An emotional hangover is an often overlooked condition that can significantly affect one's mental and physical health.

An emotional hangover is similar to a hangover from alcohol or other substances. It is a type of emotion that occurs after a particular traumatic or emotional event. It can be emotionally exhausting and draining leading to restlessness. A nasty fight with your office mate, a breakup, meeting your best friends due to stress, not getting your favorite book, someone buying the exact same dress as you, your crush can be due to many situations. A relationship or irritating quarrel with a stranger over a quarrel over a seat. This can happen when a person reaches their ultimate limits of handling and responding to a particular situation. As a result, when you wake up the next morning, you may be physically and emotionally drained. Everyone goes through this serious phase of emotional hangover at some point in life. This can affect your emotional health and lead to mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, depression and eating disorders.

Over time an attention span can decrease making it difficult to focus on a particular thing for more than a few minutes. This can significantly interfere with daily activities, making them lonely. This can create intense pressure on them to wake up every morning and act like nothing happened. Suppressing your emotions for long periods of time can be exhausting and cause mental strain. This can affect the way they think about themselves and about other relationships, respectively. In some cases, people blame themselves and make peace with the situation instead of finding the root cause of the problem. An emotional hangover is a vulnerable part of a person's life.

Symptoms of an emotional hangover

• Muscle tension
• Fast heartbeat
• Feelings of guilt, regret and sadness.
• Brain fog
• behavior
• Sharp headache
• easily distracted
• fatigue
• chest pain
• Dizziness
• bad stomach
• nausea
• Constant mood swings

What does an emotional hangover do to your body and brain?

According to Dr Sonal Anand, Psychiatrist, Wockhardt Hospitals Meera Road, “An emotional event can trigger your brain which results in the release of stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. It activates the emotional centers of your brain, especially the amygdala. The amygdala is responsible for processing emotions and forming memories. These hormones and your body's defense mechanisms can cause high blood pressure and an increased heart rate. This can be harmful to your heart health and increase your risk of several cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, cardiac arrest, heart failure and coronary artery disease. These feelings are so intense that they are etched so deeply into your memory that it is difficult to forget or move on.”

Tips to overcome an emotional hangover

• Get plenty of sleep and aim for at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep every day
• Try to distract yourself by engaging in activities and hobbies such as doodling, walking, cycling, watching movies or cooking during stressful situations.
• To relax and reduce stress, you can practice yoga, meditation and deep breathing exercises for instant relief.
• Talk about your thoughts and voice them when needed.
• Eat a balanced meal with essential nutrients to improve your health.

If you can't share your feelings with loved ones, journaling your thoughts and frustrations daily can be helpful.