Quitting coffee and the ensuing effects

But if you really want to, I'm sure you'd be okay after a few days to a week of headaches (moderated by soda and aspirin if necessary).

I switched to black tea in the mornings a few years ago and I've never looked back. There's enough caffeine there to get me up, but it's a heck of a lot easier on my stomach / nerves / etc. I'll still have the occasional cup of coffee - maybe once a month - but then it's more like an indulgence than a necessity.

High blood pressure, mainly, and it makes me shake. Literally. I can't hold my hand steady at all from morning to early afternoon, and when combined with adrenaline it makes me really light-headed and almost dizzy.

Can't you use a substitute caffeine source that's not so harsh on your stomach? What kind of coffee do you drink?

I've taken to only drinking espresso oddly enough. Cuts way down on the caffeine, big on taste, and because of lower volume and no milk ends up easier on tum as well.

I suppose I could get the fob from a tea bag tattooed over it so it would become a cup of tea, but that's kinda wanky.

but yes you should drink FLAT coke with ice, it won't mess up your stomach, and if you drink five of them you won't be fiending for caffeine

or just eat no-doze

but here i am and im feeling fine. well, right now im not. starbucks gave me a regular latte and i feel like im going to die.

xpost - I can't handle the venti caliber coffees either. One of those and I'm ready to jump out of my skin!

-- webcrack (signon2...), March 23rd, 2004.

I quit for four or five months at one point. I wouldn't say it changed my life, but there are some minor benefits -- slightly improved digestion and maybe sleep, and generally a more 'steady' mood with fewer ups and downs. The best way to quit is to start mixing your regular with decaf and gradually reduce the proportion. That way you don't have to break the psychological addiction and the physical one at the same time.

Quitting honestly wasn't that hard once I decided to do it. The problem was more the discipline of keeping it up, especially when I took on a demanding internship. Once you decide to have "just one cup" it's pretty much over.

I'm also finding I've developed a sensitivity to guarana as well - it sometimes gives me this really bad attack of what feels like hypoglycemia, I get all weak, shaky, and faint.

Supplied FREE? It certainly isn't free where I work - it's 20p a cup from the vending machine, or bring your own in.

a lot of painkillers have caffeine in them! (dunno if you were using 'asprin' as a general term for 'painkiller' or what but thought it would be worth mentioning.)

I just had a 20 oz. Mountain Dew, and it felt like I had gone swimming in it after I finished. Very strange. I think fountain sodas are kinder to me than bottled sodas (possibly a carbonation issue).

I USED to have wicked shakes after drinking caffeine, tho. And occasional headaches. I only get headaches now after drinking Gatorade, which I don't do anymore, because of the headaches.

I knew the printing company I worked for was in trouble when the coffee well ran dry. (Five months later, Chapter 7; one year later, Chapter 13.)

Remember in Leaving Las Vegas how Cage's character had to drink a certain amount to keep from getting the shakes? That's me and coffee. I should probably quit, but I love it so much, especially since my wife bought me a grind-and-brew coffee maker and I can go straight from beans to brew.

Strung the fuck out, on coffee!

yes, it was a general term for painkiller.

Last week this happened and I thought something specific was pissing me off but didn't know what it was. Turned out to be nothing, just the vague edginess caused by caffeine withdrawal.

Too much (i.e. more than two cups a day) coffee makes me jittery, grumpy and shouty. Tea is just safer, given that I'm a witch at the best of times.

This is now my concern. After saying several times, on this forum and elsewhere, that I would rather go blind than give up coffee, I am starting to become concerned about the possible psychological side effects. I have a reasonably large coffee intake (5 or 6 cups a day), and lately I have not been able to so much as lose my credit card without going into a mild hysterical fit. I also have a lot of trouble concentrating. I've started to wonder just how things would be without coffee. Will there be changes? How is it done?

I HAVE TO GIVE UP COFFEE AND ALL FORMS OF CAFFEINE.

Also, my almost daily cocktail of Excederin Migraine needs to stop ASAP (I apparently get rebound headaches).

My doctor told me I could get such a bad headache that it might send me to the EMERGENCY ROOM.

YAY.

I AM NOW BORING (I can't really drink booze either).

TIME FOR A NEW BRAIN

excedrin migraine has lots of caffeine! i hope he gave you some other headache meds at least.

LOBOTOMY PLZ

yeah, he gave me stuff for my migraines and a low grade anti-depressant (?!) to ward of potentially terrible withdrawal headache.

