Caffeine withdraw headaches...what can I do

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, ok, I kind of got into a trap where I was having to work long hours on short notice. So I started chugging energy drinks - Monster, NOS, Rockstar, etc. I’ve gotten up to about 2 a day, 220 mg of caffeine each one. I just chug the nasty swill down like I’m pounding a beer back…

I did this for about 10 weeks.

So, I uh decided it might be time to quit. Work got more sane. About 24 hours after I drink the last one, I get this terrible headache. It hurts and hurts and hurts, and 800 mg of ibuprofen doesn’t help. I got desperate enough to pop a leftover vicodin from some minor surgery or another and that worked some, but it still hurt.

After about 36 hours of withdrawal, I couldn’t take the pain any more. Went to the store, got the brand of energy drink that was on sale (NOS, $1 a can), chugged it down…and my headache is gone. I feel pretty good.

What can I do? I’m beginning to suspect I know why the energy drink companies charge so much per can and can afford advertisements…

2

Reduce instead of stopping cold. Try 1.75 cans a day for a bit. Then 1.5 cans. Then 1. Then half a can.

3

Honestly man, two energy drinks a day isn’t that much. You’re drinking the equivalent of 4-5 cups of coffee a day.

Just draw down gradually. If one energy drink is enough to make the pain go away, great! Do that for a while, then try cutting off altogether.

If you’re getting blinding headaches after that, go see a doctor.

4

You oughta be able to cut back by about 1/2 can per day. So you don’t need to plan taking a month to quit. More like a week tops.

You’ll probably find aspirin works better than any other pain reliever for any residual headache.

5

When I cut off, cold, I had the worst headache of my life, for a solid week.

Then it went away.

I’m no action-movie hero: if I could endure that torture for a week, probably you could too…

I’m not sure about GrumpyBunny’s idea of taping off the drinks. Doesn’t that have the effect of prolonging the headache, although making it weaker? Instead of one week of “Oh my God” it’s two weeks of “Oh, Poop.” Is it really a net gain?

6

Some pain relievers may still contain caffeine; I know Excedrin at least used to.

And, yeah, the “duh” answer to “What’s the remedy for caffeine withdrawal headaches” is: caffeine. If you don’t want to keep drinking energy drinks, there’s always coffee or caffeine-containing soft drinks.

7

I have the same problem. Monday through Friday I’d drink coffee at work, but I didn’t drink any at home. Then I started getting blinding headaches every Sunday morning. Then I found out that my brother-in-law had the same problem.

We both tried going cold turkey, but we both ran into the situation where you’d drink a cup of what was supposed to be Decaf but wasn’t - and two days later the blinding headache came back.

The “solution” to the problem that worked for us was to start each day with a cup of caffeinated coffee. That daily shot of caffeine keeps the headaches away.

(I never said it was a good solution - it’s just one that works for us.)

8

It worked for me when I had to stop drinking caffeine and diet Coke. YMMV, of course.

9

You see this same sentiment about quitting any drug from nicotine to heroin, some people just can’t hack cold turkey. Tapering works better for some.

10

Whatever works, of course. And nicotine and heroin are (ick) vastly worse. The only reason I would recommend cold-turkey for caffeine is, hey, if I did it, then I bet anybody can. (I’m over one or two standard deviations into the wimpy part of the bell curve of personal sturdiness!)

I knew a guy who’d gotten addicted to nasal inhalers, and he quit gradually, cutting the inhaler fluid with water, little by little, until he was only sniffing water. So the tapering-off approach certainly can work.

11

Switch to decaf after noon, and move it back an hour every week. Decaf still has enough caffeine to ease you off the addiction.

Cold turkey is dangerous, and difficult, and unnecessary with caffeine, when there are so many satisfying but less powerful alternatives available.

12

Cold turkey’s much easier for me than prolonging the misery by tapering. It’s three days of nastiness, then I’m ok.

13

Are those horrible headaches actually possibly dangerous? I’ve had occasional “worst headache evah!” events, lasting 36 to 72 hours, and they have had me seriously bedridden for the duration. (I didn’t particularly notice at the time whether that had anything to do with caffeine withdrawal, except for one time I think it did.) I worry that those really bad headaches might leave some long-term neurological brain-damage behind.

14

I feel your pain. It’s actually a very common problem for people who mainline coffee at work. Come Saturday morning when they skip that 8am coffee, they do not pass go but proceed directly to one buggah of a headache. Luckily, there might be an easy solution.

When the migraine starts (my doctor actually diagnosed mine as migraines), take 2 Excedrin Extra Strength or Excedrin Migraine pills. Form doesn’t matter (pill, easy swallow, etc.). Just make sure that it has the magical combination of aspirin, acetaminophen (Tylenol), and…caffeine. It doesn’t matter which formula you buy, XS or Migraine, as they have exactly the same active ingredients, so buy whichever one is cheapest. Store brands work fine, too, but I prefer Excedrin. Keep in mind that if you take them after a certain time (~5pm for me), you might have trouble sleeping because of the caffeine.

Anywho, after I take 2 of these, my migraine is gone in literally 10 minutes. After that, I usually have no issues and don’t need to take any more, for as long as I lay off caffeine. However, if you do feel a step down one coming back, then cut the next dose to 1 instead of 2.

I do not go anywhere without Excedrin XS if I can help it. It’s a godsend to us caffeine addicts.

P.S. I switched from Coke to Caffeine Free coke and that helps, too, should you not be able to give up cola entirely.

15

As someone who quit caffeine, just drink caffeine to relieve the headache. Caffeine is highly addictive, but the physical withdrawal symptoms alone won’t keep you hooked. You only need a fraction of your previous caffeine dose to relieve the headaches.

I drank about six cans of soda per day. I stopped. About 24 hours later I got a headache. I drank a soda. About 12 hours later the headache came back. I drank another soda. So already I was down to 2. I did 2 sodas per day for about a week, then I stopped doing that and didn’t have any headaches.

16

I enjoy my coffee every day and you can pry it from my cold dead hands when the time comes.

I’ve quit caffeine twice and found sticking to decaf a pain in the ass (as I really enjoy coffee and tea with no plans to quit altogether) so just deal with the daily caffeine need. First time I did cold turkey and felt like I had a steel band squeezing my head for a week. Second time I weaned over a couple of weeks, switching in graduations from high octane to decaf. No headache.

The one time I was involuntarily decaffeinated was for a surgery. I was on morphine and it did nothing for the headache. It was my biggest pre-surgery complaint, moreso than the hunger from fasting and enough so that they relented and allowed a single Excedrin - and it helped immensely!

17

When I get my quarterly Botox-for-migraine injections, it’s under twilight sedation. I can have liquids up to 2 hours before the treatment, but not coffee as I take it with milk. So to avoid the lousy headache, I have a Mexican Coca-Cola (real sugar, yum!) or black tea. Works a treat.

I drink two cups of coffee a day, which is a reasonable amount of caffeine and not something my doc is remotely worried about.