Giving up caffeine

[soulllfulvirgo]

To the caffeine users or former users,
have you thought about giving up caffeine? If you have, what were your reasons for doing so?

Lately, I've been thinking of kicking that habit...the other morning my SO and I made breakfast together and had our coffee, and I started to feel tired twenty minutes later, although I had a quick "boost" prior to that.

I've been doing some reading up on weaning off coffee, and it really is like "liquid stress."

[ugarachel82]

I go on and off caffeine with school deadlines. It's easy for me to do so, but the first couple of days I always feel tired. Let yourself go through the motions and be strong the first couple of days. Then you will be set. At least that's my experience. I know folks who never have to have caffeine to function, and follow their sleep cycles and sleep when their body tells them too. I'd love to do that, but I'm not at that point in my life where I'm able to do that, working a couple jobs and being in school and all...

[Schecter_Guy]

I have not given up caffeine, but I have severely cut back. I rarely drink soda. I have tops two cups of coffee a week. I do it because caffeine does have its place, but like many other intoxicants I have a very strong tolerance. So I do my best to keep that tolerance low so when the time comes and I really need the boost I can get it without having to drink a whole pot of coffee.

[DaneCA]

When I first started working full-time, I was drinking a lot of coffee. It got to the point where if I didn't have a cup of coffee first thing in the morning, my head would start pounding. I suffer from daily migraines, so my neurologist has always told me I should avoid coffee, and that the excessive amount I was drinking made the headaches even worse.

I'm not sure how I did it, but I managed to limit myself to one cup a day. I experienced caffeine-withdrawal headaches for a few days, but they went away really quickly. Now, I drink coffee because I like the taste, not because of any caffeine high (which, even when I was drinking like 5 cups a day, I didn't really feel), or because I have to have coffee to prevent my head from hurting. I personally find water or another cool drink to be a better pick-me-up, anyway, as it's more refreshing.

[QuarterLiferAmy]

Here a few things I have read before:


-You should limit yourself to 2 cups of coffee day (500 ml). What kind of coffee do you drink? Coffees range from extra bold, bold, medium, and mild. Not all coffee contains the same amount of caffeine.

-If you feel the need to start your day with a hot beverage try switching from coffee to a green tea (has many health properties).

[wordsmith]

I'm not really susceptible to caffeine. I can drink a ton, and then none whatsoever without any ill effects, and it doesn't have much effect on me either way. I'm just not particularly sensitive to its effects.

[soulllfulvirgo]

Lately I've been grinding and brewing Starbucks whole bean coffee, which I think is pretty strong coffee.




Here a few things I have read before:


-You should limit yourself to 2 cups of coffee day (500 ml). What kind of coffee do you drink? Coffees range from extra bold, bold, medium, and mild. Not all coffee contains the same amount of caffeine.

-If you feel the need to start your day with a hot beverage try switching from coffee to a green tea (has many health properties).

[hoodie]

I think green tea tastes like grass...I've tried to like it many times over; I just don't. :cry:

I did, however, quit drinking caffine because I have GERD (acid reflux) and it makes it way worse when I have anything caffinated. It sucked at first but the headaches were not nearly as bad as the constant stomachache, nausea and heartburn.

[squidney]

what a coincidence. i just stopped drinking caffeine two days ago. i've been wanting to stop for a while, but i just never really feel like i wake up if i don't get some caffeine in my system. we'll see how it goes.

[steph78]

I quite having any caffeine cold-turkey when I was in college. I am not even a coffee drinker, and i was not suffering from any noticeable symptoms as a result of drinking caffeine, I just realized that I had been drinking an absurd amount of caffeinated soda while studying and decided to cut it out. It was way harder than I imagined - I had withdrawal symptoms for like a week or two! Headaches, fatigue, etc. But I kept with it and after about 2 weeks of no caffeine whatsoever, I started feeling FANTASTIC. I was much more energetic every day, it was easier to get up in the morning and go to sleep at night, I just felt generally a lot healthier. I say go for it!

My dad who has suffered from terrible migraines his entire adult life decided to quit caffeine right along with me just to see if it would help him, and he has not had one single migraine since he quit - it's been about 12 years now. Wow! Something to think about for migraine sufferers.

