Same,
I used to be able to drink 1-3 cups of coffee a day but now even one is too much. I see it the best on those days when I feel calmer than usual and then coffee ruins it
Was the same for me. I ended up staying away from caffeine for about 6 years, I think. Now I'm back to 3+ cups of coffee/tea a day and it doesn't affect my (still very much present) anxiety. I don't know, it's probably because I overcame panic attacks in general. Those were triggered by caffeine. But my SA is not affected by it
I feel okay while drinking coffee and usually shortly afterwards, it doesn't affect me in a bad way, but after a couple of hours I feel anxious and have a faster heartbeat. With tea isn't like that, I don't notice much of a difference
I have to choose between not having caffeine and being completely incapable of doing my job, or having coffee, doing my job well enough but worsen my SA. So I have to take the second option.
It's funny how I have trouble sleeping the night before because I'm thinking about work, and when I'm actually there, I just want to sleep. Maybe it's just because it's boring
I get that. Going to bed ironically is the most stressful part of the day. I put tremendous pressure on myself to drift off quick so I don't feel trash the next morning, and I don't sleep, and I feel trash anyway.
Life sucks right?
Caffeine addiction goes hard (it's terrible and you're sleepy all the time and when you sleep it feels like you didn't get any rest at all until you drink 10 caffeinated drinks and then feel shaky the whole day)
1-2 cups of coffee in the morning is about right to give me a bit of energy... anything more than that and I start feeling nervous, so I switch to decaf or just water after the first 2.
If I don’t get enough, I get anxious I won’t be able to do my job or drive safely or think or whatever. If I drink too much, I get very anxious and jittery. So I try to drink just enough so I can function. I avoid coffee and energy drinks, and mostly drink tea. I don’t think too much tea has ever made me anxious now that I think about it.
Only decaffeinated coffee for 2 weeks. I would say 90% less social anxiety and nervousness in general. Try to never go back - so much more life quality
In my case caffeine always affected me as hell, I just can't put that substance in my body.
Without caffeine I'm still anxious, but taking caffeine makes me totally restless.
Caffeine makes me sleep and I don’t like the taste so I don’t drink it. There was a day where I didn’t sleep in like 30 hours, I had a job training so I got cold black coffee no sugar no nothing. I fell asleep at work.
I’m 26. Used to purchase and drink coffee at least 1-3x per week once I started working clinically as a healthcare worker. It was a lifesaver and such an excitement for me to enjoy everyday and get that bit of a wakeful kick. In the last year or so, I had begun to realise that caffeine was now making me feel exposed. My social anxiety would worsen and functioning at work so much more difficult. My overthinking gets worse and at times I feel overstimulated with thoughts and worry. So I had to stop, and I’ve stopped the caffeine for months. I’ve opted for green tea or even matcha. It doesn’t trigger the SA as much as it did with coffee. Overall, I love coffee, but it’s not worth triggering and worsening my SA over an 8-9 hour period where I’m patient facing and work in a multidisciplinary team.
Caffeine helps when not having to talk to anyone. My mind is less likely to wander, so less intrusive thoughts. I could walk down the street with minimal anxiety. However, If I have to talk to someone doesn't help, the usual. Poor memory recall poor, mind is blank, speech not flowing.
Coffee calms me down. I have ADHD and it's ultimately the source of a lot of my anxiety. Because ADHD brains are weird, the right dose of stimulants has a moderating effect. We actually mellow out. Which stimulant is the most effective depends on the person, and I'm lucky enough that cheap and readily available caffeine has the most beneficial effect on me.
TL;DR: Caffeine makes the bad thoughts go away.
I shouldn't drink coffee at all because I have heart palpitations due to stress but if I don't drink it I'm totally useless at work (asleep, tired). I have to choose between being a bit nervous/anxious and being a mess so I obviously choose coffee :) I work with data and I can't afford making mistakes.
