why do hangover symptoms come on in waves

Jimmycrackcrack@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 55 points –

Something I've always noticed and am going through now. Sometimes I'll drink too much the night before and be concerned about a hangover the next morning. Morning comes, and almost always my first thought is "gee I feel like shit but actually this is way less bad then I was expecting" this misplaced optimism gets washed away at an indeterminate length of time later when a wave of awful nausea crescendos to a peak of crappiness before gradually receding leading me to think "maybe that was the worst of it" only for the cycle to repeat.

This happens even when the hangover is not one severe enough to have caused vomiting. Feeling sick from drinking too much I understand, but I wonder what's physically happening during the peak of these waves that's not happening during the troughs.

21

Part of it is the reason a hair of the dog slows a hangover down.

You body will process ethyl alcohol first, before it process all the other alcohols (methyl etc) which produce much worse breakdown products and really make the hangover get worse.

When you wake up you may still be metabolising ethyl alcohol, then when your hangover really kicks in, it is the more toxic shit being processed. A hair of the dog adds ethyl alcohol back into your system, which the body then works on.

But all it really does is delay the worst of the hangover.

as a general rule I avoid eating hair, from dogs or otherwise. Thanks tho

Well, one of the issues with alcohol consumption is the loss of normal inhibition responses.

So what is a general rule while sober will often fall by the wayside once a binge is in full swing.

But unless you're drinking moonshine, should the alcohol in alcoholic drinks be ethyl alcohol only?

This is probably accurate. And explains why a beer hangover, or a hangover from high end liquor is nothing like a hangover from cheap liquor.

Same for wine. A wine hangover is fueled by sugar and sulfites.

If it's not craft beer or a well made cocktail, I'm probably not drinking it.

If psychedelics have taught me anything it's that experiences tend to come in waves

experiences tend to come in waves

Considering that both sounds and visual stimuli come from waves or wave-like phenomena, that is quite a true statement even without the influence of psychedelics.

I quit drinking been clean for a year and a half, I just turned 31, at this age the hangovers are just too overwhelming for me to tough them out anymore. And quite honestly after completely quitting and seeing the upside I highly recommend to all my fellow comrades here.

Now I am no saint, I love weed and psychedelics but after extensive research I find those to be a lot more better for me recreationally and yes therapeutically. But to each their own.

I wish I never drank honestly I threw away my 20s, wasted time, destroyed the only long term relationship I ever had, and it was a gateway to harder drugs like cocaine. Which was the first thing I quit after battling a crazy addiction to it. Scarface level shit.

What truly terrifies me is now that I've quit my once close family members would rather feel something is wrong with me for not drinking and preferring psychedelics over alcohol. Even when they say out loud that they support me their actions say otherwise.

If anyone is trying to quit drink my DMs are open to share my experience

Grats! Just hit 2 years myself.

Thank you it's been a hard journey, I found that the 2 weeks to 2 month mark was the hardest that's when I can truly say I experienced physical withdrawals. I would get headaches when I saw alcohol or others drinking at parties I would get headaches.

When I quit coke, I was told there would be physical withdrawals but I experienced more psychological ones than anything which is what scares me about alcohol. I felt this deep calling to return to it, I still the thought of the hangover really keeps me away at my age.

I agree 2 wks to 2 months was the toughest. I associated drinking with certain activities, and it was weird to do those without drinking. Then, other things i thought would be hard, weren't. Like parties, family gatherings etc. Thought everyone would say, "hey wheres your drink!". I think in retrospect i was the only one saying that shit.

I got pretty good at dealing with hangovers. I have an iron stomach and had a pretty good routine before bed and the next morning to get over it all as fast as possible. Guess that was sign enough it was time to stop.

I had the same thing I had a hangover kit that I would follow to make the hangover less harsh it was right around the time I quit too

I'm happy you had a safe environment around your family mine would prefer I "loosen" up by drinking, in fact quitting made me realize that there was a lot of toxic dynamics within my family that need to be addressed, I never realized drinking was a form of tolerating it. I'm naturally extroverted so I thought parties and dancing was gonna be different, it was an adjustment but I still like to be outgoing and boogie, I just had to do it without alcohol, I find good substitutions in weed or psychedelics though as my tool to unwind when I need it

For future reference:

Once the source of the hangover headache was located, the researchers then set about figuring out how to get rid of the pesky things, using known headache blockers. Turns out the combination of caffeine and over-the-counter inflammatory drugs (i.e., NSAIDs – things like aspirin and ibuprofen) were best at blocking the head-pounding effects of the acetate.

Although as with everything, timing is crucial.

“If you drink a small amount of alcohol, three or four hours later, drink some coffee,” he says. “Or take caffeine in some form, like an Excedrin that has caffeine in it. If you take the caffeine at the same time as you drink, it will be gone when the acetate levels are high.

And for the nausea, have a few sips of pickle juice. I swear it works. It works so well for me, at least

I'll probably try to simply not drink too much, but that said, this is good to know.

Take it from a pro: you need to eat, particularly something heavy and greasy. There's a reason Waffle House is full of drunks at 11:00 PM. Then, in the morning, vitamin C. A lot of it.

As well as Pons_Aelius's input, who I think I have quoted before in another post 🤣, I reckon your body is out of balance in many other factors too, hence sports drinks can help pump electrolytes into your system, your gut isn't too happy, and you could be genuinely lacking water. Alcohol is a poison which - paraphrasing Pons - is probably high on the priority list for your liver while the rest of your body deals with the injustice it was served.

I just found via my previous comments that I built on pons pov in the entangled particles post. Funny running into a Lemmy user again.