Coffee and Anxiety....Up In A Tree...

After identifying coffee as one of my triggers responsible for my heightened anxiety a few years back, I’ve curbed its consumption.

Recently; however, I’ve started drinking coffee more regularly, whether it be store bought at a local cafe or prepared at work in my office’s employee kitchen. I probably need addiction help from coffee. I’m reminded of the powerful physical symptoms associated with this caffeine-induced buzz. The faster pulse, sweaty palms, pounding heart are all physical symptoms of caffeine induced anxiety.

Caffeine is the most widely used mood-altering drug in the world. You can find caffeine in your coffee, teas, sodas, and those “natural health supplement” energy drink. For most people when they consume coffee (caffeine) it produces a sense of alertness, concentration, and memory. This works because caffeine blocks the depressant function of a a chemical called adenosine. Drink more coffee than you are use to however and that same chemical reaction produces the jitters.

Why is it that one person can consume coffee and feel alert, a greater sense of memory and well-being while others do not? The answer is simple, those who are more susceptible to anxiety tend to think that the physical symptoms associated with the intake of caffeine is the signs of some impending doom. While some people may identify coffee as the trigger and give it up completely, many others tend to give up the activities they were engaged in when the symptoms showed up.

For example, you drink a large coffee in the morning prior to going to work, jump on the subway and while on the subway you begin to experience the symptoms mentioned above: racing heart, sweaty palms, faster pulse — instead of identifying the coffee (caffeine) as the trigger you think you have a fear of the subway, or crowed places, or people — and if you continue to believe that to be true, you may end up fearing that which you falsely believe to be at the root of your problem.

So how do you eventually deal with it all? Some psychologist would recommend you limit your caffeine intake until you are better able to identify the physical symptoms associated with a caffeine-induced buzz. Other psychologist would prescribe you a large cup of java in order for you to self induce yourself — to face the fear head on.

I think ordering a tall cup of java and inducing your own caffeine-anxiety-buzz is the best way to do it. The reason I say that is because it give you the opportunity to interpret the symptoms. A fast beating heart is no longer the signs of upcoming heart attack, but rather the normal reaction to a stimulant like caffeine. By exposing yourself to the fear head on you can begin to distinguish unfounded panic from real threats. Although you won’t feel great, you will learn that you can experience the symptoms and nothing terrible will happen.

The idea here isn’t to eliminate coffee (caffeine) from your diet. It’s about being moderate and realizing that the physical symptoms you are feeling are those caused by the anxiety and not something impeding doom.

Jason Herrington
Enjoying Every Last Drop

Figuring out the triggers and the root causes of your anxiety is the second step in properly managing your anxiety. I recently wrote an article about becoming aware of anxiety symptoms. If you haven’t read the article yet, I encourage you to check it out then come back and read this article after wards. The article will give you an idea of the symptoms associated with the various triggers we will talk about today.

As I sit here typing this post I realized that everyone is different. We all live in different cities, have different cultures and are going through different life events and situations at any given time. Since anxiety triggers are often related to a chemical imbalance in the nervous system, life experiences, or both…I think it is important to outline how I have come to understand the way it all plays out.

It is my understanding that both genetics and life events come into play, life events however being the dominate factor in most cases. It looks something like this:

Genetic Predisposition + Life Events = Anxiety Outcome

GENETIC PREDISPOSITION
It is my opinion that we are all born with some sort of chemical predisposition. Whether it be tilted in your favor or not. If you look at it as a balance, some people may be born with the balance being tilted more towards being prone to heightened anxiety while other people may have a balance that is neutral or tilted the other way. Whatever the case may be, there isn’t much you can do about it — so there is no use complaining about the type of DNA your parents gave you. Like the game of poker you are dealt a certain hand, and it is up to you to play it the best way you can. In terms of anxiety management, playing the best hand you can play is all about creating the right life events/environment or at the very lease understanding the life events or environment that may be causing your anxiety triggers.

LIFE EVENTS
I’m a firm believer that the environment you surround yourself in controls your way of thinking and behavior much more than your chemical predisposition. Like I mentioned above I firmly believe that we are all born with some sort of chemical predisposition. Whether that predisposition is tilted to be easily prone to heightened anxiety or not, your environment can impact you in either direction.

Let me give you an example. I was born into a family who has a genetic history of being prone to heightened levels of anxiety, depression…etc. My childhood; although being amazing (my parents rock), was still full of highly stressful events. These stressful events and situations in my life tipped my chemical disposition far to the side that was prone to heightened anxiety. And because at the time I had no clue what anxiety or a panic attack was, I develop negative thoughts around my symptoms which literally fueled the fire which resulted in countless days and night of feeling “out of it”, shortness of breath, tension in chest, sweaty palms, tinkly hands, dizziness, rapid heart, and thoughts of dying or heart attacks.

