Anxiety? Caffiene? Something else? Help.

[Varjo]

Alright, so it all started a bit less then a month ago now.
I had just come back from holiday, during that holiday I spend pretty much everyday drinking or being high. On the first day back my friends forced me to go out with them drinking again, so I did eventhough I was starting to feel worried about how much I could take (my holiday was only a week btw).

The next day I woke up feeling a little anxious about going back to school, and my relationship with this girl. I decided to brush the feelings away and went to take my dose of coffee (I've been addicted to coffee for over a year, have basically not gone a day without a strong dose of it) and meanwhile wrote down my feelings and I felt a lot better and no longer anxious. After a serval hours the coffee withdrawal started hitting me and I started to feel a bit lightheaded, this happens to me often after drinking strong coffee once the withdraw comes. I've suffered minor panic attacks and almost fainted before when drinking strong coffee and coming down from it. But this has only happened three times in my life.

But this time the lightheadness got really intense so I ended up freaking out, having a massive panic attack which increased my heartrate by a lot and ended up having to force myself to fall asleep to get over it.

However when I woke up it was not gone, my heart was still beating rapidly and I was still scared. This lasted for days afterwards, but it started to slowly go away so I decided my body was just in shock because of the attack, and in a bit over a week.. all the symptoms where gone. I was no longer anxious, no more headaches, I felt completely good but just concerned that it'd be back.

However after having no signs of it being back for a while, I decided to take some caffeine again. All of the sudden, a couple of hours later I could feel my head getting lightheaded again and my heartrate start to speed up. I felt extreamly stupid, I didn't have another attack this time but just started to feel really anxious.

Well that was a week ago, the whole week I've been feeling really scared and out of this reality type of feeling. I've been missing school because of it too because it's been too hard to concentrate and I often feel like I'm going to go into panic in school, my heart rate seems to be not so rapid anymore but a bit irregular and increases quite often randomly, my blood pressure is quite high. My head feels like there's pressure in it constantly and I get these slight pains every now and then, intense light also irritates my eyes. Its always worse in the morning, but I feel better at night.

Is this all due to anxiety? Does caffeine have something to do with this? Can it really cause my body to go into panic for a week?

I'm extremely confused, and getting worried as I really need to get back to my studies and need to be able to concentrate again. I feel like I could be fine if only this pressure and tension in my head would go away, It's hard to explain to anyone why I'm missing class when I'm not ill but constantly feel like I should be resting and taking it easy. Class stresses me a lot and my heart rate always increases in class, so I really don't know what to do.

[joysaleh]

i love coffee and i have generalised anxiety for 15 years with episodes of panic attack and situational phobia that said u know i m talking from my experience.

caffeine is a neurostimulant which means it stimulates the nervous system unlike alcohol which is the opposite anway cafeeine by itself is healthy within moderate doses most sources agree on not more then 4 cups but knowing cofee each cup can be single shot or 4shots so basically the strength is what counts.
i dont know which type of coffee u drink but instant cofee make it difficult to know how much caffeine u r taking beside it has higher acidity level.
bear with me, coffee cause anxiety and it may even cause sypstoms thats similar to panic attacks such as palpitations.if u r prone to any of this as u mentioned u are having anxiety which u r making worse by consuming coffee as u say a very strong coffee.
in my case one to two cups of cofee with good diet are ok but if i m under more stress like when i was in college and i have exams which i suffred phobia from along with panic attacks i switch to decaf which is tough because i have headache due to cafeeine withdrawel but i take one tablet for headache the first few days and manage after all its just till the exam is over.i had done that for 3 years stop before exams and it eased my anxiety so i can focus better and i avoided panic attacks cause my phobia was undercontrol.
that was my experince my advice to u is just mederate your caffeine in take keep it a cup or two a day beside take it bit diluted after u do that u will know if really have anxiety or suffer panic attacks if so u can deal with that keeping moderation as a rule.
hope u start feeling better soon.

[jusroc]

some people can be extremely sensitive to caffeine. Caffeine stimulates the release of stress hormones into the blood stream.

This is OK for many people, however some people already have high levels of stress hormones in their blood stream and extra stress hormones released into their blood stream due to the consumption of caffeine can escalate their stress hormone levels to an unbearable degree which ultimately results in a freak out for that individual.

My advise is to stay clear of caffeine altogether. It really screws you up and if you continue to use large amounts of caffeine so that you live your life in a constant over stressed condition, then, you could eventually do damage to parts of your brain that deal with the release of the stress hormones and end up becoming permanently ill. (although, for this to happen, you generally have to be exposed to high levels of stress hormones for years).

