Theanine Puns

My anxiety was always high. Rapid thoughts, hypochondria, health anxiety, social anxiety, irrational fear, panic attacks.

I lot of the techniques that are recommended didn't really help me so I tried supplements and nootropics.

Last year after I got rid of my (winter/seasonal depression by supplementing magnesium (200 mg a day) and vitamin D (6.000 I. U. a day) daily I started to wonder if there is something that can help with my anxiety.

I discovered L Theanine. It's naturally occurring and comes from the green tea plant. This amino acid stimulates the neurotransmitter GABA which is responsible for relaxation and feeling clarity. Theanine induces Alpha waves in the brain that can be measured. Alpha waves indicate that you're in a relaxed state of mind. Alpha waves can also be induced by meditation. Very skilled and experienced meditators have more frequent alpha waves throughout the day showing why meditation is useful even for the time when you're not doing it.

I now take 100 to 200 mg of L Theanin one hour before I have a social event or job interview, dentist visit or other things that seem intimidating. The anxiety I usually feel in those moments is just gone. I can't believe it. Yesterday I had a job interview and I wasn't excited at all. I thought I would be a anxious, stuttering and shaking. I took only 100 mg of l Theanine which works great for me. I was confident, funny and charming I felt like a different person. I guess this is what normal people feel like. When the anxiety was gone my true personality came out. I turned down so many opportunities in the past because of fear. Giving presentations in school or trade school /college etc. Reading out loud in class which was a nightmare for me. Social interactions that always seems awkward and cringe worthy. All of that is gone now when I take L Theanine. I feel like I can make new carrier choices that I didn't see myself in. I can talk to people. I'm not saying L Theanine is a miracle but this is what I needed. If I had this sooner I would probably be financially stable by now. The studies back this up. Theanine inhibits cortical neuron excitation which reduces stress, and anxiety related symptoms. It reduces anxiety and anxiety related symptoms like increased secretion of immunoglobulin A in saliva. The studies can be found on PubMed.

Now I will try combining L Theanin with caffeine. This randomized placebo controlled trial shows :

"The L-theanine and caffeine combination improved bo

I've had a passing interest in mind enhancing supplements, in particular to help me with a mild to moderate case of social anxiety.

A couple weeks ago a post and it's discussion on this sub led me to look for L-Theanine, which was found at reasonable price and availability at a nearby heath store.

The results are remarkable, at least in my case. The supp I'm taking includes magnesium and a few other herbs, and the dosage was 2/day, and found it to be calming to the point that my thinking process seems to have improved and my fear of social situations is diminished, and my general anxiety is lessened significantly. I've experimented with taking additional single pill doses about 6 hours later and finding a more consistent effect that remains throughout the day. My energy levels are better as well.

I just wanted to thank this sub and whoever made that post.

I must preface this by saying that I am not a medical professional or researcher in any way, shape or form.

This has been my anecdotal experience from stacking 2000mg / 2g of Taurine with 100mg of Modafinil for the past 1 week and a half.

Is the timeline short? Yes. But compared to L-Theanine, there is a noticeable difference. I did not experience any recognizable benefit with L-Theanine.

For individuals with mild anxiety, racing thoughts, or coffee jitters, try Taurine.

The ingredient is commonly found in energy drinks like Redbull and Monster

L theanine helps me a lot. So are there any other supplements which reach the same areas in your brain to reduce anxiety and make you more relaxed and clear headed ? Magnesium glycinate and Ashwagandha made me more anxious somehow

I’d like to start with a disclaimer and say I know L-Theanine has helped a TON of people, so if it works for you, then keep taking it. But what I want to get across is that everyone touts L-Theanine like it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread, like it’s a miracle product that works wonders for everybody. If you do research on this stuff it is damn near impossible to find the side effects because everyone just says there are none. That may be the case for some people, but it definitely is possible to feel side effects. I think people fail to understand that everyone is different, and that what is amazing for one person can be detrimental for another. Personally when I take L-Theanine, especially 200mg or more, I feel lethargic, weak, pressure in my head and headaches, sleepy, I feel drunk, my appetite is ruined, it literally feels like my entire brain just shuts off. I’ve never taken benzos but I assume it would feel something like L-Theanine (to a greater extent of course). Again, I know this stuff has done great things for some people, I’m not saying it’s a horrible thing, I’m just saying it shouldn’t be marketed as some miracle product that’s perfect in every way.