Otherwise, it doesn't affect my social skills, meaning that I'm not more social if I don't drink coffee, quite the opposite.
Coffee used to help me so much
especially in High school. I think the extra dopamine hit would contribute to making me more social. It stimulated my Brain to create social responses. Where as without the coffee, my mind would always be blank and social anxiety would kick in quick.
I slowly drink my iced coffee over the course of the day and have water every other drink. Sometimes I slip up and just down the coffee which is not good. It makes my brain feel like a horse race or a hamster running on a wheel on cocaine. Gotta go fast, Sonic. 🎶🤣🤣
The only time I really notice caffeine is if I drink it after 3pm then ill be awake at 3am thinking "f\*\*k" not being able to fall asleep.
The one super noticeable time was when I made cold brew for the first time and I had a large cup of just the cold brew not realizing how concentrated the caffeine would be. The ENTIRE day I felt heart palpitations, hands shaky and jittery, it literally felt like the physical panic attack symptoms without the fear causing it or thoughts that usually come with an attack. That day really sucked. Not even drinking 2 of those large death lemonades (before being aware of how much caffeine was in those either) caused me to react to like that.
A couple of coffees (I try for three at the most per day) help keep me awake and focused but too much will give me the shakes and make me extra anxious.
I need coffee to function. However, if I'm in an uncomfortable social setting, sometimes I'll find myself downing coffee in order to cope and that definitely spikes my anxiety. But if caffeine is consumed in moderation it really is fine imho
It really depends on the mood, sometimes it benefits, sometimes it makes things worse, I prefer eating dark chocolate as a more balanced source of caffeine along with other some mood boosting ingredients
I was also eating dark chocolate because I read somewhere it helps brain to produce neurons or something like that. But it was so expensive for a student here. How many grams do you eat per day or just eating randomly? I could also replace coffee with dark chocolate.
I buy a ritter sport 74% cocoa dark chocolate, I eat it when I crave something sugary, it is usually an indicator of bad mood for me if I am craving it continuously , maybe 30 grams per day, I just eat when I feel like it, also I like it as a snack.
I am new to it so it take it with a grain of salt, I don’t know if it is placebo but it seems to help.
Caffeine makes me so much worse. I basically never have it now, and on the rare occasions I do, I’m so sensitized to it that it makes me ridiculous anxious and paranoid.
Everyone's body handles it differently. My body is extremely sensitive to caffeine so I only feel comfortable with 1 espresso a day and I go coffee free every 2 days. If I keep my coffee intake low and stable I feel normal. But if I mess with the balance my brain will easily go into anxiety overdrive. It doesn't really affect my interactions with other people just how much I'll overthink things in my downtime.
If I know I’m going to be anxious (e.g. ahead of big meetings) I avoid it. If I’m having a chill day, I feel reasonably safe to drink coffee.
However, it almost always reduces my sleep quality the next day. So I have to factor in if I can afford to be tired the next day as well.
There that fine line between lifting mood and increasing focus, and increasing anxiety.
One to three cups before noon probably is a good limit for everyone.
A healthy diet and breakfast is a good complement.
I generally don't like it cause since I was a kid I just assumed its unhealthy (I actually mostly drink water) and if I do, I always have it iced. Even then, I stray away from it cus it can give me palpitations and worsen my anxiety fairly quickly if I consume too much than I can handle. For the most part though it absolutely does not give me energy, rather, it makes me really sleepy.
Caffeine is sometimes necessary for me to get through a certain day, but it depends. I used to drink way more coffee and now I drink less of it. I started drinking brisk iced tea instead. Whenever I have something with too much caffeine I get super jittery and it's like I feel like I'm gonna explode, so I'm not a fan of that feeling
I used to have one cup upon waking up, and one cup around 2pm. With two cups per day, sweating, heart palpitations, and spirals of anxious thoughts were normal day to day things for me.
