Caffeine addiction

[DaveBj]

Yea, but the thing is that the non-drowsy kind most likely has caffeine in it.

Straight Tylenol (actually I get store brand acetaminophen) has no caffeine. I believe you might be thinking of some allergy med.

 

[EasterJoy]

OK, no caffeine so far this weekend. My headache has subsided, though I did have to take another nap this afternoon. Let’s see how I do during the week!

I’m not understanding why you’re going cold turkey on weekends.
Whether it is sleep or food or caffeine or exercise, wild swings in habit for the weekend aren’t necessarily the best idea. You don’t have to do the same thing every day, but if you go wildly different between weekend and weekday, your body will often respond badly to that.

 

[mandajane]

I am horribly addicted to caffeine, and it’s something I’m still struggling with. Back in the day I wasn’t just a “3 or 4 cups of coffee” addict, I was a “3 or 4 starbucks coffees in the morning, and a 12 pack of soda every night” kind of addict. It got so bad I couldn’t sleep unless I had caffeine in my system. I noticed I was gaining weight just from the calories i was drinking with my caffeine. I started keeping caffeine pills in case i ran out of soda and got the caffeine withdrawal headaches. I was, of course, a fringe case (still am).

One day I just took a step back from myself and realized I was spending 14-15$ a day (nearly 500$ a month!!) on caffeine products. I was shaky and jittery as a constant thing. My friends would joke about how I would “phase through solid objects” if I had one more soda. I had let “enjoying a soda” every now and again become this way of dealing with stress, and because I hadn’t been paying attention, I had kept feeding the addiction.

It’s been slow going weaning myself off. If I go cold turkey (i tried) the migraines are VERY bad. I get terrible insomnia. So, I started about 4 months ago, slowly cutting down my caffeine. Now I’m down to about 3 diet sodas a day, no coffee, with a glass of hot tea before bed, getting ready to cut it down to 2 sodas a day.

It’s really hard. I have to resist the urge to grab a soda every time i’m thirsty. I make myself drink 12 ounces of water if i want a drink, before i consider any other option. When I’m out to eat, It’s water, or an alcoholic beverage.

Quitting caffeine is worth it, if it’s taking over your life like it was for me! A lot of people do fine with just “moderation” but for others, it’s an all or nothing kind of thing. I can’t do “moderation” because my body keeps trying to ramp back up to it’s old usage. But my health is already inestimably better.

 

[Lux_de_Avicula]

OK, no caffeine so far this weekend. My headache has subsided, though I did have to take another nap this afternoon. Let’s see how I do during the week!

I wish you all the best, you should drink water every time you go to get a coffee. Or if you drink tea, you could substitute for something with lower caffeine content. Needing to go to the toilet keeps you awake… I’m sure we’ve all had experiences with that…
I know it is hard, because I myself get addicted to the stuff when and if I have too much in my system.

A tip from personal experience, eat snacks all throughout the day so that you have enough energy and don’t feel like falling asleep, also eating chilli and exorcising in the morning/going for a small jog, or even walking up and down stairs can really help!

Try not to sit down too often and just keep moving, and it should help a quite a bit. This is what I do when I’m forced to pull an all-nighter for study…

:coffeeread:

 

[PaulGH]

So, I admit that I have caffeine addiction. I drink lots of caffeine-laden diet sodas and coffee at work, to help me get through the day/week. On weekends, I do not drink/eat anything that has caffeine in it; I also do not keep any caffeinated drinks at home. The problem is that since I do drink so much caffeine during the week, I experience mini caffeine withdrawals on weekends. It’s usually huge headaches and lethargy. Today, my head was hurting so bad, and I had to take a nap in the afternoon. This is not a healthy cycle. I’ve been trying to give up caffeine, but just haven’t been able to. Has anyone experienced this? Any advice would be appreciated.

P.S. Per forum rules, I’m not asking for medical advice.

As a child and as a teenager, I constantly drank beverages containing caffeine. I typically drank around four to six caffeinated beverages per day (usually Dr. Pepper or some other soda, but occasionally coffee too). At age 19, I decided that I had had enough, and that for the sake of my health, I would stop consuming caffeine altogether. I just simply stopped one day, and never went back. I had a constant headache for five days after I stopped (a withdrawal symptom, I am sure), but after that I felt terrific. In fact, I felt much better than I had felt before stopping the caffeine. And I really never missed it. (When I first quit the caffeine, I switched to drinking mostly juice and skim milk. But for the past 10 to 15 years, I have drank water almost to the exclusion of anything else.)

Since age 19, I have consumed caffeine only on rare occasions, usually when I am getting sleepy while driving and need to stay awake, or when I am eating coffee ice cream, which I didn’t give up until just a year or two ago. But other than that, I still avoid caffeine, over 20 years later.

I don’t know if that helps you, but that is my experience.

 

[HolyRosaryChild]

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Herbal Teas are a great replacement or black tea or white tea (strong to start with while detoxifying from coffee, then weaning off the Tea on to Herbal Teas is the way to go…

 

[SaintRita]

without reading all the replies:

I kicked the diet coke habit a few weeks ago. I went cold turkey over the weekend - I was on a religious retreat so that helped some.

I will tell you that it might not just be the caffeine you are withdrawing from if you are drinking diet soda, but also the diet soda itself. The artificial sweetners they use in the soda were originally intended to be used in food - where there was food to help break it down… the aspartame (or whatever) in the diet soda is just mixed with liquid… and whatever junk is in the soda.

I detoxed from the soda first … caffeine wasn’t as big of a concern for me. I switched to black tea to help replace the caffeine (that helped with headaches)

I’ve quit diet coke 3 times so far as I know its terrible for my body… even now I feel like I have to go to confession because I happened to have one over the weekend and I know that they are terrible for me and that its a true addiction for me. I don’t have any in the house and honestly I’m too lazy to go to the store to get some (would have to pack up the kids) I try think of it as maybe “what if I was a smoker - would I cave and have a cigarette?” I know the two addictions are very different, but its VERY REAL to me and that’s what matters.

Being off the diet coke I feel so much better - I have more energy - I’m drinking more water. When I have a craving I just go and sit outside in the sun or play with the kids - or just do something - ANYTHING to keep myself busy to keep my mind off it.

I’ll be praying for you - this is a legitimate struggle for a lot of people - and I think its not taken seriously enough.

 

[AllSeasons]

OK, I didn’t too well this week. The only day when I didn’t have caffeine was Tuesday, and that was because I was traveling. Oh well.

 

[Rdunbar123]

The health nazis have tried for years to prove caffeine is terrible for you no real science yet. As for diet sodas I had two heavy smokers at work(I don’t smoke )tell me aspartame was going to kill me. I got into a bet with my boss about quitting caffeine and did it for six weeks until the bet was over. Astor the health nazi comment I used to run ultra marathons and most of us survived on caffeine, so don’t assume I am a couch potato