If you know that you have a sensitivity to caffeine, then just stop drinking coffee and other drinks that have caffeine in their ingredients.

It sounds like you are very young, so if you sort out your diet at this stage, you will have a good chance of avoiding these types of problems later on in your life.

Avoid Caffeine as a preventative measure.
As, I can assure you, having an anxiety disorder can really screw up your life.
Limit your employment opportunities.
Ruin your relationships.
Ruin your social life.
Even ruin sex.

As, not many people like anxious people around, as people with anxiety disorders can be hard work to deal with at times, as they can get stressed out very quickly.

So, if you can avoid this type of disorder, then do your best too dude.
And if it means avoiding caffeine altogether, then do it. As it may allow you to have a better future.

[worrier123]

after a heavy nights drinking the next day my anxiety levels are way high...i feel more panicy and worried about health issues even more, i also get more pulpitations too which i think is down to the number of jaiger bobs i do and smoking (which consumes red bul) and scares the crap out of me which in tern makes u not be able to think of anything else which makes u worry more ect ect....as for the coffee im not too sure as i dont drink it myself but i do know that alcohole makes anxiety worse!! especially after a week of it ur sure to feel abit crap. where did u go on holiday....just being nosy :)
x

[Terry]

Alright, so it all started a bit less then a month ago now.
I had just come back from holiday, during that holiday I spend pretty much everyday drinking or being high. On the first day back my friends forced me to go out with them drinking again, so I did eventhough I was starting to feel worried about how much I could take (my holiday was only a week btw).

The next day I woke up feeling a little anxious about going back to school, and my relationship with this girl. I decided to brush the feelings away and went to take my dose of coffee (I've been addicted to coffee for over a year, have basically not gone a day without a strong dose of it) and meanwhile wrote down my feelings and I felt a lot better and no longer anxious. After a serval hours the coffee withdrawal started hitting me and I started to feel a bit lightheaded, this happens to me often after drinking strong coffee once the withdraw comes. I've suffered minor panic attacks and almost fainted before when drinking strong coffee and coming down from it. But this has only happened three times in my life.

But this time the lightheadness got really intense so I ended up freaking out, having a massive panic attack which increased my heartrate by a lot and ended up having to force myself to fall asleep to get over it.

However when I woke up it was not gone, my heart was still beating rapidly and I was still scared. This lasted for days afterwards, but it started to slowly go away so I decided my body was just in shock because of the attack, and in a bit over a week.. all the symptoms where gone. I was no longer anxious, no more headaches, I felt completely good but just concerned that it'd be back.

However after having no signs of it being back for a while, I decided to take some caffeine again. All of the sudden, a couple of hours later I could feel my head getting lightheaded again and my heartrate start to speed up. I felt extreamly stupid, I didn't have another attack this time but just started to feel really anxious.

Well that was a week ago, the whole week I've been feeling really scared and out of this reality type of feeling. I've been missing school because of it too because it's been too hard to concentrate and I often feel like I'm going to go into panic in school, my heart rate seems to be not so rapid anymore but a bit irregular and increases quite often randomly, my blood pressure is quite high. My head feels like there's pressure in it constantly and I get these slight pains every now and then, intense light also irritates my eyes. Its always worse in the morning, but I feel better at night.

Is this all due to anxiety? Does caffeine have something to do with this? Can it really cause my body to go into panic for a week?

I'm extremely confused, and getting worried as I really need to get back to my studies and need to be able to concentrate again. I feel like I could be fine if only this pressure and tension in my head would go away, It's hard to explain to anyone why I'm missing class when I'm not ill but constantly feel like I should be resting and taking it easy. Class stresses me a lot and my heart rate always increases in class, so I really don't know what to do.

Hi there, I drank coffee for years and finally had to quit altogether. I started with anxiety and panic attacks 6 months ago,. It took me 3 months to figure out caffeine wasn't doing me any good, it was making the situation worse. Last week I had two regular coffees in a span of 3 hrs. and ended up calling 911 thinking I was having a heart attack. Heart palpitations, dizzy, headache and head pressure. It was a huge panic attack and I am convinced now I cannot drink coffee anymore. Also alcohol starts up the racing heart for me. I can't even enjoy my wine anymore and if I have more than one glass I wake up in the night with a pounding heart and it lasts for most of the day. I'm not sure what to tell you, except stay away from what you know are triggers. Anxiety sure is a struggle.

[ThePhoenix]

I love my coffee as well but I am careful to avoid it when I am feeling a bit anxious. Caffeine will speed your heart up everytime, if your already feeling a bit edgy it can put you over the edge!