{"id":21495,"date":"2025-02-04T09:01:23","date_gmt":"2025-02-04T10:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21495"},"modified":"2025-02-04T10:32:19","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T10:32:19","slug":"alcohol-makes-me-anxious-is-that-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=21495","title":{"rendered":"Alcohol Makes Me Anxious. Is That Normal?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Q: Sometimes I feel really anxious the day after I drink. Can alcohol cause a panic attack?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The short answer is yes.<\/p>\n

Panic attacks<\/a> \u2014 sudden waves of overwhelming fear and apprehension, along with physical symptoms like chest pain and tightness, sweating, a racing heartbeat, nausea, difficulty breathing, feeling faint or numbness in the arms and hands \u2014 are intense episodes of anxiety<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And alcohol and anxiety are considered \u201ctwo sides of the same coin,\u201d said Dr. Al\u00ebna Balasanova, an associate professor of psychiatry and the director of addiction psychiatry education at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.<\/p>\n

While drinking is often used as a social lubricant or a way to relax and unwind, scientists have found<\/a> that alcohol can ramp up feelings of anxiety. These feelings can result when alcohol is metabolized by the body, a process that can take a day or longer to complete. Regular, heavy drinkers may experience higher levels of anxiety, particularly after the alcohol wears off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

\u201cI <\/strong>don\u2019t want to scare people to think that if you go out and you have a few glasses of wine, that you\u2019re going to have a panic attack,\u201d Dr. Balasanova said. \u201cBut certainly the risk is always there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that risk is higher if you already have an anxiety disorder.<\/p>\n

Ideally, \u201cpeople who are prone to anxiety should avoid heavy drinking, or drinking at all, even if alcohol seems to alleviate anxiety in the short term,\u201d said Jennifer E. Merrill, an associate professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: Sometimes I feel really anxious the day after I drink. Can alcohol cause a panic attack?The short answer is yes.Panic attacks \u2014 sudden waves of overwhelming fear and apprehension, along with physical symptoms like chest pain and tightness, sweating, a racing heartbeat, nausea, difficulty breathing, feeling faint or numbness in the arms and hands \u2014 are intense episodes of anxiety.And alcohol and anxiety are considered \u201ctwo sides of the same coin,\u201d said Dr. Al\u00ebna Balasanova, an associate professor of psychiatry and the director of addiction psychiatry education at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.While drinking is often used as a social lubricant or a way to relax and unwind, scientists have found that alcohol can ramp up feelings of anxiety. These feelings can result when alcohol is metabolized by the body, a process that can take a day or longer to complete. Regular, heavy drinkers may experience higher levels of anxiety, particularly after the alcohol wears off.\u201cI don\u2019t want to scare people to think that if you go out and you have a few glasses of wine, that you\u2019re going to have a panic attack,\u201d Dr. Balasanova said. \u201cBut certainly the risk is always there.\u201dAnd that risk is higher if you already have an anxiety disorder.Ideally, \u201cpeople who are prone to anxiety should avoid heavy drinking, or drinking at all, even if alcohol seems to alleviate anxiety in the short term,\u201d said Jennifer E. Merrill, an associate professor of behavioral and social sciences at Brown University.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21497,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21495"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21498,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21495\/revisions\/21498"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}