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Quitting Caffeine

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Re: Quitting Caffeine

#201

Post by pluma »

Mtinie wrote: post #197
pluma wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are plenty of reasons not to drink, though. Maybe you're driving. Maybe you're on medication. Maybe if you're a woman you're trying to get pregnant (or already are). Either this "if you don't drink you must be an alcoholic" thing is entirely American or lots of people on HN hang around with the wrong crowd. EDIT: Also being "on call" is a good reason not to drink. Though if you need an excuse every time you go…

Could be. The San Francisco drinking culture is pretty aggressive, but then again, so is NYC's, Lisbon's, Sydney's, or Shanghai's.

I'm in rural Germany. For 20-somethings it's perfectly normal to have designated drivers who don't drink, no questions asked. If you're a woman, most people will suspect you're pregnant but it's too early to be socially acceptable to ask you about it.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#202

Post by kahnpro »

gedrap wrote: post #170

I am a coffee drinker but I don't really get boost or anything. Nor do I feel tired or anything else that could be called withdrawal during the weekends, when I don't drink it. For me, making a cup of coffee is just a... ritual of sorts. Weighting the beans, pouring over water, all these things. And I really enjoy the taste, trying different beans. I don't want to sound pretentious, it's just a hobby for me. Maybe th…

Seriously, try 1-2 weeks without coffee... you'll feel it.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#203

Post by JohnBooty »

theatraine wrote: post #114
nnd wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Modafinil is relatively side effects free? Are there any studies of long-term modafinil use effects?

With long-term use Stevens–Johnson syndrome is a risk.

I'm not a doctor, but is SJS a long-term risk of *afinil?

Or is it the symptom of a drug sensitivity that some people have and some people don't?

All the research I did indicated that it was an extremely rare reaction that certain people would have, not that it was a result of long-term use.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#204

Post by icantdrive55 »

PacketPaul wrote: post #191
gedrap wrote: post #170

I am a coffee drinker but I don't really get boost or anything. Nor do I feel tired or anything else that could be called withdrawal during the weekends, when I don't drink it. For me, making a cup of coffee is just a... ritual of sorts. Weighting the beans, pouring over water, all these things. And I really enjoy the taste, trying different beans. I don't want to sound pretentious, it's just a hobby for me. Maybe th…

Two days is not enough. Try being off it for a week. I bet you will feel terible on day 4.

Everyone is different.

I still remember this doctor who wrote his horror story about quitting caffeine. (Looking back--I think the Dr. slept through Placebo, actually psychosomatic class.)

For myself, I just noticed a slight headache around day two.

So far I've kicked alcohol, tobacco, opioids, but still have a benzo addiction to kick.

(I sometimes feel those of us living in modern societies have been conditioned into believing quitting is much more difficult than it actually is? My best friend thought because he didn't have a lot of self-control, stopping smoking would be the last thing he could do. Well he stopped, and told me those commercials equating it to quitting opioids were wrong, and he wished he quit 20 years ago.)

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#205

Post by dagw »

dalacv wrote: post #146
SOLAR_FIELDS wrote: post #3

One of the more interesting comments in the article is in regards to the social stigma of only consuming water during meals - people who have quit alcohol for various reasons have faced the same stigma when going out with friends. I've found that ordering something that has little to no calories or substance goes a long way to alleviate these fears (like tonic or sparkling water). Because something like this still co…

no-calorie tonic? Hmmm.

It exists, using artificial sweetener instead like diet soda.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#206

Post by cjg »

nowherecat wrote: post #139
uptownfunk wrote: post #112

I've been off Caffeine for a good two years now and have no plans of going back. Life runs too fast for me on caffeine, yes I can blow through work faster, but when I was on caffeine it would feel like days, weeks, months would go by in the blink of an eye. I wasn't enjoying the moment.. and then I stopped drinking caffeine. Life became more present for me, not slower in the bad sense, but that I was able to relish e…

Hm..reading this makes me wonder ... I noticed that life is running extremely fast lately and I am having a hard time being "in the moment" ... and I drink a lot of coffee. I really enjoy everything about coffee from roasting to brewing though, so it would probably be quite hard giving it up. Anyway, thanks for sharing this, I will take a long look at that.

