The Caffeine-Anxiety Connection

Stop — your drink is causing anxiety! Don’t take another sip of that coffee. Here’s why…

Caffeine, the stuff found in your coffee, tea and cola, is one of the most popular mood-enhancing drugs on the planet. That’s right, caffeine is technically classified as a drug, and rightly so… it can cause havoc with your anxiety and worry levels.

Caffeine may make you feel energetic and alert by increasing levels of brain chemical called norepinephrine. But as with most things in life, you don’t get something for nothing. Caffeine has a dark side…

“Caffeine is an energy loan shark. What it lends you in the morning it takes back with heavy interest in the afternoon.” ~ Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.

And every time you drink caffeine your own natural abilities to produce those feel-good chemicals are reduced, so eventually you need even more coffee to get the same alert/energetic feelings. Before long you become dependent on coffee just to “feel OK.” But that’s not all…

1. Caffeine increases the levels of your stress hormone adrenaline. This can trigger feelings of anxiety and cause feelings of tension and stress. It’s not uncommon for such people to be prescribed anti-anxiety medication, when all along the symptoms were triggered by caffeine intake. And every time your body releases more adrenaline unnecessarily, you are putting more stress and strain on your nervous system, which ultimately makes you more prone to anxiety.

2. Caffeine blocks the effects of hormones serotonin and melatonin. When this happens sleep becomes more difficult, which also makes you more prone to anxiety.

3. Caffeine leeches vital vitamins and minerals out of your body. Which (guess what?!) makes you more prone to anxiety.

I think you get the message by now. The good news is when you reduce your caffeine levels you’ll find yourself with higher levels of calmness, more energy, and better sleep. And best of all, less anxiety and worry. But coming off caffeine can be tricky, there are some initial downsides…

You’ll lose that almost instant energetic caffeine buzz. You may find, only initially, you get more headaches. And whilst you’re on a caffeine comedown, you’ll probably feel cranky and irritable. Thankfully, all of these downsides are short-lived.

The best way to become caffeine-free without harsh withdrawal symptoms is by gradually reducing your intake week-by-week. Your first job is to get down to just one cup of coffee a day. So if you drink four cups a day, for the first week drink three a day, for the second week drink two cups, and for the third week drink just one cup.

If you are committed to eliminating caffeine from your life and minimizing anxiety, once you are down to one cup, begin the week by drinking just half a cup of coffee (that means putting in half the measure of coffee you usually use, not just half the amount of water!) For the next week you should be able to go coffee-free without harsh withdrawal symptoms.

Ideally if anxiety and worry are dominating your life it would be best to totally eliminate caffeine from your diet altogether — you will feel the most benefits that way. But if you are a coffee/caffeine lover then at LEAST cut back to 100 mg maximum a day. Here are typical caffeine content levels per drink:

Coffee 90-150 mg
Tea 30-70 mg
Red Bull 80 mg
Dr. Pepper 61 mg
Mountain Dew 55 mg
Surge 51 mg
Tab 47 mg
Coca-Cola 45 mg
Diet Coca-Cola 45 mg
Pepsi Cola 43 mg

It’s crazy, just the simple act of having these seemingly innocent drinks can cause very real anxiety problems. For some people one cup of coffee is enough to set them up for a day of worry and anxiety, without them even realizing.

It amazes and annoys me how and why doctors don’t know this sort of information and instead rely on the prescription pad. But that’s a rant for another day…