
I woke up feeling like my throught was being squeezed, then,that went away, to be replaced with a fast heart rate, that went away, and now my chest feels tight. I know that this is prob anxiety, but I am still a bit worried as it's 4am here (I'm in the UK) and it's been over 24 hours i've been feeling like this now.

I wondered, if anyone else suffers with bad anxiety whilst having a hangover? the fast heart rate? and chest tightness? and, how do they resolve it? I have had a panic attack where I thought I was having a heart attack and called an ambulance... though my panic attacks are lessening, the anxiety comes back sometimes when I have a hangover.

any advice would be great.

I am worried about the tightness in my chest, though I seem to be breathing ok, and my hearts normal-so I'm guessing it's no heart attack, just anxiety?
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Avatar universal
Wow this sounds just like mine. Around 3-5pm is a huge crash where I feel faint, clammy, heart rate. I have to tell my wife lets do thing before the crash comes. It feels like death
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COMMUNITY LEADER
great comment!docstar rocked it like a rockstar!:)
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Avatar universal
Glad I found this thread. It is time folks to get your priorities straight. Opt living free of fear & misery and you can rest assured that life beyond getting  sloshed is way soooooo much greener. I have been through the hell you folks are going through and I am gonna tell you exactly why you are feeling like s*&^ after binge drinking. What you are experiencing folks are very early symptoms of Alcoholic Fatty Liver. Mind it, if you don't mend your ways right away, this is gonna lead to cirrhosis of liver and ultimately the inevitable. If you are below 40 then you can make 110% recovery from all the damages that you have induced upon yourself by various self abuse. I quit at a time when every god dang thing had gone wrong (cheating arrogant gf, an immediate family member getting cancer, a ruined career + my recurrent panic/anxiety attacks etc etc) and that my dear friends was just about the perfect time. I could do it just because I wanted to feel great for the rest of my life. It's hard to quit when time's on your side. Remember, staying sober has its own kick. All you have to do is give yourself a shot. Cheers!
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COMMUNITY LEADER
Are u ever concerned about losing your job?do u have hangovers the next day teaching?
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Avatar universal
I drink every week. On Sundays I prepare myslef to go drinking from place to place. I'm the kind of drunk person that doesn't stop until he falls asleep. Now, the real nightmare begins every Monday. I often feel myself unable to go on, sometimes I feel my heart exploding and my full energy vanishing away. My nervous system is just unbalanced and I think the worst is yet to come. Panick attacks have been witn me since early 2009 to present day even when with a minor degree. Sometimes I feel that I'm goig to fade away, and even unable to pronounce the ideas I have in mind. I am a school teacher so I have to suffer this in front of students, giving a class or traveling to school. It's terrible, you know.
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Avatar universal
I have absolutely had similar problems although I feel I have a much more personalized case

I am a just recently turned 21 year old male, I exercise 3 or four times a week, and I have a pretty well-balanced, healthy diet.    I'm in my 4th year in college and am taking 17 units over these next 2 semesters trying to graduate on time so a certain amount of anxiety I expect myself to have.

Unfortunately this is where things take a turn

I'm posting on here at 7 in the morning on Sunday after an entire Saturday of drinking beer (probably 15 beers throughout the day).  Sadly I have been up since 3 am with an incredibly tight feeling in my chest, feeling nauseous and have even thrown up a few times.  For some reason the vomiting seems to relieve the chest tightness but only for about 15 minutes.  Reading comments on threads like this as well as various yoga poses and taking 1 or 2 Tums usually is able to calm me down and relieve the tightness in my chest but only to a certain degree.

For a little more background,
I used to suffer from acne and I took the much-debated treatment Accutane which I know can have severe side-effects
About 2 years ago and what is the beginning of my Anxiety sad story I noticed a lump in my left breast.  I didn't say anything to anybody about it for a couple months and still have the lump to this day.  I started doing my own research online about possibilities of it being breast cancer and really started getting myself worried.  I was away at school the majority of the time so I didn't really have a doctor but one of the times I visited home my parents and I scheduled an appt with my physician, he felt the lump and told me it felt nothing like breast cancer and that men can have masses in their "breasts" for any number of reasons, ultimately he told me I had nothing to worry about and to carry on with my life.  This was very relieving although no actual tests were done.

I used to smoke marijuana on a daily basis, I live in an area where it is relatively easy to cultivate.  It seemed that progressively as time went on and I kept smoking, I would notice that my heart rate felt like it was picking up to an uncomfortable point, only when I would smoke though.  I've now mostly cut out the marijuana as it still gives me the same effects.

A few months go by and the lump remains but I feel great.  Then I notice that one of the lymph nodes in my neck was swollen, and it remained swollen for about 2 months. This really got me worried as swollen lymph nodes for an extended period of time means that something is up. In that 2 month period I revisited a Dr and explained all my occurances (accutane and the lump in my "breast") and he ordered an ultrasound to be done on the mass in my "breast" and for bloodwork to be done.  The ultrasound showed the lump to not be cancerous and this was a great relief in a very worry-filled time in my life the bloodwork showed that I was slightly low in Potassium and Magnesium.  The swelling in my lymph node subsided and life carried on.  Although every day since I noticed the lump in my breast I have had at least some worried thoughts about it. I changed my diet to one higher in both Potassium and Magnesium.  

About 6 months ago I went out one night and got completely annihilated drunk with my buddies, as I woke up the next day my chest felt tight, this instantly worried me as Im sure all of you on this feed have felt.  I got online and saw that chest tightness can be related to heavy drinking the night before and it went away as I pumped my body full of Gatorade so my worries went away.

Im now realizing how long this post is so Ill jump into this a little quicker.
Now anytime that I smoke or the following day after drinking, I'll feel so weird.  Feels like I'm going to have a heart attack and it scares the sh*t out of me.  About a month ago I turned 21 and a drinking frenzy ensued.  I drank a lot before turning 21 so this binge wasnt the first of its kind for me but it was 3 days of constant drinking and eating terrible food.  The Monday morning after that weekend I was up at 3 am doing the same as I was this morning, vomiting, tight chest, worries on my mind and it got to the point that I went to the hospital and got an EKG on my heart and some more blood work done.  The EKG came back completely normal and the bloodwork showed somewhat low levels of Potassium and Magnesium, which they thought could be due to the fact that I had been vomiting.  They gave me an IV of water and some awesome electrolyte solution because I was also dehydrated, my heart rate and blood pressure were a little high when I initially got there but they dropped to normal levels after I saw the results of the EKG and that I wasnt having a heart attack.  They deemed me physically healthy and couldnt explain the tightness in my chest other than anxiety related.  They gave me a Xanax and I started to feel exponentially better.

Like I said that was about a month ago, and I havent gotten a good night of sleep since.  I constantly think about that feeling I had in my chest and how scary it was.  I cut out drinking except for 1 beer every Sunday watching the 49er games.  I find myself staying up late and only being able to sleep for about 3 or 4 hours at a time.  

Yesterday was my first "test" ,if you will, of what the following day would be after heavily drinking and my biggest fear has been confirmed, tight chest, nauseous, full of worries about my heart.  I've told myself I need to take an extended break from drinking all together but now it's 100% going to start RIGHT NOW

I still have worry around my heart and the lump in my "breast" and even now about which friends of mine are fairweather and who I wont see much now that this break from alcohol is starting
I never thought of anxiety as being able to have physical effects like this but now I have no other choice than to believe it

Everybody has their own circumstance and situation, as long as we are cleared medically we will eventually stop worrying so much as long as we cut out what seems to trigger the worrying





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