Hangover Cure

You may have arrived at this page because you are sick of repeatedly suffering from hangovers after your heavy drinking sessions.

Hangover cure Pills

Pills such as panadol, disprin, and other painkillers can be used to relieve your hangover.  There are many stronger sedatives, such as benzodiazpines, however these have extremely dangerous side effects if combined with alcohol.

Food and Drink as a cure for hangovers

The best cure I have found for hangovers, recommended to me by a serious drinker, is tomato juice with a squeeze of lemon, heavily spiked with chilly pepper sauce.  Some like to spike this with vodka, although I found that this made my hangover worse!  If you are using alcohol as a remedy for your hangovers then you may need to question your relationship with alcohol. "Normal drinkers" don't generally seek these types of cures for their hangovers.

Moderation as a Remedy for Hangovers

Alcoholics Anonymous talks of certain types of hard or heavy drinkers who are able to moderate their drinking.  Since these people are able to moderate their drinking they are clearly not alcoholic.  Page 20 of the Big Book describes them this way, "He may have the habit badly enough to gradually impair him physically and mentally. It may cause him to die a few years before his time. If a sufficiently strong reason--ill health, falling in love, change of environment, or the warning of a doctor--becomes operative, this man can also stop or moderate, although he may find it difficult and troublesome and may even need medical attention."  Generally his life will improve when he moderates. These people may think that they were once alcoholic.  However, they never were because they have proven that they were able to stop or moderate using their own willpower. For the real alcoholic this is not possible. People who are able to moderate their drinking have more difficulty than most understanding real alcoholics.  They promulgate alcoholic prejudice.  Page 20 of Alcoholics Anonymous elaborates on the types of questions that these people ask:

How many times people have said to us: "I can take it or leave it alone. Why can't he?" "Why don't you drink like a gentleman or quit?" "That fellow can't handle his liquor." "Why don't you try beer and wine?" "Lay off the hard stuff." "His will power must be weak." "He could stop if he wanted to." "She's such a sweet girl, I should think he'd stop for her." "The doctor told him that if he ever drank again it would kill him, but there he is all lit up again." Now, these are commonplace observations on drinkers which we hear all the time. Back of them is a world of ignorance and misunderstanding. We see that these expressions refer to people whose reactions are very different from ours.

Abstinence as a Hangover Cure

The ultimate cure for hangovers is complete abstinence. By not taking the first drink, the alcoholic is protected from the phenomenon of craving for alcohol that is triggered by putting alcohol into his system. On page xxviii of the book Alcoholics Anonymous, "The Doctor's Opinion" says, "the action of alcohol on these chronic alcoholics is a manifestation of an allergy; that the phenomenon of craving is limited to this class [alcoholic] and never occurs in the average temperate drinker."

Alcoholism - A Progressive Disease

If you are repeatedly experiencing hangovers then you could be on the path towards becoming addicted to alcohol. Alcoholism is a progressive disease.