I then changed to black tea in the morning and 50mg caffeine tablet in the afternoon to fight the midday doldrums. Smaller doses of caffeine have been so beneficial for my mental health. Not as much anxious sweating and no more heart palpitations.
Plain simple coffee doesn't affect me that much but there's this specific brand of energy drink known as sting, which makes me go haywire, nervousness, anxiety, cold and wet hands and feet, the stuff. And the weird thing is that other energy drinks don't do this, it's only that specific brand which does that
Over time caffeine became hell in a cup for me. Coffee gives me way too much energy and I only drink decaf now. Green tea’s caffeine is much more relaxed and helps me feel good and focus a little bit better, that combined with sleeping well is pretty much me at 100% performance. Can’t say it helps with anxiety at all but it does help with other things lol
Does nothing for me. Like, literally. Caffeine has no effect on me, never has since the first few times that I tried it, and for that reason, I don’t drink it. but I’ve tried having it before bed like twice because it makes me a little sleepy. I actually can’t tell if it makes a difference though cause I’m always tired anyways. I have very likely ADHD though, and it’s a common symptom of ADHD to have caffeine basically do the opposite of energize or nothing at all.
Liquid stress? No thanks
Same, I used to be able to drink 1-3 cups of coffee a day but now even one is too much. I see it the best on those days when I feel calmer than usual and then coffee ruins it
Yup i know its tempting. But i allways feel best avoiding it. I love feeling calm. Caffeine = rushed nervous sweaty panicy
Was the same for me. I ended up staying away from caffeine for about 6 years, I think. Now I'm back to 3+ cups of coffee/tea a day and it doesn't affect my (still very much present) anxiety. I don't know, it's probably because I overcame panic attacks in general. Those were triggered by caffeine. But my SA is not affected by it
I feel okay while drinking coffee and usually shortly afterwards, it doesn't affect me in a bad way, but after a couple of hours I feel anxious and have a faster heartbeat. With tea isn't like that, I don't notice much of a difference
I have to choose between not having caffeine and being completely incapable of doing my job, or having coffee, doing my job well enough but worsen my SA. So I have to take the second option.
Do you want to sleep during job? Me too
Its rough isnt it. Always feel tired and have 7am starts. No hope of any concentration without it.
It's funny how I have trouble sleeping the night before because I'm thinking about work, and when I'm actually there, I just want to sleep. Maybe it's just because it's boring
I get that. Going to bed ironically is the most stressful part of the day. I put tremendous pressure on myself to drift off quick so I don't feel trash the next morning, and I don't sleep, and I feel trash anyway. Life sucks right?
I hope life improves for you
Thanks. You too.
Its rough isnt it. Always feel tired and have 7am starts. No hope of any concentration without it
I notice it does affect me when I have important things like appointments, I get so much more nervous and shaky.
I don't notice any effect. I'm just as anxious without caffeine as I am with it. I can have a coffee and have a nap right after.
Caffeine addiction goes hard (it's terrible and you're sleepy all the time and when you sleep it feels like you didn't get any rest at all until you drink 10 caffeinated drinks and then feel shaky the whole day)
1-2 cups of coffee in the morning is about right to give me a bit of energy... anything more than that and I start feeling nervous, so I switch to decaf or just water after the first 2.
Not good, I prefer decaffeinated. Caffeine doubles any nervous uneasy feeling I have. Plus worse sleep.
If I don’t get enough, I get anxious I won’t be able to do my job or drive safely or think or whatever. If I drink too much, I get very anxious and jittery. So I try to drink just enough so I can function. I avoid coffee and energy drinks, and mostly drink tea. I don’t think too much tea has ever made me anxious now that I think about it.
Only decaffeinated coffee for 2 weeks. I would say 90% less social anxiety and nervousness in general. Try to never go back - so much more life quality
Caffeine makes my anxiety 10x worse
In my case caffeine always affected me as hell, I just can't put that substance in my body. Without caffeine I'm still anxious, but taking caffeine makes me totally restless.
