Poll of the Day > can heavy coffee consumption cause depression?

(+) Yeah! (+)

i have heavy depression for years, and consume a lot of coffee, like 2-3 pots worth per day with 12 cups each. basically my medication provider told me that no medication is going to make me feel better in terms of my anxiety and depression which has made me feel worst. i have asperger's.

anyhow i know coffee is often linked to improving depression, but can it also do the opposite? i notice it has no benefits for me, doesn't improve depression, which is why i continue to drink it cause every now and then i'll feel really good, like a high euphoric feeling and wondering if its from the coffee, but likely not since most days i feel shitty.

thinking about cutting it out entirely, anxiety and paranoia reaches insane heights as it is, and sometimes the coffee makes it 100x worst. thinking it just does no good for me, and wonder if i might feel better if i stop, as i'm wondering if the heavy consumption can be making things worst.

Think of it this way

You have 1 downer thought per minute.... now juice up your brain with coffee and have 1.3 downer thoughts per minute

!!!!

There are a few factors including what you put in your coffee, if you put cream/sugar in it, that will have a seperate effect from the coffee itself (especially sugar).

First the coffee itself even in large quantaties should make depression worse, but it does depend on how depressed you are, if it'll help at all.

If your mildly depressed and just don't have energy to do things, or much motivation, coffee can actually help by giving you a burst of energy and making it more likely for you to be active, which will help fight depression. Nothing makes depression worse than just sitting around doing nothing and waiting for time to pass.

IF your REALLY depressed, don't want to live, don't enjoy food anymore, have no goals, see no point in life etc, then yeah, coffee isn't going to really help much, and may even seem to be hurting as you have energy but don't want to do anything with it, making it even harder to pass the time.

For me, I like the taste of coffee with half and half and sugar in it. I try and limit myself to one or two cups a day, even though I'm diabetic and it's really bad for me. I don't care. I look forward to dying some day and if I can find ANYTHING that I actually enjoy and look forward to, I'm going to freaking take it.

I draw the line at things that might make me dangerous to other people like Heroin etc, while I'm seriously desperate for anything at all I would enjoy or look forward to, I won't resort to things that may make me a danger to others or a drain on society. Sadly that really limits the choices.

I do try and exercise and that works while I'm not totally drained (but sometimes I go months being totally drained). I like beat saber for excersize because it's enjoyable and easier to get me motivated to do it, even then going on a hike/walk etc (especially during the winter).

Winters in general are horrible for me, I get snowed in for weeks at a time, it's always rainin/snowing so I don't want to drive into town, I can't go on walks/hike cause it's too cold and I end up not even doing beat saber etc because I just get too low on energy/depressed.

Honestly the best thing you can do is find some activities with others, like table tennis, lazer tag, dungeons and dragons, dancing classes etc. Try and force yourself to go out and socialize a few times a week even if it's really hard. Maybe you'll make some good friends that way which will help alot as well. As far as coffee, if your drinking it black, I don't think it would be that bad, if you add cream/sugar in though, that much has to be bad for your sugar levels etc and could cause you to crash when you are not constantly injecting sugar into your system. It will probably eventually lead to diabetes if you don't already have it.

RJP_X posted...

like 2-3 pots worth per day with 12 cups each

does "cups" here mean metric cups, or like mug-fulls? I always think I drink so much coffee but I have like 1-2 cups (mug-fulls) per day, rarely 3. how can you even process that much liquid, that's like 10+ liters of coffee per day?

No offense but simply living life can cause depression.
I tell you I haven't had soda for 2 years after being a heavy soda drinker for a decade (a 2L a day) and nothing changed for me. I still wish I could drink a 2L a day like I used to.

Judgmenl posted...

No offense but simply living life can cause depression.
I tell you I haven't had soda for 2 years after being a heavy soda drinker for a decade (a 2L a day) and nothing changed for me. I still wish I could drink a 2L a day like I used to.

I recently started drinking soda again on top of drinking coffee, also I started eating donuts or cinnamon cakes. I basically said screw it, I was trying so hard to be healthy but my kidneys were getting worse anyway etc, I figure I might as well just freaking enjoy myself as much as I can for now since nothing is helping anyway.

don't drink soda, drink beer