Anxiety & Panic Community

I just signed up for an account so i'm not sure if everyone sees this post of just you, but hopefully what i have to say will help calm some of the people on this board. I am 31 and drank probably an average of 4 nights a week from the time I was 20 until 25 (when I got my first day job). I then cut back to probably 3 nights per week. When I say I drank i mean heavily. I never had 3 or 4 beers. It was 15 or it was 0. I started getting crazy anxiety at about age 25 after I drank. I will spare you the details, but it is pretty much the same as everyone else on here. There is a history of anxiety in my family and i pretty much figured out that I had a really mild case, but drinking really brought it out. After years of research and experimentation I have it narrowed down to a science. i imagine that it is possible you could have some sort of health problem so get checked by a doctor for heart problems, etc. first. Chances are there is nothing wrong except for anxiety, but it will make you feel better to hear it from a Dr. As someone else has said on here, remember, assuming you do not have a health problem, that you CAN NOT die from this. It is just adrenaline and worrying makes it worse. It is not withdrawal as some have said (unless you are constantly drunk for a long time, then it is DTs but that is really serious and would feel different from anxiety).

The anxiety is caused by guilt, low blood sugar, dehydration, and just being hung over. Any time the body feels bad it gets a little anxious, but if you have an anxiety issue you worry which makes the symptoms worse, which leads to more anxiety, more symptoms, etc. It is a snowball effect. It is worst for me if i have to get up early, so i never drink on a work night anymore, that makes a big difference, only drink if you have nothing to do the next day and can sleep in. Eat food while you drink or at least right before you go to bed. If you cant eat, drink juice or gatorade, and try to drink some water while you drink. Smoking makes it worse for me so do not be a "I smoke when I drink" person. Exercise! When your hangover is gone no matter how bad you feel go for a run or workout get a good sweat, sit in a sauna. Don't worry!!! It has happened before and you didn't die, you will not die this time, or the next or any time after.

Summarty of tips:
Don't smoke
Limit caffeine
Stay hydrated
Work out!!
Sleep in
Drink beer not liquor
Eat and drink water after you get home from the bar
Relax!!

The easiest thing to do would be to stop drinking. My suggestions above are for if you still want to drink.

Another good idea is to not drink for a few weeks or a month or two to sort of give your nerves a break. They are sensitive from all this and need a break. A good book is "Hope and help for your nerves". Only costs like 7 bucks on amazon and is relly helpful. It is for anxiety, not necessarily drinking anxiety, but i think i have learned they are one in the same, and we just think they are different because one is associated with drinking so we think it must be worse or deadly, but it is all the same. Hope that helps, sorry for the rambling and the lack of spell check.

I have the same problem. I'm a 26 year old male who suffers from general anxiety and panic disorder. When I drink too much, I am horribly anxious the entire next day. I have panic attacks, feel like I can't breathe or swallow, my hands get very clammy, I am dizzy, light headed, and I feel like I'm going to die all day. This never used to happen to me. The first time it did, I was at a restaurant with my girlfriend, and I was a little hungover. I had the worst panic attack of my life, and it's been happening ever since. I think it has to do with not only the toxins in the alcohol, but the fear that it's going to happen every time. I have been taking L-Theanine every day for anxiety, and it seems to be helping.

I am having the same issues!
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I am so happy to know that i am not alone, i love to drink beer, always have, my whole family drinks beer, my wife loves beer, her whole family loves beer. at any gathering everybody is drinking.then out of nowhere i started having these hangovers that were different than your normal hangover, wake up feeling like your insides are shaking, vision that goes from fine to blurry, numb spots, chest pain, chest feeling weird in general, scared, anxious, sweaty, stomach kinda jacked, and its really nuts because after i eat lunch it gets worse. i was put on ativan a long time ago, .50 as needed for anxiety, took them and got addicted, i also take like 2mg on the day after a bender to keep from losing it, partly because im addicted to ativan and partly because after a night of drinking makes me the way that i get. quitting drinking is an option but my wife and i sit down at night sometimes and just drink and talk, its what we do, i dont want to change my lifestyle, i want to know what the hell is the deal and how can we get through this. ive only been to the hospital one time, after they told me it was anxiety attack i just remember that when im trippin. i did do the whole cardiologist thing, check me for everything, my heart is bad. it was fine. i hope one day we get this figured out and i can go back to normal me.

My anxiety has gotten worse over the past year, and I, too have noticed that after a night of drinking, I am plagued with horrible anxiety pretty much the whole rest of the day. I am really curious as to why this has begun to happen to me. I've been drinking for a while now, and was NEVER like this. Is this a result of body changes due to getting a little older now? (I'm going to be 26 in a couple of weeks). My mom thinks it is due to the loss of my dog last March (which WAS very hard on me). She says I probably didn't grieve enough. I have no idea if she is right or wrong, but oddly enough, my anxiety DID worsen after he died. I just wish I knew exactly WHY this is all going on with me when i used to be just fine before. I mean, yeah, I have suffered from anxiety for about 7 years now, but it's never been like this. At least I know I'm not alone.

I am very surprised to learn this happens to many others as well!

I have been fighting a battle with anxiety for a while now. For the most part I have been winning the fight and while the anxiety is still there, I feel like I more or less have been getting it under control.

