How come coffee is triggering a panic attack?

[paranoid-viking]

Or at least it happens to me. Anyone else? I never drink coffee the day after having a little more than usual of alcohol as it woill trigger quite severe panic attack and the feeling that I am about to collaps. Anyone else gets this feeling? I have had it for years; at least 10 years.

[SLA]

Caffeine Induced Anxiety is an actual disorder, and listed in the DSM-5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine-induced_anxiety_disorder

I am highly sensitive to it.

I'd recommend anyone with any kind of anxiety to reduce their caffeine intake.

[paranoid-viking]

Caffeine Induced Anxiety is an actual disorder, and listed in the DSM-5.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine-induced_anxiety_disorder

I am highly sensitive to it.

I'd recommend anyone with any kind of anxiety to reduce their caffeine intake.


Thanks, SLA. I was not aware that it was an actually recognised disorder. Interesting. So it is not just me then.

[MyNameIsTerry]

But remember that it also says:

Symptoms must also not have a more likely clinical cause, such as another type of anxiety disorder, come before the ingestion of the intoxicating substance, or last for an extended amount of time after stopping the use of the substance.

It's a disorder for people who have no anxiety other than when they take caffeine. So, I expect it's on the rare side and unless you can say you have anxiety ONLY due to ingestion of caffeine, it's not relevant to you.

That's the DSM too, that's a US manual. A lot of countries don't use it, they use the one WHO produce called the ICD, currently ICD-10. They don't include it in the same way:

F15 Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of other stimulants, including caffeine

With the following denoting "clinical state".

.1 Harmful use
A pattern of psychoactive substance use that is causing damage to health [clipped] or mental (e.g. episodes of depressive disorder secondary to heavy consumption of alcohol).

(I've clipped that because the bit in the middle may be triggering for some people as I fear they will misinterpret it if they have HA)

That is in the section Mental and behavioural disorders due to psychoactive substance use (F10-F19) , in other words NOT where there is a pre-existing anxiety disorder due to other reasons. It's a very vague section and I suspect it's only there to denote true cases that start this way, which then may lead onto the other anxiety disorder if they "stick" or they just present like this and get resolved quickly (most of the categories are illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, etc so we are into "bad trip" territory here).

Looking at the two, both manuals probably end up coming to the same conclusions. But I'm making the point about the DSM & ICD because it only matters which your doctors actually use - which your government will have decided. I know from experience that there are differences in mainstream anxiety disorders between these manuals that can see people having a different simple because of what country they are in.

Caffeine is a stimulant, so in people already struggling with stimulation and incorrect focus, it can cause overstimulation. B vitamins do the same to some people on here. High protein meals used to do it me when I was really bad, and pretty much anything really. I can take caffeine no problem these days, and have done for years, but I haven't tested the waters with high volume levels like in supplements.

Something else to consider is the alcohol. Alcohol causes your Serotonin levels to spike. I suspect part of the reason many of us feel so rough for a time afterwards could be because we are rebuilding those levels? That's just a guess anyway. So, in an already unstable system, add in a stimulant and maybe you just make it worse?