My girlfriend always states (almost brags) that she is extremely addicted to caffeine. So I decided to do an experiment on her and secretly replace her coffee with decaf and see if she would be able to tell the difference. By and large, she wasn’t. As long as she thoght she was getting caffenated coffee, she didn’t complain of “caffiene headaches” or feeling tired or sluggish. Is it possible that she is addicted to a placebo?
It’s certainly possible, but caffeine addiction is very real.
I was up to 3grams a day, the day I quit cold turkey I couldn’t even finish a sentence. My hands would shake, head would ache, it was pretty horrible. I couldn’t go near a coffee shop, if I was close the urge to get a cup of coffee was uncontrollable.
Was she getting caffeine from other sources?
Here’s a link to a (I presume) reputable study so this doesn’t get bumped to IMHO…
But for my HO contribution, heck yeah caffeine is addictive. When I worked at a gas station, the coffee was all my cheap boss would let us drink for free, so (to keep awake), we did. At one point I was up to about 4-5 cups a day, and on my days off I could really feel the difference. Headache, extreme difficulty getting out of bed (even more than you’d expect for your weekend). Fortunately I realized my problem and weaned myself off of it by the time I quit a month later.
Here is a description of how caffeine works. Basically it removes the brakes on your brain, so to speak.
Well how do we know that it’s actually the caffeine and not the placebo? Once, I got my little sister drunk on non-alcoholic beer.
Nonalcoholic beer does in fact contain some alcohol. Depending on how little your sister was at the time, it may well have been enough for her to actually get drunk.
Somewhere (probably a psychiatry textbook) I have a table with drugs listed in order to addictiveness.
It’s something like:
Caffeine
Nicotine
Cocaine
Heroin
etc…
All the way down to LSD.
I became a terrible caffeine addict when working in the Netherlands for a few months, because they do such nice coffee. A Dutch colleague told me a tale of strange weekend headaches that would come about when she and her husband would visit her mother. After a long period of regular suffering she discovered the reason - while at her mothers, she was being served only decaffeinated coffee, not the max strength stuff she drinks all week…
Is that really a good thing to be doing to someone?
At one point I had to have a bottle or two of Pepsi every day or I’d get a horrible headache. I finally stopped cold turkey and felt like shit for about a week. First the headache, then nausea, then finally I got over it and I’ve avoided caff in all but small quantities since. It’s been over three years now.
Decaffeinated coffee actually still has a bit of caffeine in it, too.
photobat: A couple of years before I retired from the Navy, I went cold-turkey on coffe, tea, and caffinated sodas. My experience was just like yours: headaches, nausea, and finally no more ill effects (except for the desire to have the stuff). Now, the only caffeine I get is in the chocolate I consume, which isn’t that much chocolate anyway.
No. It is not. Conducting “experiments” on loved ones is never a good idea. 
I quit coffee, ciggies and alcohol in the space of 1 day. (Yes, I am pregnant) That was a tough week. The cigarettes repulse me, the alcohol doesn’t bother me, but smelling a fresh cup of coffee is still a big craving.
I can tell the difference between decaf and regular…though Tully’s Vanilla Latte decaf is quite tasty…Decaf does have caffeine in it. I feel a slight rush after drinking it.
Different people have different tolerance levels. Maybe she’s not really addicted. I can say that I once made some decaf accidentally, and I had headaches and nausea all day. I gradually cut back from four or more cups a day to two after that.
I haven’t experienced real caffeine withdrawal myself, but my friend’s mom threw up one morning after not getting her usual cup or two of Peet’s coffee.
I occasionally get headaches when I lay off coffee after having binged on it for a few days or so. The most dramatic withdrawl I ever went through, however, didn’t involve a headache. I had been taking Penguin mints (three of them have as much caffeine as a normal can of soda, and I was eating them like, well, candy) and some fairly strong coffee for two days, and when I ran out of mints and stopped the coffee I felt… odd. Disconnected. Almost dissociative, like I wasn’t all that involved with anything. My emotional colors went from bright neons to muted pastels. I went to sleep and I woke up and it was gone.
I do not crave coffee or caffeine. I can function fine without it. I have a tendancy to binge on it when it’s available, but I can quit cold-turkey, relieve the headache with two Advil, and forget about it. (The odd thing is, I refuse to even try alcohol because there are so many alcoholics in my family I fear I would become one myself if I ever did.)
It’s also possible that she is actually addicted, and the decaf is what was the placebo.