I don't drink coffee, can't stand the taste. I take a caffeine pill in the morning to wake me up, that is if I slept. It is equal to 2 cups of coffee. I'm on lithium and it doesn't give me the shakes but if I have too much it does make me sick to my stomach.

Starbucks or any coffee makes me jumpy, but I have to tell ya I love it and I'm on Lithium. whoo hoo!!!

i can only handel maybe two cups of coffee a day, only if they're spread out over a few hours. other wise, they make me tooo anxious.
plus, i put a ton of sugar in there, so sometimes just one will upset my tummy.

I must have my two or three cups of coffee and exedrin along with my morning meds. If not I have a mother of a headache and feel like a sloth all day.

I've gotten to the point, I'll take the good with the bad. lol

mostly, in the morning before i leave for whateer it is i have to do that day, i just listen to happy music and smoke cigerettes.
i have tried the diet pills that give you energy, but had to stop after one day when i though i was going to have a heart attack.

hi - dont know if this helps but if i drink coffee even the 'builers stuff' i go onto such a great high I really enjoy it! i love costa chocolate bucket size - yum yum it does bring you down with a crash though

maybe, just maybe, our doctors should get together with all the starbucks in the world. then we could order an antidepressant cafe moca.

Since I've been unemployed (again, I'm not BITTER!!) I have been drinking 3 cups in the morning and 1 cup at around 8pm. For some reason it's doing NOTHING. Not even tremors from my Lithium.

I don't drink coffee, but I'm addicted to caffiene via Pepsi. I can go off it, but I get DTs of tons of hunger, sleepiness, irritablity...you name it. My doc thinks that I have been self medicating with the soda to just bring myself up since I'm BP2...she said if it wasn't for that, I probably wouldn't be able to function well thanks to my depression.

Go figure.

I stick to de-caff but my psych said it's ok to restrict drinking normal coffee to mornings only.Not too late in the day.

JenMarie - lmao

ask your p-doc. i was told not to drink coffee or caffeine of any kind because it interferes with the meds for bipolar.

Thank god I hate coffee....my mum always smelled like coffee when I was a child and I never got over that...oh yeah, I can't stand my mother and anything associated with her mentally I can't stand either....

I am not a psychiatrist, but I do have an MA in psychology, have read tremendously about BP (out of self-interest and trying to fix myself), and I know how to read a psych study for reliability and validity.

I personally have not had problems with caffeine, but I ingest a lot, and everyday, so I think it's a natural chemical in my body at this point. YMMV.

"Caffeine may contribute to agitation, irritability, and, possibly, interfere with antipsychotic medications. On the other hand, caffeine can markedly elevate blood levels of antipsychotic medications, increasing the probability of adverse effects. The possible mechanism explaining this finding is that caffeine and antipsychotic medications both compete for metabolism at the hepatic P-450 isoenzyme system. Patients with bipolar disorder are at risk for an exacerbation of manic symptoms when they consume large amounts of caffeine. This is due both to its direct psychostimulant properties and secondary to increase renal excretion of lithium."

That's from http://www.emedicine.com/med/topic3115.htm

The author seems reliable: R Gregory Lande, DO, FACN, Clinical Consultant, Army Substance Abuse Program, Department of Psychiatry, Walter Reed Army Medical Center

The webpge does not have sources, but his CV suggests he's done a tremendous amount of research. Read it, and take from it what you wish.

Its all good in moderation.