Hangxiety: How Alcohol Messes with Your Mind with Millie GoochHangxiety: How Alcohol Messes with Your Mind with Millie Gooch
SHE RECOVERS Podcast
Mandy Manners and Millie Gooch talk about hangxiety, how alcohol interacts with anxiety, trauma and neurodivergence, and why understanding the brain can change how someone feels about drinking. They also discuss sober community, social media boundaries and the value of early intervention before alcohol causes further harm.
50:17•23 Sept 2026
Hangxiety, Neurodivergent Brains and Life Online with Millie Gooch
Episode Overview
- Hangxiety describes both the emotional crash after drinking and the wider cycle of using alcohol to cope with problems it eventually makes worse.
- Alcohol can intensify existing mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, insomnia and panic, especially for already vulnerable or neurodivergent brains.
- Blackouts are framed as a serious warning sign, not a normal or harmless part of drinking culture.
- Strong boundaries and clear auto-replies can be essential for protecting mental health when holding space for others on social media.
- Sober community spaces like Sober Girl Society show people they don’t need to hit rock bottom to change their relationship with alcohol and can socialise without drinking.
“I genuinely believe sobriety would be a hundred times easier if it wasn’t for other people and their shitty opinions about it.”
Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This conversation between coach and SHE RECOVERS Trusted Advisor Mandy Manners and best-selling author Millie Gooch takes a funny, honest and very human look at “hangxiety” – that mix of dread, shame and Sunday scaries after a night of drinking.
Millie explains how her new book *Hangxiety: How Alcohol Messes with Your Mind* grew from a simple question: why did alcohol seem to wreck her brain in ways it didn’t for her friends? She unpacks the vicious loop of drinking to soothe anxiety, stress or insomnia, only to find each one getting worse.
As she puts it, hangxiety captures “this like cycle that so many of us find ourselves in… drinking for a certain purpose and actually drinking in the long term making that thing worse.” Mandy and Millie compare their own mental health histories, talking about depression, panic attacks, blackouts and the moment they realised alcohol was harming already “vulnerable” brains.
They also bring neurodivergence into the mix, with Millie reflecting on how alcohol once felt like it “quieted” her scattered mind by narrowing her focus, and how that understanding now shapes her recovery. The episode also shines a light on life online. With Sober Girl Society’s huge following, Millie shares how she protects her wellbeing on social media, from firm boundaries in her DMs to treating her platform as an educational space rather than a personal vlog.
There’s plenty here for anyone juggling recovery, people-pleasing and the pressure to be “on” all the time. Aimed at women and non-binary people who are sober, sober curious or questioning their relationship with alcohol, this is a grounded chat full of science, stories and practical compassion. It might leave you asking: what’s really going on in your brain the morning after – and what would change if you gave it a break?
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