Making a drink doesn't sound like it would be something inherently enjoyable. Perhaps you believe it is because of the boost you get when you drink it. Would making it for others be enjoyable in the same way?

When you next make a cup, try to tease out exactly what it is that you enjoy about making it. What is it about that experience that makes it enjoyable?

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#207

Post by dagw »

cjg wrote: post #206
nowherecat wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hm..reading this makes me wonder ... I noticed that life is running extremely fast lately and I am having a hard time being "in the moment" ... and I drink a lot of coffee. I really enjoy everything about coffee from roasting to brewing though, so it would probably be quite hard giving it up. Anyway, thanks for sharing this, I will take a long look at that.

Making a drink doesn't sound like it would be something inherently enjoyable. Perhaps you believe it is because of the boost you get when you drink it. Would making it for others be enjoyable in the same way? When you next make a cup, try to tease out exactly what it is that you enjoy about making it. What is it about that experience that makes it enjoyable?

Making a drink doesn't sound like it would be something inherently enjoyable

Why not? Lots of people enjoy making food, even food they're not going to eat. Why would making a drink be that different?

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#208

Post by JohnBooty »

tekromancr wrote: post #16

I have a lot of problems trying to quit caffeine. Ever since I was a young child, they gave me really powerful amphetamines to get me to focus. Then when I turned 18 it became much more difficult to obtain. In the US, Ritalin/dexadrine/adderall are all class II controlled substances with similar restrictions to cocaine or fentynal, so in order to get it I would need to have a doctor's appointment every month, which w…

    I have tried not drinking any, but the inability to focus and headaches mean that trying to cutback seriously puts my job at risk.
Hey, I've been there.

How do you consume your caffeine? Black coffee or something else?

If you're drinking coffees with a bunch of cream and sugar, or energy drinks, you're addicted to both caffeine and sugar. Try quitting one at a time. Slowly switch to unsweetened tea/coffee so that you're getting your caffeine but not blasts of sugar. Even if that's all you do it's an improvement in mood/energy. Once the sugar thing's stabilized you can think about tapering down the caffeine. YMMV but if you do it over the course of a week or so you should be fine.

If you're drinking diet soda energy drinks with no sugar... I still feel like these have a lot of the effects of sugar because they trigger a lot of the same chemicals in the body. I think these artificial sweeteners have their own weirdly addictive properties.

In any case... good luck!!!

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#209

Post by StanislavPetrov »

What the author didn't mention, and I haven't seen mentioned in these comments, are the extremely beneficial health effects of coffee (not caffeine, decaf has shown the same benefits). Most significantly, studies have shown that coffee reduces overall mortality rates significantly, with the reduced chance of dying from any cause increasing with coffee consumption (up to a point).

>Compared with nonconsumers, participants in the highest quartile of coffee consumption had statistically significantly lower all-cause mortality (men: HR, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.82 to 0.95]; P for trend http://annals.org/aim/article/2643435/coffee-drinking-mortal...

In addition, according to other studies, coffee prevents and/or reverses liver damage due to alcohol consumption. One study suggested an extremely significant (44%) reduction in occurrences of cirrhosis among those who drink 2 cups of coffee a day.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coffee-liver-cirrho...

When considering whether or not to give up your morning coffee, consider the good with the bad.

Re: Quitting Caffeine

#210

Post by throwaway0071 »

projektir wrote: post #122

> A caveat to all of these points: I also now consume very little sugar and alcohol and I meditate regularly. Things like this generally make me wary. Not so much because of them causing side effects that are harder to disentangle, but their adoption indicating that the author is fairly stabilized, which is a giant side effect in itself.

I have a fairly unhealthy lifestyle. When I started getting panic attacks, trembling, palpitations, skin rashes, walking up 5x during the night, feeling exhausted all day, etc, I stopped taking caffeine... And did not change a single other thing.

It took me over a month to few "normal" again.

First week: headaches, back pain, vomiting, nausea, cramps, etc.

Second week: feeling like shit. Had no energy for anything.

Third week: a resemblance of being normal again.

Fourth week: feeling like I was at 60% of my previous energy levels and thinking "this sucks but if this is the new normal, I can get used to it".

Second month: energy levels are back, never feel sleepy again, focus is back completely, etc. I'm even thinking about gym, running, etc.

So this is my data point. From 3-4 expressos and of caffeinated sodas to zero.

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