I worked in a coffee shop for the past year and drank a lot of coffee with no adverse side effects. But lately, I’ve found that drinking a regular cup gives me a sort of headachey feeling that persists for hours, and today I had espresso, which was even worse - it made me feel lightheaded and sort of light in my limbs for an hour or two, which was quite unpleasant.
Have I developed a caffeine sensitivity? Is this possible or probable?
That happens to me on a regular basis. Without realizing it, I drink more and more coffee in the morning. When I start to notice a certain light headedness, sort of shaky feeling, I go cold turkey on the coffee for a week. Then after the week, I start back with just one cup, then it eventually moves up to two. Then again without realizing it, I am drinking a pot a day. Time to cut it out again. The whole process takes about three months, so four times a year I will go a week without coffee.
So you might try just cutting it out for a while and see how you feel when you start up again.
I get this from time to time, too. Usually accompanied by a rapid pulse (or rapid feeling, anyway). Cutting back on the caffine, including soda and tea, does the trick. Until I get stressed out by classes again and I’m up to 4 Starbucks a day. Expensive! But I’ve got an addiction to it, too, so if I don’t have some sort of caffinanted drink before late afternoon, I’ll get a migrane.
I found that a lot of people who claim to have a “sensitivity” to caffeine are reacting the same way I do, except I don’t really care about the shakiness. If I go cold turkey, one cup (or even a couple of sodas) will do it, after a few months I’m up to 7-8 espressos a day to get the same effect.