[Closed] Caffeines effect on the populations anxieties.

Could the cause be so simple as it’s increasing directly in line with our ever increasing appetite for caffeine?

Does the data show an increase in caffeine intake??

I don't believe stress or anxiety have increased, they have simply changed and become better recognised. I think many people are living under stress. In the "good old days" people stressed about different things, religion for example, see the thread about who is going to Hell.

I have no data. It's just a lazy Monday morning guess. I know we used to frequent tea shops of old, but we now opt for coffee shops. The caffeine intake is surely higher in you latte (double shot) or espresso, no?.I see it similar to smoking a bit of bush weed versus smoking a bit of spice.

Global - it's possible, similar to the old term of "shell shocked" now being PTSD. There a lot of anxiety & coffee out there though (vast assumption made). We all seem to need to get our daily fix to become wired in order to survive the day.

[switches on] espresso machine [switches on]

Well not in my case. 3 litres of strong coffee a day and I am probably the most relaxed and least anxious person you are likely to meet 🙂

I'm guessing that it has more to do with the reduction in the amount of exercise people take, plus their increasing size.

Compared to the 70s people apparently do about a marathons less exertion.

Loads more people are on the nosebag* too. Maybe thats contributing?

* Hookers optional

It definitely messes with peoples ability to use apostrophe's correctly.

Sounds like the very familiar to me vicious circle of modern day life, we often live life at such a crazy pace compared to before the 1990s which makes some of us feel really tired, so we drink more caffeine which then can bring on more anxiety.

not sure about anxiety, but caffeine is definitely over-used as a psychological crutch, even by those having their hot milky buckets from Starbucks with a sprinkling of floor sweepings from the coffee bin.

Maybe the solution to the countries mental health issues is closer than we think....

Not sure there's a link.  In my experience, caffeine induced anxiety is pretty different from general anxiety.  Overdosing on caffeine tends to be associated with a range of other symptoms including empty coffee cups strewn around and a taste of coffee in the mouth.  They also come on pretty quickly whilst you are still drinking the cup, so it's easy to make the association.  It also wears off in a few hours at most.

Your making an assumption about how much coffee is in a bucket of frothy milk that most customers of "coffee shops" buy and drink.

There is a whole heap of assumptions in here, for example you all know tea has caffeine in right? As does Coca cola and and .. etcetera.

I think the thread above about more often it being reported and talked about is bang on and that (in my personal view) is probably a good thing as to many people thin that 'stuff' is just then and they need to 'man up' when often there might be more to it - anyhow enough of this huggy stuff.

Caffeine impacts different people in different ways, for me no impact, despite extensive research and vast consumption and it's a bugger when you want to work late and your body just goes nah not now mate you need sleep.

Summary = Different things for different people, but caffeine and stress everywhere just talked about more 😉

James

People are starting to openly talk about issues they have as he stigma is slowly going away, this gives the impression of an increase.

Social media.

A very good friend of my wife had a meltdown for over a week, proper crying herself to sleep, questioning their friendship, worst day of her life, blah blah ****in blah.

The cause? My good lady accidentally didn't tag her in a facebook pic from her (my wife's) birthday celebration. It was as if she didn't exist, apparently. So cruel....

Sweet baby Jesus and the orphans.....

I don't drink coffee - I drink tea, my dear. And I'm still stress and anxious. What gives??

My 2p

I think it plays a part, I've been anxious my whole life, I didn't know I wasn't 'normal' until about 18 months ago - I'm also addicted to diet cola, not in a half-joking, "caffeine addiction" as in, I didn't know I had a problem until I stopped, oh and I realised I was consuming up to 6 litres a day!  I'm cutting it down now with a view to stopping it - but If I don't drink any, by 11am I'm a bath of sweat, I can't think straight because if a blinding headache and basically no use to man or beast, anyway the point is, now I've cut back I notice when I do drink too much as once, I'm a wreck for about 2 hours, worried about everything and at worse panic attacked - 14 in a single day is my 'record'.

The world, and the UK especially has gone mad for Coffee in the last 10 years or so, before then you might have a cup of instant a day, most people in the UK drank tea - now it's Costabucks, sometimes multiple times a day. I've seen how quickly it catches on too, ironically I was having a bit of a panic about money (again) and I causally moaned at my wife about how much she spends in Starbollocks - she asked me to chill out and she only goes 'now and again' - nope, it used to be 'now and again' - but it quickly became everyday day, unless it was a tough day, then it was twice - 'we' spend more than £100 a month with Starbucks although I don't drink coffee... and I doubt we're alone - there's been such an explosion in Coffee Shops, there's a drive through in every retail estate, a outlet in every supermarket, petrol station, high street, service station, airport they're basically everywhere. 150mg of caffeine in what? 10 mins to drink one? Not to mention 300+ calories.

Caffeine is almost as addictive as Nicotine and Heroin, about equal with Cocaine - imagine that, if Coffee cost £50 a cup and made your nose fall off we'd probably take it more seriously.

In years to come we'll look back at Starbucks et al like we do Phillip Morris, they manage to make a highly addictive substance 'cool' and hooked the world on it, and I don't fancy the chances of the industry becoming regulated any time soon - we can't even make them pay a fair rate of tax.

Oh, sorry that was a bit of a rant - other root causes - 1) greater acceptance 2) rising cost of living with flat incomes 3) social media giving the impression everyone else's life is 'perfect' 4) long term uncertainty from the 'great recession' 5) which we just about got over until we decided it was time to **** ourselves with brexit 6) heaps more social responsibility meaning we can't enjoy the 'well why bloody shouldn't I?!' attitude of our parents.

we often live life at such a crazy pace compared to before the 1990s which makes some of us feel really tired,

Do we really though? 8 hours in work (almost certainly not a physically demanding job but with guaranteed breaks and maybe free fruit and drinks..), jump in a car for the drive home, slap a ready meal in the microwave, dishes in the dishwasher and spend the rest of the night drinking cheap alcohol while watching Love Island and other assorted crap on the TV.

