What truly is being hungover? Is this concerning?

To start I want to clarify that I have been drunk before many times, and this is not my first time experiencing a different type of hangover before.

Last night I (20m, 5’9, 150lbs) had drinks (4x355mL 5% drinks, 2 shots Absolut, 1 shot Fireball) at a friends birthday and the night was fine. I didn’t blackout or anything and was not even close to as far gone as most people there. This amount of alcohol is typically my limit to still have a good time and remember 98% of the night, and that still stands true today. Looking back I didn’t drink any water before or during the party and only had my first glass when I woke up this morning, but I still have gotten this weird type of hangover even when I have drank water.

In my most recent times getting drunk I have been “hungover”, but after talking to friends and watching them experience how they feel after a night drinking, I think it’s caused me to question what a hangover is supposed to be and if it is what I’m experiencing.

Now my version of being hungover didn’t always exist. I remember blacking out multiple times in highschool and waking up near perfectly fine the next day, or if I was hungover it was what all my friends say they get, sluggishness, headache, etc. But then ~2 years ago my hangovers changed. The only notable event that I can think of that possibly triggered this change (it totally could not be the case) in my hangovers was the one time I greened out and had a bad trip. Upon drinking a couple days after I first got this weird hangover and now ever since have always gotten it when having more than 4-5 drinks.

My hangovers basically result in me being completely dissociated from everything and it can last for a long time, up to 2 weeks some times. The best way I can describe this (especially as I am struggling to type right now) is that it’s like that commonly talked about phenomenon when you drive but upon arriving at your destination you don’t remember actually driving there. I begin to struggle to perceive reality as I can clearly see something plainly in front of me but I can’t comprehend it is there in actual reality. I have to constantly double check things and I periodically lose my sense of touch and basic communication/listening skills. My most clear example I can think of to paint the experience is such as this morning when I went out to get breakfast while in this hungover state, the waiter hands me the machine to pay so I go to pull out my phone to tap and I basically lose all sense of everything; spacial awareness gone, I can’t tell if I double clicked my phone to get my wallet to pop up and if the machine is even ready to tap, I forget the order of operations of how to pay, and can’t multitask listening to the waiter speak as I put my wallet away. I also asked the waiter for freshly squeezed orange juice and a water “also freshly squeezed.” As I type this out, it’s beginning to sound to me like my hangover is actually just “still drunk”… but I’m not… am I?

The thing that spooks me is everybody else around me who drinks the same night and gets even far worse than me tells me they don’t have this problem, and they are usually doing even better than me. I can’t go to the gym days after drinking because I forget what exercises I did and end up doing them twice after having already logged them. All my friends can hop on the game the next day while I struggle to understand which way my character is walking on the screen.

So I’m done sitting around letting this be my experience everytime I want to enjoy a night drinking. It truly affects my life beyond the fun night and scares me knowing others around me don’t have this problem. I go into drinking nights hoping it will magically turn out good this time, but it fails everytime.

Is this just brain fog? Should I get checked out? Is this normal and all my friends are pathological liars? Am I overreacting?

TLDR: I truly can’t explain it in a short form cause I’m still in my hungover state