The idea that hangovers are worse nowadays

[shoulders]

Pretty much everyone I know except my best mate* and I say this, which suggests they're right and I'm wrong.

All the same, I feel like exercising the idea they're all talking bollocks. Or, if they're right, they're just being tedious about it.

Hangovers are surely not only what you ate/drunk but how used your body is to it.

They have the memory of bouncing back straight away when they were cunting it fuckout-time in rag it to fuck world at university. But I can remember university, dimly, and there were days lost of ruination and suffering. The hangover was there then and it's there now. I disagree the ones then were easier to shake.

I also don't approve of people trying to avert it with rehydration sachets and pills. You should suffer, otherwise you might be tempted to think treating your liver like a gimp in a sissy basket is a good idea. I appreciate this is flawed logic.

Your turn now.


*are 35 year old men allowed best mates

[H-O-W-L]

I also don't approve of people trying to avert it with rehydration sachets

Good science. You need that rehydration to live, mate. Your body is yearning for it for a reason.

pills.

Bad science. Taxes the liver.

Hangovers are often dampened by alcohol tolerance, which builds up quicker and lasts longer than people think. Even drinking over the 3-day weekend (fri night/sat/sun) can build you a tolerance that will last for several weeks after your last drink. It's taken me a month to drop my tolerance when I've stopped before because I'm a day drinker, and more than three months for the overall neurological effects to completely fade away. The neurological knock-ons of alcohol are crazy as fuck.

This isn't to say caning laqers will make you bulletproof, it's all about duration, not quantity.

It also does get worse as you age, because your liver function diminishes not just because of age but also because of prior damage. Not only that but your physical state can deteriorate enough in just a few years to make it worse. Hangovers I have nowadays at 27 are way worse than they were when I was 24, and before that I never once had a hangover even when caning bottles of whiskey every night (which was bad, obv).

[shoulders]

Good science. You need that rehydration to live, mate. Your body is yearning for it for a reason.

Yes, this is fundamentally correct. But body it shouldn't be allowed such cheat codes, it should go through precisely what you put it through. Then it will learn it's on board the same ship - and vice versa! Then when you wake up with liver disease and cancer brain can go 'shit... Fair dos'

[Beagle 2]

They're certainly worse for me as an old because of all the obligations I have to get up and fulfil. I do sort of agree with you about the misremembering though. "Ha remember when we could stay up all night pouring tequila into our eyeballs and still make it to the 9am lecture next day?". No, I went to bed for absolutely ages and felt comprehensively suicidal every time I did that. Weekends didn't exist in the daytime.

[Blue Jam]

I don't think my hangovers have got worse with age, instead I've just become less able to tolerate them. These days I can't function with even the mildest hangover and will chug loads of water before bedtime out of fear of waking up with one. I don't know how I managed as an undergrad, going to lectures and then to my part-time job with no hangover able to keep me down.

[QDRPHNC]

I definitely feel they've gotten worse as I've gotten over. I used to be able to neck Rumple Mintz, beer and whiskey all night and wake up fresh. Now I drink two generous glasses of wine and I need to order a mcmuffin the next morning.

[Bernice]

If anything mine have got better. Used to consistently vomit on a hangover, now I just get absolutely fucking miserable. That said, I don't think the psychological effects are any worse now than when I was younger, just that I a) usually have things to do beyond smoke weed and drift in and out of sleep for a day and b) am generally more invested in my own mental health and Getting Shit Done.

[Captain Z]

I remember the hangovers of my childhood...

[imitationleather]

I remember the hangovers of my childhood...

So do I. I could cane numerous Hooches and go to school the next day no problem.

[TrenterPercenter]

My hangovers are worse mentally but worse physically.  I put this down the fact of having more responsibility and stuff to do.

[Psybro]

My hangovers have vastly improved with age in inverse proportion to how many JD & cokes, black Sambucas and whatever the fuck was in a 'Bastard' I have been drinking instead of wine or beer.

[Noodle Lizard]

They absolutely got worse with age for me, whereas people I know who don't usually drink much don't seem to get them after a mad one (or if they do, it's a mild headache and nothing more). I am effectively useless if I'm hungover, and it can happen after a night of fairly sensible beer-drinking too. I barely ever drink spirits, rarely get more than "buzzed & ranty" and I imagine I would die of agony if I were to drink anything like the average Fresher does of a Saturday.

I'm not sure how this tallies with the science.

[Avril Lavigne]

These days I'm basically hungover when I'm not drinking, but the benefit is that I haven't had physically awful hangovers for ages. It's much more the psychological side, dealing with brain fog and the horrors, but they've also kinda become normalised enough that I'm basically living in Stephen King's The Mist.

[shiftwork2]

Less willing to tolerate a hangover now I see gusts of wind blowing the days off the calendar.  Somewhere, a coffin beckons.

I like getting pissed though.

[Noodle Lizard]

These days I'm basically hungover when I'm not drinking, but the benefit is that I haven't had physically awful hangovers for ages. It's much more the psychological side, dealing with brain fog and the horrors, but they've also kinda become normalised enough that I'm basically living in Stephen King's The Mist.

