Comedowns
Just as an excessively boozy night often leads to a hangover, for every trashy weekend there’s a comedown. You may:
- feel tired or even exhausted
- have headaches
- find it difficult to concentrate
- suffer with stomach pain or cramps
- suffer from mouth ulcers
- feel anxious and depressed.
As a rule of thumb, the greater the quantity and type of drugs you’ve mixed, and the more sleep and food that you’ve missed, the worse your comedown will be.
If you also spent time hanging out with people, or doing things, that you later regret or worry about, this will make your comedown much worse.
Tips for helping to cope with a comedown
1. Plan ahead
If you’ve got an important meeting or job interview on Monday or Tuesday, the weekend before probably isn’t the best time to get trashed. Remember, it can take three days or more to get over a comedown – even a small one.
The same goes for important social events or travel plans. Missing your flight or turning up at the airport late and off your face is going to be really difficult, and could lead to you being questioned by security.
If you’re planning on a big one, it might help to book a few days off work to give yourself a chance to catch up on sleep.
2. Do something
Make some plans to help with the comedown. This might be hanging out with friends, watching TV or leaving the house just to go for a walk.
Sometimes, staying in bed all day by yourself can make you feel worse and getting out of the house and seeing someone can help kick-start your recovery.
3. Set a curfew
This is a good way to limit the amount of drink and drugs you take over a weekend.
If you’re only planning to party for 12 or 24 hours, rather than going out with an unspecified end point, you’re less likely to go on for days at a time.
Check out our page on clubbing for more ways to keep partying under control ››
4. Eat, sleep, drink, repeat
Getting your body back into its natural rhythm is an important part of feeling normal again.
Try to stick to your normal bedtime and re-stock your body with vitamins and minerals through regular meals.
It’s likely you’ll be feeling dehydrated too, and your body will be trying to flush out all the toxins, so make sure you drink plenty of water.
Eating and drinking water when you’re out partying will help, even if you’ve got no appetite, so try to have regular snacks. Even a yoghurt or a banana is better than nothing.
5. Watch out for mouth ulcers
If your mouth has taken a battering and you’ve got cuts or mouth ulcers, gargling with a weak solution of warm salty water can help the healing process.
Sexual health and HIV
If you’ve been at sex parties, and you’ve been having sex for longer periods of time and with many guys, it’s much more likely you may have picked up a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
Visiting the clinic regularly will make sure you get this cleared up quickly – and ensure you’re not feeling rough with symptoms too.
If you’ve had unprotected sex and you’re worried you may have been exposed to HIV, get yourself to the clinic or A&E as soon as possible to see if you need PEP.
It might be tough to go to a clinic on a comedown, but you’ll feel much better once you’ve got it out of the way. Call a friend if you need someone to go with you.
Published: 31/08/2018
Next review: 31/08/2021