Hi,

I suffer from severe anxiety (GAD) and have been struggling for years to recover.

About a year ago I gave up alcohol while still drinking 3–4 coffees (with cream and sugar) a day. After about 5–6 months I started to feel much better. My motivation, drive and overall mood gradually returned.

Unfortunately, I started drinking again about two months ago. It wasn't much at first, but it ended with me drinking every day on a recent 14-day holiday.

When I got home, I decided to quit both alcohol and coffee because I know they both seem to play a role in my anxiety, and I'd read a lot of posts here about caffeine making anxiety a lot worse for lots of people.

Today I'm 12 days off alcohol and 9 days off coffee, and it's been brutal. My anxiety has been through the roof, the depression has been severe, and I've even had some intrusive suicidal thoughts (which are unwanted and seem to come with the anxiety but not looking to act on them). Mornings are by far the worst, then things gradually improve from around 4 pm onwards until the evenings are relatively calm.

This morning I just couldn't take it anymore, so I had a double espresso with cream and a little sugar to see what would happen.

Lo and behold, within about 30 minutes my anxiety dropped dramatically and the depression eased as well. It honestly shocked me.

Now I'm wondering whether trying to quit alcohol and caffeine at the same time was too much for my system. I'm considering focusing on staying alcohol-free first for several months, then, once I'm more stable, gradually tapering off coffee instead of stopping everything at once.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Did quitting alcohol and caffeine together make things much harder, or did you find it settled after a few weeks?

Any thoughts (not medical advice obvs) or shared experiences appreciated. I'm just trying to understand why reintroducing coffee made such a dramatic difference after 9 days without it.

Thanks.

T

I've tried guarana powder to add to my tea, but i think the whole package went bad because it tasted terrible. Plus the caffiene measurements were off and i didn't add enough. I nearly fell asleep at the wheel and had to drink coffee. The reason why i didn't want to drink coffee every day and just have it occasionally was because it makes my face look pastey. Since caffeine goes bad so fast I don't think i should spend big bucks on it and I should buy the cheapest smallest pills and use them until they go bad. I've been using Jet pills since they so small but they go bad after a while. I never finish the bottle, tho they are sooo cheap. I don't know if there's a smaller cheaper pill available.

contains ginseng, followed by my usual espresso. Shortly after, I experienced the most intense jitters I’ve ever had my fingers won’t stop shaking. Has anyone had a similar experience