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How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

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Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#31

Post by skimbrel »

I cut caffeine out of my life completely when I went to see a psychiatrist about my anxiety problems and she told me one cup of coffee was enough to trigger a panic attack. A year later and I still don't consume it. I sleep better, go to bed and wake up on time, and have much more manageable energy levels throughout the day.

Just because it's socially accepted doesn't mean it isn't one hell of a drug.

(If you want a citation for caffeine's anxiogenic effects: http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/145/5/6...)

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#32

Post by skimbrel »

forensic wrote: post #7

Anti-caffeine bloggers are so annoying. There is nothing wrong with caffeine, it pretty much drives the modern world. Caffeine is a highly successful and safe nootropic and I'm convinced that people who tell you to stop it are the same people who would tell you to stop masturbating, or to take cold showers, or to sleep without a mattress. There is no good reason to stop caffeine. If you want an extra boost, just drin…

Successful? Yes. Safe? Not for everyone.

Repeated studies show caffeine to increase panic and anxiety symptoms in people with depression, panic disorder, and related mood disorders.

I stopped taking caffeine when my psychiatrist told me it was contributing to my anxiety problems. Went from several sleepless nights per week to falling asleep at the same (reasonable) hour every night.

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#33

Post by rdl »

tiles wrote: post #29
dotBen wrote: post #28

My two thoughts: 1) Before you attempt to deal with a 'caffeine addiction', look at whether you have sugar addiction - which is far more dangerous for your health and more complicated to address. 2) Many of us don't get the amount of sleep we really need to function. Unless you sort that problem out first, you will just end up feeling sluggish and unproductive without the caffeine.

Thank you. I'm a habitual soda drinker, and I realized that after giving up caffeine (several times) it's really the taste of soda that brings me back; aka, getting my sugar fix throughout the day. I'm working on addressing this now even as I continue drinking caffeine, simply so I don't deplete myself of any self control. Do you have any relevant articles on addressing sugar addiction? I'm not sure any grand strateg…

I cut out regular and diet soda entirely, switching to green tea and san pelligrino carbonated mineral water, in January 2011.

There's really no way to do it other than cold turkey, but similarly to kicking morphine for heroin after the civil war, it's easiest to do cold turkey by replacing with something better. :)

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#34

Post by michaelpinto »

If you're breaking a caffeine habit doesn't that imply that you are no longer drinking coffee? That's sort of like saying you are giving up on nicotine but will only have a smoke every now and then. My thinking is you either embrace you vice or avoid it — no?

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#35

Post by [deleted] »

skimbrel wrote: post #31

I cut caffeine out of my life completely when I went to see a psychiatrist about my anxiety problems and she told me one cup of coffee was enough to trigger a panic attack. A year later and I still don't consume it. I sleep better, go to bed and wake up on time, and have much more manageable energy levels throughout the day. Just because it's socially accepted doesn't mean it isn't one hell of a drug. (If you want a…

[deleted]

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#36

Post by sn0wright »

skimbrel wrote: post #31

I cut caffeine out of my life completely when I went to see a psychiatrist about my anxiety problems and she told me one cup of coffee was enough to trigger a panic attack. A year later and I still don't consume it. I sleep better, go to bed and wake up on time, and have much more manageable energy levels throughout the day. Just because it's socially accepted doesn't mean it isn't one hell of a drug. (If you want a…

In a very similar boat as you. Just went through a very stressful period, resulting in my first ever panic attack, and I think coffee had something to do with it (besides lack of exercise or any sort of stress management). I'm actually scared to drink anything with caffeine now.

I suppose it's all for the better.

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#37

Post by hacketyhack »

davesmylie wrote: post #10

I tried for years to give up an 8+ cup a day habit. The first few times after a few days of no coffee I would be literally falling asleep at my desk at work. Recently I went on a long vacation, and though I was drinking coffee, it was no where near as much as usual, and even that trickled off completely during the last week. At that point I thought I may as well try stopping completely - it was hard, but it's been ab…

The good tasting coffee that I enjoyed encompassing a meal is what kept me on it as well. A good decaf can kick the habit. I even like my decaf more than a normal one.

I've been off coffee a few weeks ago like you are now and it had the same effects on me. For a long time I got back into normal sleeping habits without even doing anything for it. I just got sleepy in the evening.

Then I started drinking some normal coffee again to push the boundaries at night (learning, programming) and here I am. It's 6 in the morning and it'll be a few hours before I go to bed.

I've planned on decreasing my caffeine intake again - actually avoided coffee but kept drinking sugar-free caffeinated soda, but cold-turkey is definitely the better way and it's my end-goal to go caffeine-free anyway. So this article and the discussion here had at least some impact. ;-)

To clarify the last paragraph: From experience I actually have doubts that just lowering intake works for me. I'll need to find a good replacement for a cold coke zero, though. There is a decaf version of coke too, maybe I'll try that again, or I'll try to avoid soda completely.

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#38

Post by kellishaver »

I used to not drink coffee until a friend of mine introduced me to good coffee (i.e. not Maxwell House or Folgers). I normally only drink about 3 cups a week, usually in the afternoons, on busy days when I'm feeling sluggish. If I drink much more than that, I do notice that it loses its effect of waking me up, while simultaneously making it harder for me to sleep. It's kind of a shame, because I really enjoy the taste of good coffee now that I've found it. Making the perfect cup of coffee is a kind of art.

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#39

Post by flocial »

I got off alcohol, can live without Red Bull but coffee always seems to find a way back into my life. The quality of sleep after being caffeine free for a week is amazing. But unless you set your own hours, that coffee becomes tempting when you're running low on sleep. I think I'll give it another go though.

Re: How To Break Your Daily Caffeine Habit And Use Coffee Strategically

#40

Post by semerda »

d2 wrote: post #26

"Drink coffee and then take a 15 minute nap.". Advice like this makes it hard to take this article seriously. It's also a little thin on the data. Sure, it's an article on caffeine, so it'll rank on the geek sites, but do you feel richer or empowered after reading it? I used to drink about 5 cups of coffee a day. I stopped cold turkey and life didn't seem worth living. So I scaled back to one cup of really really FUC…

The caffeine nap works. Well for me anyway. Also helps with stopping you from sleeping longer then the recommended 20min (give or take) and falling into deep sleep.
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