Why I took a break from caffeine to support my OCD recovery - and why you might want to, too
I lived with moderate to severe OCD for 20 years. It eventually became so debilitating that leaving my house became a struggle. I also suffered from really, really bad insomnia, migraines, and PMS that made me want to stay in bed on the first day of my period, plus a range of other health issues.
After finally deciding enough was enough and committing to working on all aspects of my mental and physical health in my early 30s, I experienced 80–90% reduction in my symptoms of OCD, and greatly improved overall health.
Nutrition was one of the tools that helped me most, and this experience of nutritional, functional medicine helping me get my life back, is what inspired me to become a nutritionist.
In this article, I'll discuss a nutrition and lifestyle change I made early on that noticeably helped calm down my brain, and which my clients now routinely report leads to reduced frequency, intensity and duration of their OCD spikes. What is this change, you ask? Taking a break from caffeinated drinks.
Get ready to learn how caffeine impacts your nervous system, your methylation cycle, and why taking a break from caffeine can lead to a less anxious and panicked mind.
I've been saying this for years: nourishing your nervous system is key to OCD recovery. However, nourishing your nervous system isn’t just about adding nourishing foods, herbs, lifestyle practices, and supplements. It also requires removing foods and substances that deplete the nervous system.
Caffeine is one of the most commonly consumed substances that stimulates your central nervous system. It can be found in:
Energy drinks
Cola (Coke, any brand of cola)
Espresso coffee
Plunger coffee and drip coffee
Instant coffee
Black tea
Kombucha
White tea and green tea
Decaffeinated tea and coffee (though in small amounts)
Ever had a coffee and soon felt sweaty and on edge? Felt intensely stuck in the jaws of the OCD dragon, with obsessions gripping you harder? Noticed your brain chatter accelerating? Felt physically tense? And struggled (more than usual) to sleep that night?
How caffeine affects your nervous system
Caffeine crosses your blood brain barrier, the membrane between your brain and blood stream. Once caffeine crosses this barrier, it affects the function of your neurotransmitters – the chemical means by which nerve cells communicate with each other. Sleep, thought, calm, mood and memory all reflect the activity of your neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters function as either excitatory or inhibitory. Put simply, excitatory neurotransmitters speed up nerve cell activity and decrease the pauses between nerve cell activity. Whereas inhibitory neurotransmitters slow down nerve cell activity and increase the pauses between nerve cell activity.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is one of the most abundant inhibitory neurotransmitters in your body. It supports calm, relaxation and sleep. People with OCD, take note: caffeine decreases GABA levels and lowered levels of GABA in the brain and blood serum have been linked with:
Furthermore, stress also depletes GABA by increasing the metabolism of nutrients such as vitamin B6, which is a building block for GABA. So, if you’re 1) already stressed out by situations in your life, plus 2) you’re regularly drinking coffee, tea or energy drinks, and 3) your genetics mean you're not the most efficient methylator and therefore prone to being vulnerable to B vitamin deficiencies, you could end up very low in GABA and more vulnerable to feeling anxious, panicked and experiencing OCD spikes.
Caffeine also blocks uptake of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in sleep and maintaining the structural integrity of your myelin sheathing – the fatty, protective coating on your nerves that supports efficient transmission of nerve impulses. It’s worth noting that medical imaging studies have found people with OCD have abnormalities in their brain myelin when compared with the brains of people who don’t have OCD. This is not to say caffeine is what causes myelin abnormalities in people with OCD. But given caffeine is an adenosine inhibitor and adenosine plays a role in maintaining myelin integrity, drinking caffeine regularly isn’t likely to support the health of your myelin.
Finally, a third way caffeine affects your nervous system is via depletion of the anti-stress mineral magnesium and the B vitamins. When consumed in greater amounts, caffeine has a diuretic effect – it makes you pee more. This leads to loss of water-soluble nutrients like the B vitamins and magnesium, which are necessary building blocks for GABA, the calming inhibitory neurotransmitter discussed above. And again, if your genetics mean you're not the most efficient methylator (e.g., you have an MTHFR variation) you're already prone to being vulnerable to B vitamin deficiencies, so bringing caffeine into the mix is going to further make you vulnerable to B vitamin deficiencies, reduced methylation, impacts on your GABA production/synthesis, and impacts on your mental health (such as increased anxiety and panic, and a brain that won't shut up.)