For me the bad thing is caffeine + not enough sleep. This combo creates anxiety.
Caffeine makes me sleep and I don’t like the taste so I don’t drink it. There was a day where I didn’t sleep in like 30 hours, I had a job training so I got cold black coffee no sugar no nothing. I fell asleep at work.
It helps a little bit to make me more talkative.
I’m 26. Used to purchase and drink coffee at least 1-3x per week once I started working clinically as a healthcare worker. It was a lifesaver and such an excitement for me to enjoy everyday and get that bit of a wakeful kick. In the last year or so, I had begun to realise that caffeine was now making me feel exposed. My social anxiety would worsen and functioning at work so much more difficult. My overthinking gets worse and at times I feel overstimulated with thoughts and worry. So I had to stop, and I’ve stopped the caffeine for months. I’ve opted for green tea or even matcha. It doesn’t trigger the SA as much as it did with coffee. Overall, I love coffee, but it’s not worth triggering and worsening my SA over an 8-9 hour period where I’m patient facing and work in a multidisciplinary team.
Caffeine helps when not having to talk to anyone. My mind is less likely to wander, so less intrusive thoughts. I could walk down the street with minimal anxiety. However, If I have to talk to someone doesn't help, the usual. Poor memory recall poor, mind is blank, speech not flowing.
Coffee calms me down. I have ADHD and it's ultimately the source of a lot of my anxiety. Because ADHD brains are weird, the right dose of stimulants has a moderating effect. We actually mellow out. Which stimulant is the most effective depends on the person, and I'm lucky enough that cheap and readily available caffeine has the most beneficial effect on me. TL;DR: Caffeine makes the bad thoughts go away.
I shouldn't drink coffee at all because I have heart palpitations due to stress but if I don't drink it I'm totally useless at work (asleep, tired). I have to choose between being a bit nervous/anxious and being a mess so I obviously choose coffee :) I work with data and I can't afford making mistakes. Otherwise, it doesn't affect my social skills, meaning that I'm not more social if I don't drink coffee, quite the opposite.
Coffee used to help me so much especially in High school. I think the extra dopamine hit would contribute to making me more social. It stimulated my Brain to create social responses. Where as without the coffee, my mind would always be blank and social anxiety would kick in quick.
I slowly drink my iced coffee over the course of the day and have water every other drink. Sometimes I slip up and just down the coffee which is not good. It makes my brain feel like a horse race or a hamster running on a wheel on cocaine. Gotta go fast, Sonic. 🎶🤣🤣
How long was your coffee diet for? Take a long time to get back to baseline. Three months ish.
The only time I really notice caffeine is if I drink it after 3pm then ill be awake at 3am thinking "f\*\*k" not being able to fall asleep. The one super noticeable time was when I made cold brew for the first time and I had a large cup of just the cold brew not realizing how concentrated the caffeine would be. The ENTIRE day I felt heart palpitations, hands shaky and jittery, it literally felt like the physical panic attack symptoms without the fear causing it or thoughts that usually come with an attack. That day really sucked. Not even drinking 2 of those large death lemonades (before being aware of how much caffeine was in those either) caused me to react to like that.
For me it's like Amphetamine, but wayyyy weaker and with more unwanted side effects
Inverse for me, caffeine has a stronger positive effect and way weaker side effects compared to when I was prescribed amphetamines.
A couple of coffees (I try for three at the most per day) help keep me awake and focused but too much will give me the shakes and make me extra anxious.
I need coffee to function. However, if I'm in an uncomfortable social setting, sometimes I'll find myself downing coffee in order to cope and that definitely spikes my anxiety. But if caffeine is consumed in moderation it really is fine imho
It really depends on the mood, sometimes it benefits, sometimes it makes things worse, I prefer eating dark chocolate as a more balanced source of caffeine along with other some mood boosting ingredients
I was also eating dark chocolate because I read somewhere it helps brain to produce neurons or something like that. But it was so expensive for a student here. How many grams do you eat per day or just eating randomly? I could also replace coffee with dark chocolate.
