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The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

militarytimes.com

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Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#21

Post by andai »

brom2 wrote: post #18
flipp3r wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're leaving out many things about coffee. Specifically, caffeine, which energy drinks are often loaded with. Caffeine on its own can cause anxiety (See "Caffeine-induced anxiety disorder") and is linked to depression. Let alone workers consuming caffeine during work time with headaches(or other withdrawal symptoms) on their days off who still haven't figured it out the stuff is just plain not good for you.

I've stopped drinking coffee as it would frequently give me anxiety and sometimes panic attacks. I now drink tea or water at work. However, I still need to work harder on cutting down on sugar.

I suspected coffee was giving me anxiety which bordered on paranoia. I stopped drinking coffee and it went away immediately. A week later (today) I had a cup to see how I'd respond. Severe anxiety came back within half an hour. Very interesting.

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#22

Post by Beefin »

maxxxxx wrote: post #20
emersonrsantos wrote: post #9

The current facts about coffee and sugar are the following: drinking coffee is good for your mental and physical, while sugar is linked to depression, addiction, anxiety, heart problems, obesity and not surprisingly, PTSD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4522929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4086302/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5056806/

From personal experience I'd say coffee is not always good for your mental state. If I drink a cup every day for a week I get into a constant state of anxiety and nervousness. I also get dizzy during workouts. I also can tell when my girlfriend had coffee because she will be much more combative in discussions. As with a lot of other things observe yourself and don't blindly trust studies. even if the study finds posi…

try adding L Theanine

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#23

Post by marktangotango »

aphextron wrote: post #14
loeg wrote: post #11

Does the military still hand out amphetamines and/or modafinil, or is caffeine really the alertness/wakefulness drug of choice?

>Does the military still hand out amphetamines and/or modafinil, or is caffeine really the alertness/wakefulness drug of choice? Actual stimulant use is restricted to special forces and flight crews. But anecdotally, the energy drink consumption in the Army is out of control. I can remember people literally ordering pallets of Monster to show up on training exercises. Nicotine too. It's not uncommon to see someone wi…

And all I had was the tasters choice packet that sometimes came in an mre, pour in mouth drink water to wash it down. Where do soldiers today get this stuff you mention? Sure you could bring your own but you can only pack so much.

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#24

Post by boomboomsubban »

nhkssol wrote: post #2

Nothing in the article links energy drinks to PTSD. > High energy drink use, which was classified as consuming two or more drinks per day, was significantly associated with those survey respondents who reported mental health problems, anger-related behaviors and fatigue, the authors found. The above passage is about as close as the article gets to its title, and it's left vague by combining mental health problems, an…

There is a link to the study right above what you quoted. The "vague" statement is a list of different ailments more commonly reported by people drinking energy drinks.

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#25

Post by UncleEntity »

chrisseaton wrote: post #16
aphextron wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Does the military still hand out amphetamines and/or modafinil, or is caffeine really the alertness/wakefulness drug of choice? Actual stimulant use is restricted to special forces and flight crews. But anecdotally, the energy drink consumption in the Army is out of control. I can remember people literally ordering pallets of Monster to show up on training exercises. Nicotine too. It's not uncommon to see someone wi…

> I can remember people literally ordering pallets of Monster to show up on training exercises. What like as a replen demand? Aren't they restricted to using issued rations on an exercise? And how are they getting them deployed?

> Aren't they restricted to using issued rations on an exercise?

That and what you can manage to bring with you.

Back when I was in the infantry you carried whatever you took to the field so we tended to pack light(ish). I used to take a little camp stove so I could have hot coffee in the morning and other people would pack stuff like ramen or whatever.

Even when we were living in holes ~1km off the Iraqi border they managed to get us cigarettes though that's not one of the "issued rations"...also pretty sure that's when I got that camp stove so other things were possible. Before that, when we were staying is some dilapidated warehouse in Saudi, they had pallets of Pepsi get delivered on a regular basis for the chow hall.

On my last trip to Iraq they had pretty much whatever you wanted at the PXs and we (civilian contractor types) used to smuggle a bunch of canned drinks out of the chow halls instead of buying them but don't really remember if they had energy drinks in the coolers since that's not my thing.

Think I got a bit rambley there...

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#26

Post by brom2 »

andai wrote: post #21
brom2 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've stopped drinking coffee as it would frequently give me anxiety and sometimes panic attacks. I now drink tea or water at work. However, I still need to work harder on cutting down on sugar.

I suspected coffee was giving me anxiety which bordered on paranoia. I stopped drinking coffee and it went away immediately. A week later (today) I had a cup to see how I'd respond. Severe anxiety came back within half an hour. Very interesting.

I found that small amounts of alcohol have a similar effect. Keep drinking though and the depressant effects then start to kick in and the anxiety/paranoia subsides.

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#27

Post by [deleted] »

UncleEntity wrote: post #25
chrisseaton wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can remember people literally ordering pallets of Monster to show up on training exercises. What like as a replen demand? Aren't they restricted to using issued rations on an exercise? And how are they getting them deployed?

> Aren't they restricted to using issued rations on an exercise? That and what you can manage to bring with you. Back when I was in the infantry you carried whatever you took to the field so we tended to pack light(ish). I used to take a little camp stove so I could have hot coffee in the morning and other people would pack stuff like ramen or whatever. Even when we were living in holes ~1km off the Iraqi border they…

[deleted]

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#28

Post by danielrhodes »

Would this even be a story if people were drinking coffee instead? The active ingredient in Red Bull is caffeine. Yet a cup of coffee has more caffeine than a Red Bull. Their marketing has been very effective in convincing people that energy drinks are more than just a caffeinated drink with a bunch of other chemicals that don’t really work. Because of that, people vilify these various drinks, and now we get an article telling us that the drinks are contributing to PTSD, instead of the obviously greater contributing factor: being in a war zone under constant threat of death.

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#29

Post by UncleEntity »

emersonrsantos wrote: post #9

The current facts about coffee and sugar are the following: drinking coffee is good for your mental and physical, while sugar is linked to depression, addiction, anxiety, heart problems, obesity and not surprisingly, PTSD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4522929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4086302/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5056806/

Pretty sure my (alleged) PTSD is from the stress of war and almost getting blown up a couple times (well, driving into a major ambush and getting a piece of shrapnel bounced off my helmet probably didn't help either) and not from my previous copious consumption of sugary caffeinated drinks.

Re: The military’s obsession with energy drinks is contributing to PTSD

#30

Post by TN1ck »

maxxxxx wrote: post #20
emersonrsantos wrote: post #9

The current facts about coffee and sugar are the following: drinking coffee is good for your mental and physical, while sugar is linked to depression, addiction, anxiety, heart problems, obesity and not surprisingly, PTSD: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4522929/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4086302/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5056806/

From personal experience I'd say coffee is not always good for your mental state. If I drink a cup every day for a week I get into a constant state of anxiety and nervousness. I also get dizzy during workouts. I also can tell when my girlfriend had coffee because she will be much more combative in discussions. As with a lot of other things observe yourself and don't blindly trust studies. even if the study finds posi…

I have similar symptoms when drinking coffee - although they kind of emerged. I’m drinking decaf coffee now, which tastes good enough for me to create the joy of a morning cup. I’m asking myself though, if this effect of caffeine has other reasons.
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