Forgive me English is not my strong suit. As someone that suffers with social anxiety disorder I have been taking l-theanine for 3 years. At first I experimented with 100-200mg and felt no results. I bumped it up to 500mg and felt little or no affect. It wasn't until I bumped it up to 1 full gram, per day in the morning, that I felt the effects. I was on 1 gram a day (unless I was planning on staying home) for a year. After the first year I got curious and decided to increase the dose to 2 grams a day! The affect was even more pronounced. I would say that l-theanine decreases my anxiety by 20% Take that with a grain of salt because it is hard to quantify fear. I simply recommend to anyone that has tried l-theanine before at a low dose and felt no effects to consider increasing the dose to 1 or 2 grams. I have read online that one can gain a tolerance to l-theanine but I personally have not noticed this. As a side benefit, l-theanine really helps with my meditation and focus too! Anxiety can be such a damper of background stress that it makes long-term focus difficult. Good luck and thank you for coming to my Ted talk.

edit: I'm having a laugh. People are complementing my English which is my first and only language. I only meant I'm bad at writing, my strong suit is math. xD

I have been dealing with anxiety and insomnia for years, which really held me back from becoming better and achieving so many things. I tried tons of ways to help myself but to no avail. I try to get better, but end up going back to how it used to be, like a shitty cycle that keeps me from healing.

I was actually contemplating using CBD as I scrolled on different subreddits like r/EmergingTherapies, r/microdosing, r/CBD and several more subreddits focused on alternative therapies. That’s how I came across a post about someone’s experience with l-theanine and how it helped with their anxiety.

When I started, I got l-theanine pills (100 mg a pill), and it took at least two weeks before I started to feel changes. The effects started as subtle, but there is a noticeable decrease, which really convinced me that this might actually help me with my problems.

I have been using it for several months now and while I can’t say that I am completely healed, it has been helping me so much. Also it helped me sleep soundly at night. I don’t wake up at random hours and find it difficult to sleep again.

I’m actually planning to up the dose but I’ve been told that I shouldn’t do that so hastily so I just take green tea as I use it.

i need something to calm me down, lower my anxiety (preferably also depression) and perhaps even help me sleep better. would l-theanine do it? do i have to take with coffee? what were your experiences?

What have you guys found to be the optimal way to consume coffee (caffeine) and L-Theanine together?

Coffee usually raises my anxiety levels and causes GI discomfort but I’ve found that green tea doesn’t have that effect. I was thinking of taking a 200mg L-Theanine supplement and drink a coffee and see what the effects are. Caffeine has a half life longer than L-Theanine so should I space out 2 200mg L-Theanine doses through the day or would 1 be enough?

Update: I took the 200mg L-Theanine about 5 minutes before having a coffee this morning and there was a noticeable difference in the effect of the caffeine. I felt a lot calmer and more of a clear focus whereas usually with coffee I feel jittery and it’s hard to focus on a singular task. The calming effect started to wear off at about 3 or so hours in and I felt low level anxiety for the next couple hours. I’m thinking maybe I should split the L-Theanine dose in half and take 1 100mg when I drink the coffee and the next 100mg 3 hours later....

Anybody have any reason not to take this during the day for anxiety while tapering ? Thoughts would be appreciated !

