To ask for your tips to overcome this nightmare of epic proportions?

[Franknotfrancis]

I’ll start by stating I don’t drink often , because I’m terrible at it. I’m just one of these idiots that seems to always overdo it and feel horrible the next day which is why I tend to leave the stuff alone. Yesterday, I was celebrating achieving something quite clever ( oh the irony!) and forgot that I’d not eaten anything all day and merrily ploughed into a part worn bottle of vodka and a couple of DHs beers. I also don’t smoke very much at all and seemed to have channelled Dot Cotton last night. So basically I’ve woken up with a churning stomach, the shakes, a sore throat and a thunderous head. Somewhat heroically the little one has been dealt with this morning and I managed to get him ready quite happily before DH kindly has taken him to school . I honestly feel like I might die, the room is spinning and I’m sweaty. I have the school run at 3:15 and I’m supposed to be at a family gathering this evening. Is there any hope of feeling normal by then? I do this to myself maybe 3/4 times a year and it’s always a horrific 36 hrs to get back to normal. I need to do better now. Also, no funny anecdotes to share, I’m incredibly boring and well behaved when ratarsed, I just seem to drink for the sake of it. I’m 40. I know I should know better but I was excited and in a celebratory mood and didn’t realise how much I was putting away. Can anyone help me feel better?

NOT paracetamol, its processed in the love's, same as booze, so you're just stressing it out.

Have a shower, stop with the caffeine, eat something with carbs and fat and salt. B vitamins important so miso soup, sushi, marmite and cheese on toast all good.

Drink - stop with the caffeine. You'll need it later but for now you need to sleep. Rehydration salts eg diarolyte, or berocca would be great.

Go back to bed ASAP with an eye mask, ear plugs and the window open.

Stop faffing about on the Internet.

Thank you everyone. For the good advice and for the pisstaking too. Yes the thread was as much about distracting me from anxiety as it was gathering rehydration tips. I’d love to properly understand why a hangover makes us feel lonely / sad / vulnerable etc also why I seem not to have anyone real life in my phone I could share it with. DH thinks I’m a massive drama queen with these things as he never suffers with it, so it’s pointless whingeing at him and he’s at work. I need to take a dioralyte, some salty carbs, a shower and maybe try and sort my life out and get some friends I suppose 😂

Have a shower.
Brush your teeth.
Moisturise everything.
Put clean soft and cool clothes on.
Paracetamol and ibuprofen.
Eat something.
Aggressively rehydrate (+/- Dioralyte sachets to help with this).
Coffee, if you drink it.
Snooze.
Have an orgasm (sorry if TMI but it’s an essential on my hangover recovery list).

I remember my last ever hangover! Had over celebrated the last night on holiday with friends, due to fly home the next day. Was driven very slowly and carefully to the airport with a plastic bowl on my lap. I was probably the only person overjoyed to see a three to four hour delay on my flight ! Sat in the shade in the airport roof cafe with a large bottle of water and slowly sobered up. Still felt rough on the plane but luckily my head had reattached itself to my body.

Was going to say you’d be fine by 3pm, but then saw your 40…
I’m afraid 4-5 business days to feel human again, then probably up to a month to be back to normal! Two is my limit these days and I used to love a boozy evening!

Just popping on to say that I don't drink now but if circumstances combine to deprive me of sleep and rest I end up feeling very similar to how I did with a hangover .
Don't underestimate the fatigue factor and try and sleep .

Good luck OP ,you're not alone!

Mcdonalds hash browns. I'd get a bag of them - 4 or so- and a mcmuffin and nibble on them throughout the morning. It's like magic.

Wow this sounds horrific. My worst incident was that I’d just started a new job in a pub and woke up still very drunk ( many years ago) and I had to serve beer and fried food all day while trying not to faint or throw up, it was during a heatwave too. I swore I’d never drink again… but here we are 😀

When I was peri-menopausal drink started making me so ill that I stopped drinking altogether. Must be over 10 years now.

My hangovers were usually fixed by tea, toast and a bit more sleep. Would still feel like I'd just got over flu for a while.

If you feel sick best thing is to try and be sick - always helps.

As for the busybodies on here commenting on your posts and going to the trouble of searching and cut & pasting them - do you guys have nothing better to do? You're like those bored housewives who would write to Esther Rantzen about why there was always a spoon left in the bottom of the washing up bowl 🙄

Diarolyte is the bomb for hangovers.

A greasy breakfast and a full fat sugary drink with ice. Paracetamol.

A coldish shower followed by a nap with the fan on.

A big lunch with a cold smoothie and some TV. Ibuprofen.

At the family gathering have a small drink or two which might mellow you out and forget the hangover until bedtime.

