Possibility that it's the caffeine?

[SlipStream7]

Has anyone had experiences with larger-than-average sized doses of caffeine at fairly regular intervals?

I feel like all my SA problems started (or, at least, I noticed them) once I started college and moved from a big soda-drinker into popping a 200mg caffeine pill upon waking up. I'd take the pill, hop in the shower, and get out ready to go to class, but the caffeine tended to make me feel a little more self-conscious. Over the college year I ramped up my dosage a little bit, but it was extremely variable. Some mornings I'd wake up and want 600mg of caffeine (3 pills), sometimes I'd take 2 before the shower and 2 more when i get back from class, sometimes i'd just do 1....so it wasn't entirely consistent. In the end the usage of the pills sloped back down to where I am now, at 1 pill per day in the morning, supplemented with a few cokes and maybe an energy drink over the entire day.

I think that no matter what I have some kind degree of SAD, but the caffeine situation has kept popping up in my mind.

 

[strawberrybrunette]

I don't really know much about medicine/drugs etc. but isn't caffeine a stimulant? And don't stimulant drugs increase stress and anxiety? Perhaps the caffeine pills exacerbated anxieties you already had, only weren't quite aware of. I don't think caffeine in itself could be completely to blame...although, that does sound like a lot of caffeine. Perhaps you should try to cut down...

 

[desperatehousewife]

It is not healthy to take medicines without a doctor require

It is not healthy to take medicines without a doctor require, especially the medicines you take, effects your nervous system directly.A councelor waits 10 years to offer a medicine.So, it is an important issue.

I do not take caffeine medicines but I like drink ingtea and especially black coffe, caffe and tea consists cafeine by naturely.It works, it makes me active, cheerful...But it has bad effect too, it makes terrible acnes on my face, sometimes I can hardly sleep at nights because of drinking so much tea.

So everthing has a side effect even it is natural thing or not.

 

[SlipStream7]

At this point I don't see myself giving up caffeine any time soon. The thing I'm trying to find out is exactly how much the caffeine intensifies the anxiety, because then I could choose my caffeine dosage based on that.