In short, regularly drinking caffeinated beverages has been linked to:
My cold turkey experience
In 2010, when I began my OCD recovery, I learned from my naturopath that caffeine wasn’t a friend of my nervous system.
So, I went cold turkey on tea, coffee and cola (I was drinking all three, and coffee and tea were a daily habit for me). I was sick of being sick with OCD and ready to go all in and make changes. OCD had been in my life for 19 years at that point. I knew if I didn’t act now, I would likely spend the rest of my life seriously ill and unable to fulfil my potential. Feeling better – being able to LIVE – was worth way more to me than the taste and aroma of coffee. It was time to give my nervous system the care it deserved, by both nourishing it AND taking the load off it.
I experienced benefits within the first month of quitting caffeine and making other changes to my diet and lifestyle. I felt calmer, OCD spikes were less intense, and I was falling asleep more easily. My new state of increased calm was noted by those closest to me, and it was such a relief to no longer feel so gripped by OCD thoughts. For me, this was a key sign I was on the right path. I didn’t drink a sip of coffee again until 2016. These days, I rarely drink coffee and if I do, I go for decaf or a single shot only - and I'd never have it on an empty stomach.
So now you have a better understanding of how caffeine impacts your nervous system and mental health. Would you consider giving up caffeinated drinks (tea, coffee, energy drinks, cola, kombucha) for one month to see how you feel? You don’t have to go cold turkey. You could start by reducing the amount of caffeine you drink from, say, three coffees a day to two a day, and then one a day, then half a cup a day, until you are caffeine free. Additionally, you might be able to reintroduce caffeine at a later stage, once you've taken some time to strengthen your health, although perhaps in lower doses.
If you’d like to learn more about how nutrition can support your OCD recovery, check out my ebook - it's the world's first evidence-based guide to Nutrition for Your OCD Recovery.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1356551
http://www.ajnr.org/content/34/2/259
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20164566
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12467589
https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201722
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513311/
I lived with moderate to severe OCD for 20 years. It eventually became so debilitating that leaving my house became a struggle. I also suffered from really, really bad insomnia, migraines, and PMS that made me want to stay in bed on the first day of my period, plus a range of other health issues.
After finally deciding enough was enough and committing to working on all aspects of my mental and physical health in my early 30s, I experienced 80–90% reduction in my symptoms of OCD, and greatly improved overall health.
Nutrition was one of the tools that helped me most, and this experience of nutritional, functional medicine helping me get my life back, is what inspired me to become a nutritionist.
In this article, I'll discuss a nutrition and lifestyle change I made early on that noticeably helped calm down my brain, and which my clients now routinely report leads to reduced frequency, intensity and duration of their OCD spikes. What is this change, you ask? Taking a break from caffeinated drinks.
Get ready to learn how caffeine impacts your nervous system, your methylation cycle, and why taking a break from caffeine can lead to a less anxious and panicked mind.
I've been saying this for years: nourishing your nervous system is key to OCD recovery. However, nourishing your nervous system isn’t just about adding nourishing foods, herbs, lifestyle practices, and supplements. It also requires removing foods and substances that deplete the nervous system.
Caffeine is one of the most commonly consumed substances that stimulates your central nervous system. It can be found in:
Energy drinks
Cola (Coke, any brand of cola)
Espresso coffee
Plunger coffee and drip coffee
Instant coffee
Black tea
Kombucha
White tea and green tea
Decaffeinated tea and coffee (though in small amounts)
Ever had a coffee and soon felt sweaty and on edge? Felt intensely stuck in the jaws of the OCD dragon, with obsessions gripping you harder? Noticed your brain chatter accelerating? Felt physically tense? And struggled (more than usual) to sleep that night?
How caffeine affects your nervous system
Caffeine crosses your blood brain barrier, the membrane between your brain and blood stream. Once caffeine crosses this barrier, it affects the function of your neurotransmitters – the chemical means by which nerve cells communicate with each other. Sleep, thought, calm, mood and memory all reflect the activity of your neurotransmitters.
Neurotransmitters function as either excitatory or inhibitory. Put simply, excitatory neurotransmitters speed up nerve cell activity and decrease the pauses between nerve cell activity. Whereas inhibitory neurotransmitters slow down nerve cell activity and increase the pauses between nerve cell activity.
GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) is one of the most abundant inhibitory neurotransmitters in your body. It supports calm, relaxation and sleep. People with OCD, take note: caffeine decreases GABA levels and lowered levels of GABA in the brain and blood serum have been linked with:
- anxiety disorders
- panic disorder
- addiction
- migraines and
- inflammation.
Furthermore, stress also depletes GABA by increasing the metabolism of nutrients such as vitamin B6, which is a building block for GABA. So, if you’re 1) already stressed out by situations in your life, plus 2) you’re regularly drinking coffee, tea or energy drinks, and 3) your genetics mean you're not the most efficient methylator and therefore prone to being vulnerable to B vitamin deficiencies, you could end up very low in GABA and more vulnerable to feeling anxious, panicked and experiencing OCD spikes.
Caffeine also blocks uptake of adenosine, a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in sleep and maintaining the structural integrity of your myelin sheathing – the fatty, protective coating on your nerves that supports efficient transmission of nerve impulses. It’s worth noting that medical imaging studies have found people with OCD have abnormalities in their brain myelin when compared with the brains of people who don’t have OCD. This is not to say caffeine is what causes myelin abnormalities in people with OCD. But given caffeine is an adenosine inhibitor and adenosine plays a role in maintaining myelin integrity, drinking caffeine regularly isn’t likely to support the health of your myelin.
Finally, a third way caffeine affects your nervous system is via depletion of the anti-stress mineral magnesium and the B vitamins. When consumed in greater amounts, caffeine has a diuretic effect – it makes you pee more. This leads to loss of water-soluble nutrients like the B vitamins and magnesium, which are necessary building blocks for GABA, the calming inhibitory neurotransmitter discussed above. And again, if your genetics mean you're not the most efficient methylator (e.g., you have an MTHFR variation) you're already prone to being vulnerable to B vitamin deficiencies, so bringing caffeine into the mix is going to further make you vulnerable to B vitamin deficiencies, reduced methylation, impacts on your GABA production/synthesis, and impacts on your mental health (such as increased anxiety and panic, and a brain that won't shut up.)
In short, regularly drinking caffeinated beverages has been linked to:
- reduced brain and blood GABA (so less available calming neurotransmitter)
- adenosine inhibition (so less of a neurotransmitter needed for sleep and structural nerve health)
- loss of nutrients needed to make GABA (our calming neurotransmitter that slows down nerve cell activity in the brain)
- loss of nutrients you may already be deficient in if you have an MTHFR genetic variation (one of the most common genetic variations, read more about it here).
My cold turkey experience
In 2010, when I began my OCD recovery, I learned from my naturopath that caffeine wasn’t a friend of my nervous system.
So, I went cold turkey on tea, coffee and cola (I was drinking all three, and coffee and tea were a daily habit for me). I was sick of being sick with OCD and ready to go all in and make changes. OCD had been in my life for 19 years at that point. I knew if I didn’t act now, I would likely spend the rest of my life seriously ill and unable to fulfil my potential. Feeling better – being able to LIVE – was worth way more to me than the taste and aroma of coffee. It was time to give my nervous system the care it deserved, by both nourishing it AND taking the load off it.
I experienced benefits within the first month of quitting caffeine and making other changes to my diet and lifestyle. I felt calmer, OCD spikes were less intense, and I was falling asleep more easily. My new state of increased calm was noted by those closest to me, and it was such a relief to no longer feel so gripped by OCD thoughts. For me, this was a key sign I was on the right path. I didn’t drink a sip of coffee again until 2016. These days, I rarely drink coffee and if I do, I go for decaf or a single shot only - and I'd never have it on an empty stomach.
So now you have a better understanding of how caffeine impacts your nervous system and mental health. Would you consider giving up caffeinated drinks (tea, coffee, energy drinks, cola, kombucha) for one month to see how you feel? You don’t have to go cold turkey. You could start by reducing the amount of caffeine you drink from, say, three coffees a day to two a day, and then one a day, then half a cup a day, until you are caffeine free. Additionally, you might be able to reintroduce caffeine at a later stage, once you've taken some time to strengthen your health, although perhaps in lower doses.
If you’d like to learn more about how nutrition can support your OCD recovery, check out my ebook - it's the world's first evidence-based guide to Nutrition for Your OCD Recovery.
References
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1356551
http://www.ajnr.org/content/34/2/259
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20164566
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12467589
https://www.nature.com/articles/tp201722
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513311/