How to deal with the dreaded ‘Hangxiety’ after your heavy isolation parties

Anxiety + hangover = 10/10 brutal


If you don’t know what hangxiety is, you have definitely felt it. It’s that feeling you get when you wake up the next morning from a heavy night out, or rather a 2020-inflicted night in, having had one too many whatever-we-had-in-the-cupboard specials which we, as champion self-isolaters, have grown oh so good at making.

Hangxiety makes you feel overwhelmingly anxious or overwhelmingly guilty in addition to your overwhelmingly terrible hangover. It’s coming to the realisation that you remember nothing and becoming terrified that you’re going to bump into people who were at the motive in Clifton Down Sainsbury’s. It’s those drink-associated irrational thoughts that you cannot escape for a good 24 hours.

Whether your hangovers are in halls, ,or from your new house in Redland after a night of trying to recreate Lounge in your bedroom, it’s safe to say they aren’t getting easier. Here is a guide on how to cope with the dreaded hangxiety, instead of spending all day under your duvet in a TikTok or Netflix wormhole.

Get up, get out of bed, get a shower in

It sounds so obvious and that it may well be, but often our hungover brains trick us into thinking that bed is the only logical option and should not be abandoned for any lengthy amount of time. Showering really is a beautiful and easy way to begin to relinquish the perceived atrocities of the night before. Shower.

Go outside

Go sit on your patio, roof, terrace, park near your house or in your garden and breathe in some fresh air for a while. If, like me, you don’t have access to any outdoor space due to isolation, try to open the window. Even if it’s raining, walk to the shop and get a snack. Do something to get you moving, even if it seems like the worst idea in the world.

Leave your phone face-down

After what has become the obligatory morning-after story deletion, put your phone away and try and stay off it until some of the more intense moments of your hangxiety die down. Don’t add fuel to the fire.

If you made a mess, clear it up

No one, NO ONE, wants to see the remnants of your ill-advised 2am Taka Taka ANYWHERE in the bathroom. This might also score you points with anyone you may have annoyed the night before.

Listen to your body

If you’re hungry, eat. If you’re tired, have a nap. Don’t allow yourself stare blankly at screens all day because even though it feels blissfully easy and entertaining, it doesn’t actually do anything to help you.

Rationalise, rationalise, rationalise

Now this is the important one, ask yourself – is this thought or feeling legitimate? Did the event in question happen? Retrace your steps and then rethink. Often, a lot of what happens on a night out/in, under the mischievous influence of alcohol, gets blown insanely out of proportion. Will he/she/they actually mind? Is it still a problem? Does it really matter? And if the answer to one of those questions is no, then you’re probably in the clear.

Talk to your flatmates/friends/family about what you’re experiencing

Ring your mum, catch up with an old friend you’ve been meaning to call for ages, or simply walk into your kitchen or living area and spark up a conversation about any old thing. Just get talking – 9 times out of 10 you’ll start to feel better.

Any day is slightly (to a lot worse) with a hangover, and even worse with hangxiety, but it doesn’t have to be.

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