Ask HN: Quit caffeine? Before and after anecdotes

I gave up caffeine in September, 2021. I was drinking typically two cups a day of filter coffee — sometimes more. Withdrawal lasted two weeks. Some of the worst headaches of my life that later transitioned into overall body pains, but that passed eventually. There was a psychological component to withdrawal, but it was nowhere as bad as when I gave up cigarettes a long time ago.

In my steady state today, I notice these differences being off caffeine:

1. easier time staying asleep and general better rested

2. easier to fall asleep

3. outside of age and health, I feel in someways body-wise as I did in my teens with less variability between high days and low days in terms of feeling of wellbeing

4. less trash and mess in the kitchen to clean up

5. less staining of the teeth (FWIW, my dentist said to me a month ago, "I don't tell this to patients very often, but you don't need to do anything differently in how you're caring for your teeth. Your teeth are the best they can be for your age.")

6. less likely to just load up on caffeine to push through some drudgerous project as an all-day thing

7. in the TMI space, but there's never a sense of bowel urgency

What's not different:

1. work performance (so far as I can tell)

There's an over representation of people with ADHD in IT, and caffeine may act in a completely different way for them, so be aware that some anecdotes may not be useful for you at all.

After one particularly stressful period of life I started having bloody stool (TMI, sorry). Bright red and scary looking. I went to the doctor, had lots of tests... no results. It wasn't cancer. Nothing odd physically. Diet was examined but nothing stood out. Then, it would stop. I didn't think much of it. But, over the next several years the bright red stool would start up again for a few days. I started paying attention. I narrowed it down to being overseas for a lengthy period of time, and then returning to North American and drinking a dark coffee from Starbucks. So, I would abstain for a few weeks, then have a dark, or a bold, black coffee. Within 12 hours, bright red stool. I would stop and it would go away. Since then (I'm talking a 12 year period) I've narrowed it down to almost any coffee, except Ethiopian, producing what I can only call an allergic reaction in my intestines. The regular tests have never shown an allergy though. Weird hey. But if I go drink a tall bold black brew right now, but tomorrow morning I can guarantee I'll have bloody red stool. I still drink 2-7 cups of Ethopian a days though. No problems.

whoa, that is a lot of caffiene. I'd probably try to taper down over a longer period, maybe 24/36 weeks rather than cold turkey cutting completely....Come up with a plan with glide path down. Cut the monster energy drinks first they are absolutely dreadful for you not just from the caffiene but due to the artifical sweeteners and colours.

> caffeine constricts bloodflow

It's the opposite: caffeine is a vasodilator so it INCREASES blood flow.