In your opinion do you prefer Magnolia or L-Theanine’s anxiolytic effects

i’m new to nootropics and have seen studies and anecdotal stories here on their effects with GAD and other types of anxiety such as panic attacks and disorder, but i’ve seen people on this sub saying one doesn’t work for them but then they always mention the other substance out of the two i’ve named in most cases that i’ve seen here.

That being said, which one do you prefer for its anxiolytic effects? If you find another noot to be better for you, you can list that also.

Thanks for the responses

edit: try and list dosage if you can

I ordered a caffeine/l-theanine supplement from Nootropics Depot on Amazon. As soon as I opened the bottle I was hit with a really strong stench. The best way I can describe it a strong vinegar smell, mixed with the smell of paint. The smell isn't going away.

Is this normal? I've tried a couple of the capsules now and they were fine. It's just really weird. Could this happen from being left out in the heat for too long? It's been quite hot out recently so maybe it was sitting out in the heat at the warehouse or something.

FWIW, the packaging envelope was also opened when I found it at my door yesterday but the bottle was still sealed.

27f Has anyone experienced severe nausea from l-theanine? I started putting maybe 1/8-1/4 teaspoon of it in each of my two half cups each day. I started doing this maybe a week ago. Starting yesterday or maybe the day before, I've been violently dry-heaving and can't eat anything. It doesn't feel like just a stomach bug so I can't think of anything else that would cause this. Anyone else have a negative experience with it?

I started taking it a few weeks ago for focus and overall mood, and did notice a difference. Wondering if others have experienced better effects with meals or without.

If you tried please let me know, I have some but have yet to take it because anxiety sucks and I worry lol. But also while you are here if you recommend anything else Aswell let me know. Thanks!

Are these known side effects of taking l theanine? I took 400mg yesterday with my coffee and 200 today and have been feeling very flat, down, quick to get angry and irritable. It's miserable. I'm just wondering if it could be the culprit bc I am still waiting on a refill for a different med I take and started a new one for sleep as well so I'm not 100%

Final Edit:

Everything below is pretty much an assault of anecdotal observances and hasty guesses, that don't confirm any part of the title of this post. Please do not read into it too deeply. I am going to leave it all up, however, because it pretty accurately shows the evolution of my thought process, my anxieties, and eventual abandonment of the original concept.

I don't believe this post adheres to enough scientific rigor to be taken very seriously, but I do believe it serves as a good example of the dangers of assumptions and a haste to jump to conclusions.

I am left with various curiosities that I will chase out in my own time, slowly and thoroughly, while spending time to search through the literature thoroughly as well.

Thank you all for listening to my rambles, and like I said -- I only hope that this wall of text serves as an illustration of my thought process, and that the flaws in my logic can stay on display for others to learn from as well.

My key take-aways from the entire experience have been:

Desloratadine's strange pharmacological profile (variety of enzymatic inhibition, TCA structure, etc)

Anti-histamine's possible interactions with Nicotine (anecdotal personal experience from myself and another redditor, and this single study from 1985)

A desire to learn more about glutamate and histamine linkage

.....and the knowledge that, as much as I love it, it's probably time to stop smoking cigarettes.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT: I should note, I am not asking for advice/medical advice at all. I am simply sharing the detailed series of events that lead to me digging a bit deeper into glutamate and the aforementioned compounds.

EDIT #2: I forgot to mention that I had been regularly applying triamcinolone (synthetic steriod) cream during these times. Not on ambulance day, but on the days after that (Rx'd for my worsening contact dermatitis). Turns out, desloratadine moderately inhibits some enzymes that are responsible for the urinary excretion of a variety of compounds, such as steroids, drugs...read the list here on the wiki.

Updates @ the bottom.

Hey y'all!

I am by no means a professional, and all of my limited knowledge of pharmacology is purely what I have managed to amass via reading through pharma literature in my spare time. I love

hope this is a good place to ask. i love caffeine and stimulants but i don’t like some parts like the jitters and overstimulation. i’ve heard good things about l-theanine/caffeine combo. i know there are pills and powders that i could take but i enjoy energy drinks and was wondering which are the best ones that also contain l-theanine. preferably one i can buy in a store, not just online. thank you!

