Ask HN: Quit caffeine? Before and after anecdotes

Do you think you’ve ever been around someone while they were on caffeine and not known about it?

I'm finally on the path to quitting caffeine entirely. I've cut down to at most a single cup of green tea a day, with plans to stop entirely within a couple of days. Now I'm falling asleep much faster at night, and I am generally awake within 5 minutes of getting out of bed. There have been a ton of positive second order effects as well, like not needing an afternoon nap nor needing to scroll on my phone to fall asleep.

As far as your questions go, I feel much better and am finding myself more productive as a whole (for comparison, I was drinking 4 double shot cortados a day back when I worked in the office). I highly recommend trying it for a couple of weeks to see.

I am 3 weeks into a month of zero caffeine. It's actually a completely sober month: no alcohol, no weed, no caffeine, etc. I went cold turkey. The first 2-3 days I felt some mental fog and tightness in my head. I helped myself get through that by reminding myself that caffeine constricts bloodflow so what I was feeling was probably the sensation of more blood flowing through my head (which is probably a good thing). The upsides are that I am WAY less anxious and much more calm. Also much less prone to irritable outbursts. My self-control in general is very strong right now, probably because my psyche knows that we are going through a very challenging experience so being controlled in other areas is easier right now. One thing to notice is if any other goals around self-control start slipping while you abstain from caffeine. I.e. you can't have coffee so you start backsliding on other goals as a way to satisfy addictions. For example I practice a vegan diet and one day I caved into my craving for pancake (with eggs). Aside from that I'm hitting more of my daily goals which is why I say that my self-control is higher right now. I'm still thinking about coffee a lot. I miss my morning ritual of going to a coffee shop and reading. Also I just love the taste of a latte. I've been drinking a lot of zero-caffeine tea to substitute my oral fixation habits. Bengal Spice from Celestial Tea is very tasty! I don't notice a huge increase or decrease in energy. I still get tired in the afternoon and I still take naps (I had that habit even while on caffeine). After this experience I will probably set a habitual goal to keep my caffeine intake down to a drink per day or something. I have tried that before and it didn't stick. Suggestions on how to make it stick welcome! Last note: it's satisfying to see the gradual savings of not spending $5 or more per day at a coffee shop!

For balance I only drink decaf tea and I am a terrible developer.

Last time I tried to quit coffee:

First day: Okay

Second day: Intense, soul-crushing beating headache, it hurt so much I didn't know what was up and down, my teeth hurt, I was out of commission entirely that day. I have previous experience with pain, if I didn't know the cause of this, I would have sought out medical assistance it was bad.

Third day: Headache less intense, still photosensitive, halos, dizzy.

Fourth day: Headache almost gone

Fifth day: No headache, "oh, that easy?"

Sixth day: Pain starts in right leg, mostly in the hip joints.

Seventh day: Deep, deep excruciating pain all down the right leg, it was almost unbearable, I was twisting and turning, couldn't lie down, couldn't sit up, walking was kind of okay.

Hip pains lasted the better part of a week, it was a hellish week. Then my son was born, leg pain continued, I was useless, lack of sleep made headache return, I had a cup of cofffee, 20 minutes later I remembered how good one could feel. Now I'm back to about 2 cans of 0.5 liter monster energy + 6-10 strong cups of coffee per day.

I don't know why this was downvoted, but that's my "before and after" anecdote.

I stopped smoking many years ago (daily smokning 20+ cigs/day for multiple years), it was soooooooooo easy compared to this, because while the cravings were harder, they were only cravings combined with brain trying to make excuses, but with caffeine, the amount of physical pain I had to endure was very bad.

I might try again some time, if I ever get about a month of time where I can be alone and not have to do anything.