Let me give you another example, using myself again. Let’s say that I was born, again into my current family with the same chemical predisposition of being prone to heightened anxiety. But this time instead of going through times of highly stressful events, I never experienced any highly stressful events or sudden changes. Would this have helped prevent my anxiety from being heightened? In my opinion, absolutely. However it still doesn’t mean that as I grew older, perhaps even into my adult years; that I could not be faced with some sort of event that could tilt the balance and make me experience heightened levels of anxiety. I’m actually glad it happened at a young age ( first anxiety attack was at age 8). Although I suffered with mismanaged anxiety for most of my childhood and young adult life, I’m happy it happened sooner than later. At least now I am 26 and have been able to manage my anxiety successfully for over three years by simply understanding its symptoms, its triggers, my thought process, and my responses to it all.

Some of the triggers I have found to heightened my anxiety are:

1. Constant negative stress in life (childhood) re: family challenges, money issues, sibling rivalry, family members bouts with depression.
2. In my young adult years – constant negative stress of life ( fear of failure and at the same time the fear of success). The feeling of not having control of my time, sudden change of plans, consumer debts.
3. I also realized that coffee, alcohol, energy drinks, and a diet high in sugar also triggers my anxiety. Prior to knowing about anxiety symptoms, I’d enjoy a coffee — and later that day wonder what the heck was happening to me, little did I know the coffee (caffeine) was triggering my anxiety, combine that with negative though patterns around the physical symptoms and yikes … I thought I was going to die or have a heart attack.

These are just some of the triggers or events that I noticed heighten my anxiety. Knowing that these things heighten my anxiety, I no longer create any sort of negative thought process around the physical symptoms they make me experience, instead I know what is going on, and no longer think that I’m having a heart attack, am going to lose control, or die. What a relief!

Here are some other life event triggers that may effect you:

• Some medical conditions such as anemia and thyroid problems can cause symptoms of anxiety.
• Coping with a serious physical illness like cancer can make you anxious.
• Concern over diagnosis and treatments can lead to excessive and overwhelming anxiety.
• Certain drugs such as caffeine, alcohol, diet pills, and stimulants can cause anxiety.
• Constant negative stress in life (such as worries about one’s job) can lead to general chronic worry and anxiety.
• Many anxiety disorders run in families and likely have a genetic predisposition

ACTION STEP

The goal of this post is to give you a generic idea of what could be triggering your heightened levels of anxiety. Only you know what you are going through. Everyone is different. We all come from different backgrounds, live in different environment, and have experienced different life events

Take a moment and think of what is going on in your life right now and what you may have experienced in your past — also take a close look at what you are eating and/or drinking. Are you doing through a divorce? A bad relationship? A new job? The feeling of not being able to get ahead? Maybe a new baby? Do you drink a lot of sugary sodas? alcohol? drugs? How was your childhood? Did you maybe lose a parent? maybe you moved a lot? Had an alcoholic father or mother? Only you know what your past was like. Take a moment and and think of all that has happened and all that is happening to you currently. You will begin to realize that often times many of these life events tend to tilt your balance and make you experience high levels of anxiety.

Jason Herrington
Tricking The Triggers

I recently responded to a blog post over at AnxietyGuru.com about how it is important to identify the trigger(s) that cause your anxiety symptom(s).  Kelly commented on the blog post as well and wondered, but what if you don’t have any triggers that would make trying to manage your anxiety hard to crack.  Here is the response I left…

An important thing to understand is that all symptoms are simply that – symptoms! They are symptoms of a deeper root cause.

Identifying the triggers that cause your anxiety symptoms aren’t as black and white I have made them seem. Because anxiety is a mixture of both the disorder of the psycho and physio it can be much more complex than simply identifying a certain stimulant like caffeine and concluding it is the be-all end-all of your mismanaged anxiety.

In order to get the right answer and identify your anxiety trigger(s) you must ask yourself the right questions. You  need to start at the very beginning and work your way to the present moment to find what may be causing this heightened and mismanaged anxiety.

Questions you may ask yourself could be….How was the environment you grow up in? Was there constant chaos in your household as a child? What beliefs have you gained through your upbringing…beliefs about money, status, and self? What about elementary school? How was that for you? And high school? Did you have many friends? How were those relationships? If some relationship broke down, why did they? What may have caused them to do so and how did that make you feel? Did your parents express some of the symptoms you are currently experiencing? How was the over all mood in your household? What major events may have happened throughout your lifetime that may have left you feeling different?

These questions are the tip of the iceberg, but they should give you an idea as to how in depth you really need to look in order to pin-point the root cause of your symptoms. Other great questions can be….

