- Date posted
- 4y ago
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Hey Ashley, I can imagine how frustrated and stressed you are, so please know that you are seen and heard by me❤️ When I developed my anxiety disorder, I went from tolerating coffee fine, to ‘completely not’ being able to! You are not a failure for not being able to handle coffee at the moment!! Don’t punish your body for feeling what it feels. If you are already experiencing issues with anxiety, caffeine is a stimulant, and will excacerbate anything that is related to energy (anxiety). When I drank coffee at the peak of my anxiety disorder, it would give me a delayed (&severe) panic attack about 4-5 hours after drinking. There are so many different reasons why this may have happened - and whether our reasons align, I’m not sure, but I can only assume they do considering we both have OCD and seem to have had the same problem. My advice is work on getting your anxiety under control, however that may look for you. This may take a while, so please don’t rush. I didn’t drink coffee for about 5 months, and then I got my anxiety under control, and I drink multiple cups a day and I’m fine now. Of course, I’m not sure you actually want to drink coffee - so if you don’t, tea is a good trade off With the Easter situation you’re talking about, my therapist always told me to NEVER avoid a situation in fear of a panic. This is a hard pill to swallow, but please heed this advice - please. You don’t know how much you’re missing when you avoid something. Leaning into fear is actually you’re ticket to peace - funnily enough. Go for Easter, I don’t know you, but if you do I will be proud of you just knowing. Do Not Let OCD Rule You Ever.
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Thank you. This means a lot I know I should go
- User type
- NOCD Alumni
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I loved coffee but totally agree about the caffeine. Haven't had coffee in about a yr and a half. As far as Easter... you know what you need to do? You need to go! Your anxiety and OCD is giving you those thoughts. They are just thoughts! What if you go and have a great time and everyone else does too because you were there? You could try a script ERP before you go to help reduce some of the anxiety before.... like I may or may not have a panic attack at my family Easter gathering. I accept that uncertainty and I choose to go anyways. Do you already do ERP? If so, you know that saying that script and feeling your anxiety rise and then decrease by at least half before stopping will help you and that is how you get better, you don't get better by avoiding things because of a thought. Good luck to you. And go enjoy your family!
- Date posted
- 4y ago
🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼
- Date posted
- 4y ago
I feel this I’m worried coffee is like a drug for me because I feel differently
- User type
- OCD Conqueror
- Date posted
- 4y ago
Have you tried decaf coffee? I mean it’s not 100% the same but it does the trick and the best thing is that it doesn’t contain the caffeine that makes you feel anxious. I switched to that a while ago and I’m pretty calm. As far as Easter! I agree with Jess, just go and don’t avoid anything! Show yourself that you’re capable of having a good time!
Related posts
- Date posted
- 15w ago
My last and almost life long theme/sub-theme largely subsided recently and my ocd felt like it wasn’t even an issue. Then I went on winter break from uni and being alone made my mind come up with a whole new topic to obsess over. TLDR on my fears, my advisor wouldn’t email me back for a while about signing up for classes so my mind started to worry “what if he doesn’t in time and you can’t enroll this semester and you lose this whole life you just built and all these new friends” So when that issue was resolved my mind found other scarier ways I could be uprooted from my current life and friends that I’ve grown so attached to. Then my mind remembered back when I was struggling with false memories and scrupulosity and I essentially made a post on a forum 2 and a half years ago saying I did something or was convinced I did something that I never actually did. Now I’ve been spiraling about someone finding it reporting me and I either get seen as a horrible person or arrested or something over something I never actually did but “admitted” to out of fear of going to hell. My mind won’t let it go and keeps finding new reasons for it to be “valid” “logical” or even inevitable. I feel like it’s just hanging over my head and I can never rest easy. Especially when I try to focus on my daily tasks or plan for the future I get this horrible flair up of “why plan for the future when this could come back in that future and you get uprooted from all of it” my mind won’t rest without certainty being uprooted won’t happen but certainty doesn’t exist, at least not with ocd. This sucks and I miss being care free.
- Date posted
- 14w ago
These past few days I was fine. Minimal intrusive thoughts ,no anxiety etc(to add I'm on medication so maybe it's starting to work although it barely is 2 weeks) and today I got a sudden wave of anxiety and it started latching on some thoughts like" what if I'm in denial and I wanna break up with my bf? And what if erp doesn't work for me because I actually wanna break up with my bf?" But they didn't really stay long usually those thoughts would make me spiral for days or so, now they lasted for some hours. And now I'm trying to trigger myself into being anxious again because if I don't it means I don't have ocd and if I don't have ocd it means I don't love my bf and if I don't love my bf it means I have to break up. Idk if it makes sense but the lack of anxiety makes me wonder if I actually have ocd or not.
- Date posted
- 11w ago
So at one point I was glad I was having anxiety/stress about these thoughts but now I feel like something has changed is it normal to not want anxiety and stress even tho it helps me realize these thoughts are not mine. Like the anxiety and stress is doing me no good and it's really messing me up. Is it normal to not want stress and anxiety after awhile or is something wrong with me
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