Drinking in your 20s vs 30s [Sarah Anderson]

Have a Gatorade before and after you drink.

There ya go, fellow 30-something party people, saved ya a hangover, just hope with that no one suggests a venue change to the club at 11:30

59

If I'm out of the house past 10, something has already gone terribly wrong.

95
- Some young dude caught me yawning at a Rammstein concert this summer. I told him I couldn’t help it because it was past 9.
  
  34
- I guess drinking 75+ is technically drinking 30+...
  
  12
- You can make it till 10!!! 🙇‍♂️
  
  5
Absolutely not gonna help lol

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- I've learned that people who talk about these remedies or say they don't get hangovers drink a lot less than I do
  
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- Most of the hangover is just dehydration, so the Gatorade really does help a lot. Pedialyte or a different sports drink would do similarly, but also getting in shape, sleeping right, drinking plenty of water on the days you're not drinking helps mitigate the issues with a little indulgence just fine.
  
  But, everyone is different so your milage may vary.
  
  19
Gatorade for the win. My life changed when I discovered the healing power of gatorade.

5
Sugar and alcohol just make everything harder for your liver. Just eat well before, and drink plenty of water before, between, and after alcohol. Drink a bit less alcohol when going out. Get to bed at a semi reasonable time. Skip the sugar water.

4
How about drinking a lot of water, eating healthy and drinking less alcohol?

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- Ah yes. Why didn't I think of simply drinking less alcohol to solve my hangover?
  
  You are right about water though, hydration is all we're talking about when it comes to hangovers.
  
  37
- What and just experience my emotions? No thank you.
  
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- Yeah, during a majority of the year. On the rare weekend where schedules align such that a buncha 30-somethings can get together and party?
  
  Gatorade. Or Brodes.
  
  Everything in moderation, my friend. Especially moderation.
  
  9
- You don’t get it. I can get a hangover from looking at a beer the wrong way and I’m not even in my 40’s yet.
  
  4

I don't get hangovers anymore. You'd have to sober up to get a hangover. An if I'd sober up, the depression wold be a far greater concern.

38

Reminds me of Archer.

https://youtu.be/fP7NkXh7HbA?si=VHZ9Y_VtMyUB7KzL

7
Yeah I didn't really understand hangovers until I slowed my drinking down to reasonable levels, and then to barely at all. Now it's not so much a hangover, but I notice I'm not really 100% percent for a couple of days after some drinks.

6
The "I have a 5th for breakfast type" Metal.

1
- That's not metal. That's a crushing dependency on alcohol.
  
  11

Was nearly indestructible even with fairly heavy drinking—even into my late 20s. That has precipitously decreased since turning 30. This year finally got to the point where even a couple of drinks after work made it impossible to work out the next day. So pretty much stopped this summer and it made me realize how terrible drinking was actually making me feel on a daily basis.

Mother MJ is much kinder.

30

During those first months of the pandemic I turned into an alcoholic, I was drinking way too much.

Flash forward to last month at a wedding, where my friends and I chugged some Gatorade and we were all tired and sleepy.

Honestly, it's good though. We hammered our poor livers so bad, they deserve a break.

7
- Yeah I’m finding way and way more people who this happened to over the pandemic (myself included). I think it’s just taken time to get back to normal and get our heads on straight. The added stress of working in medicine throughout the whole thing made bad habits easier to form
  
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What's mother mj?

5
- Mother of magnificent Jesus
  
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- Weed
  
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- Marijuana baby, that sweet sweet leaf.
  
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This is why I like weed. All the fun of the buildup, with no dropoff.

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Weed mostly just gives me anxiety since I hit 30. I used to be a daily smoker in my teens and twenties.

9
- I hope this is common because I haven't had that type of high since legalization hit and I miss it.
  
  2
Yep. Wife and I went California Sober this year for that exact reason.

7
Weed makes me hallucinate while being super paranoid, it's not actually safe for me to be unsupervised.

6
I have to go off it for a month or so every so often because I go from ‘this is a nice feeling, I want to go to sleep’ when coming down to suicidal anxiety after a while. Not exactly a hangover, but it’s not ideal.

