Headache and worries: hangxiety also gives you a mental hangover
It’s carnival time again, and chances are that after long nights of partying, you’re suffering from ‘hangxiety’. Besides the headache from your hangover, you also have mental worries. Did you say something weird? Were people actually listening to you? Experimental psychologist Gaëtan Mertens explains the phenomenon: ‘The focus on anxiety and tension has increased.’
The morning after
Most students are familiar with it, especially now that carnival is in full swing: waking up with a pounding headache and a bottle of water next to your bed. The classic hangover. While searching for your phone, you try to reconstruct the night. How did you get home? Did you park your bike properly? Where is your phone?
Once you find your phone with 8% battery left in your jacket pocket and confirm that your bike is safe, new questions arise. Did you say anything embarrassing? Did you ramble on too long about one topic? Were people even interested in your stories?
Slowly, a mental hangover develops. More and more people are calling this phenomenon ‘hangxiety’, a combination of ‘hangover’ and ‘anxiety’. But is that term actually accurate? And what does it really mean?
Anxiety after alcohol consumption
After drinking alcohol, it is indeed possible to experience increased anxiety, says Gaëtan Mertens, an assistant professor in the Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, specializing in anxiety and tension. ‘This mainly occurs in people who already struggle with social anxiety.’
Still, many more people experience this mental hangover. ‘Once you start thinking that you feel anxious after drinking, you may start overanalyzing everything you said or did the night before.’ And by focusing on these feelings, ‘it only gets worse.’
However, in most cases, it’s not an actual disorder. ”Hangxiety’ is not listed in the DSM-5 of the American Psychiatric Association, which includes all recognized psychiatric disorders,’ Mertens says.
Normal emotions
Mertens has noticed that students suffer from anxiety more often. ‘In the 1980s, various questionnaires were developed to measure anxiety symptoms. Back then, about ten to twenty percent of students scored above the clinical threshold. Now, it’s more than half.’
‘The focus on anxiety and tension has increased in recent years. Students are more aware of feelings of stress and pressure. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it can lead to normal emotions being perceived as something serious,’ Mertens explains.
Not a disorder, but behavior
According to Mertens, ‘hangxiety’ is not a major problem. ‘Just like a normal hangover, it goes away on its own. It’s better to see this mental unease as a logical consequence of your own behavior rather than as a disorder.’
And that behavior can be adjusted. The solution? Drink less. ‘Of course, people are free to have fun and drink alcohol if they want to,’ Mertens says, ‘but you shouldn’t wake up the next day and think you suddenly have a disorder.’
Had one too many drinks? Mertens has a tip: ‘Let the alcohol leave your system. Go for a walk, meditate, or go for a run. The hangover will pass on its own, and by doing other activities, you won’t spend hours ruminating about the night before.’
