How to Make Sense of Your Emotional Hangover
Professional advice on morphing back into a responsible human
After the confetti was swept up and the champagne bottles recycled on Sunday morning, was your hangover sort of… disproportionate? You may have let your usual healthy habits slip a bit as the anxiety built last week, but if you’re still feeling exhausted and unfocused, it may be that you’ve actually been overdoing things emotionally (it’s not just all the candy and CNN-bingeing), says Washington, D.C.-based therapist Kathleen Smith, PhD, at Forge. “I’ve told my therapy clients before that it’s normal to experience some dip in mood and functioning after a period of high emotion,” she writes. “People often feel low shortly after they graduate from school, for example, or after their team wins a championship.” One solution: Bring your focus back to the guiding light inside you that tells you the kind of day you want to have and even the kind of life you want to live. You can start by asking yourself a few simple questions (like “What would a good day look like?”) — they’ll help remind you that while big events in the world will always affect you in some way, you still have control over your emotions and behaviors. Learn more here:
