If you wake up after a heavy night of drinking with a racing heart and a feeling of dread, you are not alone.
‘Hanxiety’, ‘the fear’ or even the ‘beer blues’, are commonly used to describe the horrors of overwhelming anxiety after drinking too much booze.
Although there is no tipple that is proven to benefit your mental health, there are some drinks that experts say are more likely to give you anxiety than others.
Not only do some have higher levels of alcohol, they also contain other chemicals that could increase the risk of symptoms like palpitations, experts say.
‘Hanxiety’, ‘the fear’ or even the ‘beer blues’, are commonly used to describe the horrors of waking up with overwhelming anxiety after drinking too much booze
Lisa Gunn, Mental Health Prevention Lead at Nuffield Health, warns anxiety is a common side-effect of drinking too much booze.
She told HuffPost UK that although alcohol is a depressant that can initially produce calming sensations, it eventually leads to a ‘rebound effect’, where anxiety levels spike.
‘This is partly because alcohol disrupts the balance of neurotransmitters and chemical messengers in the brain,’ she said.
Specifically, the substance interferes with your ‘fight or flight’ response — how we naturally react to danger.
Alcohol can also induce a feeling of panic because it effects GABA, a chemical in the brain that usually has a relaxing effect.
Rob Hobson Registered Nutritionist and author of unprocessed your life explained: ‘As alcohol wears off during a hangover, GABA activity decreases, leading to increased excitability and anxiety.’
But Ms Gunn suggests some tipples might be worse than others.
The higher the alcohol percentage the steeper the effects of anxiety seem to be, experts say
Sprits can cause your blood alcohol level to spike, which ‘can lead to more pronounced rebound anxiety’, she says.
Cocktails, which often combine spirits with sugar, could also make matters worse as it can also cause blood sugar to rise and fall over the course of a night, leading to extreme bursts of energy, she adds.
Red wine may be the worst; she says it contains tyramine and histamines, which can trigger anxiety is those that are susceptible.
The lower alcohol content of beer and larger means they are low risk for you mental health the next morning — providing you drink a small amount.
However, no matter what our drink of choice is, often when we drink we become ‘care-free’ and do thingd we wouldn’t when we are sober.
Ms Gunn stresses that if you wake up after periods of alcohol induced memory loss, you will probably feel a bit worried about what might have happened.
She adds that those with social anxiety to begin with may be more likely to drink to ease their worries when going out, which is known to worsen symptoms.
Alcohol can also induce a feeling of panic because it effects GABA, a chemical in the brain that usually has a relaxing effect.
It quietens nerve activity associated with reduced anxiety and also inhibits the excitatory neurotransmitter called glutamate further promoting relaxation.
Although in small amounts booze can stimulate GABA, making you feel relaxed, heavy drinking can cause feelings of panic, according to Drink Aware.
Rob Hobson Registered Nutritionist and author of unprocessed your life told MailOnline: ‘As alcohol wears off during a hangover, GABA activity decreases, and glutamate activity rebounds, leading to increased excitability and anxiety.’
‘Alcohol also temporarily boosts mood by increasing serotonin and dopamine, but their levels drop after drinking which may contribute to “hangxiety”,’ he added.
Dehydration could also contibute to anxiety. Mr Hobson explains because alcohol is a diuretic, people may experience dizziness and tiredness from being dehydrated, which contributes to feelings of uneasiness and panic.
‘Electrolyte imbalance may also be disrupted and this may make anxiety symptoms worse by causing irregular heartbeat, depending on how much alcohol you consumed,’ he said.