After a tolerance break, I’m fine again, but what the hell is that?

1

Worst hangover I ever had, I was 20 and spent an entire May day working with my brother scraping and painting a small shed, and replacing the shingles. Took us about ten hours give or take. We had an occasional beer but nothing crazy.

Once done we each polished off about ten Labatt 50s while we watched hockey, then went out to meet friends. Got home at about 2 am.

Woke up the next day like someone had driven a spike through my head and was drumming the ends that stuck out with steel rods.

I was screwed for about 36 hours. Realized as I was recovering that I hadn't had a drop of water all that day, just stopped working to sip on a cold beer every once in a while.

Lesson fucking learned. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.

26

And not just water, electrolytes as well! Keep drinking the beer and water and your gonna piss out all your needed salts very quickly which can still lead to dehydration. Every 3 glasses of water drink one body armor (or Gatorade or your preferred electrolyte drink/mix) basically and you should be relatively a ok the next day.

Edit: made the last sentence a bit more clear

13
- I just realized how I ended up with relatively minor hangovers at worst in college - the bar I frequented had free hot dogs and popcorn, which were salty, delicious little electrolyte sources.
  
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36 hours was like a standard hangover for me after I hit my 30s.

I'm now 40 and haven't gotten drunk in years because it isn't worth losing the rest of my weekend and going into the work week for 4 hours of marginal fun on Friday.

7
Yeah, a lack of hydration alone will make me wake up feeling like death. Combine that with any booze and it isn't a good time.

6

Drinking in my 30s really meant that I won't get much of a buzz, but will feel bloated and get a headache later. Also, unless I do all my drinking early in the day, I won't get a good night's sleep because my heart will be racing.

So...only have 2-3 drinks max for the day and do it before the sun sets so I have the evening to process it. Or don't bother at all since the benefits don't really outweigh the cost. Staying hydrated throughout is important but doesn't really fix any of the aforementioned issues.

25

Hydration is definitely key. I used to think light beer was well engineered because I rarely got sick off it, but it really just has the water built in..

18
If I start hydrating early during the day, keep to clear liquor, limit my intake, stop in the early evening, and take some electrolytes at bedtime, I can usually mitigate 90% of the hangover. I will still have terrible sleep.

But, why am I doing all this? It's just easier to stay sober these days.

9

When you're on antidepressants that dark place is filled with brain spiders.

22

Been there, done that. Never again.

7
What's that?

2

When I hit my 30s it's like my body just stopped being and to digest alcohol correctly. I wouldn't even call it a hangover. Just a lingering uncomfortable feeling my stomach and a more than usual number of trips to the bathroom for 24 hours after. Even if I only have a few beers.

I've all but given up drinking at this point.

15

A friend of mine got that too. Even a glass of wine started to make him very sick. He had to give up drinking altogether.

7

I'm just intrigued by the level of the wine in the last panels. I guess it implies that she's accelerating down the hill faster than free fall? Which I guess fits.

14

My superpower is not having hangovers 🗿 🗿 (for now)

12

39 and still don't understand why people complain. Just hydrate, poop, eat, poop again, go back to normal.

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- Because people are built different. I've been so nauseous from drinking the night before that I just immediately threw up every gulp of water I took, even at about 20.
  
  5
39 here and still hangover free, except for Jamison for some reason.

3
- It's strange how sick people are nowdays.
  
  -1

Then, in your forties you drink a single beer, feel nothing, and have the mother of all hangovers. I've more-or-less given up drinking at this point.

12

yall really dont drink water huh?

30 here drink does nothing to me but i drink a glass of water eve3night before bed lmao

drank a margarita last night woke up at 5 am

see a doctor

6
- 30 here
  
  Get back to me when you're creeping up on fifty.
  
