Post-Thanksgiving Hangover

What happens when you drink too much? The day after, you’ll feel like shit.

I’m not going to talk about the physiology of alcohol intoxication here. I’ll focus on the psychological side of it.

When you drink, a part of your brain responsible for reasoning and logic slows down. It feels good when it happens. After one glass of wine, life suddenly feels less intense.

This chemical reaction in the brain creates the feeling of loosening up. It happens as the frontal lobes—responsible for executive functions like planning and worrying—go offline.

It’s experienced as relief, like a burden being lifted.

Earlier, I explained how our mood depends on two things: how we evaluate ourselves and how we feel treated by the world around us.

Our daily lives are full of deadlines, goals, and responsibilities. It often feels like we’re under constant attack from the world. Our mood depends on how well we perform in this battle.

When the world feels too aggressive, we switch between anger and apathy—either fighting back or giving up.

Living in this constant state of conflict is draining.

If your daily life feels like a battlefield, even a short ceasefire feels like a reward. We naturally feel content when we see the world as rewarding.

If your default state is anxiety and stress, alcohol’s ability to turn down your frontal lobes and shift your perspective from worried to relaxed can feel especially rewarding.

In that moment, your brain stops worrying, and the world seems more friendly.

But what happens when the alcohol leaves your system? Things go back to the way they were.

Often, the brain overcompensates for the temporary relief, creating a pendulum effect.

When the frontal lobes come back online, worrying intensifies, and guilt sets in for being too reckless while not worrying.

This is what we call a harsh awakening—but it’s not really awakening. It’s more like being thrown back into the battlefield after a break.

The pendulum effect doesn’t only happen with alcohol. It can also happen during the holidays, even if you don’t drink.

The Holiday Pendulum Effect

1. You start in a default state of stress and anxiety.

2. Holidays make you put your guard down.

3. You feel content.

4. Feeling content makes the world seem rewarding.

5. You fully relax or feel excited.

6. You might act overly generous with money or words.

7. When the holidays end, the default mode returns.

8. On top of the usual stress, guilt creeps in for letting your guard down or overspending.

Can You Avoid the Holiday Hangover?

The best way to avoid an alcohol hangover is abstinence, but avoiding the holiday crash doesn’t mean skipping celebrations.

Here’s what may help:

1. If you’re feeling the post-holiday crash, understand its mechanism. Give your emotions time to balance out, and let routine help.

2. To prevent future crashes, work on regulating your emotions consciously to avoid extreme automatic swings.

3. If you don’t regulate your emotions, they’ll regulate themselves through the pendulum effect.

4. Pendulum Effect: The longer you stay in a negative state (left side of the map), the stronger your desire to escape into festivity or alcohol (right side of the map).

5. Look at the bigger picture (the whole map) and consciously guide your mood away from extremes.

6. Remember that your perception of the world and yourself is always changing.

7. What you feel in the moment isn’t who you are. It’s just a point on the emotional map.