Maybe you’ve enjoyed coffee for many years. You enjoy waking up and including coffee in your daily ritual. You might even be like me and before you go to bed, tell yourself: “I can’t wait to wake up and have coffee in the morning!!” But what if something suddenly changes, what if when you drink coffee, you start to feel… not so comfortable? You may start to get a tightness feeling in your chest, heart palpitations, and even be able to feel the blood rushing and pumping through your body. You may be so tired, but when you lie down to take a nap, you can’t force yourself to relax.
If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. I suffered with these symptoms for over two years. Is coffee really to blame? In this article, I will tell you my story of what I experienced and how I overcame these alarming symptoms.
First of all, I must say my story and research is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
Going back to my story. Coffee was always the thing that set it off, the heart palpitations. However, sometimes other things would trigger it such as eating lunch, drinking soymilk, and being on the underground subway. I was always afraid of when my next attack was going to be, resulting in a huge cycle of anxiety-ridden paranoia. It actually took a lot of work for me to even figure out what my triggers where. Then I realized coffee, or caffeine might be to blame. But was that really so?
I hate seeing doctors, going to hospitals especially, but my husband (fiance at the time) insisted on taking me to see a doctor. They ran a bunch of tests on my heart and found nothing particularly abnormal. My heart was healthy, so that should have been a relief right? But to be honest I was a little frustrated. I just wanted answers. What did the doctor advise me to do? “Change your lifestyle” he said. I also saw another doctor, a TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) doctor, who told me that my qi (vital energy) was very weak. Both of the doctors gave me medicine. The first one was an anti-anxiety medication and also a medication to help me sleep. The TCM doctor gave me some powdered Chinese medicine to help balance my qi. They also both gave me advice on lifestyle changes. Here’s what they advised and the results it brought me.
- Stop drinking coffee. I know, I know, the worst news in the entire world. It seems like a huge chunk of my inner culture was ripped out from inside me. No more coffee? How could I handle this? But with the support of my fiance, and friends, I was able to temporarily quit drinking the liquid of life until my symptoms improved and was able to slowly incorporate coffee back into my daily routine. For a story and tips on how to quit coffee, please subscribe and stay tuned for that future article.
- Go to bed early. The doctor told me to be in bed before 11:00. 10:00 is even better. According to Traditional Chinese medicine, our bodies get the best and most crucial sleep before midnight. So if your just hitting the sack at around 12:00, and scrolling on your phone for over an hour (its okay, we all do it) then your missing the best and most healing sleep that our bodies need. So I made it a priority to get home at a decent hour, take a nice relaxing shower, and get a nighttime routine down that would tell my subconscious its time to get ready for bed. Honestly it helped a lot. I tried to stay away from the lights of my phone screen to increase melatonin production and read a little from a real book if I wasn’t too tired. Getting a good night’s sleep is also crucial to being healthy during the day. Prolonged lack of sleep can lead to increased levels of cortisol, which is a stress hormone released by the adrenal glands. Too much cortisol will interfere with the daily cycles of other hormones, disrupting sleep patterns and causing fatigue (thus why I was so tired all the time). After understanding how hormones in the body work, I started to understand why I was in a bad cycle of not being able to sleep at night, tired during the day, not being able to relax, and feeling anxious.
- Simplify your life. The doctor told me to work less, exercise more. Work less…. this was something very difficult to do, but I was really desperate at the time. I simplified my life, started reading things on minimalism, and cut my hours of work time. The result? I started to have a more calm mind and a sense of control. I started finding inner peace. I took time for myself to rest and think. I started to feel really good. But still, every once in a while, the panic attack would still rise up. But it was okay. I would tell myself that it would pass, drink some water, say a prayer, and maybe go for a walk. To this day I still stress the importance of not cramming my schedule so full, and giving myself a little more time just to breathe.
- Exercise. I can not stress how important this is. Anxiety is built up energy inside your body that can’t get out, So exercise is a great way to get that energy out and relieve stress. Since I often got anxiety after eating lunch, the doctor advised me to take a leisurely walk for 30 minutes to an hour after eating. At the time, I couldn’t do any strenuous exercise, because I was pretty weak and I would get lightheaded very easily, sometimes just from standing up from a sitting position. After I improved, I was able to increase my workout intensity, doing about 40 minutes of cardio and 20-30 minutes of strength training. Currently, if I don’t get about 3-5 workouts in in a week, sometimes the anxiety will creep back up on me. So I feel like this is a very important attribute to staying anxiety free.
- Stop worrying. For those with anxiety symptoms, sometimes its hard to link the physical discomfort with our mental thoughts. For me, it seemed that my subconscious was worrying but I actually didn’t have any idea that these thoughts were stressing me out. The physical symptoms just seemed to come randomly and out of no where. Now after working really hard on controlling my thoughts and reducing my worries, I now can see the link. Whatever tasks or things I need to do, or anything that is on my mind, I write it down. I tackle it. If it is something that I cannot tackle, I talk about it with a trusted friend, and come to terms that it is something that I can not change, so I don’t worry about it. Talking to someone about problems that you cannot change can be beneficial in two ways. One, maybe they can come up with a solution that you never thought of. Two, they might help you put things in proper perspective, realizing that your problem isn’t so big after all.
- Be positive. Enjoy the little things. Pamper yourself. Sometimes we can get so caught up into the fear of anxiety, always thinking about when its going to come up again, and hating ourselves when its happening. But if we can change our attitude, tell ourselves that our anxiety is just a current feeling, that it will soon pass, we then wont let anxiety control us. In the meantime, find fun things to do. Go for walks, start a project, go to a bookstore and find a new treasure. Learn to paint. The mind is extremely powerful, so keep the mind positive and the body will follow.
Conclusion: Is coffee to blame for my anxiety? Maybe just a little. I’d like to think of my anxiety as the domino pieces already lined up and ready to fall at any time. Coffee was just the little push of a finger that would trigger the dominoes to fall. My anxiety was already there, accumulated by my hectic and somewhat self-abusive lifestyle. I am happy to say that now I can peacefully enjoy a cup of coffee in the morning without my heart feeling like its going to beat out of my chest. I sleep well at night, and am not overly tired during the day. I feel like I have control over my life again.
Have you had similar experiences with caffeine and anxiety? What has helped you? Please share your thoughts with me, I would love to hear it!
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