Posted by yxibow on May 26, 2006, at 0:15:10
In reply to People With Anxiety- Coffee Good..or Coffee Bad?, posted by nicky847 on May 25, 2006, at 15:19:58
With my complex anxiety disorder coffee is a definate nono with more than about one cup a day. My somatiform visual symptoms increase and the brightness problems become worse with caffeine. I suppose the same could be said about chocolate (theobromine which is weaker), but I try not to have too much of that just for the sheer calories anyhow.
In nature, plants like coffee, chocolate (theobroma cacao), guarana, and camellia sinensis (tea), there are actually three stimulants typically present in varying amounts -- caffeine, theobromine, and theophylline -- the first and the last which are medically used drugs also.
I had an anxiety/depression disorder in college but it was mostly dysthymic depression so as everyone does in Seattle I carried a thermos of like 4 shots of espresso a day around campus. I think it has something to do with the general grey atmosphere that it is notorious that people spike their day in the Emerald City with caffeine to take off the gloom. I still miss my Seattle though.
But back home here in So Cal, besides the current problem I have, um... to put it discreetly it kicks up my digestion as well anxiolytically, I tend to have some sub-clinical IBS or something from time to time.
Which is all annoying because I could use a few more cups a day to counteract the antihistamine effects from the Seroquel. But I try to make by.
And I can understand from others that it may be calming, in a sort of nicotinic fashion, caffeine is a stimulant, and for those who, logic counterintuitive, have anxiety and yet are calmed by caffeine, can be said in the same way as the more powerful rx'd Strattera, Concerta, etc. Some will have this effect, some won't.
poster:yxibow
thread:648475
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060525/msgs/648679.html