• The Dark Side 💕 Welcome Guest 💕
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    Notable Threads Urgent Hotlines
    Bereavement Mindfulness
    Suicide Support Anger Management
  • TDS Moderators: AlphaMethylPhenyl | paranoid android

Severe caffeine sensitivity?

I've always been somewhat sensitive to coffee (even more than pure caffeine pills). It makes me really wired/hyper while amphetamines and methylphenidate have the opposite effect. It's pretty much impossible to go to sleep after drinking an effective amount of coffee. With amp/mph it's much easier for me to fall asleep, because they calm me down. My use of stimulants is almost non-existant, some trials spaced out over a few years, I'd hardly call that (significant) abuse. However, I feel like using benzodiazepines and cannabis has made me more sensitive to caffeine, especially the anxiety it produces. If I had to guess, I'd say GABA and norepinephrine play a major role here. When I had no tolerance to coffee, at worst I was unable to sleep for 20 hours after drinking a mug of coffee in the morning.
 
FnX said:
When I had no tolerance to coffee, at worst I was unable to sleep for 20 hours after drinking a mug of coffee in the morning.
Click to expand...

Damn that must be some pretty damn strong coffee to not be able to fall asleep for 20 hours. Are you sure it was caffeine you had? :)
 
Dave82 said:
Damn that must be some pretty damn strong coffee to not be able to fall asleep for 20 hours. Are you sure it was caffeine you had? :)
Click to expand...

Well I'm absolutely positive it was nothing but coffee, but then again I hadn't had any for a really long time. An isolated case like this could be coincidence too, but I've had terrible sleeping problems all of my live so a thing like this isn't too far-fetched for me anyway. It's very hard for me to fall asleep and it's very hard for me to stay asleep, I can't remember when was the last time somebody actually managed to wake me up, usually I wake up before the person coming to wake me up even enters the room... But yeah, it definately didn't take 20 hours to be able to fall asleep the day before or the day after this. Even now that I have a pretty decent tolerance to coffee/caffeine, I don't dare drink coffee after 16:00. I've heard some people say they feel they actually need coffee to be able to fall asleep so go figure (damn addicts hehe).
 
Just out of interest, did you consume many opiates during this time? I noticed that after several years of chipping, my adrenaline and dopamine receptors appeared to become more and more sensitive and caffeine lost it's appeal entirely for several years. Another vector might be alcohol abuse since that would desensitise GABA receptors and impact your brain's ability to be inhibited, so something like coffee would end up overstimulating Glutamate indirectly.

The solution was to drink lots of coffee and green tea (especially green tea, being a source of L-Theanine, which has an anxiolytic effect) for a few months in order to desensitise adrenaline by overloading it. It wasn't comfortable and I'm pretty sure that some people mistook me for a hummingbird at times but it worked for me. This was combined with amino acid supplements. GABA and L-Glutamine supplements were particularly helpful for reducing the anxiety. With this approach, I would recommend weaning one's self off of coffee afterwards and switching to green tea as a primary source of caffeine since coffee seems to release a lot of cortisol (stress hormone) even in the most healthy of people. Stress is good sometimes but not every day.
 
Was surprised to see this thread bumped. I guess I'll update. I've stopped drinking caffeine entirely. I drank a ton of coffee for a long time when I was younger, but now my body cannot tolerate even the smallest bit of it. It's actually a problem seen in a certain portion of other people as well. I've heard of men and women who will drink a cup of caffeinated soda and have a panic attack lasting into the next day. I'm not quite that bad but I still simply cannot tolerate caffeine in any capacity anymore, and that's fine. Maybe someday I will, or maybe not.

My energy now comes from staying sober, eating a healthy diet, B vitamins, and exercise (even if that's just taking a walk every day). I honestly prefer it this way anyhow. When I was drunk, there were times that I could tolerate some caffeine, as long as I remained drunk, but there was still something unpleasant about the experience. Sometimes I miss being able to have a nice hot cup of black coffee, as that was a staple to my day years ago. I also sometimes miss Vanilla Coke, even though I generally hate soda. Even if I have decaf coffee, it gives me a bad case of the jitters, to say the least. Point is, I'm simply better off without it.
 
