Diet Coke and my anxiety

[calmday]

Hi, I drink diet coke every day. Recently I've been drinking five or six cans a day. And I get awful anxiety attacks. Do you think the two could be linked? When I think about it, I don't think I had these anxiety attacks before my diet coke habit. I'm gonna try and cut it out to see if it makes any difference to my anxiety. I'm also gonna swap my morning coffee for a cup of chamomile tea. Any advice? Thanks

Sounds like two good ideas there

It's really good to reduce steadily as that is a lot of caffeine and it will definitely make you feel anxious.

I didn't think diet coke affected me, until I'd not had one for ages and stupidly had one at around 9pm in the evening during a meal out. I was awake until around 3am with my heart pounding and blood rushing round my ears. It was horrific, and I've not touched the bloody stuff since. If you have to drink coke, drink the caffeine free one as it's likely to be the caffeine that makes you anxious, and the sweetener. Camomile or green tea is a much better alternative. And water .

Thanks guys. I get terrible anxiety attacks almost daily which last for a few hours and I feel terrible during them. I'm hoping all this diet coke has something to do with it and by stopping the diet coke I can stop my anxiety attacks.

Definitely. Caffeine can make you jittery and exacerbate anxiety. And five or six cans is a lot. I'd suggest cutting down to start with rather than stopping straight away. Maybe a couple in the morning and none after lunch, then reduce further?

Absolutely. Caffeine has a big effect on my anxiety and DD is the same (DS isn't) so it's worth looking into. It increases my heart rate too

And yes definitely cut down gradually as caffeine withdrawal is hell!

It's not just the caffeine. Look up the symptoms that come with ingesting Aspartame.
I never drink diet drinks because of this artificial sweetener.

You will get cracking headaches when you start to cut back, but persevere!

This is my first morning without caffeine. I had a cup of chamomile tea this morning instead of coffee. Not going to have any diet coke either. Hopefully this won't be too hard.

If you feel the need for something fizzy, try sparkling water. The value brands are under 20p for two litres.