Hangxiety Woes

While a night out of fun with BFFs can take your mind off the real world, reality kicks in the morning after. Here are ways you can deal with the anxious feelings after a few too many drinks.

- Pamela Choo

You’ve had a hard month and feel you deserve a night of fun, and that includes copious amounts of alcohol. Then you find yourself awake the next day, not remembering anything. Your heart starts beating faster. You may have difficulty breathing, too. These are the symptoms of hangxiety, according to Hired Power, a professional transition service. It ’s the anxiety you feel during a hangover, when you worry about the things you said the night before because you don’t recall anything! Clinical psychologist Sarah Zehan says that when a person consumes alcohol, the chemicals in their brain alter and the “worry” chemicals are suppressed. That ’s why you’re more relaxed when you’re drinking. But what most people don’t realise is that the brain works extra hard to bring the chemical levels back to normal once the alcohol subsides. That surge of worry chemicals in the brain can cause anxiety.

THE ONES WHO ARE LIKELY TO FEEL ‘HANGXIETY’