I get "the horrors" worse than anyone I know. To the point where I'll often send apology texts to everyone I was drinking around, even though there's never really a reason to. I get consumed by the shame of having "not quite been Myself", even if the worst I'll do is get a bit opinionated and boring (which is really just Myself+).

[The Culture Bunker]

I can remember stumbling to work in my early 20s a few times with a stinking hangover and at worst, it was a case of hoying my guts up on arrival in the office and feeling rough for a few hours before the effect of numerous coffees steadied the ship.

The last time I got drunk to the point of really regretting it was my 35th birthday, five years ago, half way through a 12 month period of the worst depression of my life. It was a Saturday and luckily I'd booked the whole of the following week off work because I was still feeling shite on the Monday morning. Always stayed in moderation since.

[jobotic]

I'm just angry that "your hangovers won't be as bad when you give up smoking" was a lie.

Mine are worse than they used to be but I think that's because I don't get to spend one day a week in bed anymore.

[touchingcloth]

I don't get hangovers. I wish I did as it means that once I get going there's no part of my being which tells me to stop getting completely and utterly cunted, because the worst I do when I'm drunk is talking shite, and there are no consequences for me the next day. I wish I was at least an angry drunk so I could tell my (lovely) boss to get to fuck and start to at least think "careful, now" while drinking.

The fear? I shit it.

[Avril Lavigne]

I get "the horrors" worse than anyone I know. To the point where I'll often send apology texts to everyone I was drinking around, even though there's never really a reason to. I get consumed by the shame of having "not quite been Myself", even if the worst I'll do is get a bit opinionated and boring (which is really just Myself+).

Yeah the shame is really something, definitely a big part of the horrors. I have an awful memory anyway so it's always hard to tell how much of a jerk I've been.

[Noodle Lizard]

Yeah the shame is really something, definitely a big part of the horrors. I have an awful memory anyway so it's always hard to tell how much of a jerk I've been.

Yeah, for me it's more that I'll replay an interaction with someone (an action, a sentiment expressed, a tiny glance etc.) over and over again until it seems impossible that the other person isn't analysing it to the same extent. Then the text gets sent and they'll respond saying "not sure what you're on about".

I don't really have a general anxiety condition (that I know of), but a decent amount of alcohol will absolutely bring on full paranoia as it works its way out of my system. There must be some neuroscience that'll back me up on that.

Luckily, I don't really get anything other than slowly buzzed now, and hangovers are pretty rare. In a stupid and cliché way, having a kid kind of helps. Far as I'm concerned, I don't have the option of being drunk while I'm with her or hungover in the morning. But I take some comfort in the fact that if I were to get merry and go on at her about the failures of the new Bond film, she probably wouldn't mind.

[thugler]

Another 35 year old man here. Definitely far far worse. Particularly mentally. Sometimes a relatively 'normal' session of drinking 4 pints maybe on 2 occasions over a weekend leaves me utterly miserable for the week. The physical symptoms are maybe a little worse too.

[Cerys]

I don't get hangovers, as a rule.  I've probably had about three in my entire life.  Of course, one morning I'll wake up and years of poor choices will have caught with me, leaving me a whimpering smear of nausea and cranial agony, like a tadpole on final spin.

[Johnny Foreigner]

I like ale, wine and cider in equal measure, and consequently have a high tolerance for them. When my morning bowels inform me I have overindulged, I stick to fizzy water and Irn Bru for a few days, before the whole cycle recommences. 'Twas always thus; I never get splitting headaches.
My problem is that I am a nicer person when pissed. I am a cold, aloof bastard when sober, but friendly and approachable when I have had a few. Unfortunately, my colleagues know this and will try to fill me up with alcohol whenever they can.

So, you see, I am really not to blame.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Of course they get worse as you get older, from a mechanical perspective your body gets less good at doing what it does.

At the other end of the spectrum: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindling_(sedative–hypnotic_withdrawal)

[bgmnts]

Haven't had a hangover in a very long time. I dont miss them. I dont think ever had a proper hangover in my life though to be honest. I've been vomiting drunk etc but the worst I'd get is a bit of a headache and a tiny bit nauseated. No horrors or anxiety or feel like I want to die stuff.

[The Mollusk]

My hangovers have generally got worse as time has passed and this I believe is down to the fact that I have gradually become a worse person.

[Sonny_Jim]

Back in my day, pills were 25 quid, you took one and you were off yer face, all night.

inadvertently backs over own head after eating too many jacket potatoes

[Sebastian Cobb]

would love a pinger tbh

[poo]

Just enjoy them FFS

[purlieu]

In my early 20s my hangovers were often unpleasant, but not cripplingly so. I could drink eight cans before going out, then have five or six double vodkas in a club, get home at 3AM and still be at work for 11. These days if I drink more than five in an evening or carry on drinking after midnight I generally spend the following day barely able to move, often feeling very sick. A couple of years ago I had 13 drinks in one day, resulting in a two day hangover, something I'd never even had before. At some point in my late 20s I started getting very heat sensitive when hungover, ie if I stay under the covers too long or even sometimes just remain dressed the day after a heavy night, I really overheat and then have horrific vomiting and diarrhoea for the rest of the day.

On the plus side, I never get headaches with hangovers these days, when I used to get them all the time.