Just curious (the walmart brand i bought I would take up to 700mg and felt nothing) if possibly getting it from somewhere like nootropic dep. would be more potent? Or does this substance just not effect me personally

Lions Maine and Rhodilia have been recommended. I just bought the former and used the latter last night. I would appreciate the support.

Edit: To be clear, the adderall is a necessity and worsens the neuropathy. I wanted to make sure I included it as a detail.

Hi all, I would like to remove brain fog, be more alert, more relaxed and social. Would this combination work for me or would my brain explode?

If yes, what's the best brand? I am just about done with a bottle from N e w t r o p i c s D e p o t, the only one I've ever purchased.

First, let me intro with my experiences of L-Theanine with other substances.

Coffee

I've been taking small doses of L-Theanine mixed into my morning coffee for a couple of months now. I usually put about 15mg (yes, that low) directly into a double espresso latte.

The 15mg rides the line of making my coffee experience anxiety and jittery free on one side, but almost non existent with no mood boost on the other. Also, I uses coffees to help me shit and too much L-Theanine prevents this. This dose gives me a good mix of both. Sometimes I'll take more L-Theanine if I don't feel like I need the mood or energy boost ftom coffee in the morning (rare).

I'll also take 200mg of L-Theanine before bed if I feel I need to calm down. Strikingly, that seems to leave enough L-Theanine in me to make my coffee dampered the next morning. L-Theanine's effects seems to taper over 2 days for me.

Alcohol

I noticed these effects when I started taking 200mg of L-Theanine towards the end of the day to promote better sleep.

When drinking after taking that much L-Theanine, it greatly reduces the nice buzzed feeling of alcohol for me. The first time this happened I didn't know why and just thought I was extra tolerant of alcohol that night. Like, twice as tolerant. So I kept drinking.

Well, the next day I slept next to the toilet for 8 hours, curled up, shivering and vomiting the whole time.

It wasn't until the next time I drank that I realized something was up with the combo. There was a drastic effect on the good buzzy feeling if I took L-Theanine recently.

Weed

Enter weed and testing its effects with L-Theanine.

Typically, I straight up just don't smoke anymore. The combination of it making me sleepy and foggy the next day mixed with the extreme paranoia I get makes it worthless to me. Even though I enjoy its other properties.

However, after seeing how it worked with coffee and alcohol I couldn't help but ponder how it interacted with weed, anxiety and my paranoia.

I've been testing but still need to do more. What I've found is that if I take 200mg 30 minutes before I smoke, I can smoke a low to medium amount (half a small bowl?) and not get paranoid. This might seem dismissable due to the amount, but I guarantee you this is a huge difference for me.

I need to test more and am waiting for days to line up where the negative sides of weed won't ruin my day and next day in case the L-Theanine has been a placebo effect so far.

Does anyone else have experien

I think everyone is praising the stuff that works but rarely i hear follow ups from those people, i want to know If any of these three worked for you, and if YES for how long before you developed tolerance, or you never developed one. Thanks .

I've been taking L-Theanine to smooth out my coffee jitters and anxiety, yet keeping its focus. It works so well I really am amazed at it.

However, I've also noticed when I get drunk these days, I don't get as buzzed of a feeling anymore. Yet at the same time, I seem to start getting the spins much sooner. I've anecdotally tied the differing sensation to L-Theanine as I'm not taking any other new chemical.

It's like if you took the good feeling out of alcohol, stayed more aware, less "drunk" (wobbly, slurring speech etc) yet also made yourself throw up sooner. It really messed me up the first time I drank after starting L-Theanine.

Has anyone else experienced this while taking L-Theanine?

First, thanks to everyone in this sub. This is my first time posting but I've read and learned a lot here.

