Caffeine use disorder • Hacker News Board

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#81

Post by TrevorJ » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:07 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #33

mcculley wrote: post #8

I weaned myself off of caffeine entirely seven months ago. Being free of caffeine has greatly improved the quality of my sleep and made my mood more even throughout the day. I really appreciate being able to jump straight out of bed in the morning without depending on that coffee to get my brain working.

I tried a couple times to get off caffeine, never worked properly... I don't feel obvious caffeine effects, but I need it to not be a wreck. Later I discovered I was self-medicating my ADHD... Now I am taking proper ADHD meds, and this allowed me to greatly reduce my caffeine use (that was wandering into dangerous and expensive territory, with me needing to drink litres of red-bull clones to work), still need it some…

I've found caffein to be far nicer on my body than my ADHD medication. Unless I am really in a bind, I go to coffee when I need to focus. I'm careful to take a day or two off a week if I can so that my overall consumption never needs to be more than 1 cup/day.

Coupled with L-theanine caffeine has really been a useful tool for me.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#82

Post by graeme » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:11 PM UTC

I quit coffee recently, and feel better. But I still have a single cup of tea in the morning.

For those who have quit, am I likely to see any benefits from stopping tea as well?

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#83

Post by muraiki » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:12 PM UTC

schoen wrote: post #66

Pitarou wrote: post #37

I've given up caffeine for Lent[1]. It's been hard. Beforehand, I knew I had a bad coffee habit. In a typical day I'd drink, maybe 6 or 7 mugs of strong coffee. I'd tried to cut down many times, but never succeeded; there just seemed to be too many reasons in my life to have another coffee. So when Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent) came, I thought, "Now's the time to quit." The first day was fine. I didn't notice any…

> I've given up caffeine for Lent I've heard from many people on HN and elsewhere individually choosing something to give up for Lent. In my understanding, the traditional Lenten restrictions in most Christian churches that observe Lent are pre-specified dietary restrictions that are the same for everybody (for example, it was unexpectedly convenient for me as a vegan to visit Eastern Europe because the Eastern Ortho…

My experience as an Orthodox Christian in America is that the Lenten fast is pretty much the same for all Orthodox in being basically vegan. There are also restrictions around the use of oil and wine, but those tend to be not as commonly followed. In addition, for most of the year Orthodox fast similarly on every Wednesday and Friday. Of course, age and medical conditions affect this.

Increased prayer and almsgiving are also part of the Lenten fast; one idea is that the money you would have spent on meat and cheese should instead go towards charity. In my experience, I haven't really found other Orthodox specifically give up a particular thing intentionally, except for incidentally in the sense of spending more time in prayer means less time for video games, for instance. :)

What's most important is achieving self discipline in not being controlled by food. If we fast from meat but "consume" our neighbor through gossip, for instance, then we've missed the whole point.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#84

Post by brianolson » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:15 PM UTC

moderator should add (2014) tag to title as article is fully two years old from February 7, 2014.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#85

Post by pbhjpbhj » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:22 PM UTC

Pitarou wrote: post #37

I've given up caffeine for Lent[1]. It's been hard. Beforehand, I knew I had a bad coffee habit. In a typical day I'd drink, maybe 6 or 7 mugs of strong coffee. I'd tried to cut down many times, but never succeeded; there just seemed to be too many reasons in my life to have another coffee. So when Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent) came, I thought, "Now's the time to quit." The first day was fine. I didn't notice any…

I've gone cold turkey on caffeine a couple of times - usually I crave chocolate (presumably because of the caffeine). What I've learnt is to be sure to drink other things as otherwise the dehydration makes the headaches far worse.

When I worked in an office I'd drink coffee as an excuse to take a break, switched to fruit teas (careful they're not all caffeine free). Ginger cordial makes a lovely hot drink too.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#86

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:24 PM UTC

graeme wrote: post #82

I quit coffee recently, and feel better. But I still have a single cup of tea in the morning. For those who have quit, am I likely to see any benefits from stopping tea as well?

[deleted]

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#87

Post by rodionos » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:24 PM UTC

capnrefsmmat wrote: post #76

rodionos wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your problem with sample size in this particular case is that you fail to account for its duration. Convert sample size to temporal units and you might draw different conclusions since p-values might not look as bad now. An average FDA trial is 3 years, so assuming the prisoners lived for 40 years on their prescribed caffeine diet, you get sample size of 2*40/3 = 26.7. Not bad for 17th century. Last but not least, tu…

This fallacy is known as "pseudoreplication": the erroneous belief that multiple samples (or a long measurement) of dependent data (i.e. the same person year after year) is equivalent to getting many independent samples. If you measure the same two people year after year, you just measure their genetic predispositions and personal habits more and more precisely. You cannot distinguish them from the results of your co…

In case of caffeine addiction tests, I would argue that a life-long trial of fewer people over a short-term trial of many people would produce more statistically significant results because the impact is accumulative over a long period of time. Consider asbestos or even smoking. Compare the results of 10 lifelong smokers vs 1000 smokers who tried it just once.

Anyways, did you read the article on wikipedia? The prisoners were twins and their rations was the same - 3 intakes per day.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#88

Post by calebm » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:24 PM UTC

This reminds me of the best article I've ever read on caffeine: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-berardi-phd/coffee-health.... TL;DR: There is an enzyme called CPY1A2 which determines if caffeine is bad or good for you.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#89

Post by callinyouin » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:27 PM UTC

speeder wrote: post #72

swah wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you still live in Brazil? I've read criticisms here on HN, of doctors too eager to diagnose ADHD (specially in children) - did you felt that your doctor was aware of those issues? I ask because I'm not sure if I have ADHD or just regular anxiety/lack of focus that could be fixed by exercising/meditation/finding another job. And I don't want to go to the doctor to get hooked on drugs I don't need...

I am still in Brazil... And I've been hearing about the ADHD overdiagnosis problem for a while, and I've been staunch that I didn't had ADHD until my life was the shithole that it is now (I am 28, unemployed, don't own any property, have negative net worth, no friends, no romantic partners...) Then what I found was the opposite, as an adult, seeking for ADHD diagnosis (or diagnosis of whatever I had), led to most doc…

> ...they assumed I was just some kind of junkie or someone wanting to cheat tests in university

I live in the US and had the same reaction from doctors. One doctor spoke with me for a few minutes (literally like 5 minutes) and decided I was trying to abuse uppers to gain an edge at school/work, despite having been previously diagnosed with ADD and treated as a teenager (and despite asking for help, not medication). It was a really, really humiliating experience. I eventually was prescribed medication but I've since lost and regained medical insurance, so I no longer have that prescription. I often have difficulty staying on task, but I cope with it myself out of fear of going through that awful process again.

To me it seems that adults seeking help with ADD/ADHD are looked at with immediate suspicion. I always assumed it was a lack of mental health education for doctors in the US, but now I suppose it might be a global phenomenon.

Re: Caffeine use disorder

#90

Post by deadcast » Mon, Mar 14, 2016, 8:32 PM UTC

rodionos wrote: post #12

This discussion about coffee has become too scientific. When I was a child, my parents would not let us drink coffee, but tea was not only allowed it was part of daily routine as long as I remember. We didn't question. When I grew up someone told me the story about two life-term prisoners in medieval times, one of them allowed to drink only tea, the other coffee. The coffee-guy lived longer. That was enough for me to…

Interesting. How did you determine that there were not other factors at play that caused the outcome of the one prisoner who drank coffee to live longer?

Also, this is supposed to be a joke, right? :~)