I AM OFFICIALLY DULL

don't quit coffee! coffee needs you!

what do doctors really know

can you taper? do the half decaf half regular? or did he say you have to stop immediately?

is it time to try topamax yet?

I LOVE COFFEE BUT IT DOES NOT LOVE ME ;_;

excederin migraine is officially a BITCH

AM I GOING TO TURN INTO A HIPPY WITH MY NEW HERBAL TEA DRINKING BEHAVIOR??!

I have to go cold turkey! The fact that I could get such a raging headache that would send me to the emergency room is scary.

brain doctor put me on samples of Maxalt?

Imitrex doesn't work for me, as demonstrated by 4 DAY migraine. ;_;

i have to say that quitting coffee did help my headaches a lot. i stopped over the last month or so.

I had no idea caffeine was so addictive. It's like you guys are talking about smack or something. Good thing I've always preferred tea.

how fancy of you

honestly though i lived for a good 2, maybe even 3?, years drinking non-caffeinated tea, having maybe a coffee or caffeinated tea every couple of weeks. then introduced it again slowly.

i mean now i'm almost full-blown addicted again but hey we'll see

what i'm saying is that you can do it! see how you feel, gauge it, etc

xposts - tea has caffeine

I basically only drank tea for about 5 years, but now that I'm back in the US and there isn't much to do besides hang out and read at a starbucks, I'm drinking coffee again. The effects vary, from invigorating to draining. Driving home yesterday buzzing off the caffiene felt more dangerous than driving home from a bar after a couple of beers.

i think that most people just like being drugged

which is obv not new news!

yeah, my dr said i'll feel a million dollars better with my daily headaches (i know, sad!). migraines, maybe not, but i won't be taking a frightening amount of excederin to counteract the withdrawal of excederin.

thank you, all. i can do it, i guess. i mean, anything is better than having a headache all the time, right?

i *might* be able to drink coffee eventually, but NO MORE excederin. EVER.

yeah, my dr said i'll feel a million dollars better with my daily headaches (i know, sad!)

that didn't make sense. blame my creeping headache that is coming on.

WITHOUT my daily headaches.

maybe you also need yoga!

but no headstands

http://www.celestialseasonings.com/images/products/herbal-teas/roastaroma-lg.jpg

YOGA!! excellent idea!

laurel and i were just discussing what i need to take up to make me seem badass now that i'm officially boring.

it's down to jujitsu or kickboxing.

If I ever go off coffee cold turkey, I'll have to spend about four days in bed with the lights off.

does that TASTE like coffee, but isn't?

fuck! i'm going to be unconscious for several weeks.

remind me again what the problem with decaf coffee is? are you not allowed to have that because of the teensy tiny amount of caffeine?

pretty much!

no soda either! (not that i drink that much of that anyway)

srsly, i'm going to be a zombie

but, if it helps, it helps, i guess.

- that roastaroma tea or something like it sort of tastes like coffee
- there are these roasted chicory or hazelnuts or whatever swiss beverages you can buy in health food stores
- decaf coffee

there is a coffee alternatives thread but i need to not be in the office any longer

i may try to roastarama, but it may make me sad.

i'll see how i do cold turkey. the excederin i took at noon is wearing off and my brain hurts.

i apologize in advance if i'm grumpy to any of you in the next few weeks.

I love Roastaroma. I drink it every weekday morning. It doesn't taste exactly like coffee, but it's made with chicory and cinnamon and barley and things like that, so it has a similar robustness. It also gives me the same "I am at work and about to start my very productive morning" feeling. But it's been a few years since I drank coffee regularly, so maybe I have just gotten used to the alternative.

MOLLY I'VE GOT IT: SAYOC KALI -- FILIPINO KNIFE FIGHTING.

A friend of mine who is TEENY TINY and very shy used to take this, it look AWESOME.

http://bladearts.com/SayocKali.aspx

jaymc, thank you for the heads up about the celestial seasons goodness. Generally, I don't like chicory coffee, but something is better than nothing, right?

LAUREL OMG

No one will ever say, "Oh, Molly? That librarian who has 3 cats and knits and doesn't drink? She's boring!" IF I CAN IMPRESS THEM WITH MY FILIPINO KNIFE SKILLS.

"Sayoc Kali is ALL BLADE - ALL THE TIME. "

it's official. i want to die.

Oh Molls. u_u

Are you home? Please go home.

no, i'm at work, moaning to my coworkers.

i think i will crack open my box of chamomile tea and see if i can trick myself with a caffeine-free hot beverage.

agh

help.. meeee

Quitting or cutting back?

quitting

for a week at least

Medical reasons, or? I can't imagine quitting coffee and I only started drinking it maybe six months ago. If I don't have coffee within an hour of waking up I get a horrid headache, lucidity is some weird distant memory...I sympathize.

