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Have you ever felt anxious the day after a party? If after going out in the evening and having a little (too much) drinking, you wake up with a feeling of anxiety, this is a very specific phenomenon, which happens in the brain. Explanations.
After a slightly too drunken evening, have you ever felt particularly anxious the next day? This is a normal phenomenon called “hangxiety”. Doctissimo enlightens you.
A phenomenon called “hangxiety”
This feeling of anxiety and panic is called “hangxiety“, a contraction of the words “hangover”, “hangover” in English and “anxiety”, which means “anxiety”. This anxiety which occurs while we have a hangover is explained by chemical phenomena having place in our brain.
Two neurotransmitters, GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) and glutamate, function in balance. Indeed, GABA allows relaxation and slowing down of brain functions, while glutamate allows the opposite, by being responsible for our awakening, by making our brain alert.
Alcohol consumption creates an imbalance in the functions of these neurotransmitters
By consuming alcohol, we stimulate the GABA receptors in our brain, which greatly increases the amount of the neurotransmitter in the brain system. This explains the relaxing effect caused by a few glasses of alcohol.
On the other hand, panic does not take long to set in, because an excess of GABA slows down brain activity, which can lead to a coma. To counteract this effect, our brain restarts the production of glutamate. This reaction will have the effect of generating anxiety.
What can you do to avoid this feeling?
To avoid these harmful effects of alcohol, there is no preventative means other than not drinking. If you feel anxious the day after a night out, you need to sleep to give the neurotransmitters time to rebalance.
And if you can’t do it, try going out for a walk or meeting friends to take your mind off things.