Recently, I feel that the concept of “hangxiety” has been floating around a lot among my roommates and my fellow peers — all of whom are 21 years old, of course. It has established a secure place in pop culture as a real thing that affects many, with different definitions being thrown around on social media outlets such as TikTok. But what exactly is hangxiety, and is it even a real thing?

Well, for one, it is definitely a real thing and is scientifically proven by researchers. Hangxiety is simply the feelings of intense anxiety when hungover after drinking alcohol. The reason we feel hangxiety is due to the physiological stress that alcohol puts our brain and our immune system under. While dehydrated and sleep-deprived, your body is also experiencing a drop in brain activity that involves dopamine. All of these in combination with each other makes for an increasingly stressful experience, as the brain may form negative thoughts and struggle to cope with them. This unfortunate symptom of alcohol is a subject that makes some question why they are even drinking in the first place. Are some more prone to hangxiety than others? What can it lead to, and what can college kids do to decrease the chances of having to deal with it?

The mental effects of a hangover can take more of a toll on people than you would think, and they have the power to be even more debilitating than the typical, physical effects. Alcohol initially boosts dopamine levels in the brain with an influx of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA), giving you that liquid courage many strive for, but only for a certain amount of time. After an interesting night of laughing, dancing and potentially oversharing, your dopamine levels have dropped. Then, you have woken up in a state of confusion, asking yourself what you did last night, but not really wanting to hear the answer out of fear of embarrassment.

According to a research study investigating the effects of a hangover on emotion regulation done by CNN, it has been shown that the majority of people experience a “negative shift in their emotions during a hangover” and that “they had more trouble regulating their emotions compared to when they aren’t hungover.” The struggle to regulate emotions can be attributed to a decrease in mood and cognitive function as a result of physical hangover symptoms such as nausea or fatigue. Nauseous and emotional? Hangovers really are the worst. Essentially, you are experiencing alcohol withdrawal regardless of whether you identify as a heavy drinker or not. The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that once the calm feeling associated with alcohol intake wears off “the balance shifts toward a state of excessive excitation.” These chemical changes in the brain validate the heightened emotions we may feel the day after drinking, and we shouldn’t feel bad about it, because it’s completely normal.

What we do have to worry about is the impact hangxiety and alcohol in general can have on our mental health and lifestyle choices, because it’s not the best. As college students, we are already stressed enough from school, work, relationships and all the other problems we seem to get ourselves into. Drinking is supposed to be something done in moderation, and I think that line gets blurred for a lot of us during the school year. There is a culture of excessive drinking among college campuses that many feel they have to keep up with. Some of us may drink to get rid of anxiety, yet end up feeling worse about ourselves the next day.

As Beth Marsh, a research assistant at University College London’s clinical pharmacology unit, asks, “Is that tradeoff of that brief reduction in anxiety once you’ve had the drink worth it the morning after?” While Marsh can’t tell you the answer to that question, she can tell you what type of person is more likely to experience hangxiety. According to Marsh’s research, shy people often feel more intense feelings of anxiety after drinking than others. People who are predisposed with social anxiety, she theorizes, have a greater chance of feeling hangxiety because “there are more ‘gaps’ in the narrative for the anxious mind to constantly rerun.” Even though Beth Marsh’s study is just a theory, it can be extremely beneficial in helping people learn what their limits are with their alcohol intake. College may increase these feelings of anxiety in a person simply because it is a unique environment with different people and new problems to face, therefore increasing the likelihood of hangxiety. CNN’s study also claims that hangxiety may be linked to an alcohol use disorder, presumable because it may be a sign that you are drinking too much or drinking as a way to cope with negative emotions experienced while you are sober. Hangxiety is a lot more complicated than most people think, and it should be further studied in order to reduce alcoholism.

My advice, as well as the advice of scientists, is that we should moderate our drinking habits if we want to rid ourselves of the self-deprecating feelings that come with our hangovers. Having fun is important, but we shouldn’t don’t push ourselves over the limit and fall victim to peer pressure. If you’re wary about having another drink, don’t have one. Surround yourself with a group of friends who won’t judge you, and who you can have a morning debrief with about the events that occurred the night before, because it’s always better to cope together! And, hey, you can always just not drink. Just because we are college students doesn’t mean we should abuse alcohol.

Alexandra Medina is a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law.