I've recently started using l-theanine and have had mixed experiences. I've been taking it with one cup of brewed coffee (so ~100 mg caffeine) on an empty stomach.

I tried 200 mg l-theanine first, following the 2:1 ratio frequently mentioned here. It was too much. I felt mentally slow and apathetic for most of the day afterward. I repeated this dose several times over a period of a couple of weeks and had the same experience each time.

100 mg l-theanine with one cup of coffee (so ~1:1 theanine:caffeine) has been somewhat more interesting. On some days, it seems to have had the intended effect and been incredibly helpful. On others, it seemed to induce the same effects as 200 mg did.

I'm fairly small (~130 lbs / 59 kg), so I'm wondering if it's worth trying a smaller dose of l-theanine (e.g., 50 mg). But, I haven't been able to find any capsules with doses lower than 100 mg.

Has anyone else had any luck? I can always go for bulk powder, but the capsules are very convenient. I'd also be interested to hear any experiences people have had using smaller doses of l-theanine.

Thanks!

This is my second day taking them but I'm doing 400 mg of caffeine, 400 Mg of L theanine, 1000 mg of Lion's mane, and 1000 MG of Alcar, all of those spread out over the morning and then in the afternoon. Is that a good stack, I'm going for focus and calm so I can commit to the hours I need every day to finish schoolwork, thanks!

Hey!

I am about to try L-theanine, because I read good things about it. The question I have is whether you recommend taking it with caffeine (as is present in green tea) or without?

If I get L-theanine in capsules, is drinking coffee with it good or should I get caffeine capsules as well?

Thanks.

Mainly due to myself suffering from sleeping problems I am wanting to find solutions. Is this okay to take for the rest of your life, how would you go about taking it for sleep?

Any advice appreciated it as I have been recommended this now a number of times.

Hi folks, I started taking 200mg daily of L-theanine to treat my anxiety, as well as 250mg daily of magnesium.

What I've noticed is that I do the thing I'm anxious about, but I have been getting pretty bad anxiety attacks lately as a result of the exposure therapy in doing these tasks which have caused the stress to begin with.

I used to take it at night, but then could not sleep, so I switched to daytime which has helped a bit.

I have been diagnosed with general anxiety disorder, seasonal depression, and ADHD. I mediate, exercise, journal, you name it, to mitigate my anxiety. COVID has really just ratcheted up everything and I need extra help to get my life on track.

I see a ton of positive reviews on both L-theanine and magnesium and honestly just want to know if I should keep taking this or switch to something else. At this point, it has been three weeks of taking it.

Thank you!

TL;DR: anxious person with ADHD thinks L-theanine is making their anxiety more extreme.

I have almost crippling ADHD. Ginkgo and ginseng seemed to trigger episodes of hyperfocus that killed my ability to multitask, which is crucial for my job. Ginkgo and L-Theanine with caffeine feels nice and preserves my ability to juggle multiple tasks, but isn't helping me focus.

Would stacking all three have advantages, would it lead to too much of some chemical, or would it be redundant?

Edit: I know meds would be best for a case like this, but I can't get them at the moment.

If you're unaware, it's a natural amino acid found in green tea, and it's supposed to be the ultimate coffee enhancer.

see articles like: https://misiahb.medium.com/how-l-theanine-will-change-your-morning-coffee-forever-9768a4f9ceea

Any thoughts on the combo?

It's nice, I feel nice. A lifting energetic relaxation, very mild impairment. Stress is all gone. I took

• 3g kratom

• 25g kava

• 1g valerian root

• 0.4 g theanine

Since kratom lasts the longest of these the comedown is super smooth. Anyone else like this combo? Any suggestions for additions or substitutions? I know I need to be careful with kratom.

I just started taking this and the results have been remarkable. Better sleep, and more relaxed mentally and physically! I am ready to go off the Wellbutrin!

