I need coffee just to stay awake during the day. Everyone on this site is acting like it’s a really bad idea. Why?
Well, I know that for me, it landed me in the emergency room. It looks like I wasn’t actually having an emergency, but my anxiety levels, hormones, GABA, whatever were so out of whack that when the caffeine bumped my anxiety level up (which it does), it pushed me into a full-blown panic attack (it didn’t feel like panic – it felt like dying. Heart palpitations, numb arms and hands, cold sweats, shortness of breath.)
Over time, the panic attacks subsided, but for a little while there I saw a definite correlation – one cup of coffee would often rock me. 2 cups would guarantee a panic attack (I used to be able to drink up to 4 in a day, no problems)
Alcohol would sometimes trigger a similar effect, and I’m now inclined to believe that the reason alcohol would raise my anxiety is because alcohol increases estrogen levels, and estrogen causes anxiety, which is probably why I got the panic attacks to begin with.
If you aren’t experiencing panic attacks or anxiety when you drink the coffee, I would say it’s probably not a problem to drink it in moderation. I laid off of it for a while and started taking GABA to combat anxiety and panic attacks. Those have subsided now (10 months later) and I have started to (only OCCASIONALLY) drink some coffee again. Usually I get half-caff, if possible (half normal, half decaff) so I can enjoy a nice tall one without worries. But I still only limit to 16 or 20 ounces in a day max, and no more than 40 ounces in a week.
I had a gradual reduction in caffeine tolerance until a small piece of dark chocolate makes me panic in the short term and leaves me exhausted in the long term. Like a week of feeling dead…
i would say make it worse…