  Truthfully, I have mixed results when it comes to drinking these days. Sometimes, it's fine. I drink a few beer, get a nice buzz and wake up totally fine. It's really only once or twice I had the situation I mentioned above where I hardly drank anything and woke up hungover anyway. In those cases, I didn't chug a bunch of water because I assumed since I wasn't feeling the effects at all, I'd be fine. If I am buzzed or verging on drunk, then I will chug a liter or something. Though for me, it's 50/50 on whether that prevents a hangover. I don't like those odds. It just seems more and more like the short buzz and euphoria it brings more and more often isn't worth the chance of ruining the next day. Especially given how much shittier your system gets at handling this stuff as you get older.
  
  I am not out of shape either.
  
  4
- Everybody is different - you haven't figured out the one simple trick to avoid hangovers. Drinking lots of water is like, the most common thing to do and 99% of people still get bad hangovers
  
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As I've gotten older I realized that, even though I like the occasional drink, it's just not worth it to me any more. I find myself drinking less and less. Almost never at this point.

I've also noticed my friends and family are a lot more fun to hang out with when they are not drinking than when they are. People get so loud and obnoxious when they drink. They think they are fun and funny but they're really just annoying.

2

I used to be able to drink a lot, but I stopped over covid and now I'm pretty green after, like, one glass of wine. Cider is instant vomit mode. Pathetic. Now it's just Coronas and sadness.

12

Sounds familiar. I wonder what it is about cider and malt beverages that suddenly don't settle?

3
- High sugar content
  
  Corona has 1g Sugar per bottle.
  
  Angry Orchard has 20g Sugar per bottle.
  
  11
Vin Diesel?

0
- I wish I was that cool.
  
  1

Hmm, I did some pretty heavy drinking in my 30s but rarely had hangovers. I have no data for my 40s because I just haven't had much desire to drink, or to drink that much when I do drink.

7

Everyone's different. My ~70 yo father-in-law can knock back IPAs all night and go for a bike ride, bright eyed and bushy tailed, the next morning. Meanwhile I'll have 2-3 light drinks and be grumpy and unmotivated the next day.

4
Thanks Ken

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Sources:

5

I have always been prone to having horrible hangovers, even in my twenties. Dihydromyricetin has saved my almost forty year old ass from the worst of them by now.

5

What’s that?

3
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3292407/
  
  It is used to lessen withdrawal symptoms when treating alcoholics in some parts of the world.
  
  Taken half an hour before starting and at the end of the evening strongly reduces the worst hangover effects.
  
  No miracle cure, but it lessens the most severe hangover symptoms.
  
  6

I've never had a hangover ever in my life, but could that be from my genes? My mom could really hold her alcohol well even though she didn't drink a lot.

4

Sounds like you just keep hydrated and get sufficient electrolytes while drinking. Unless you are like blackout levels of drinking hydration, food and electrolytes will keep you in action from my experience. The other thing is when do you drink, if you drank real late your gonna be intoxicated while trying to sleep which would kill your ability to get deep sleep and rem sleep which are the stages that promote physical and mental recovery. Fuck with that and don't stay hydrated and fed while drinking and you are in for a bad time, regardless of age. I think in your twenties your more likely to also be crawling bars which means you have food and hydration options readily available that your probably gonna have in addition to the alcohol so the main issue becomes lack of rem and deep sleep creating a mild hangover for most early on. Also as you get older, you're more likely to hurt yourself doing something you felt invincible doing in your 20s so that physical recovery stage becomes ever more important cue worse hangovers. But im not a doctor, so if I'm off here on any of my explanations, please correct me.

7
- It's surely genes, at least in part. Genes + health and drinking etiquette (keeping hydrated, eating well before, during and after, etc) all contribute. In my experience, genes play a huge part in it. I have friends, that eat like shit and have bad health in general, that are able to drink more than anyone else yet don't really get hung over. Some of them only drink a couple of times a year, so I'm sure it's not just tolerance.
  
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Yeah at this point it's rarely worth it for me, mostly just don't drink anymore.

4

And that's why I only drink beer. But I'm Bavarian so it's probably the genes.

2