How bad is soda for anxiety?

[Srm1135]

Last month I stopped drinking energy drinks. I was drinking around 6 a day. We are talking major caffeine and other ingredients. I stopped cold turkey. Bad withdraw. Lately I've been drinking a lot of soda. Is it bad for anxiety?

[Chris C]

Basically yeah. Anything with caffeine is bad. Even sodas that don't have caffeine still have a lot of sugar which also isn't good for anxiety because when your blood sugar takes a dive it can bring out anxiety symptoms.

[Srm1135]

Basically yeah. Anything with caffeine is bad. Even sodas that don't have caffeine still have a lot of sugar which also isn't good for anxiety because when your blood sugar takes a dive it can bring out anxiety symptoms.

Damn, now I have to quit drinking soda.

[AmberGbenga]

I did the same recently.. I drank already 2 cups of coffee and 4 energy drinks daily.. Then I had a massive panic attack and have not touched coffee or energy drinks since! When I get that craving for energy.. I have a can of coke.. It's enough to give me a boost but not enough to send me over the edge. And I only do this maybe once or twice a week.

[Srm1135]

I did the same recently.. I drank already 2 cups of coffee and 4 energy drinks daily.. Then I had a massive panic attack and have not touched coffee or energy drinks since! When I get that craving for energy.. I have a can of coke.. It's enough to give me a boost but not enough to send me over the edge. And I only do this maybe once or twice a week.

Unfortunately, I've substituted soda in place of the energy drinks. I drink a lot of it. Going to have to cut down .

[Applecherry]

Probably it's not too good. but, I feel pretty bad when I have no caffeine too, like I will get a headache and feel so tired, and that makes me anxious too, I feel l just can't win! I think milk is a good thing to drink before bed when you have anxiety though, I've done that a few times and I slept better.

[Enduronman]

Holy s**t...I had no idea people drank so many energy drinks, and had so much anxiety from them. I tried (1) drink of one, once...maybe it wasn't the best. Nasty!...

Try some Green Tea dude!!! (L-Theanine) in it is calming, and you still get caffeine too...:)

[NeverToo...Fear]

Coffee, energy drinks--love them, used to drink wayyyy too much of 'em. Sometimes makes anxiety bad, other times not so much.. I tried to cut them out for a while, but failed ( I just drink much less of them now, Moderation being the key)..also tried to replace with soda and felt flat terrible.. I don't think it did anything to anxiety, I just don't like soda nowhere near as much.

Green tea is awesome though. So are banana smoothies. :)

[Lee Grant Irons]

Hi Srm,

Prolonged anxiety, high sugar intake, and high caffeine intake are a perfect storm in your hormone system. Prolonged anxiety causes your adrenal glands to pump out large amounts of cortisol and adrenaline over a long period of time, which can lead to adrenal fatigue in which our adrenal glands begin to falter or your cells get desensitized to the cortisol and adrenalin. High sugar intake causes you pancreas to have to work overtime pumping out insulin to push that sugar into your cells for energy or turn it into a form that can be stored. High caffeine levels block the sugar from being pushed into cells by insulin, and so the adrenal glands have to pump out adrenalin to overcome the caffeine in order to utilize the sugar. It is the adrenalin that gives you the "caffeine" buzz, the the caffeine itself. So if you have been under prolonged stress and anxiety, you might be having adrenal fatigue, your adrenal glands being unable to put out enough adrenalin to overcome the caffeine to utilize the sugar. So instead, you get more and more fatigued, that sugar gets turned into fat, and your brain gets foggier from the higher steady-state levels of sugar in your blood stream. Essentially, what they call metabolic syndrome.

The fix? Try to eliminate caffeine from your diet, reduce your refined sugar intake, and work on getting anxiety under control and stopping the freefall you are putting your body through, which I go into in chapter 2 of my book. LOL

[quinny]

I love cola but no good for the panic attacks iv started drinking camomile teas very good at calming you down and good to drink before bed coz they do help you sleep plus there not bad for you so thats a bonus :)