View entire thread: coffee psychosis
Posted by Anonymous on 2004-12-07 20:53:46 Post Subject: caffeine intoxication
Finally I have found someone else with similar problems with caffeine. I have just resently (three weeks ago) solved my problem with panic disorder and stress. I have been a coffee drinker for 20+ years. I had been successful in my career until nov. 2002 when I had a total hysterectomy. After staying home on leave for 6 weeks i returned to work. Within 2 months I was back on leave with panic disorder and out of work for 6 months. I attempted to return to work several times before I was able to fuction on my job. My husband pampered me with what I loved most - my coffee. I was drinking a pot minus his cup in the morning and at 4 when I came home from work he had another pot waiting. I would drink it up. I also had a co-worker at work who was constantly fixing me coffee because she also knew how much I loved my coffee. I braged on how I could drink a pot and then go right to bed and sleep. From my research i have found that caffeine immunity come before caffeine intoxication. I lost my job, and It has now been 2 years of going to emergency room to doctor to doctor. I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, panic disorder and bi-polar. The only peace I could find was when I was sleeping.... I could not go to the store, work, or drive. I still had my mind and intellegence and often thought it would be better if I went ahead and went crazy. Then I wouldn't know and could at least halfway enjoy life. But I kwen better, I was capable of more. I constantly research panic disorder, thats what my doctor said was wrong. My symptoms didn't quite fit. I started telling my husband and family that they had to get me some help. Life was not worth living. I had always been so independent and now I was so dependant on everybody. I didn't feel like I would kill myself or anybody else, but I was afraid I would break and then I would. They had me admitted to a local mental hospital. When I got to the hospital I could not even talk plain. I slurred and talked like a child. I stayed in the hospital for 7 days and started feeling better. I had took 2 books on panic disorder to the hospital with me. I was reading in one of the books and it stated that if you were diagnosed with panic disorder after the age of 40 to make sure it wasn't something physical mimicking panic disorder. I was not able to drink my coffee while in the hospital because a patient had thrown coffee on another patient and they had removed the coffee pots and access to coffee. I came home from the hospital and immediately started drinkiing my coffee again. When my husband came home from work I was as bad as before I went to the hospital. I even started slurring my speech again and baby talking. I went to the internet and started looking up the diseases listed in the book....nothing fit, except caffeine intoxication. The more I researched the more I found out, but information is very limited and you only find bits of information at a time. I found that it wasn't panic attack that I was having but complex partial seisures (I found the description for that while looking up epilepsy. My symptoms was seisures. That night we went to the grocery store and I picked up a jar of postum- coffee substitute. Yuck! No coffee for me the next day. No seisures, no slurring of speech. I went to my family physician three days later and asked for alergy testing for caffeine. He laughed at me and stated "you can't be alergic to caffeine" and that "caffeine can aggrevate panic and bi-polar but can't cause it. He also gave me a prescription for my newly diagnosed diabetes. That was about three weeks ago. I haven't had anymore coffee, tea, or chocolate except for thanksgiving day when I was so engrossed in watching my sugar I drank about 3 oz of decaf. tea. My symptoms started immediately. I was in the bed for 2 hours. My blood pressure rose, my pulse got faster, my lips went numb and I started couphing and got sensitive to sound. I have now come off of all my medicine including my amaryl for my blood sugar. My sugar had averaged over 200 for the last three months. It averages 110 now. My blood pressure is back down to 120 over 70 and I no longer baby talk , my head is clear and I am ready to find a new career. I can handle stressful sitituations. Four weeks ago I would have thought someone was crazy if they told me to stop my coffee...I loved it. I needed it. Today I love life too much to even try a cup of coffee. Yes! I miss it. But not enough to lose my sanity again. If anyone who reads this is having similar problems, try cutting out the caffeine. If that is your problem you will be able to tell within a couple of days. Oh yeah, cutting back doesn't work if you have developed an allergy you won't be able to tolerate any at all. Hope this helps someone else.
