October 11
Creatine and Anxiety?
It is becoming more common to hear of people experiencing anxiety, depression, edginess, and temper flare-ups after taking creatine supplements. Is this coincidence or is there a dark side to creatine?
Luckily for all you budding bodybuilders and athletes there has been no scientific link between creatine and the anxiety attacks some people are experiencing. All we know for sure is that creatine can cause diarrhea in some cases. During the loading phase it can be easy to overload your intestines which is the cause of this diarrhea.
So what about the emotional side effects? Well there is some anecdotal evidence, in one case, a man reported taking 6-8 grams/day of creatine for about a year with no problems other than occasional diarrhea. He stopped working out and taking creatine for about 6 months while recovering from rotator cuff surgery. When he returned to his previous workout-creatine regimen, he experienced anxiety attacks: “…I found that within 2 hours after I took 6-8 g of creatine I began to get depressed and anxious but on the days that I forgot to take creatine I was fine. I have since cut back my creatine intake to 3-4 g every other day…and I am no longer experiencing anxiety attacks.”
The truth is however that creatine has no scientifuc link to any amotional symptoms or problems and these cases are by far in the minority. So if you are supplementing with creatine no need to worry but best to be aware of how you are feeling to ensure you have no side effects.
Related posts:
You absolutely need to be concerned about dehydration when taking creatine. In terms of anxiety – you could get anxiety from the constant worry about not drinking enough water and this could lead to some potential health problems. Creatine when administered correctly is safe- you just have to be careful.
I experience serious anxiety heart palitations and sleep
apnea, also insomnia. It was 100 recent
to do with creatine. It would only hapen on the
nights that I took creatine on the day.
Sometimes I would wait months , no symptoms
then I would try creatine again and the same symptoms
would happen. I think it has caused long term damage .
Not worth it. Stick to just protein
I experience serious anxiety heart palitations and sleep
apnea, also insomnia. It was 100 recent
to do with creatine. It would only hapen on the
nights that I took creatine on the day.
Sometimes I would wait months , no symptoms
then I would try creatine again and the same symptoms
would happen. I think it has caused long term damage .
Not worth it. Stick to just protein shakes
Holy moly I never thought creatine had this much of an effect on anxiety. I had heard that Kava and other substances could. Wow, I’ll be staying away from creatine now.
this is completely true for me. i’ve been getting feelings of anxiety and lots of negative thoughts/emotions after consumption of 20g. i only came across this website because i googled it, as i was wondering if i was the only one, and apparantly i’m not. incredible..
trust me, this is real.. i feel it right now
It’s 3AM here and several hours early for me to be up (obviously!). Waking up in the middle of the night has not been an issue for me in a very long time. Sure, I’ve been woken by unusual loud noises, but have always been able to fall back to sleep almost immediately. Not this time.
Trying to return to sleep was at first difficult and quickly became impossible due to an unshakeable anxiety. I felt overwhelmed with a floating fear that raised my heart rate and roused me from bed to find some outlet for this level of unwanted, negative energy. So here I am.
I haven’t felt this level of anxiety since my return from a trip to SE Asia (I live in western Canada) early last year that saw me suffer midnight panic attacks for over a week. Finally I surrendered due to the lack of sleep and visited the medical clinic to complain of my symptoms. The doc prescribed some Ativan, which fortunately helped to quell the anxiety the next few times it struck. Finally it went away. My guess there was that a combination of dehydration (despite hot temps I didn’t drink much water) and jet lag conspired to mess my wiring up.
This time around, the past few months have been uneventful and very routine. The major break from that routine started yesterday morning when I began loading Creatine *and* increased water consumption. The only symptom I noticed til then was an need to piss (every couple of hours). I had loaded 20g.
I’m going to scale it back to 5g servings first thing in the morning, right before my workout, and see how that serves. Apparently loading only helps to speed up creatine saturation in muscle tissue, which will happen with lower, single daily doses albeit take a bit more time. After this ‘morning’s rude psychological awakening, I can definitely wait!
Hopefully anyone else who notices these symptoms is able to allay them quickly.