If necessary repeat tomorrow 😁

Have an orgasm (sorry if TMI but it’s an essential on my hangover recovery list).

'Tis true

I’d love to properly understand why a hangover makes us feel lonely / sad / vulnerable etc

Honestly ,as a past drinker I think a lot of it is due to exhaustion .I presume your body processing the alcohol and lacking sleep wipes you out .

As I said above ,plain exhaustion with no alcohol will now induce in me a flu like feeling ,a longing for carbs and sugar ,a fixation that if I can just find the right food combination it'll fix me .
And also the impending doom ,guilt ,hopelessness and self hatred that a hangover can bring.
I find a calming smell helps a lot - my go to used to be Crabtree and Evelyn Nantucket Bouquet .Something fresh,soapy ,powdery .

gaviscon will help stop nausea, keep taking sips of water you are dehydrated and this heat won't be helping, feel better soon,

Sounds an extreme reaction. Stop drinking so much liquid and eat some food and you’ll stop shaking. Go back to bed. Nail ibuprofen. Hair of the dog and you’ll be fine

@Whataretheodds 😭stopped working years ago, literally zero motivation in that department. Make the effort for DH because he’s lovely but I can’t say for certain if there’s even any nerves still alive there. Weird side effect of my ablation I think as it all shut down shortly after I had that done. Honestly prefer books now .

I’d love to properly understand why a hangover makes us feel lonely / sad / vulnerable etc

its well documented why. Drinking inhibits the frontal cortex which is why you make bad decisions when drunk. When you sober up this then becomes over-active, hence overthinking, anxiety and depression

I feel your pain. After a long period of abstinence, (more than a decade) followed by a couple of years of v moderate drinking, I went on my first bender since my teens recently and it's turned me back into a teetotaller. I had spent all day organising a party, forgot to eat, drank way too much punch and missed my own party because I was vomiting and shitting myself. Grim.

Coca cola and a sausage sandwich marked the turning point early afternoon the next day, but I still felt a bit fragile for the rest of the day.

Go and try to nap now, then eat some heavy greasy foods and something sugary and caffeinated before the school run. You'll be back on your feet.

And stop going on benders. Even 3/4 times a year is too much when it hits this hard, isn't it? We're old now. We don't bounce back.

There's a very good BBC podcast (How do you cope with...) featuring David Nutt, former chief scientific officer or similar title, on alcohol, which will tell you why you're feeling anxious and sad after too much booze. It's chemical, and the reason why I can't drink any more, much as I would enjoy a delicious ice-cold riesling or 2 on an empty stomach.

If you have any Valium in the house, that will help quell the sadness and fear. The podcast will help contextualise it and manage it if you don't have helpful drugs! Water, sleep, electrolytes, a shower and skincare when you can. Dark glasses if you have to go outside.

And yeah, you probably need to book something out once a week - something for you, something with DH. It's OK, OP, your drinking behaviour is telling you something useful, if you listen to it!

If you have sushi on deliveroo, order it for lunch. With miso soup and full fat coke.
If you have any rehydration salts sip those in water.
And have a poo
you will be up but shaky by 15:00

I did something similar last summer and the next morning had to go to my local town to return something. I was hanging, as the kids would say. I was really thirsty and went into Starbucks and ordered an iced brown sugar oat shaken espresso and blow me that did the trick! The funny part is I don’t drink sugary drinks, coffee or oat milk. Only I ever get that now when I’ve overdone things and works every time.

I’m the same @Franknotfrancis my friends call me ‘Verbose Vera’ when I’ve had a drink 😂 I’m pretty silent until there some red wine in me. Then I’m waffling on about anything and everything.

Exactly. I thought this too....

Something fizzy, a banana for the potassium, something like porridge or a bacon sarnie… a chocolate bar and 2 ibuprofen….
Nap. then a pint of water and some paracetamol

if all else fails…. hair of the dog !

I’d kill for a Valium. They’re like rocking horse shit these days though. I begged my doctor for something to help my anxiety a while back and the best he would do was bloody Benadryl . I was furious. We already have a childcare bill of £1000 a month just so we can work, we’re only scraping by,so I feel like paying for a babysitter to go out will be unappealing to DH. I struggle with executive functioning, meaning that if I’m working on a project then the house and garden gets neglected , I can’t multitask for shit and therefore I often find myself working or cleaning in the evenings to catch up. DH has learned to entertain himself so now we’re in this routine of ignoring each other a bit . If I could be more organised we could at least enjoy movies and stuff. I’m terrible though,struggle to get into things and start waffling instead.

Have you got any travel sickness tablets? They might help with the sickness.

Sounds like you downed a lot of water. I'd sip it from now on.