Is everyone talking about how you embarrassed yourself last night? Unlikely, it's probably just 'hangxiety'
CBC
Have you ever felt embarrassed — maybe even completely ashamed of yourself — after a night of intoxicated celebration, but not really for any reason in particular?
Well, that might be the "hangxiety" talking.
Hangxiety is a pop-cultural buzzword for feeling extremely anxious while hungover. Yes, it's a mash-up of hangover and anxiety, and it's just as awful as it sounds.
It can be described as the neurotic, negative emotional side-effects of drinking alcohol, and young people online are creating the conversation.
On TikTok, #hangxiety has over 180 million views worldwide. Most of the videos associated with the hashtag are typically younger adults cringing or making fun of what they said or did the night before — from drunk texting an ex to forgetting how they got home. They're often worried about how they might have embarrassed themselves.
"It's not like I did anything bad, but my brain is telling me that I'm embarrassed," said Claire Tiemstra, a 20-something Calgarian who describes hangxiety as dread and doom of what "drunk Claire" did.
"I haven't done anything too crazy when I've been drunk, but I've definitely had quite a few days where I've spent the next day really anxious and hungover.… I just feel so embarrassed, you know?"
And she's not alone.
Pat Nicholls, who is in his early 30s, says he's typically not an anxious person at all, but if a night out is factored into the equation, waking up in the morning can feel particularly cringe.
"It's this feeling that my gut is being ripped out," he said, describing what hangxiety feels like.
"And then your brain just lets nerves take over."
But Nicholls and Tiemstra both shared that hangxiety isn't happening because they remember doing something inappropriate, or even particularly controversial. It just happens.
So is everyone actually talking about how embarrassing and weird you were?
Probably not.
Aggressive patients and lack of security are making nurses feel unsafe in a rural Western Manitoba emergency union, says the Manitoba Nurses Union.
Saskatoon resident Delynne Bortis knew her commute to work Tuesday morning would be particularly difficult.
WARNING: This story contains details of abuse and intimate partner violence:
The amount of money it takes for people to earn a living wage has increased across the province, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The new owner of Ontario steelmaker Stelco says his company "will not disappoint the people of Hamilton and Nanticoke," where the business's major facilities are based.
A Winnipegger is warning others about an intricate scam she says she almost fell for.
Fort William First Nation is opposing a planned redevelopment of the Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) 117 year old Kakabeka Falls Generating Station, which is located in their traditional territory.
A building that sits at the corner of Sussex Street and Brunswick Avenue has had many lives over the last century — being a church, a school and offices. Now it's set to become housing, at a time when the city sorely needs it.
A Waterloo, Ont., elementary school principal will be sentenced in the new year after pleading guilty to child sexual exploitation charges following a joint investigation that involved the London, Toronto and Waterloo police services.
Students at UPEI have let their student union know what they want from the province this fiscal year, and those priorities are reflected in a 2024-2025 advocacy document brought to the legislature on Wednesday.
Larger communities in the N.W.T. will soon see a boost in their territorial funding to maintain infrastructure and deliver services — like water and waste management — but the increase still falls short of what communities need.