Sculpin

“When adult monkeys that have experienced trauma early in life are given even a small dose of yohimbine, a substance that facilitates the release of norepinephrine from the locus coeruleus and other sites, they exhibit several characteristic symptoms of anxiety and affective disorder shown in laboratory animals and humans with excessive CRF or glucocorticoid secretion. These symptomatic behaviors are not observed in monkeys given the same dosage of yohimbine that did not experience early life trauma. These results have since been replicated in humans.

This is quite interesting because it suggests severe stress experienced early in life can rev up our endocrine and autonomic reponses to future stressors as adults. It also implies that some components of monoamine transmission are permanently altered into adulthood…”

— Mind, Stress, and Emotions by Gene Wallenstein

Well, that certainly could explain my reaction to that yohimbe-containing energy drink I tried a few years ago. That thing put me on Planet Freakout. (And this, friends, is how I learned not to play fast and loose with herbal drugs.) I could hardly believe they sold that stuff in grocery stores. I’d hypothesized it was just an immense load of caffeine that was making me spazz out, but when I looked into it, as I recall, the caffeine turned out not to be all that spectacularly high. I’d wondered about that ever since.

Yohimbe has a reputation in some circles as a mild stimulant and aphrodisiac; it has a reputation in other circles as dangerous, and those are the people I tend to believe. In the doses you’d likely find in an energy drink, I suspect it’s not all that big a deal for most people if they drink it only occasionally. (Many brands may even be perfectly safe, in that they don’t actually contain any measurable yohimbine.) But for some of us, apparently, its effects are unusually dramatic. I plan to avoid the stuff forever.

If you, Gentle Reader, have also had experiences that have led you to be a bit high-strung, you may wish to consider especially carefully before ingesting yohimbe.

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