What do you think about most often? Are you getting proper amounts of sleep and do you have a set sleep schedule? Do you work night shifts?  What about your diet… what do you eat most of the time? Is it simple sugars, processed foods, foods with a lot of chemical fillers like aspartame or modified corn syrup? Are you overweight for your size and age? If you are, how does that make you feel? Do you exercise regularly? Are you consuming enough water for your body to properly function or are you mostly dehydrated ( if your pee is yellow… even a little, you need more water. Contrary to the belief that pee is suppose to be yellow…it isn’t.)

You can also start looking at other areas of your life too.  How is your social life? Do you have a circle of friends? If so what do they think about most? What are their beliefs or values? How was their upbringings? Are they mostly positive or negative or are they depressing, what do they talk about most often?

Another area to explore is something know as “status anxiety”. Is what you want to be doing with your life aligned with what you are currently doing? Are you trying to impress others by trying to be successful but haven’t been able to make it? Do you tend to look at others and use them as a measure of judging yourself? If so, how does that make you feel? Are you happy with the place you live at, the car you drive, the things you have or do you desire more or something newer or better?

You can also look at your the financial aspect of your life.  How are you financially? Do you struggle month to month or is money plentiful and easy for you? If it isn’t, how does that make you feel?

I could go on and on, but as you can tell the process of identifying your trigger(s) is a long, intense process… in which you must go through your life with a fine tooth comb and ask yourself the right questions to find the right answers.

Remember… your symptom(s) are simply symptoms not the root cause themselves. Therefore there is something that is out of order ( hence disorder) that is causing them. Finding your trigger(s) may be the hardest thing you ever do, but once you do… everything else falls will fall into place.

Yesterday, I wrote about how awareness of your anxiety symptoms is key to  properly managing your anxiety and living a better life free of worry, fear or panic.

It is important to remember that learning about the different types of anxiety coupled with exploring the many symptoms of anxiety will allow you to gain a better understanding of what it is you are personally going through. And like with anything in life the more you understand, the more you become aware of what is going on, the better equipped you are to deal with the situation.

For the longest time I never knew what it was I was experiencing, I simply thought there was something wrong with me.  I had no idea what anxiety was or what the symptoms of anxiety were.

The feeling of not being able to breath, brought on thoughts that maybe I had some sort of respiratory problem.  The constant upset stomachs made me believe that it was simply hereditary, after all many of my family members also experienced frequent upset stomachs, they all blamed it on the removal of their gallbladder.

Today, I know this is rubbish and simply not true.  It had less to do with the removal of their gallbladder than it did with their thoughts and their environmental influences. The stresses, the diets…etc.

Once you have identified the type(s) of anxiety you’re experiencing  and the symptoms associated with it.  It is now time to look at how these symptoms could be potentially triggered.

Over the years I have been able to organize these triggers in two main categories.

1. Controllable Triggers
   Controllable triggers are triggers that you can personally manage.  I have found that these have been  the easiest to implement and the most effective in quickly eliminating many of the symptoms I once experienced.

   Without getting into too much detail ( I’ll save that for a later post), here is a list of controllable triggers:

   1. Caffeine (coffee, teas, colas, energy drinks)
   2. Alcohol / Drugs
      
   3. Food ( sugar, processed carbohydrates, junk foods….)
      
   4. Sleep / Rest
   5. Your Thoughts ( this one is vitally important)
2. Uncontrollable Triggers
   Uncontrollable triggers are triggers that are typically beyond your control. You can however control the way you view them, think about them, and perceive them. It’ s like a game a poker, you are dealt a certain hand ( a certain environment, upbringing, heredity, and set of  experiences) and you have to play with what you have.

   As humans we are all unique.  We all come from different backgrounds and have experienced different things throughout our life. Complaining won’t change how we were raised, what genetic disposition we inherited or what sort of environment ( stressful, loving, chaotic…) we grew up in.

   Let’s take a look at some uncontrollable triggers, again not going into too much detail, saving that for a later series of posts.

   1. Heredity
      
   2. Life Experiences
   3. Environment ( your upbringing, values, belief systems…)
   4. Weather

My goal with this post was to give you a basic overview of the triggers that can cause you to experience heightened levels of anxiety.  I also wanted to share with you the two categories of triggers, controllable and uncontrollable, and why they are different in terms of how you’ll have to approach them to better manage your anxiety.

Over the next few days, I’ll be diving deeper into each one of the triggers I have posted above.  Explaining how they affect you, why they tend to heighten your level of anxiety, and what you can do  about it. You don;t have to live your whole life with these symptoms and challenges, there is a way out of it, and my goal is to share my knowledge of what has worked for me, and hope that you too can manage your anxiety and eliminate panic attacks from your life.