Hangovers are not a foreign thing to college students: we often are even able to distinguish them (wine hangovers are notorious for being brutal). But hangovers aren't just limited to the physical symptoms. A moral hangover is the nausea not caused by the entire bottle of wine you drank but by the *no one will ever think of me the same ever again after that* fear that’s the result of your questionable actions the night before.
Moral hangovers are possibly much worse than the actual physical symptoms of drinking more than you probably should’ve, especially because the impact of your actions lasts far longer than your headache will.
If you've found yourself in a situation in which you're dealing with a moral hangover, here's how to deal:
- First, you have to deal with it. Whether you called your ex 15 times or said something to a friend that you probably shouldn’t have, you have to deal with it first. Do a little damage control, but don't over do it. You can't undo what happened, but do what you can to make it a little more normal again.
- Focus your energy on something other than talking about last night. The sooner you decide you’re going to put your regrettable actions in the past, the sooner that can actually happen. Once you've dealt with it, stop beating yourself up about it and focus your energy on something else.
- Don't make it worse by eating junk food or staying in bed all day or doing anything that could only make you feel worse. Even if you made a mistake, you still owe it to yourself to take good care of yourself.
- Remind yourself that everything’s funny eventually. It may seem like the end of the world now, but think back to another time when your embarrassment actually turned out to be a great story and know that once this blows over, you'll be able to laugh at eventually.
- Keep it all in perspective. If the worst thing that’s going on in your life is that you made a few poor choices after too much Tequila, you’re still doing ok. You probably don't want to hear that there are people in the world with much worse problems than yours, but it's true.
