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Emotional Hangover After Happy Moments

Updated: Jan 5, 2022

Fluctuating between happy and sad emotional states can be hard for some individuals to maintain. For some, there are consequences when facing joyful moments. When you enter a recession immediately after a joyful moment, you are experiencing an emotional hangover. You are supposed to be in a grateful state, but you're stuck in a bad episode.

In this article, we will discuss why we feel negative emotions after having fun and how to manage an emotional hangover. This is for the ones who can relate to these experiences.


Emotional Hangover

If you've ever had a few too many drinks, you know what a hangover is. A night of drinking may leave you feeling terrible the next day. Aside from alcohol, did you realize that a time of excessive emotional intensity may cause a hangover similar to that of alcohol? Well, there is such a thing as an emotional hangover.


An emotional hangover is, in most cases, a period in which an individual is experiencing an unsettling mental state, which comes from a long stressful period or a traumatic event. This mental state can feel like sadness, loneliness, mental fatigue, or even depression.


Unless you can completely ignore life, it is hard to avoid unpleasant situations and emotional hangovers. However, some of us are experiencing emotional hangovers quite too often. In this article, we are discussing a specific form of an emotional hangover. The emotional hangover immediately after being involved in moments of joy.


Emotional Hangover after happy moments

When you're doing something that's supposed to be enjoyable, feelings of pure loneliness might intrude on your mind. The mind tells you that everything you're feeling right now will vanish once this moment is over. Instead of making you feel grateful in the present, it makes you feel depressed as if it's already over.

Your mind is warning you for the worst. Subconsciously you learned that on the other side, waiting for you is a wall of misery. These intruding thoughts make it a bad experience both during and after the, supposed to be, happy moments.


The brain will eventually develop a defensive mechanism since it no longer wants to be wounded after having enjoyment. It has associated any form of pleasure with something negative. The brain offers what may seem like the only option, self-isolation. It develops into an unhealthy lifestyle and poor decision-making.

How to manage an Emotional Hangover after happy moments

An emotional hangover is hard to overcome because it feels comfortable in isolation. By explaining not wanting to experience any form of pleasure in life, they deceive themselves as much as others. It is not only perplexing to others around you, but it may also give you a false sense of self.


It is possible that you're depressed. You are experiencing happiness when leaving your reality, and it frightens you when your daily life is waiting for you around the corner. Even though, until negative thoughts appear, the moment itself feels like a blessing. The bad association with pleasure is so strong that it seems unworthy.


One must learn to manage the emotional aftermath while moving from a high to a low emotional state. In addition, fundamental issues must be addressed rather than ignored.


The first step is to be aware of your situation. You're allowed to feel both happiness and sorrow. Ride the facing emotions like waves and even though it feels wrong, push yourself out there. Seek emotional support and be around the people you love. Catch yourself in the act of enjoying certain activities and emerge from your isolation bubble.

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