A Tea Addict's Journal

Caffeine overdose

August 28, 2008 · 9 Comments

I’ve had caffeine overdose exactly once in my life. I remember it was early in my college years, and I was staying up writing some paper. I had some rather nasty jasmine pearls, and…. well, long story short, I woke up in the middle of the night and my legs were shaking uncontrollably.

These days when I drink too much tea, I know, because my heart starts feeling like it’s pounding and I feel as though I want to throw up. It’s not a pleasant feeling, and nothing will really get rid of it. It doesn’t usually happen when I brew tea myself, but sometimes when I go out, it happens. I had to go out and get some things done today, and had two cups of tea while out. The first one was fine — a keemun that was fairly tasty, but not too interesting either way. The second, however, was a killer. It was one of those places that put loose leaves into the paper filter bag, and then brew in a paper cup for you to go. Nothing’s wrong with that, except that he must’ve put about 10g of tea (darjeeling) into a cup that’s about 100ml.

Needless to say, after that cup (and I wisely took it out after realizing, 30 seconds in, that it’s too much tea) I was rather buzzed. The uncomfortable feeling showed up, and I spent the next three hours shaking it off.

I hope that guy wasn’t paid to try to kill me.

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9 responses so far ↓

  • Phyllo // August 28, 2008 at 1:34 pm | Reply

    “my legs were shaking uncontrollably”

    That bad, huh? Wow, never heard of it like that. The most I’ve felt was my hands shaking mildly, cold sweat and uncomfortable feeling overall. This was after a double-shot espresso and a medium-sized cup of black coffee drunk throughout the day.

    If you got killed / assassinated from drinking [over-concentrated] tea…well, probably not the worst way to go for a tea addict. That’ll likely top the list of most ironical deaths. 🙂

  • Anonymous // August 28, 2008 at 5:14 pm | Reply

    If you OD on tea, can I have your stash?

  • Heatwaves // August 28, 2008 at 7:42 pm | Reply

    Ooooof!!!  I can relate.

    About 18 months ago, I was at an all-day event and found myself dragging my feet because I was so exhausted.  A friend offered me a Red Bull, which believe it or not, I’d never tried before.  I became immediately energized and upbeat, so that led to three or four more.  I thought it would have no more ill effects than drinking the same relative amount of cola.

    I awoke the next morning throwing up with uncontrollable shakes.  Even more seriously, one of my arms was completely numb and my heart felt like it was going to leap out of my chest.  I was freaking out and nearly had my wife take me to the emergency room.  At first, I didn’t attribute it to the caffeine until I’d read a number of similar situations on the Internet.  Thankfully I recovered, but I’ll never ever have another “energy” drink. 

    I’ve noticed that Red Bull now “recommends” that no more than two of their drinks should be consumed in a 24-hour period. Thus far, the caffeine in tea has never done anything greater than make me a bit woozy in high dosages.

  • MarshalN // August 28, 2008 at 7:45 pm | Reply

    @Heatwaves – 

    Wow, that sounds awful.

    No, Walt, I’m giving the tea to my cats 🙂

  • Phyllo // August 28, 2008 at 8:14 pm | Reply

    Cat before wife? 🙂

  • Anonymous // August 30, 2008 at 9:44 pm | Reply

    I’ve been traveling across the Pacific NW; first, I was in Eugene, and went to j-tea (http://jteainternational.com/) twice… the proprietor got me SUPER tea drunk both days. Then was in Seattle yesterday and today; went to a shop in Chinatown yesterday and then Floating Leaves (http://floatingleaves.com/) today; Shiuwen (the owner) and I drank a ton of tea again. Then tomorrow, I’m going to a shop in Vancouver. Overall, way more tea than my body is used to.

    Maybe not quite to the point of overdose, but definitely had a hard time getting my mind to quiet down a couple evenings.

  • Anonymous // September 4, 2008 at 11:53 am | Reply

    Howdy – my 2 cents. I’m not sure it’s caffeine overdose. Green tea / long jing makes me jittery and my eyes wonky (nystagmus) and espresso has little/no effect. I think it might have to do with cha qi instead. We always think of caffeine, but that’s only one of an infinite number of molecules in a cup of tea.

  • Michael // December 24, 2016 at 10:21 pm | Reply

    i remember my caffeine overdose it isnt pleasant i took 40 grams of that shit and my body was shaking uncontrollably. nurses said if i dont stop shaking id catch a fever. I asked for a couple more of blankets and that helped stop the shaking. I kept screaming and hollering for them to put me under. They said no since I was still vomitting. I threw up about 75 times. and the caffeine caused blood in my throw up causing an ulcer in my stomach. Shit was not pleasant at all. I took 2 nodoz yesterday a month later. I was so traumatized by the overdose that those 2 pills alone made me go through like i was overdosing all over again. but it wasnt as bad. It made me throw up 10 times. I had 2 monsters on top of those 2 nodoz pills. the caffeine pushed the electrolytes out of my system and caused kidney failure. I all so dust dust off hoping for a heart arrhythmia but that didnt happen. The dust off caused it to push all the potassium out of my system. Nurse said I would of died. Im currently institutionalized because of that shit. am on weekend pass right now.

  • Caffeine detox | A Tea Addict's Journal // May 13, 2017 at 10:37 am | Reply

    […] to a lower caffeine intake. I find this is good – good for my palate, and good for my body. Caffeine overdose  is a very uncomfortable thing. While I haven’t gotten there in many years, it’s still […]

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