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I had forgotten how much coffee used to affect me, stress-wise.

I like a nice cup of coffee and I remember asking my Mum to get some for me, when I was only about 7 or 8.
She used to make it very weak, milky & frothy for me.

When I started at senior school, I used to have a stronger cup of coffee, every morning, with breakfast.
I had to set off at 7am and returned by about 5.30. After that I would have a couple of hours of homework, so I think I needed that morning cup of coffee.

At work, of course, it was coffee in the morning, at lunch, and sometimes in the afternoon ~ and one before I left home in the morning.

When I left work, and went to university, I discovered the hot chocolate machine and I stopped drinking so much coffee.
I also stopped feeling so stressed.

Except when visiting people.
Then, I would drink their coffee and return home with an anxiety attack.

When I suddenly realised what was happening, I read up on coffee, and discovered that there were two types: Arabica & Robusta.

I find, now, that one cup of Arabica is ok. I drink it if I have to drive, perhaps, and don't want to get drowsy.
It can prevent me sleeping, though, so I have it quite weak, or half & half with decaff.

I do think that, if you suffer with stress or panic attacks, then it would be worth looking at your coffee intake.
Changing to Arabica, reducing the amount & replacing with decaff can help, I think.

I'm drinking some decaffeinated Arabica at the moment.


Some info:

Coffee From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee

Arabica and Robusta Coffee Plant
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/agriculture/coffeeplant.htm

Robusta vs. Arabica
http://kaffee.netfirms.com/Coffee/robustavsarabica.html

Arabica vs Robusta: No Contest
http://www.ineedcoffee.com/02/arabica/

I agree completely, I know many people who cut out coffee from their life and suddenly their stress reduced greatly. I am sure different people have different sensitivities to it.

I used to drink a lot of coffee when I worked at high stress programming jobs where we were coding furiously all day and night. It really burnt me out. When I quit and started working from home I also cut out the coffee. Suddenly like was just SO much more serene.

If I have coffee when I'm out somewhere, giving in to peer pressure in essence, I can really feel my heart start to "trip" and not in a good way. So I really try to stay away from it now.

I never really looked into the differences in coffee types, that is interesting. I do remember watching a good Good Eats episode once though (I think it was good eats..) where they went in to how a really good decaf coffee actually takes more work than a regular coffee, and is thus pretty expensive.

Good info though.

I had switched from coffee to drinking Earl Grey tea. It has a small amount of caffiene, but a whole lot more nutrients. When I went to that, I felt so much better in so many ways, even physically.

I messed up my tea strainer though, and went back to coffee. I drink 3+ cups a day now, and really need to stop! But can't. The withdrawal symptoms aren't fun at all.

I changed over to decaf a few years back to lower my stress levels. Like, Lisa, when i rarely have a cup of coffee with full car, I can feel my heart racing. I can feel myself getting agitated. It's not what I want for my life.

I like flavored decafs like Hazelnut and vanilla. YUM!

I never wondered if I was drinking aribica beans, though. I assume they are. I don't want to drink robusta unless I don't have a choice. I will have to pay more attention when I am buying my coffees from the grocery.

Niki, I also like Earl Grey. It reminds me of one of my favorite TV characters, Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise.

"Earl Grey, hot"

I love KUSMI Tea. All their flavors are wonderful. Earl Grey is one of my morning favorites. Although I really like my French Vanilla in my Tassimo one cup maker. Yeah really addicted, but enjoy the fixes.

I love coffee. Decaf, regular, any kind. I make it syrupy strong, and just don't feel the same without a cup or two in the morning. My family jokes about my strong coffee and I have to remember that a lot of people don't like coffee as strong as I do. But I tend to be a laid back, phlegmatic sort of person and coffee doesn't seem to affect me much. It doesn't seem to matter to me anxiety-wise whether I choose decaf or regular.

I went to South America for work and loved the habit of enjoying demitasse sized cups of coffee in the afternoon.

