Coffee overdose

Hi, i am currently working and living in another country and have been rather stressed and anxious to get back home. I was recently visiting another city with some of my work friends, we had been out the night before and got rather drunk and got up early the next day feeling pretty tired and hungover. I did the usual thing and downed a coffee but i felt so bad it had little effect. So about an hour later i bought two small cans of double shot starbucks energy coffe (260mg caffeine in total) then followed about half an hour lter with another large cup of coffee. Later on in the day afetr a beer at lunch time i was starting to feel ok and the hangover had nearly passed but i was still very weary. I ad another coffee just to smooth things out.. This is when things started going bad. I was watching a street performer juggling and entertainging quite a large crowd of people... i suddenly had the urge to get away from it all, i felt slightly sick and my heart stared beating fast.. all the symptoms of a panic attack. I felt detatched and scared to death. The peak of the attack only lasted about 10 minutes but the resiual effects lasted hours.. The next day when i woke up after a restless sleep i thought i was ok, but as soon as i went out forbreakfast with friends i started to feel very uneasy. This happened about two weeks ago and im still feeling the residual effects. I have all bu self diagnosed myself with a panic disorder afetr extensive research. But today on thinking back to when the initial attack occured i have found there are links to a caffeinism and anxiety disorders. Id just like to know if just stopping my caffeine intake wll bring me back down to earth. I just wanna be my old self again. Im a musician and normally very social but now i fear just going to the pub for a quiet beer in the fear that i will have another attack. And id like to avoid any medications that may turn me into a social zombie..
  sorry about the length of my rant, any medical advice would be greatly appreciated. Im 24 years old and in reasonable health(slightly overweight) Another note i should mention.. between 16-22 i was a habitual pot smoker and stopped when i had a severe panic attack induced by friends having a huge argument... i had very similar symptoms to my coffee episode. Im totally awar that panic attacks are harmless. I have researched a lot..bless the internet..
  Thanks., benny tee

[sumihari]

Hi,

It is possible that you had a bit too much coffee to drink that day but it is quite possible something else could have precipitated the panic attack. Perhaps you might have been breathing a bit more fast as you were concentrating on the performance which can give anxiety symptoms . Then when you realised you had these feelings and wanted to get away, you added fuel to your anxiety and created panic of course. That is why I feel coffee alone may have not been the culprit.

Having said that, some people feel fine after drink 5-6 cups of strong coffee per day. I have 2 friends who just have to drink 1 cup of coffee and say they feel anxious and their heart is racing and that they feel anxious the whole day. Personally, my limit is around 2-3 coffees. If it is strong coffee , just 1 per day is fine. I feel very depressed if I don't drink any coffee so for me it is about finding that balance and it changes from one day to another.

So perhaps, you could experiment, go off all caffeine for 2 weeks if you can. You could get withdrawal symptoms like headaches sometimes but then gradually re introduce the caffeine and see what level works best for you. This is what my doctor suggested to me many years back.  You could perhaps ask your doctor next time you see them , if they have any strategies.

Good luck.

Sumi