Freedom from Demon Caffeine

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am not sure what to think about the whole thing. Pros and cons, one week in:

My sleep patterns have changed. I no longer crash thoroughly and completely around 9 or 10 pm, but now I have a new and very real mid-day slump.

I seem less prone to insomnia, but I still bounce out of bed the second the sun peeps his little nose over the horizon, even when I need and want more sleep. Curse these cheap apartment blinds: doesn’t anyplace come with blackout curtains anymore?

I’m drinking slightly less diet soda, which can’t be bad for me, but since caff-free Diet Dr. Pepper isn’t available where I am, I’ve been forced to cut out my favourite.

I’m spending more money. I like to have a beverage and work in public spaces. Since I never drank coffee or much tea, I used to go to fast-food places with free refills.* Now I get to go to grown-up coffee shops, but I find myself paying $2.50 for a thimbleful of sparkling water. (And why don’t cafés have soda machines? Excellent profit margin, low maintenance, fits the business model. . .)

Anyone want to share their experience giving up caffeine? I’m particularly interested in hearing from fellow diet-soda fans, but ex-leaf or -bean addicts chime in, too. Convince me to stay on the wagon, tell me it’s pointless Puritanism, share the names of local Dr. Pepper smugglers.

(Oh, and if anyone cares, the main reason I gave it up was the insomnia—mostly brought on by stress, but I figured caffeine didn’t help—plus a family history of heart woes, just in case racing the heart is a bad idea.)

*ETA: I would rarely eat there, so going and having tap water won’t work. You have to buy something.

2

My name is Zulema and I am a caffeine addict.

Me on caffeine: tired all day, can’t get out of bed, borderline high blood pressure, occasional migraines.

Me on diet soda: all of the above plus bloated feeling sugar junky, almost weekly migraine headaches.

Me off caffeine: Wake up early with energy, have energy all day, sleep better at night, low blood pressure, almost no headaches.

Me off diet soda: All of the above plus slim feeling, more alert, no cravings for sweets, no migraines.

I have the separate issue of diet soda making me crave sweets and have headaches. These do not seem to be related to the caffeine as much. When I first give up caffeine I have trouble sleeping and I read that insomnia is a symptom of caffeine withdrawal.

3

I gave it up, cold turkey, when I was thirty. I had the worst headache of my life, for one solid week. A week of agony.

But…after that…it was as if I’d never had any addiction at all. It was burned completely away.

I hope your freedom comes at no worse a price than mine did, and preferably at a lesser!

ETA: did I learn? Nope! Alcoholic, later in life! Dumb!

4

Yes, it’s a quick habit to break but oh so easy to get back into. I can beat it in 3 days but then eventually I start with one drink a week and it 's fine, then down the slippery slope to coffee and diet pepsi all day long and feeling crappy. I can maintain at one mug in the morning with few side affects but still feel only totally great on nothing.

5

I am three weeks into going cold turkey on diet soda. This is after a near-constant infusion of Diet Pepsi and Coke Zero that goes back almost two decades. (I wrote about it at my blog.)

I’ve been having some coffee in the morning, which I mostly did before anyway, but I can’t really drink coffee all day like I did the diet soda. That afternoon slump is HUGE. My energy and motivation to do anything are essentially gone from about 2PM to about 8PM. I do get a little boost of energy from 8PM until I crash out again around 11PM. I haven’t been sleeping particularly better, but I’ve had other things going on so it’s hard to say.

I like to think I’m still adjusting. I’ve rediscovered the joy of iced tea, which may help me through the slump, but I don’t want it to become another addiction.

6

I thought I could handle my caffeine, but when I inadvertently changed from caffeinated to decaffeinated coffee, I started falling asleep a few hours earlier each night. Then a few months later when I stopped drinking decaf, I started sleeping in a couple more hours every morning.

7

About 15 years since my last (except very occasional) caffeinated beverage. I was a three to five cuppa guy. I still do 3-5 cups a day, but decaf coffee and tea. I changed jobs at the time from one which demanded 80-100 hours of very irregular hours to one that was pretty much 8-6. I don’t think I could have managed the old one without the caffeine.

But then after 10 years, I fell into a work situation where I was again doing a lot of work from 8pm to midnight in addition to normal business hours. But I never felt any need to go back to caffeine.

FWIW I grew up in a place where tea was served regularly to kids from age 8 or so.

8

Interesting responses!

I had stepped up my consumption in part because of irregular hours: I’m teaching at night, and I’m not a night person, but you have to be a bit animated. Surprisingly, I’m managing fine with the placebo. So far.

9

I’m sort of a weak subject. I had been drinking 1 can of diet cola (I’m not picky) every morning for about 3 years, and that was my caffiene “habit.”

I quit about 3 weeks ago because of raging heartburn. It didn’t help the heartburn symptoms but I decided to keep going without it. Since I quit smoking it’s the one thing doctors like to still shake their heads at, so…I’ll show them!

I don’t feel much different. Maybe slightly more tired during the day, but I wasn’t consuming much anyway so…meh.

I did have a big energy drink last weekend when I didn’t get a ton of sleep and had to be awake all day. I was awake all day but in bed and asleep (on a floor, noless!) by midnight.