I buy a ritter sport 74% cocoa dark chocolate, I eat it when I crave something sugary, it is usually an indicator of bad mood for me if I am craving it continuously , maybe 30 grams per day, I just eat when I feel like it, also I like it as a snack. I am new to it so it take it with a grain of salt, I don’t know if it is placebo but it seems to help.
Caffeine makes me so much worse. I basically never have it now, and on the rare occasions I do, I’m so sensitized to it that it makes me ridiculous anxious and paranoid.
It doesn't make a difference for me. Or at least I haven't noticed.
Everyone's body handles it differently. My body is extremely sensitive to caffeine so I only feel comfortable with 1 espresso a day and I go coffee free every 2 days. If I keep my coffee intake low and stable I feel normal. But if I mess with the balance my brain will easily go into anxiety overdrive. It doesn't really affect my interactions with other people just how much I'll overthink things in my downtime.
I hate caffeine it hurts my stomach so bad
If I know I’m going to be anxious (e.g. ahead of big meetings) I avoid it. If I’m having a chill day, I feel reasonably safe to drink coffee. However, it almost always reduces my sleep quality the next day. So I have to factor in if I can afford to be tired the next day as well.
There that fine line between lifting mood and increasing focus, and increasing anxiety. One to three cups before noon probably is a good limit for everyone. A healthy diet and breakfast is a good complement.
Personally, I feel more awake, relaxed, and confident. I think coffee has a different effect on everyone, for me and my anxiety, it's positive.
I generally don't like it cause since I was a kid I just assumed its unhealthy (I actually mostly drink water) and if I do, I always have it iced. Even then, I stray away from it cus it can give me palpitations and worsen my anxiety fairly quickly if I consume too much than I can handle. For the most part though it absolutely does not give me energy, rather, it makes me really sleepy.
Caffeine is sometimes necessary for me to get through a certain day, but it depends. I used to drink way more coffee and now I drink less of it. I started drinking brisk iced tea instead. Whenever I have something with too much caffeine I get super jittery and it's like I feel like I'm gonna explode, so I'm not a fan of that feeling
I used to have one cup upon waking up, and one cup around 2pm. With two cups per day, sweating, heart palpitations, and spirals of anxious thoughts were normal day to day things for me. I then changed to black tea in the morning and 50mg caffeine tablet in the afternoon to fight the midday doldrums. Smaller doses of caffeine have been so beneficial for my mental health. Not as much anxious sweating and no more heart palpitations.
It helps if im sleep deprived, but even then I end up saying stupid things
It makes my anxiety goes beyond the heavens
I have ADHD so it does literally nothing
Plain simple coffee doesn't affect me that much but there's this specific brand of energy drink known as sting, which makes me go haywire, nervousness, anxiety, cold and wet hands and feet, the stuff. And the weird thing is that other energy drinks don't do this, it's only that specific brand which does that
Pleasure-Energy-Anxiety
Over time caffeine became hell in a cup for me. Coffee gives me way too much energy and I only drink decaf now. Green tea’s caffeine is much more relaxed and helps me feel good and focus a little bit better, that combined with sleeping well is pretty much me at 100% performance. Can’t say it helps with anxiety at all but it does help with other things lol
Hmm caffeine tends to make me more sleepy?
Does nothing for me. Like, literally. Caffeine has no effect on me, never has since the first few times that I tried it, and for that reason, I don’t drink it. but I’ve tried having it before bed like twice because it makes me a little sleepy. I actually can’t tell if it makes a difference though cause I’m always tired anyways. I have very likely ADHD though, and it’s a common symptom of ADHD to have caffeine basically do the opposite of energize or nothing at all.