Hey all, I’ve recently had a bought off panic attacks and elevated levels of daily anxiety and wanted to share my experience quitting caffeine and what that did to help.

Tldr: quitting caffeine helped bring my anxiety back down to tolerable levels without the need for aggressive SSRI medication (still take beta blockers).

So this year I’ve been dealing with much more elevated levels of anxiety. It sucked and was super scary. I went on anti depressants for a while and that sucked too. It helped with the sadness feelings but I really didn’t like the sexual disfunction that came with it. I’m super glad I took them at the time however as it was a useful tool in my tool belt to deal with my issues at the time.

After going to therapy, I decided to try doing what I could to lessen daily anxiety, including quitting caffeine.

It took about a week or so for the withdrawals to go away and I did notice over time, I was less anxious. It wasn’t a cure all, I want to stress that but it had a tangible difference on my day to day anxiety levels. It’s been two months now and I’ve had one coffee since, which I regretted because I felt anxious and unpleasant for a day after.

If you’re struggling with anxiety, and you haven’t tried lowering or eliminating caffeine, I can recommend it. Stay healthy folks and look after yourselves.