Green tea for anxiety first thing in the morning, the jury is still out.

[Jeff1943]

My anxiety is mild but it will always be with me, it's inherited, but Claire Weekes would consider me recovered because I have cured myself before with her acceptance technique so can do it again.

For me the worse time is sometimes first thing on waking and I've reported before that this might be because levels of cortisol are at their peak about 8a.m. Cortisol is a fight or flight hormone we don't need an overdose of any more but the body still produces it and it just sloshes around in our system making us feel anxious.

Some people believe that starting the day with a cup of green tea helps to lower the levels of cotisol and anxiety due to the active ingredient thianine. There's not a lot of thianine in a cup of green tea and you can buy green tea extract tablets or even pure thianine tablets.

I don't find the tablets work but I still feel that a cup of green tea first thing helps to banish that first thing in the morning anxiety feeling.

Over the last week I've been waking anxious so I started to resume the practice of starting the day with a mug of green tea (the kind they sell in tea bags in all supermarkets), yesterday was the first day for some time. All anxiety disappeared for the rest of the day and today the same thing happened. Of course it could be the placebo affect but I say if it works don't fix it so will be making it a green tea day every day from now on.

However, I know some people have tried green tea and found it did nothing for them. Maybe it depends on the nature of your anxiety, who knows? But I was wondering if anyone else here has tried it and wondered what the experiences of others has been. So the question is: green tea, has it done it for you?

[Jodz]

I drank green tea every morning for 5 years . It was upping my heart rate and making my anxiety worse . I now drink hot lemon water .

[Aazz]

Green tea makes my anxiety worse. But I find camomile works as long as I don't leave the tea bag in too long and I sleep better from it too.

[Jeff1943]

Other people clearly have a different experience with green tea than I do, but I have a definite impression that after my mug of green tea after breakfast I feel less anxiety. Auto-suggestion or the placebo effect? If it works don't fix it.

[Ab2009]

Will try from now on, placebo or not, does it matter, happy it works for you ... and will for me, too!!!

[Hopeful-Tinkerbell]

Doesn’t tea have caffeine in it? That would cause anxiety. I’m not a big fan of hot tea. However I do enjoy coffee. I can drink one cup every morning and then decaf. I bet decaf would be fine too. If you believe in something enough you can make it true. Same as your placebo. Day time for me is lonely. Everyone I know works. I have no friends. My dog sleeps with me. I’m not a morning person. Can’t sleep well at night.

[Jeff1943 in reply to Hopeful-Tinkerbell]

I prefer coffee to tea, never understood why my fellow Brits have this love of tea, nothing beats Columbian coffee. Caffeine has never bern a problem for me either from coffee or green tea. Though a couple if weeks ago I had a strong coffee late at night and woke the next day with a strange feeling of derealisation but it wore off. Also 40 years ago I used to drink a lot of strong coffee and thats when my anxiety disorder first made itself known but one or two cups have no effect on me but it might be different for others. If you believe caffeine will make you anxious then it probably will, we're such a suggestible lot!

[Hopeful-Tinkerbell in reply to Jeff1943]

I can drink one to two cups when I wake up. Actually it’s more like need to drink 1-2 cups when I wake up. Need my caffeine. I try not to have too much caffeine after that. I like it though but my heart doesn’t. We are definitely a suggestible lot for sure. I’m convinced that cookies will cure me! I better start my treatment!