When I was still a teenager, I was able to consume massive amounts of coffee or caffeine tablets without much trouble. It didn't even cause sleeping problems.

Now when I'm an adult, too much caffeine gives me panic attacks (shortness of breath, feeling of pressure in my chest, fear of dying) and I have to consciously limit my coffee consumption because of this.

Incidentally, daily coffee drinking seems to reduce the risk of cirrhosis in alcoholics, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/1328139...rinking-coffee-cuts-alcohols-harmful-effects/ . I think this is caused by the hepatoprotective diterpenes cafestol and kahweol that are found in coffee...
 
Last edited:
I too cannot tolerate caffeine. I can drink a normal soda, but even that can sometimes aggravate my GI.

Plus caffeine is one of the things my doctors say I must avoid, along with NSAIDs, high fructose corn syrup, and alcohol.

I don't think I'm missing out on anything though LOL
 
Hi. I know it's an old topic but I think I'm in the same boat, and I'm desperately looking for answers.
So here's my story in short. I started using drugs in 2015. MDMA, Cocaine, Morphine and even Xanax. I wasn't addicted to any of these substances just tried them a few times.
I was also a heavy caffeine drinker, I drank energy drinks and coffee every day. Since March 2016 I can't tolerate any stimulants anymore. Even if I eat a little chocolate I have this weird "overstimulated" feeling from the caffeine in it. Even from the smallest amount of caffeine or nicotine I'm feeling really weird, my heart is racing and it feels like an overdose. I don't know what happened with my body, but I think I somehow damaged my brain's receptors. Is there any hope that I will recover from this? Does anyone have recovered from this? I still can't tolerate any caffeine even though I was not using any drugs since more than 2 years.
 
I am in my sixties and never abused any stimulants and this "sensitivity" to caffeine still happened. It seems to be quite normal with aging but whatever the cause, too much of a good thing or just normal physical changes, the bottom line remains the same: listen to your body and make the changes accordingly. I hate it that I can no longer have my 3PM cup of coffee but....c'est la vie.:\
 
Well that's one thing that I can't tolerate caffeine anymore, and I'm fine with that. But the problem is that I have this overstimulated feeling from every stimulant. Even from medicines. My doctor prescribed corticosteroid for my allergy and my reaction to it was 100X worse than anything I experienced before. My pulse and blood pressure was in the sky and it lasted for around a week. Same with nicotine. Even if somebody is smoking in the street and I inhale it, I have this overstimulated feeling. I think my whole adrenergic and dopamine system is somehow damaged. Maybe it's some kind of receptor upregulation/reverse tolerance. I talked with a neurologist but he can't tell what is my problem. I'm writing this because when I found this topic I saw that there are some people with the same or similar problem, I think it's somewhat common among people who abused stimulants.
 
after quitting a heavy IV opiate addiction. I have never been able to handle as much caffiene since. a half a can of coke is the max i can do and still feel comfortable
 
I can drink my coffee black with adderall. No problem. But they gave me a corticosteroid shot when i was sick like it was no big deal. And i was bugging out. Like i was paranoid, agitated, and it was very very unplesant.

I think genes prob play a role in what stimulant and at what dose makes you freak out.
 
I have the same problem, I also used to be rx'ed stimulants for add few yrs ago (not sure if this has anything to do with it). Caffeine causes very uncomfortable symptoms such as : panic/anxiety, irritability and racing heartbeat. If used daily, it's not a very pleasant feeling, it basically feels like a nervous stimulation. It's awful and makes me very mean/edgy as in everything annoys the FUCK out of me and I want to start fights with people. I tried not consuming any for 2 days, then on the 3rd day, I had a cup of coffee: it made me feel sharp, brightened mood and provided energy/motivation without any of the undesirable side effects. Then I had another the next day (no breaks) , and again the crazy heart palpitations and extreme irritability symptoms returned.
 
Last edited:
It's possible for sensitivity to change with time too. I went through a phase where I would get bad anxiety all day just from one cup and it would keep me up at night. After some time I was able to go back to drinking several cups a day without much of a problem. Not sure what made the difference but it might just have been giving my body time to adjust itself. Who knows.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top