just to let everyone know, Caffeine has helped me tremendously with my anxiety the past few weeks. My mood, social, approaching people, its all getting better.

"The only thing to fear is fear itself"

Thought I'd share my 2 cents.

sorry to sound silly but what do you mean ? drinking more coffee might help me getting over some of my anxieties ? cos i read that caffein is not really good, samo for alcohol so i stopped both and just sip on my tea all day....

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Good question. Is drinking caffeine help take away anxiety or not drinking it?

Coffee definitely makes my anxiety shoot through the roof, but I can't quit it because it also helps me focus (ADHD) and I just love it too much. I guess if you have problems focusing that give you anxiety, coffee could actually help somewhat...

Weirdly, drinking black tea brewed so strong it actually should have more caffeine than coffee doesn't give me as much anxiety as coffee does. The lowest dose of caffeine I can survive on is otherwise strong green tea, which I should really go back to. But coffee is so good and it's sold everywhere... D***.

Oh goodness.... I can't agree with this lol. Caffeine makes me feel so terrible. My heart races, I get palpitations and headaches! UGH! So I switched from coffee to tea.... which I am actually pretty proud of myself for doing because that was tough! I drink caffeine free soda if I feel the need for it. I drink a lot of water too. Once I start working again.... I don't know what the heck I'm going to do without caffeine! lol

I'm a big believer in using caffeine but ONLY IN MODERATION. Too much caffeine can send my anxiety through the roof. I cut out all caffeine froim my life a while ago, and recently been experimenting with two a day and the results have been mostly good. However when I have a reason to be stressed at work caffeine exascerbates the problems further and I have a full blown anxiety attack with the following;

Racing heartbeat
Breathe becomes very restricted and one-way
Burning hands and face
Muscle rigidity

So maybe experiment a bit but remember to not become dependent on it.

OK...
Caffeine is a stimulant, and by its very definition should not help with anxiety. It is also a diuretic and causes you to lose water, so consuming caffeinated drinks can actually dehydrate you.
(For every cup of coffee youre supposed to get 1.5 glasses of water)
Unless its like the idea behind ritalin which is similar to ephidrine, another stimulant, which is supposed to calm hyperactivity.

I dunno, I had to give up caffeine when I was in school because I have an intolerance, it makes me feel like my ribcage is imploding and I cant breathe-not pleasant..

For focusing your brain and waking yourself up peppermint oil or peppermint tea can help, although if youre taking homeopathic remedies you should not use it. Putting a drop of peppermint oil on the back of the neck or the soles of the feet can really wake you up-but you cant do it late at night and you should never use more than one drop.

For focusing your mind burning basil or rosemary oil can help to focus the mind, one drop on a vaporiser, 6 drops in a oil burner with a resevoir of water. Or a drop on your collar. If you have epilepsy or high blood pressure, please do not use these oils, they can trigger seizures.

I need to try to stay off the caffeine I think. I believe it is raising my anxiety.

Caffeine is a pretty horrible idea for me, so I'll have to disagree. I am currently addicted to it, and am in the middle of a busy semester and work schedule so it is not like I can quit it outright. I have to wean off. But it makes it hard for me to focus as it makes my thoughts travel 1000X faster, and when that happens they aren't focused on anything good.

i know that each one of us is different and that caffeine will affect each of us differently, but i am a firm believer that caffeine is just not good for people who are prone to anxiety, panic and depression. i know that personally it has a really bad effect on my anxiety levels and when i went through the worst of my anxiety i gave up all tea, coffee, alcohol and soft drinks. now i have the odd cup of tea or can of coke but if i have too much i can't sleep, get heart palpitations, find it hard to breathe, ringing in my ears and horrible knots of anxiety in my stomach. all those symptoms can lead to a panic attack, the thing is now that i know what's happening in my body i don't panic about it anymore, i know that it's my own fault for having one too many cups of tea!

i think that if people are going through bad anxiety patches that you should try cutting out caffeine and replace it with herbal teas and water to see if it helps at all. be careful though, if you're drinking several cups a day don't cut it all out suddenly and put yourself under too much stress! it's worth trying, you can always introduce it back into your diet again when you're feeling better, just in moderation as kirkwuk says.

i also don't think that you should need to depend on coffee to focus, you shouldn't need a drug to do what the brain can do naturally :) eating healthily and eating foods that are good for your brain are a much better approach.

i don't know the science of it all, but if you type "caffeine and anxiety" into google you'll get plenty of information. the following is a paragraph with a bit more information from one of the sites:

"Technically, caffeine works by blocking the depressant function of a chemical called adenosine, says Griffiths. For most of us, the result is a pleasurable sense of energy and focus. Indeed, a British study published in the October 1999 issue of Human Psychopharmacology confirmed what most latte-lovers already know: Caffeine enhances alertness, concentration, and memory.

Drink more coffee than you're accustomed to, however, and that same stimulant can cause the jitters. And in people predisposed to anxiety disorders, caffeine can trigger a spiral of sensations -- sweaty palms, a pounding heart, ringing in the ears -- that leads to a full-blown panic attack.

What makes some of us feel panic while others feel pleasantly alert? Susceptible people experience caffeine's effects as signs of impending doom. Once that happens, anxiety can take on a life of its own. While many give up coffee, others give up whatever they were doing when struck by caffeine's disturbing side effects. Someone who downs coffee at breakfast and then hops on the freeway to work, for example, may attribute feelings of panic to rush-hour traffic rather than to caffeine. "

Any caffeine after lunch keeps me up at night. I've moderated my intake to cups of coffee in the morning. But it's drip-method filter coffee and quite strong. After two cups I am ready to face the day.

When I was admitted to psych hospital earlier this year, I began to get a m****r of a headache around the second afternoon and wondering what was going on... until I realised the coffee there was instant and cut with chicory, and nowhere near what I was used to. They would only give me paracetamol, of course.... so I had a few rough days of a caffeine withdrawal! The unit was also a detox unit for substance abuse....... how ironic!

That's interesting. I can do one or two cups of coffee during the wake up ritual, but anything past that and my BP shoots up pretty high leading to anxiety. Years ago I was drinking 1-2 pots a day from AM to PM depending on the workload but after a few frowns from the Docs I had to cut back on the espressos-which is hard living here in this part of the US since there's a coffee drive in stand every few hundred yards...
But if it works on your outlook, go for it. Everyone reacts differently...

On a daily basis I don't drink more than one cup of tea. Lately, I haven't even had that.

I have found, however, when I'm in my deep depressions, caffeine is a good thing. It keeps me awake. I don't have to have a lot of it for me to get all worked up though.

caffeine is a stimulant, but it releases dopamine and helps social phobia and confidence. And some anxiety is okay with me

Before my major bout of anxiety of depression, I was drinking alot of soda, coffee, energy drinks, didn't have a good diet, so my heart would race. After my first panic attack, I immediately cut out all caffeine as it would seem to make my blood pressure go up. I guess everyone is different?

How much caffeine is in, say, a can of Coke? compared to a cup of cofee?

I dont drink tea or coffee but about 3-4 cans of Coke. Possibly not a good idea?

They make caffeine free Coke. It's not bad.