I have noticed that it hits me more intensely the day after I have gone out drinking. I don't drink too often but like to go out once in a while.. A few nights ago I went out drinking and the next day I had to wake up early for a meeting. I made it to the meeting fine (usually anxiety is worse for me while driving) but on the way home it hit me hard. Luckily I was almost home because I felt the intense need to pull over the car and get out. I pulled in at home got out and took some deep breaths and all was good, but I was terrified the rest of that day that it would happen again and had an underlying uneasiness there all day.

I recently have quit smoking and drinking caffeine in effort to try to stop these anxiety attacks. Now I am left wondering if I need to quit drinking all-together as well.

Thanks! This post was really helpful!

also get them symptoms, i first had a panic attack 7 months ago when i came back from travelling, i was hungover and in the back of my dads car when it happened, it was the worse experience of my life and ever since then i regularly get the onset of a panic attack and am not very good with travelling anymore...especially when im hungover then its worse.
have you learnt to deal with them or do you have any methods of keeping them under wraps? whenever i feel the onset of one coming on i get up and go for a walk, takes a few minutes to shake it off but at least i know that way it doesnt turn into a full blown attack

Kylie,
I know this was posted 4 years ago but I am so glad I found this discussion. Its nice to know that people go through the same thing and actually right at this moment is calming me down and making me feel better! I hope that everything was helpful and now years later are feeling better! I am experiencing this right now and am going to use the advice found on here to help myself as well. Hope everything worked out!

Please read this article. I went to the ER for a panic attack brought on by too much alcohol ( it ended up costing me over $2,000) .I had never had this happen before and I thought I was having a heart attack. This article will help explain what is happening to your body and why. It will also tell you what you can do to try to prevent them in the future and start feeling better.

http://www.alternativementalhealth.com/articles/hypoglycemia.htm

good luck

BEST ANSWER for most cases. (Coming from a past veteran of hangover panic attacks)

When we drink we are giving our body a depressant. When this happens our body wants to stabilize itself, thus the brain releases natural adrenaline into the body to counteract this depressant (booze). The problem with this is that the alcohol is always burned off before the body's natural adrenaline wears off. This means the next day you will feel wired from the lingering adrenaline. All this excess adrenaline in the body can easily cause panic attacks. This is why other posters on here have recommended not consuming caffeine or nicotine the day of your hangover since these two are stimulants and when added to your already high levels of natural adrenaline just fuels the fire for increased panic attacks.

Many posters here claim to have less chance of panic attack the next day if they stay up an hour or two before they go to sleep the night of drinking. This is because the body's metabolism runs faster when awake and slows down when you sleep. The faster your metabolism the faster your liver burns off that alcohol. Basically these people are burning off more booze before sleep, which then they only have to deal with the "adrenaline spike (peak)" while they're sleeping. By the time they wake up the adrenaline has worn off and they feel fine. Basically, the sooner the depressant (booze) wears off, the sooner the body will stop emitting natural adrenaline into you to stabilize itself. The sooner this happens, the sooner the already lingering adrenaline wears off.

Another element here is "fear" of the panic attack before it happens. If you've had a few panic attacks before while hungover you may start to "brace yourself" every time you wake up after a night of drinking with the thought of "Am I going to get a panic attack!?". This doesn't help at all and is more along the lines of a post traumatic stress disorder symptom. It's natural to fear panic attacks if you've had a few bad ones. Basically a complex about it can occur that makes you consciously "think, fear, obsess" about getting a panic attack when hungover. Thoughts like these alone can trigger a panic attack even though you may not have even gotten that panic attack if you weren't thinking or obsessing over the idea of it during a hangover. These thoughts and fears only come from past trauma's of bad hangover experiences. Here is how to cure this if you enjoy drinking and still want to without fear.....

You need to get this whole thing off of your conscious mind and prove to yourself that alcohol panic attacks won't return. Start out by drinking only 1 drink at night..... the next day there is no way you will get a panic attack from that. Try 2 drinks a few days later and so on. Basically here you are proving to yourself that drinking is not going to cause a panic attack. You're positively reinforcing your mind to "let-go" of the idea of fear of hangovers. Again, stay away from stimulants the next day ie caffeine, smoking etc. Drinking can be fun, just take care of yourself and there is no shame in admitting you get panic attacks. I still drink, and sometimes a lot when I do.... but I always sober up the next day. And most importantly I no longer get panic attacks ever, but all the advice I've given here is what has helped me.

I hope this helps.

I find a toke of the naughty herb relieves all my hangover panic attack symptoms. It used to be that I thought I was becoming a bit of an alcoholic from the shakes and whatnot. Now I find the medical green card being my ticket out of the races. Granted, I also slowed my booze consumption but on those weekends I would binge out, a wake n bake on monday sorted everything out. Not to recommend it, first consult your prescribing physician

Kylie,

I experience this so much. I have anxiety and the day after drinking is always terrible. I experience almost all the symptoms you do. Sometimes when I lay down to take a nap or sleep I start talking to myself, almost like i'm dreaming but awake. It's bizarre and it makes my anxiety worse. I'm also a hypchondriac. I am currently trying to find ways to cope with that because that sends my anxiety through the roof.
When things like this happen I just tell myself that this has happend before and I was okay, so I'll be just fine.
Feel better!