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Horrible anxiety after drinking

I am a college 21 year old college student who suffers from anxiety, It's frustrating u try to be normal and go out drinking with my friends, but if I have more than 2 I wake up the next morning with extremely bad anxiety that lasts several days after. Any advice I've managed to get my anxiety under control other woes but drinking gives me the most anxiety I've ever had! Help!
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Avatar universal
I too have these problems with alcohol. Anxiety hangovers can be bad. One thing that can help is to make sure you drink a lot of water. Basically for every beer/drink I have, I drink a glass of water. You'll be peeing alot, but you'll help your body get rid of toxins.

Its not going to solve the problem, but it might help.
Helpful - 0
480448 tn?1426948538
Hello and welcome!

You're discovering, the hard way the effect alcohol (especially in excess) has on anxiety.  It is like pouring gasoline on a fire.  

I know it's difficult with you being in college, drinking is a big part of most people's college careers.  I'm telling you though, that if you continue to drink to the point of intoxication, you will continue to suffer the after effects of the increased anxiety.  Sometimes that can last for days.  Also, it's not uncommon for people to start experiencing depressive symptoms also for the subsequent days after indulging.   That's no fun either.  It's really bad when you end up having symptoms of both.

It would be easy for me to tell you to just steer clear of alcohol, and that IS truly the best thing to do (and what I recommend), but I understand that it's tough with the environment you're in.  

If you are not willing to give it up completely right now, then my advice to you is to follow your own instincts and what you've discovered.  You've discovered that if you drink more than 2 drinks, you're in for it.  No one needs to know how much you're drinking.  Heck, you could have the same cup all night, and people would never know.  Just don't make a big deal out of it or bring it up.  You don't have to get intoxicated.  That fixes the peer pressure angle of things, which leaves what you WANT.  Getting intoxicated is "fun" for some people, no doubt.  If you're struggling with giving that up, there isn't much I could tell you other than to weigh the situation carefully.  Is a FEW hours of drunken fun worth days of feeling anxious?

It would be BEST if you could just tell your friends what's going on, and hopefully they would support you in not drinking at all.  There ARE other things you can do besides partying.  I would recommend that you start finding other social activities to engage in, to cut down on those situations where you may be tempted to overdo it, and then suffer for it later.

I've experienced the post alcohol anxiety, and it's awful.  I've pretty much given alcohol up completely, and I wasn't a big drinker to begin with.  There's just NO way I would EVER find one night of drinking worth that terrible anxiety that lasts for DAYS afterwards.  

Very best to you, please let us know how you're doing.
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