Can you handle coffee?

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I never used to drink coffee, but last year I started drinking a cup every morning at work. This is the type of coffee you get from a cafe, the brewed stuff. Really good taste and helped me concentrate on my work (I thought).

Trouble was, I started getting sort of agitated in the afternoons, especially towards the middle and end of the week. Anything that happened seemed like a major drama, I was fidgety and my emotions were all over the place. It was causing trouble at work, because my frustrations would spill over. Then at the weekend I would crash, I'd have headaches and really low mood.

At home over the christmas break (not drinking coffee), my emotions steadied and my mood came back to normal. So I'm tempted to blame everything on the coffee, and have sworn off the stuff, vowed never to drink it ever again.

Just wondering about others' experiences?

I have to limit myself to one small cup (6-8 oz) otherwise I do get agitated. From time to time I have given it up completely, but I always come back eventually.

I'm always agitated about something, so it's a moot point for me.

I can tolerate coffee in the morning. If I have it later in the day, I put Baileys in it to balance out the caffeine. I don't drink coffee very often. I usually save it for really cold days.

Thanks for the responses!
This is making me think that my reaction to coffee is a little more extreme than most, but it would be good to get input form a few more people.
Anyone else want to share?

I don't like the taste of coffee but I do take a Vivarin which is a caffeine pill that has about the equivalent of one cup of coffee. I take it to help me wake up when I'm feeling tired. I only take one at a time & I haven't noticed any effects besides feeling more awake. I took two 1ce & it made me hyper & shaky but I have a tremor disorder that certain meds can aggravate so maybe that's why I got shaky.

I could happily drink coffee all day

Coffee makes me feel great and focused...for about an hour. Then I get tired and agitated so I drink more. Repeat several times a day. I want to give it but never can. I grew up drinking it, it is fully an addiction at this point. I know it exacerbates anxiety issues and gives me panic attacks, it hurts my stomach and kidneys after too much, I would probably lose weight and be more balanced without it, I would be calmer and clearer-minded without it. And still I can't give it up. I have very good self control over what I eat for everything except coffee.

That's rough. Even though I've only gone from one cup a day to none, I'm really craving it, so it's clearly pretty addictive stuff.
Have you tried drinking tea? Luckily I really like tea, so that gives me something else to reach for when I'm getting a craving.

Coffee smells lovely.

I picked the first option. Maybe it's because I have ADHD and coffee is a stimulant like my meds. But I don't really get any effect from coffee, even if I have a strong one.

Has anyone tried an affogato? It's vanilla ice cream topped with a shot of espresso. Different!

Strangely enough, I don't much like ice-cream.
I'll eat a little to be sociable sometimes, but I've never understood what people love about it.
When I have... correction... when I used to have iced coffee, I'd always ask them not to put any ice cream in it.

Before any kind of asd/adhd labels existed, I had a naturopath tell me that I was too naturally wired and coffee would be calming or immediately make me crash, and that I should drink chamomile and passionflower in morning because it would calm me down enough to be awake. That's actually true, but I love coffee too much to switch.

I've got green tea at the moment for work, but I'm not really a fan of it.
Seems a very poor substitute for coffee, really.
The cafe also sells hot chocolate, which can be tempting, but probably not too good for the health, either.

I actually kind of need coffee. I have mild asthma, and a heart valve defect. Which I did not know until my mid-40s, because I have been drinking coffee since I was 13. It turns out that caffeine is chemically related to theophylline, which is an asthma drug. So I'd been treating my asthma without knowing it, all my life. And the slight rise in BP compensated for the heart valve issue (my BP is ridiculous: 95/70).

At least, this is what my cardiologist and pulmonologist told me, WRT why I never had any idea about either of these things.

If I don't drink coffee fairly regularly, my risk of pneumonia goes way up - apparently related to the asthma. With a bad heart valve, that's even more dangerous than normal.

So coffee for me, caffeinated please, as long as my body can handle it.

Interesting. I had no idea coffee had those kind of therapeutic effects for some conditions.
Do you aim to drink a certain number of cups a day?