I love tea, too, but that is more an afternoon drink for me. My new favorite flavor is Lady Gray.

uuh if you worked in South America there are other "teas" that are wonderful.

I really love coffee. But in the last 15 years of my life, I have stomach issues off and on, so I can't always drink it. I do drink tea in the morning, though. I need some kind of kick then. Lately I've begun to keep Kenya and Sumatra coffees but, like I said, I can't drink them very often. I miss it. When I have to stop altogether for a while, the caffeine withdrawels are NOT fun!

I do love tea, though. At night when the weather is cold, I love Peppermint tea. So comforting and delicious.

Tweetymom, have you tried some of the better decaf coffees? They taste the same. Can you drink those?

I've been bad lately and been putting Bailey's in my coffee. My family ripped on me pretty hard at Thanksgiving for that. =P It's my guilty pleasure I guess.

If you drink tea though, I think it's a must to get loose tea leaves. They make such a difference! I got this Earl Grey mixture that has small vanilla chips in it, it smells marvelous and tastes great.

I love amaretto, franchesco, or godivia in my coffee. Or any combination there of.

Yes! Argentina's yerba mate is delicious, and the custom of sharing it with friends and relaxing was great. I met so many nice people there.

You know what was funny, though? I like apple cinnamon tea, and they thought that was really yucky. The people I got to know associated cinnamon with a trip to the dentist, not with drinks or dessert.

Hi Jilly. Better late reply than never?!

I can and have had decaf coffee. But none of the ones I really like to drink. I know that there ARE decaf in the kenya and Sumatra, I just don/w want to spend the money when I think of it, and other times I forget about it! Blame ot on my age LOL

I used to mix the Half Caff with regular and that helped somewhat.

But thanks for reminding me that decaf exists!

Dinah - the decafs are so much better now that they were in the past. Also they are not completely decafinated.

As far as needing a kick in the morning, I have one word for you, Mountian Dew.

I adore Bailey's in general. When I drank coffee I would enjoy that as an after dinner drink.

Niki - why was your family so upset about your enjoying Bailey's? Or were you drinking 3 cups every morning so you were drinking Bailey's all morning long?

Baily's on ice.........yum I'll have to try a shot in coffee

Jeez, BLR, do you drink Mountain Dew in the morning? That's a wake up call!

Tweetymom, I do get that about not wanting to spend more. Mine all cost the same whether I buy them caf or decaf: it's the stuff I grind at the supermarkets.

I don't like regular unflavored coffee, as I drink it black and don't want to add sugar flavors. In some areas it's tough for me to find my special decafs with a flavor like hazelnut or vanilla. There are so many full caf coffees with neat, seasonal flavors, and I often feel like the leftover stepchild.

In my new town here at Camp Verde the Bashas does not have any flavored decafs. Last time i went shopping there I came really close to buying a full caf Christmas Spice flavored coffee...but reminded myself that caffeine is bad for my depression/anxiety, and thus won't help me reach my goals. So I had to buy an unflavored decaf to keep around the house for emergencies.

When I go to the bigger town of Cottonwood then I remind myself to get my beloved flavored decafs.

Mixing half caf and full caf sounds like a good idea for people trying to cut back!

Skipperdog, how does cinnamon remind anyone of the dentist? What do dentists do that involves cinnamon?

I do not drink Mountain Dew in the morning. Although I have been known to have Dr Pepper in the AM. Pepsi works also. When I did my stint as a Mormon I gave up all the caffiene... got over that.

Got over being Mormon, not over caffiene. Love my coffee in the AM. Went back to smoking, but I did quite that again, and again, and again.

LOL, BLR!

I used to love Mountain Dew. That stuff is supercharged.

I used to have a ritual with some friends that after a long hard backpack trip (usually in the grand canyon) we'd get back to the cars, drive right to the nearest gas station, and grab ourselves a Mountain Dew to revive.