Matt's Audio Letter of the Week

Hey everyone, welcome to this edition of the Feel Better Letter or the FBL.

This is Matt.

Today, I want to talk about a rather practical idea—something that probably impacts all of us to some degree—and that’s caffeine. Or things like nicotine, and really stimulants in general: energy drinks, all of that.

So, whatever your poison of choice is—or if you don’t engage in any of this, then this probably won’t apply to you much—but assuming some of you drink caffeine, I want to share some thoughts, especially when it comes to anxiety and related issues.

Before we dive in, we ran a live coaching call yesterday for the community where we talked about mindset shifts that enable recovery. I’ve posted the replay access in the email, so you can check that out. We got some really good feedback from people who attended live.

We talked through 12 different points—some surface-level, some deeper—so be sure to check that out when you get a moment.

Now, let’s go ahead and dive into caffeine and stimulants.

One thing I think is important to understand is to begin assessing why you feel drawn to put a particular substance in your body—especially if, intuitively and from a non-emotional place, you believe it may not be serving you.

Take nicotine or cigarettes, for example. Smoking is a great example. There’s really no data out there suggesting it’s good for you. But again, the stimulant often gives you energy, and that’s why people crave it—it lifts your energy.

I’m sure there’s tons of research on this. And look, I drink coffee. I’ll be the first to admit it. I have no issue with it. It’s part of my life, and I enjoy it. That’s a vice I’m happy to hold and not challenge—at least at this point in my life, especially with a 10-month-old.

That said, I do have parameters around how I engage with it. I’ll have a cup in the morning, and maybe another when I get to work—sometimes a decaf or a half-cup, just for the taste. The max I’ll have is two cups a day. And I mean actual mugs—not filling up a 32-ounce thermos and calling that a cup of coffee. I usually stay in the one-to-two-cup range, and I don’t drink any caffeine after that for the rest of the day.

Now, when we’re dealing with OCD, anxiety, depression, or other low-energy states—feeling apathetic, hopeless, shame, guilt—we're naturally going to want to increase our energy state. One way to do that is through the ingestion of stimulants.

This is also why people use harder drugs. Amphetamines, meth, cocaine—these are very high stimulants that lift people into extremely high states of energy temporarily, and then they crash. That drop is what makes them so addictive.

Something like coffee or tea will give you a smaller boost—just enough energy to help you get through what you need to do. So, understanding your draw to it—why am I drawn to this? Why do I like this?—can help you reflect on your relationship with caffeine, coffee, and stimulants in general.

That’s an important question to ask. For me, it’s not so much about energy when it comes to coffee—I genuinely enjoy drinking it. It’s part of my routine. Energy-wise, I don’t feel a big fluctuation if I skip it. I don’t have a crash or anything like that.

But I do think this depends on where you are in your journey. If you’re someone struggling with sleep because of anxiety, and you feel exhausted during the day, then drinking a lot of caffeine is probably not a good idea. Sometimes caffeine can exacerbate symptoms, and if you’re already very resistant to those symptoms, then it’s just going to lead to more suppression and repression.

In my opinion, there’s no absolute right or wrong way to use this stuff—it’s situational. If you enjoy drinking coffee, drink coffee. I don’t think you should avoid it just because you’re afraid it might make you anxious. That could become a compulsion if you’re avoiding something just because you’re afraid of feeling something.

So, it’s important to ask: Are you using this to continually alter your emotional state? Are you masking?

If you’re drinking three or four energy drinks a day, that’s probably not great—not just for your budget, but for your body.

If you enjoy drinking coffee or tea and it’s working for you, great. But if it’s impacting you—if you’re in a phase of life where you’re experiencing a lot of anxiety and want to take a break—that’s fine too.

There’s no direct answer here. The key thing is to ask: Why am I consuming this? Am I running from a particular emotion? Can I sit with that emotion?

Ideally, we want to consume from a place of peace—not as a way to constantly override or escape how we feel.

That’s the central point I want to make today when it comes to caffeine, nicotine, energy drinks—or any substance, really. For those of you who use things that maybe aren’t legal or aren’t talked about as openly, the same question applies: Why are you doing it? What does it give you?

And if your answer is, “It lifts me up,” then ask: Why am I not naturally in a higher state? And if you’re masking an emotion, can you confront it and process it—so you don’t need to artificially override yourself?

It all depends on where you are in your journey and what you’re working on. Once you have clarity on that, you can begin to evaluate your choices and decide what makes sense.

As a general rule, I recommend not ingesting caffeine in the afternoon if you’re aiming for a regular sleep cycle. And I think it’s wise to cap the amount to what feels good for your body and goals.

If you’re constantly ingesting something to get your energy up, it may be time to look deeper and ask what’s keeping you in a low state in the first place.

I hope that makes sense.

I know we bounced around a bit today, but I think the overall message is pretty clear.

I hope it resonates with you.

Wishing you all a great day and a great week.

Talk to you soon.