Is it Bipolar… Or Your Coffee?
Quit your coffee and be cured of “bipolar disorder.” Does this sound like a dream come true… or a price too high to pay?
Ah, coffee, the world’s most socially acceptable psychoactive beverage. Consuming caffeine is so much a part of the norm that most people may not realize that this stimulant drug could have more serious side effects than keeping you up until midnight every night.
I remember working with a client diagnosed with bipolar disorder. During our discussion of his symptoms, he told me that coffee was to blame for his mood disturbances. He was unusually insightful for a psych client.
Looking around the web, I have seen similar accounts of people, some also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, who at some point linked their mood issues to caffeine consumption. Let us review some of these anecdotes.
Here we have an anecdote from Quora, of a man who was under the impression he had bipolar for 25 years, when actually coffee was to blame. He notes that his time spent under the care of psychiatry did nothing but that quitting coffee fixed his depression and hypomania issues.
Typing “getting angry on coffee” in Google resulted in some interesting suggestions based on other people’s searches.
Speaking of coffee and anger, multiple medical and mental health sources warn that caffeine use can lead to anxiety, irritability, restlessness, depression (some say the inverse), and insomnia. For example, Maureen Connolly of PSYCOM notes, “Anxiety is our body’s response to situations that we perceive as being worrisome or threatening, and it promotes our body’s ‘fight or flight’ response. Caffeine also triggers this response, making you overreact to situations that aren’t actually dangerous or troublesome. Too much caffeine can also make you irritable and agitated in situations that normally wouldn’t affect you in those ways.”
However, I don’t think they get across just how bad some people can be affected.
It’s noteworthy that there are multiple cases of road rage incidents that involved the offending party throwing their coffee at someone. In 2020, a Chinese man was given prison time for a road rage incident in which he had thrown his coffee at the windshield of another driver after brake-checking him multiple times. Also in 2020, a woman from Massachusetts was arrested after riding a car’s bumper, then throwing her iced coffee, which struck and wounded a 2 year kid in the car. In 2016 in Manitoba, a man splashed a truck after driving through a puddle; the offended party retaliated by throwing a hot cappuccino through his open window.
Do you think it was mere coincidence that all three of these angry people had a coffee available to throw?
In a study published in 2015, Boris M. Kiselev and others note, “A survey of patients with mood disorders showed an association of caffeine use with bipolar spectrum patients.” They go on to present a case report of a 57 year old man who had sought medical help for chest pain after consuming 800 milligrams of caffeine. This man presented with typical symptoms of mania — pressured speech, delusional thinking as evidenced by saying he had been “born in the sun,” and flight of ideas. He was stabilized after being treated with anti-psychotics. The authors mention 3 cocaine users diagnosed with bipolar who were hospitalized and treated, but after being released, became symptomatic once again after consuming energy drinks.
Personally, I believe there’s a variety of factors that are responsible for the cluster of symptoms known as “bipolar disorder.” I don’t think it would hurt for a caffeine-user diagnosed with this disorder to try going caffeine-free to see if there is any improvement of symptoms.
Relevant articles:
Your Bipolar Disorder Could be Hypothyroidism
Biological Causes of Mental Illness