Foods & Drinks That May Increase Anxiety

If you suffer from anxiety, you may blame certain triggers in your environment for bringing on anxious feelings. But what you eat and drink can have a profound effect on your body’s chemistry. Some foods and drinks may actually worsen your anxiety.

Here are some of the culprits:

Drinks

Coffee

As you might have expected, the caffeine in coffee can make anxiety worse. It causes constriction of blood vessels and that feeling of the “jitters.” It can also cause or worsen insomnia. In addition, coffee inhibits the absorption of Vitamin C, an important nutrient for optimal mind and body function.

Soft Drinks and Colas

Even if you choose caffeine-free, sugar-free soft drinks, you are still drinking a beverage that can worsen your anxiety. The high-acid content of dark colas produces an acidic environment in the body. In order to alleviate this acidity, calcium and magnesium are leached from your bones.

Both of these minerals are crucial to proper brain and muscle function. In fact, muscles can not relax properly without calcium and magnesium. The tense muscles associated with anxiety are therefore exacerbated.

So if you choose a clear, caffeine-free, sugar-free soft drink, it won’t worsen your anxiety, right? Wrong! The artificial sweetener in these drinks, aspartame, may have significant cognitive effects. It may indeed worsen the psychological aspect of anxiety.

Alcohol

At first, this seems like the opposite of caffeine, and therefore a good idea for anxiety sufferers. But actually, alcohol consumption (beyond a small glass of wine a few times a week) can worsen depression and inhibit the absorption of key nutrients.

Foods

Chocolate

While chocolate is often considered the “feel-good” food, it contains significant caffeine and large amounts of sugar. As discussed above, caffeine has the opposite effect that an anxious person wants and needs. The sugar is another problem and is discussed below.

Excessive Sugar

By “excessive,” some nutritionists mean anything over 5 tablespoons of refined sugar daily. While you may think that would be easy, it’s not. Sugar is in everything, and 5 tablespoons is just 1 tablespoon more than 1/4 cup.

If you drink several large glasses of sweet iced tea, you have probably drunk close to 1/4 cup of sugar. And that does not take into account the sugar in your foods, either hidden (such as in frozen foods) or obvious (such as “frosted” cereals).

So why is sugar a problem? For one thing, the body uses Vitamin B6, which is crucial to mood and proper hormone function, to metabolize sugar. In other words, sugar depletes your body of this and other important nutrients. It can also create highs and lows in mood, and bring on a post-sugar “crash,” or low blood sugar.

Refined Flour

Refined flour acts much like sugar in the body. And it has none of the essential fatty acids, fiber, and other nutrients that whole grains do.

Highly Processed Foods

Many processed foods are full of preservatives, dough “conditioners” (in the case of store-bought bread products), artificial flavors, and artificial colors. Some of these can pass through the blood-brain barrier, affecting cognitive function.

Tartrazine (FD&C yellow #5), commonly found in candy, gum, margarine, and many other processed foods can disrupt the hormone balance in the body.

Living with Depression – Life’s Not Over

For those living with depression, every day can be a challenge. For family members of depressed people, it’s sometimes hard to know what to do, and you may feel like you’re walking on eggshells. Understanding depression can go a long way in helping deal with this illness, and there are some coping tips that may help. Here are some suggestions.

Get the Best Treatment

The first step for a depressed person is to get treatment – but it’s equally important to get the best treatment, say experts. This means taking the time to get the help you need or helping your depressed family member get optimal help.

Include Family in Therapy

While the depressed individual may not want family members present in every counseling or therapy session, it may be a good idea to include family members at least some of the time. The therapist can then see a slice of the family dynamic, and the family members can gain a better understanding of the issue. Some family members are more likely to believe a therapist’s “take” on things than take the depressed person’s word for it.

Including family may also help other family members to better understand how to treat the depressed individual, and what things they can say or do to support the depressed person.

Parents of Teens

Because teenagers are a high-risk group for developing depression, sources say, the parents of teens may benefit from some tips on living with a depressed teen. Here are some suggestions.

* Develop a tough skin. Teens who are depressed may yell at you to leave them alone, to go away, or to stop talking to them. For teens, this may be a sort of test of your parenting – the teen may be testing to see if you care enough to press through the anger and continue trying to reach them. Parents who truly do care may miss this aspect and just give up after being yelled at. Instead, remember it’s not personal and your teen still needs you.

* Listen. Busy parents often forget to listen, and how important it is. Parents sometimes need to stop running and take a break to listen and talk. A parent-teen “date” or retreat can help – maybe a mother-daughter shopping trip or father-son fishing excursion.

* Encourage your depressed teen to problem solve. As parents, we just want their struggles to go away; but giving them the tools to cope is a gift that will last a lifetime. It’s okay to help, encourage, and prompt your teen; but experts say your goal as a parent is to get their brains working on solving their own problems.

Nurture Relationships

As a depressed person, it may be hard to maintain friendships. But supportive friends are important for your depression management and coping. Try to make a point of nurturing these relationships; it will help you break out of yourself and focus on someone else.