Whether you’ve had many cocktails throughout your life, or you rarely even take sips of alcohol, you likely know what a hangover is. Your brain feels fuzzy, your stomach feels nauseous and you don’t want to leave your bed all day. 

It’s also possible to have a hangover from instances other than drinking far too much tequila during a night out. You may have a similar reaction following a situation where you were overwhelmed by your emotions, even if those emotions were positive. This is what’s known as an emotional hangover.

The basics of an emotional hangover

An emotional hangover refers to the lingering feeling of distress or being mentally exhausted after experiencing intense emotions. It isn’t a medical term, but it’s still an experience that many people go through, and the term accurately sums up how many people feel following an emotional experience.

As your mind and body try to come down from the heightened emotions, you may experience the following:

• Anxiety
• Irritability
• Brain fog
• Feelings of emptiness
• Lack of motivation
• Fatigue

An emotional hangover can come after a variety of instances, both positive and negative, including:

• A long-anticipated event, such as a wedding
• A difficult conversation, like a breakup
• A funeral
• A therapy session

5 ways to ground yourself during an emotional hangover

If you’re trying to manage an emotional hangover, try to focus on grounding yourself. It means to reconnect with your body and mind to help calm your nervous system so you can focus on the present moment. It helps you to regulate your emotions and move on mentally from the intense experience to “reset” yourself.

Here are a few grounding techniques to try after an intense emotional experience:

• Focus solely on a single task.

Distracting yourself during mental health challenges isn’t always helpful, because you want to make sure those challenges are addressed in an effective way. But if you’re experiencing an emotional hangover, being completely absorbed in a task or activity can help to alleviate any overwhelming emotions because you’re concentrating on achieving a goal. It also helps you to focus on the present moment.

Examples include:

• Doing a jigsaw puzzle
• Reorganizing a closet
• Folding laundry
• Planning your calendar for the next month

• Spend time in nature.

When you go outside, take a walk in a park or read on a bench near a lake, you’re able to connect with the nature around you. Smelling the fresh air and feeling the wind on your face can help you feel grounded in the moment. It can help you shift perspective on your place in the world, and recognize how your challenges are just a small part of the vast world, even when they feel overwhelming in the moment.

There’s also been research confirming that nature can improve your overall mental health by alleviating stress levels and improving your ability to solve problems, which may help to break through brain fog if your emotional hangover involves challenging situations or conversations with others.

• Do breathing exercises.

If you’re trying to work through irritability and anxiety from an emotional hangover, breathing exercises are effective coping mechanisms for many people. There are many different breathing techniques that you can try, and nearly all of them have the same goals: regulate your blood pressure, improve focus and relax your mind.

Here are a few breathing exercises that can help you through your emotional regulation:

• Diaphragmatic/belly breathing
• Box breathing
• Lion’s breath 

• Practice the 5-4-3-2-1 method.

When you’re trying to ground yourself in the moment, taking note of your senses can help. The 5-4-3-2-1 technique is a mindfulness strategy that helps you reduce negative feelings and find comfort in the current state of your mind and body.

It involves identifying:

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can touch
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

• Write in a journal.

Being emotionally hungover after an event may mean that you’re still trying to process those feelings. Putting those feelings into words on a page can help you through that. Journaling can ease burdensome thoughts and serve as a form of self-care that can improve your overall mental health. It also helps you to gain perspective on the emotionally challenging situations that caused your hangover.

If you find that you’re regularly experiencing emotional hangovers, or having trouble working through them, it may be time to talk to a licensed therapist. 

If you’re experiencing severe mental distress or emotional dysregulation that’s impacting your quality of life, we can help you work through your challenges toward the person you want to be. At Lightfully, we offer four levels of care:

• Residential Treatment
• Partial Hospitalization Program 
• Intensive Outpatient Program
• Virtual Services (vPHP/vIOP)

Change is possible. When you’re ready to take the first step, reach out to our Admissions Concierge Team. We’ll take the next steps together, toward the fullest, brightest version of you.