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Posted by Anonymous on 2004-12-07 20:53:46 Post Subject: caffeine intoxication
Finally I have found someone else with similar problems with caffeine. I have just resently (three weeks ago) solved my problem with panic disorder and stress. I have been a coffee drinker for 20+ years. I had been successful in my career until nov. 2002 when I had a total hysterectomy. After staying home on leave for 6 weeks i returned to work. Within 2 months I was back on leave with panic disorder and out of work for 6 months. I attempted to return to work several times before I was able to fuction on my job. My husband pampered me with what I loved most - my coffee. I was drinking a pot minus his cup in the morning and at 4 when I came home from work he had another pot waiting. I would drink it up. I also had a co-worker at work who was constantly fixing me coffee because she also knew how much I loved my coffee. I braged on how I could drink a pot and then go right to bed and sleep. From my research i have found that caffeine immunity come before caffeine intoxication. I lost my job, and It has now been 2 years of going to emergency room to doctor to doctor. I have been diagnosed with high blood pressure, diabetes, panic disorder and bi-polar. The only peace I could find was when I was sleeping.... I could not go to the store, work, or drive. I still had my mind and intellegence and often thought it would be better if I went ahead and went crazy. Then I wouldn't know and could at least halfway enjoy life. But I kwen better, I was capable of more. I constantly research panic disorder, thats what my doctor said was wrong. My symptoms didn't quite fit. I started telling my husband and family that they had to get me some help. Life was not worth living. I had always been so independent and now I was so dependant on everybody. I didn't feel like I would kill myself or anybody else, but I was afraid I would break and then I would. They had me admitted to a local mental hospital. When I got to the hospital I could not even talk plain. I slurred and talked like a child. I stayed in the hospital for 7 days and started feeling better. I had took 2 books on panic disorder to the hospital with me. I was reading in one of the books and it stated that if you were diagnosed with panic disorder after the age of 40 to make sure it wasn't something physical mimicking panic disorder. I was not able to drink my coffee while in the hospital because a patient had thrown coffee on another patient and they had removed the coffee pots and access to coffee. I came home from the hospital and immediately started drinkiing my coffee again. When my husband came home from work I was as bad as before I went to the hospital. I even started slurring my speech again and baby talking. I went to the internet and started looking up the diseases listed in the book....nothing fit, except caffeine intoxication. The more I researched the more I found out, but information is very limited and you only find bits of information at a time. I found that it wasn't panic attack that I was having but complex partial seisures (I found the description for that while looking up epilepsy. My symptoms was seisures. That night we went to the grocery store and I picked up a jar of postum- coffee substitute. Yuck! No coffee for me the next day. No seisures, no slurring of speech. I went to my family physician three days later and asked for alergy testing for caffeine. He laughed at me and stated "you can't be alergic to caffeine" and that "caffeine can aggrevate panic and bi-polar but can't cause it. He also gave me a prescription for my newly diagnosed diabetes. That was about three weeks ago. I haven't had anymore coffee, tea, or chocolate except for thanksgiving day when I was so engrossed in watching my sugar I drank about 3 oz of decaf. tea. My symptoms started immediately. I was in the bed for 2 hours. My blood pressure rose, my pulse got faster, my lips went numb and I started couphing and got sensitive to sound. I have now come off of all my medicine including my amaryl for my blood sugar. My sugar had averaged over 200 for the last three months. It averages 110 now. My blood pressure is back down to 120 over 70 and I no longer baby talk , my head is clear and I am ready to find a new career. I can handle stressful sitituations. Four weeks ago I would have thought someone was crazy if they told me to stop my coffee...I loved it. I needed it. Today I love life too much to even try a cup of coffee. Yes! I miss it. But not enough to lose my sanity again. If anyone who reads this is having similar problems, try cutting out the caffeine. If that is your problem you will be able to tell within a couple of days. Oh yeah, cutting back doesn't work if you have developed an allergy you won't be able to tolerate any at all. Hope this helps someone else.
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