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Caffeine and Anxiety

oakhenge January 21st, 2018

After a week of recovery from sinus infection and a huge panic attack, I woke up this morning at 6a.m. rested and feeling normal. Better than I have in over a week! I was so thankful. Enjoyed a game with friends along with my regular morning 2 cups of coffee. I love my coffee. At 9am I was feeling unable to breath normal. . .again. What the heck??? Was I really having heart failure? I checked symptoms and no, mine didn't click for that. I checked symptom for panic attack and bingo - they all checked. Then I noticed that caffeine can be a major contributor.

I'm going to cut back to a cup tomorrow. If that doesn't work then I'll switch to black tea. If that is still too much I'll go over to green tea.

Meantime, wondering, have any of you noticed caffeine as a trigger to your anxiety? If so, how did you discover it and were you able to modify it and see improvements in lessening attacks?

3
adventurousCoconut5536 January 22nd, 2018

@oakhenge I've had that happen as I've always loved my morning coffee. Im too sleepy without it. In the past when coffee has caused anxiety, I switched to half regular half decaf. They make it like that or you could get decaf and caffinated and mix them. This allowed me to have coffee while not having added anxiety. :-)

panandpoly January 23rd, 2018

I noticed that a caffeinated tea helps me without perking me up too much. Green tea, chai tea, earl grey, and/or any breakfast teas, and Constant Comment are all what I like to call "morning" teas.

Jennca98 January 23rd, 2018

@oakhenge Abosuletely caffiene plays a part in it. I go through the same thing and to make it worse I drink coffee on an empty stomach. I know that it's causing me to flare up but I need it to get going in the morning. I have limited myself to one cup and most days are better but it's not completely gone. And as mentioned by another member, mixing decaf with regular will help as well.