[Ezra Pippen]

If I am really stressed, though, caffeine makes me feel frayed. I am a coffee drinker, not soda. If I need to cut back, I go from coffee to oolong to either green tea or a noncaffeinated hot 'tea' (not actually tea) like rooibos or honeybush-look around the tea section-you can ususally find one or the other in the tea isle, and they are alot more solid in body than the watery herbal 'teas.' Just an idea, if you don't like green tea.

[soulllfulvirgo]

Haha. Why?
I do like a morning cup of coffee (or two). I've just been cutting back because I have been feeling really stressed, and like you said - it was making me feel sorta frayed and basically just more stressed (kinda like pouring gas on a fire, LOL). I too tend to bounce from coffee to tea or others when I'm trying to cut back.

I used to drink it a lot in college as well, but now I have a predictable schedule everyday and I don't think I need it is as much.

I've been caffeine free for three days (this is the third), so far so good.

I hadn't been able to fall asleep before 11:30 for a very long time, and last night I went to bed at 9:30 and was asleep very soon after. Been feeling more energetic all day too (ironically) :)






If I am really stressed, though, caffeine makes me feel frayed. I am a coffee drinker, not soda. If I need to cut back, I go from coffee to oolong to either green tea or a noncaffeinated hot 'tea' (not actually tea) like rooibos or honeybush-look around the tea section-you can ususally find one or the other in the tea isle, and they are alot more solid in body than the watery herbal 'teas.' Just an idea, if you don't like green tea.

[Skyblade]

I'm not really susceptible to caffeine. I can drink a ton, and then none whatsoever without any ill effects, and it doesn't have much effect on me either way. I'm just not particularly sensitive to its effects.

Same here.

[wordsmith]

I think green tea tastes like grass...I've tried to like it many times over; I just don't. :cry:

My thoughts, exactly. I love black tea, herbal "teas" (most don't have tea OR caffeine in them, hence the quotes) like peppermint tea and rooibos, and chai (black tea with other spices mixed in with the leaves) but I sure don't love green tea, and that's exactly the reason why. Lawn clipping city.

The only one I can stand is Republic of Tea's "Tea of Inquiry," which is a green tea with toasted rice mixed in, so that gives it a different flavor. But straight up green tea always tastes weak and pointless to me...might as well drink straight hot water.

That said, hot water with lemon squeezed in it was something I drank often back in the college choir days to sooth sore throats. But if I'm drinking tea, I want a hearty tea flavor, and I don't get that from green tea.

[ebrillblaiddes]

I went off caffeine over spring break in grad school, just to get it to work again...at the beginning of winter trimester, I was on a pretty high dose of pseudoephedrine-based decongestants, which is basically low grade meth as far as the body is concerned, and when I went off of that, I went onto near-constant caffeine to keep from crashing. At one point during a Saturday class, I had a liter of Dr. Pepper and most of a 32 ounce Cherry Coke in me and I was yawning, that's how hooked I was. It sucked to come off of that...although one thing wasn't so bad: because I was used to the caffeine and it was taken away, I slept through a lot of the week, therefore through a lot of the withdrawal symptoms.

I went on and off caffeine several times in undergrad, too. I think I'm genetically predisposed to addiction; there are a lot of drunks and addicts in my gene pool.

Now, I try to limit myself to 1-2 drinks containing caffeine a day, so that I actually feel it when I need it, and I don't use caffeine absolutely every day anyway. It works for me because I'm never more than a few months from at least a weeklong break anyway, so if I get "hooked" again, I'll always have a chance coming up soon to "detox" without it interfering with my life.

[wordsmith]

I went on and off caffeine several times in undergrad, too. I think I'm genetically predisposed to addiction; there are a lot of drunks and addicts in my gene pool.



Same here, but surprisingly, I find I have no compulsions drawing me to either caffeine or alcohol (I don't and never have smoked or done illicit drugs, so I can't speak to all substances). I can either drink or abstain from either and be fine either way. I always kind of assumed that I had the addiction genes/temperament, but it's not really worked out that way, at least not with substances.

[ebrillblaiddes]

Same here, but surprisingly, I find I have no compulsions drawing me to either caffeine or alcohol (I don't and never have smoked or done illicit drugs, so I can't speak to all substances). I can either drink or abstain from either and be fine either way. I always kind of assumed that I had the addiction genes/temperament, but it's not really worked out that way, at least not with substances. I find that I can stop caffeine (and behavioral stuff like getting hooked on a computer game) when I want to...but sometimes it's really hard to want that.