We tell ourselves that life is a faster pace to make ourselves feel better about being vastly lazier than our grandparents. 😁

The cause? My good lady accidentally didn’t tag her in a facebook pic from her (my wife’s) birthday celebration. It was as if she didn’t exist, apparently. So cruel….

I bet that wasn’t the cause at all but the final thing that caused her to have a ‘meltdown’.

Your making an assumption about how much coffee is in a bucket of frothy milk that most customers of “coffee shops” buy and drink.

Two or three espresso shots depending on what drink you get.  So it's definitely there despite your snobbery.  It might not be the finest single estate cat shit, but it's very obviously got a lot of caffeine in it.  What a silly thing to have a dig about.

Whitbreads - who used to be brewers and purveyors of ales and own pubs etc got out of the pub industry and into the Coffee industry with 'Costa Coffee'.

Although pressure is on Whitbreads from a couple of hedge funds to sell off Costa ...

So since the 1990s alcohol induced depression has possibly given way to caffeine induced anxiety ...

Still at least you can get decent coffee these days (not including Costa/Starbucks etc) ... in the '80s a cup of coffee was a spoon full of nescafe granules in a polystyrene cup topped up with scolding hot water ... 😉

This page alone has friendship meltdowns, £100 / month Starbucks accounts and 6 litres of Cola per day.

People need to take a little look at themselves sometimes, how do you reach that level of crazy without noticing it creeping up? I 'spose it's like the 25 stone person who didn't think to cut back when they were 'just' 18 stone.

Everything in moderation, I say, including coke and hookers

I bet that wasn’t the cause at all but the final thing that caused her to have a ‘meltdown’.

Yes, 100%. The real cause was that she was too unfit to summit a mountain, that people of all shapes and sizes make it to the top of every day, the facebook omission was the thing she could vent about - she couldn't blame her own physical state on someone else, so my good lady got the blame.

Two or three espresso shots depending on what drink you get. So it’s definitely there despite your snobbery. It might not be the finest single estate cat shit, but it’s very obviously got a lot of caffeine in it. What a silly thing to have a dig about.

No snobbery at all. It was supposed to be a joke. I obviously should have put a 😉 at the end.

I don’t notice that it causes anxiety, but if I am anxious about something I find it makes me more anxious.

It definitely messes with peoples ability to use apostrophe’s correctly.

🙂

<div class="bbp-reply-author">bigblackshed
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Two or three espresso shots depending on what drink you get. So it’s definitely there despite your snobbery. It might not be the finest single estate cat shit, but it’s very obviously got a lot of caffeine in it. What a silly thing to have a dig about.

No snobbery at all. It was supposed to be a joke. I obviously should have put a  at the end.

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In Costa, small is two shots, medium three, large four. I was behind a health care assistant in Costa at the hospital where I work and he ordered a large cappuccino with an extra shot and syrup. So five espresso's.

The NHS is being propped up by caffeinated, sugar fuelled staff. Me included! 👍😵

Edit - wow, massive smiley!!

Well, the 20 or so people I follow on insta put up photo's every day of their morning coffee and it pisses me off big style. So yeah, it's effecting my mental state

Well, the 20 or so people I follow on insta put up photo’s every day of their morning coffee and it pisses me off big style.

And they say social media is an echo chamber 🙂

n0b0dy0ftheg0at

Sounds like the very familiar to me vicious circle of modern day life, we often live life at such a crazy pace compared to before the 1990s which makes some of us feel really tired, so we drink more caffeine which then can bring on more anxiety....

Crazy pace? This generation has it easy. Crazy pace is staff trying to balance the cash in pounds, shillings, and pence in a bank or any large organisation for the deadline. No calculators. Got to be accurate to the farthing and results in before deadline. That's just one example.

Computers have made many aspects of life easier.

I've settled on a medium caramel-latte from Costa in the morning and then a (freeby) cappachino from Waitrose at lunch, most days. both in re-usable cups, obviously.

The yummy mummies round my way seem to end their run around the park with a pint of latte with cream on top, I'm not sure what the net calorie result is.

Caffeine makes me very anxious if I have too much, I don't think it's got much impact on national mental health though, maybe just in certain circles, like coke.

I gave up coffee about 3 months ago and it was a good move.  Generally feel more neutral through the day and don't need to reach for a coffee as soon as I get up, worry about going without a coffee for 8 hours and getting a headache etc,.

I don't really feel any less anxious (not an anxious person) so don't feel any difference in that respect.

Anxiety for me manifests at night time as shortness of breath, racing heart rate and insomnia. So yeah, it’s probably not causal but I do see a link, so I’ve cut back caffeine and generally feel better for it. By cut back, I mean two-three decent coffees, maybe a Diet Coke, but nothing after mid-afternoon.

Caffeine will activate the fight or flight response. So if your anxious anyway..,,,

My 2p worth is that there is more job stress today as well, targets, performance reviews, kpi’s, remote access to emails, much more accountability and blame and so on with less people to do the jobs.

My two penn'orth is that, physiologically speaking, we've got to the point where our ability to change our habits / habitat has massively outstripped our ability to change us. Our basic biology and psychology hasn't caught up with the world we've created... our makeup is basically predisposed to mooching around trying to find enough food so we can hang around long enough to procreate. Or maybe that's just me?

Basically, Stornaway have it right: We're becoming Battery Humans

ETA - Well, it is a bike forum