Coffee: A love/hate relationship

[Nighttimesnacks]

I used to drink coffee every morning and several others throughout the day. A year ago I worked in a coffee shop and would sip on it all day and it wouldn't affect me. Now, one sip and I'm feeling nervous about getting anxious. I love the taste but I'm afraid my body can't handle the extra boost. Anyone else have this issue with coffee?

[shodan95]

Yes! I am very familiar with that feeling. Coffee used to be my reason to get out of bed tbh lol now I drink hot black tea, which does have some caffeine, but not as much as coffee and I don't get any of those jitters. Have you tried doing half caf(half regular coffee with half decaf)?

[Nighttimesnacks in reply to shodan95]

Thanks for sharing! I have tried half calf before - didn't really notice a difference. Tea is a great idea - I was always anti tea bc if I wasn't feeling the shakes then it wasn't good enough lol. Now it seems my body is extremely sensitive to stimulants so tea it is! 🙂

[Hidden]

I loved coffee! It was my first thought in the morning. I recently stopped drinking it because it was making me caffeine anxious. Now I drink English breakfast tea, or a V8 plus energy drink.

[Nighttimesnacks in reply to Hidden]

Thanks for sharing! Good to know I'm not the only one. Tea sounds like it might be a nice transition. Cheers, friend 🍵 Hope you have a pleasant day.

[Hidden in reply to Nighttimesnacks]

You too! Keep taking care of yourself. Cheers!

[Bwp06]

yes too much of the good stuff will put me on a crazy path. I have using half café coffee and there are actual good brands of de-cafe. I love the stuff as well, bt it makes my day and my thoughts a mess if I over do it.

[mvillarreal]

Yes! I completely relate to this! Coffee makes my anxiety waayy worse a lot of the time. I tend to avoid it unless I really need it to write a paper due the next day or something. I would say probably only use caffeine when you really need it. If you REALLY need the taste of coffee, maybe go with decaf.

[hstroller]

I used to drink 12 ounce very strong cups of coffee 4 or 6 times a day or more, for 10 or 20 years, and could sleep like a baby. I used cream and sugar. Then, I guess I got older and started getting GERD and reflux problems. Then, I started getting anxiety attacks from work stress periodically, so I cut down on the coffee and cut out the sugar. Despite really loving coffee for so long, now I can only drink a morning cup of 6 or 8 ounces of coffee and avoid any more so I don't aggravate some persistent daily anxiety and panic issues. I quit drinking pop/sodas too.

I had talked to an Italian researcher 5 or 10 years ago, who had studied the brains of regular coffee drinkers using functional MRI and he had found that caffeine only brought regular coffee drinkers to a normal baseline that they would be at if they didn't drink coffee all the time. The rest of the time our brains would be at a sub-optimal suppressed level. He said this wasn't true for casual drinkers. Corresponding with the guy really put things in perspective regarding how caffeine makes you feel and what the reality is.

I actually jokingly wonder now if drinking more coffee would suppress my baseline again and make me less anxious

[Hidden]

I am now into an energy drink instead of coffee almost every day. I know.