Alcohol and caffeine with ocd

I haven't been going through this ocd journey very long, maybe 3 months or so that it has actually impacted my life negatively. Since this started, I cut out caffeine and alcohol completely. I wasn't a big alcohol drinker before but I did enjoy a drink from time to time and I love coffee. I'm curious to know what you guys think about how either one affects your ocd. And also, if I keep avoiding them completely, would that be considered avoidance?

Username: Naty_Naty_

Date posted: 1y ago

Hi there! I think overall alcohol isn’t good for you, so cheers to stopping it completely! I also stopped alcohol! With coffee I did notice I would get jittery and anxious but more physically than mentally. I would usually drink energy drinks at work to keep me alive lol, but it was impacting my physical health. I stopped and went down to one cup in the AM and I feel fine. I don’t know how much coffee you were having before, but having one cup in the AM doesn’t affect me. Hope this helps ❤️God bless!

Username: Cody18Cody18

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Awesome, thanks for your insight.

Username: 777Q777Q

Date posted: 1y ago

Personally for me 1 to 2 alcoholic beverages a day and same amount with coffees each day both have positive effects on my mood ,mental functioning and physical wellbeing additionally. For me moderation is the key with getting the good results.

Username: Soph1127Soph1127

Date posted: 1y ago

At the beginning of my ocd journey I also quit both cold turkey. As I learned new coping strategies I was able to experiment slowly to see what worked for me. My rule of thumb is to never drink away my sorrows/drink when I’m down. Physical health aside, if it’s not affecting your ocd, meds, or life negatively, having a drink when you want doesn’t seem so bad. I’m a decaf coffee drinker and I love espresso, I actually prefer the milder taste. There’s low caffeine teas and caffeine free herbal teas too. If it makes you feel bad, don’t do it. Just be mindful:) hope this helps.

Username: Tee10Tee10

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Alcohol doesn’t have a negative effect on me. I only drink socially on the weekends anyway, but for the most part I feel better..and haven’t had issues the day after. Caffeine does affect me though. My thoughts race a little more frequently and I definitely become anxious.

Username: OCDisHellOCDisHell

Date posted: 1y ago

Caffeine is a stimulant and our brains are already running at warp speed so I think it's good to avoid caffeine in large amounts. I have a cup of coffee every morning but I drink it black and brew it at home so the sugar/caffeine is minimal. Alcohol is a downer and tends to be OCDs best friend. When our brains are a little foggy from Alcohol consumption, OCD likes to come along and plug in the gaps with fears. Avoiding either is not really in the context of "avoidance" when dealing with OCD. The type of avoidance, in my opinion, is avoiding things that may trigger you if those things are something you enjoy. For example, if I love to go for walks but I have an irrational fear of twisting my ankle, I should still go for that walk. I hope this helps. God bless.

Username: VicVinegar

Date posted: 3y ago

Alcohol and OCD: A cruel mistress! Hi all. I wanted to share my thoughts and potentially start a discussion about the role of alcohol in OCD. Certainly in my case I think it is a fundamental contributor to my suffering, and I'm not surprised about the statistics related to how many OCD sufferers also suffer from problematic drinking. My current obsessive themes are Real Event/guilt OCD and are often related to situations and events where I was incredibly drunk with fuzzy and missing memories, or my drunkenness contributed to certain actions that I now obsessively regret. Whilst this was in the past, alcohol is still contributing to my suffering, and I'm starting to wonder whether I would be much happier without it. I find that after sometimes months of feeling fine, most if not all of my major relapses have occurred directly after a night of heavy drinking, and that spark has sent me spiralling for days and sometimes weeks. I then became obsessed about limiting my drinking in certain situations, I had a fear that if I was drunk I would end up committing some horrible crime or cheating on my partner. Now though I'm finding that I'm drinking moderate amounts of alcohol on a very regular basis, just to take my mind off my obsessions, which is very unhealthy. When I have a drink, even just one, it feels like my thoughts just almost vanish in importance, it's like a beautiful break from all the suffering. This feeling scares me a little and I now worry that I might be verging on some form of dependency on alcohol. I'm not looking for any reassurance here, just wanted to share my experience and chat with others who might also be struggling in this way.

Username: mattyp

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2y ago

Avoidance. Or healthy?

So if my ocd is attached to certain objects. My ocd relates certain intrusive thoughts with things like say coffee. It’s easier for me to avoid coffee so I don’t get bad spikes while trying to drink coffee. But my question is. Is that avoidance? and is it making ocd stronger ? If I want coffee should I drink it anyway? I’m afraid I’ll get stuck and have to drink coffee over and over until I am able to finish the cup on a clean thought? I know it’s freaking crazy. I’m freaking nuts I guess 😐

Username: klin18

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 1y ago

Diet changes and help with OCD?

I’m about to gently transition to a more anti inflammatory diet with little to no caffeine (*sobs*) to see if that maybe helps my OCD (and cystic acne, hopefully) along with continuing ERP. I’d love to hear any success stories, advice, etc anybody had with this kind of approach as motivation ❤️. I added a trigger warning because I know talk about diet can be triggering for some.

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Alcohol and caffeine with ocd

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