Restricting caffeine for helping anxiety?

Hi, does anyone have any thoughts about cutting down or eliminating caffeine to help manage their anxiety?

I tried this a few years ago and noticed it helped a little, but it was also hard to do. I really love coffee and love making coffee. I love the smell and find it calming, although I know the caffeine doesn't help my anxiety. The process of making coffee is a calming little ritual for me. I make coffee sometimes on the stove, it takes about 15-20 minutes and it's like a little meditation break. So I'm going to find some other type of ritual I can use to replace that, maybe making chai from scratch or something.

A few years ago I cut down from 2-4 cups a day to one or two maximum. And I drink a lot of black tea, so I'm switching to green tea or herbal teas. I'm planning to experiment with going cold turkey on all caffeine in maybe a month or two. I still smoke cigarettes but have cut down on them and I know now is not the right time for me to quit. (Please don't tell me to just stop smoking - I know cigarettes are terrible and it's a terrible industry, but quitting has pushed me into full panic spirals before and I have to make sure my life is set up to support permanent quitting. I don't want to set myself up for failure.)

Anyway I'm wondering if anyone else has successfully quit or reduced caffeine and if it helped with their anxiety?

Any tips for quitting caffeine?

I'm one of those odd ducks with coffee. I'm with you...love it all around (taste, smell, preparation), but too much definitely can kick my anxiety into high gear.

I've found that giving it up for 3 to 4 days, or even a week, can be helpful. This is especially true if I'm stressed at work. For example when on vacation I can drink a lot and not notice much anxiety, but add stress to the equation and the caffeine backfires.

Perhaps you can give it up for a day or two (or every other day) and see what happens? That and/or cutting back the number of cups to 1-2? Just my thoughts as I know going cold turkey on coffee can be rough with headaches, flu-like symptoms, low energy, etc...

I quite caffeine a couple years ago while in an anxious bout. I switched to decaf everything. To me, it all tastes the same

I used to drink my beloved coffee from Morning till Bed....

As i have got older.. not that old lol ..... My sleep pattern changed so i stopped drinking coffee at 6pm...

Now i can only have my 2 wake up coffee,s and a treat small one with my lunch othérwise these days i would be like a jitterbug. But i couldnt do with out my morning one in bed in a morning.

The rest of the day i now drink either green tea with ginger or green tea with jasmine.

And at least 2 glasses of warm water with a squeeze of lemon.
😉

Caffeine is a huge trigger for me.

I have tea in the morning but then I switch to decaff. I've also quit pop.

I used to drink loads of pepsi max but even one can now with make my heart race and send me into panic.

The biggest drawback from caffeine withdrawal is the headache you will get. It doesn't last though. X

I hear you on this...you love caffeine but it can exacerbate anxiety.

I wouldn't go cold turkey on that or smoking. Cut down. See with one less cig or cup that you can make it.

Green tea can be great because you still get caffeine. Or try blending black tea with decaf black tea if you like the volume but dont' want as much. Hoping this works for you. It definitely can help but I never fully kicked the habit either. (Did with smoking, but you won't find lectures here

i quit soda cold turkey-wasnt fun.

Let's just say i tried to do the unthinkable. I drank a cup of coffee.

Bam. Yes i am suffering from that now. Of course it's not very bad. But I can totally do without it.

Swapping it to tea is a choice.

Just my 2 cents!