How probable is it to take low dose (50mg/day) l-theanine for the long haul? It has pretty much cured my anxiety. I can actually leave the house without feeling like I'm going to have some kind of "episode" while I'm out. It's...amazing and such a gift. Anybody have experience with l-theanine usage like this? I'm hoping to take it regularly for the foreseeable future. Side note I take magnesium glycinate 2x day and 250 mg of inositol with choline once daily.

I just got some of both.

Wondering how much to take and when.

I’m under the impression that we should take Thiamine daily, but L-Theanine only before stressful situations.

Is this wrong? Should L-Theanine also be taken daily to see results?

Cheers guys

I’m looking to try a new brand of l-theanine (just to sample and maybe find even better results) and came across one called sports research, and theirs come in coconut oil.

Is this meant to be a slow release? Or better absorption…?

I currently take only 100mg and theirs is 200mg, I was hoping that coconut oil makes the l-theanine release more slowly so that this higher dose would be spread out more, essentially giving me a longer duration instead of a more intense effect than what I’m used to at 100mg.

Does that make sense at all?

hi everyone

i'm looking for caffeine and l-theanine pills that i can buy for a cheap price in the UK, preferably under £15 and free delievery/cheap.

im looking for something with a high dosage of caffiene too as i have quite a high caffiene tolerence, ive found several retailers on amazon and the ones i'm most interested in buying are from these links.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Caffeine-Theanine-Friendly-Nootropic-Productivity/dp/B083SR3RX7/ref=sr_1_9?crid=B1HOSZV1YRZ4&dchild=1&keywords=caffeine+l-theanine&qid=1625416630&sprefix=caffiene+l-thea%2Caps%2C237&sr=8-9

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B086T3Z4SS/ref=crt_ewc_title_srh_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A355O46ZJP88R6

however im unsure if these are legit and im not sure how to check if they are either. any advice would be most appreciated :)

I have quite severe social anxiety, and I’m wondering which would be better for it. Also, for those that have taken both side-by-side, is there some sort of synergy between the two?

I’m tired of every social interaction I’m faced with being a source of extreme anxiety and self-consciousness. I’m also going to try CBD again, it was quite effective.

Is there a synergistic or beneficial effect of stacking these together? L Theanine is a glutamate antagonist making a higher ratio of GABA hitting receptors to glutamate in the brain. Phenibut is a GABA analogue, so theoretically, taking these both would work synergistically, as the aim is to increase GABA as much as possible in the brain for its anxiolytic and mood benefits. Anyone have any insight or experience with this?

Hey all, I’m new to this Reddit. My psychiatrist recommended I try something called L-Theanine to help with my increased anxiety and fears during my PMDD hell weeks. Has anyone had success with this?

I recently purchased 7,8 and have been mixing 50mg of that and 100 mg theanine powder sublingually in the mornings and the effects are definitely noticeable. I’ve been doing so for about 3 weeks I wanted to see if anyone else has tried this 7,8 stuff. It’s nothing crazy, and it may just be placebo, but I feel a definite sense of a calmer mind. Not just free of all wondering thoughts but clearer. I feel like I do have a bit more focus and mental endurance.

What brand and/or where do you guys recommend buying L-theanine?

How does this help with anxiety and other potential issues that arise when having edibles? I'm interested in some anecdotal evidence.

Which type of tea has the most l-theanine and caffeine?

I ordered a caffeine/l-theanine supplement from Nootropics Depot on Amazon. As soon as I opened the bottle I was hit with a really strong stench. The best way I can describe it a strong vinegar smell, mixed with the smell of paint, and it isn't going away.

Is this normal? I've tried a couple of the capsules now and they were fine. It's just really weird. Could this happen from being left out in the heat for too long? It's been quite hot out recently so maybe it was sitting out in the heat at the warehouse or something.

FWIW, the packaging envelope was also opened when I found it at my door yesterday but the bottle was still sealed.

Edit: Lot #: CLTCS1021721A