I’m a Canadian, and if you know anything about us Canadians we love drinking coffee.  Nothing beats a nice hot medium double-double early in the morning from Tim Horton’s. But for someone suffering with anxiety, is it a good idea to be consuming coffee?

COFFEE AND ANXIETY?

If you are suffering from anxiety and you haven’t yet gone through the process of becoming aware of your anxiety symptoms and identifying what triggers them, I would suggest you limit or stop drinking coffee or any other beverage ( teas, colas, energy drinks…) that have moderate to high levels of caffeine until you are fully able to understand how it will make you feel and the physiological symptoms it will create. Otherwise your mind will jump to conclusions and think the worst, thus propelling you into an anxiety/panic attack.

MORNING COFFEE BEFORE SCHOOL

I remember this happening to me a few times when I was in high school.  I use to grab myself a large cup of coffee from the local convenience store prior to heading off to school.  I typically would be half done by the time I reached school and fully down prior to my first class starting.

While in my first class I would begin to experience the physiological effects the caffeine in the coffee was producing in my body.  I’d feel flush, get the shakes, dizziness ( out-of-it) feeling, trouble breathing.

You have to remember that at this time in my life, I had no idea I was suffering from mismanaged anxiety, so for me to experience these symptoms was very scary and felt very real.

My mind immediately assumed the worst.  I began to worry and think I was losing control, the sensation of not being able to breath only got worst with my negative thoughts and enhancing the feeling of being flush.  I felt uneasy and would wiggle around in my chair, trying not to be too noticeable.  I often would grab my pencil, tune my teacher out and just draw in my notebook trying to forget what it was I was feeling. But nothing really helped and the reason was simple….

….I wasn’t aware I had anxiety and I wasn’t aware that coffee was a trigger.  When I experienced the symptoms, I thought I was going crazy, having a heart attack or losing control.  I would ask myself, why am I feeling warm all of a sudden, why is my heart racing, and why am I shaking?

These were all unknowns to me. I thought the worst, and by thinking the worst I validated my symptoms and made them stronger to the point where they became unbearable and I had to make up an excuse to leave the classroom before I had a full blown panic attack and embarrassed myself.

LET’S TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT COFFEE

Coffee  in and of itself  is not bad, it is what is found inside coffee that can create a challenge for someone who is living with heightened anxiety.  Coffee contains caffeeine which is a chemical compound that acts like a psychoactive stimulant that affects the central nervous system in humans.

Caffeine Side Effects

Here are a variety of side effects that caffeine can cause. You will notice that these side effects are similar to the symptoms you would experience when suffering from heightened anxiety.  The side effects are listed in the image to the right.

The idea is to become aware of the side effects so that when you experience them you can know why and how they are caused, rather than jumping to any negative conclusions which only helps to fuel your anxiety and trigger panic.

So next time you drink any sort of beverage that has caffeine, know that you may experience one of the many side effects listed above and be prepared to control your thoughts and remember that you aren’t about to lose control or go crazy, it is simply the effects of the caffeine you just consumed.

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.