Can you taper off with decaf/caf mixed or do you have to just stop? If you have to go cold off caffiene, it can be rough, but if it's coffee you're avoiding, sub in some cola or caffienated aspirin to help with the headaches, etc. There's also caffienated soap (Shower Shock - caffiene will absorb through your skin).

If you've been drinking a lot and just want to reduce the intake, a week of cold turkey sounds like a bad idea. Splitting headache misery now and a day of screaming coffee nerves on your first day back after break. I'd just drop back one cup per day, repeat weekly until you're down to the level you want to be at.

(xposts)

I did this last summer, it sucks for about a week, then you get over it

Huh, Jaq was not kidding about caffeinated soap!
http://www.geekologie.com/2008/01/03/shower-shock.jpg

i only drink one or two a day. been having some stomach/digestive problems lately tho, and i feel like coffee is probably NAGL for me as i tend to feel pretty crappy after a cup.

Yeh coffee is pretty acidic. Do you drink it black or with milk?

black (so it ain't the milk)

Milk and cream, being basic, actually helps cut down the acidity of coffee - so you might try that

but then you might feel like a wuss

Yeah, I was gonna say, drop back to one cup and have it au lait, on ice maybe. Cold turkey = BAD. Hard to get anything done when blinking hurts.

try some coffee from Indonesia - they tend to be low in acidity. also, Trader Joe's sells this:

http://breweddaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/frenchroastla.jpg

drink something mildly caffeinated like green tea

I switched from coffee to tea this year and have been happy.

Yeah, I was gonna say, drop back to one cup and have it au lait, on ice maybe. Cold turkey = BAD. Hard to get anything done when blinking hurts.

― Beanbag the Gardener (WmC), Monday, August 3, 2009 11:52 AM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i did it with ciggies after a decade of pack/day, i can do it with coffee!

im rockin green tea but at this point it kind of feels like bringing a knife to a gunfight

Tea, hot or cold, gives me four-alarm heartburn more often than coffee does (which is never).

tea w/o milk gives me heartburn, so i pour in a few drops (not in green tea obv)

When I quit coffee, I found Excedrin really helped...which is when I learned two Excedrin has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee.

coffee i miss u boo :(

aghgahgahgshag

guys help

By the spirit of Quetzocatl may this demon bean beGONE

Caffeine soap. Or, make a poultice of grounds, strap it around your torso like a bandito.

I recently came back to the welcoming arms of coffee after 6 years away, and it is heaven.

You enabler!

slock: not as bad as a migraine...eh? eh? that helping?

You enabler!

It's true, too true. Ignore me slocki - think pure thoughts, drink delicious icy water, bandage your aching head in vinegar and brown paper.

might try putting this poultice thing together in the break room

I'm trying to cut down. And I usually drink a lot of coffee, like 12 cups a day. I'm pretty fucking miserable.

that is a lot of coffee

I drink anywhere from 6 to 20+ cups most days... is there a downside I'm missing?

holy shit. does your heart explode?

I had a small cup earlier and it was like ambrosia.

I haven't had any in a couple weeks until now btw. If I feel this bad without it I wonder if it's worth the effort tbh

have some tea.

i can get a little jittery sometimes if i drink an evening pot... sometimes i'll cut it out for a day or two to get the pronounced euphoric buzz back. heart hasn't exploded yet.

i have about 4 a day and im on fire after my last cup. i've also noticed lately that i feel like im getting a damn ulcer.

that happened to me, bingo. i have maybe one cup every month, now.

I am laughing at my comment upthread about quitting coffee, I think I fell off the wagon shortly afterward.

Love love love coffee so much. The first sip of the first cup each morning is like xmas. I know I've posted exactly that at least a couple of times on ilx before.

When my aeropress filters run out, I'm switching to a larger french press.

yeah i love coffee but rarely have more than two cups a day

have been going thru the places in london that are sposed to do the best coffee, usually lots of serious looking australasians, £2.50 flat whites that take aaaages and a general hieratic sense abt the enterprise

Man so everyone knows the common problem of getting a headache after not getting the usual caffeine fix, right? Does anyone have the weirdo other problem of: you haven't drank any caffeine in a long time, and when you do drink a cup of coffee or whatever, you get a huge headache?

the withdrawal effects should be gone within 3-4 days (for me it's this dull throbbing headache, fun).

yeah i get a headache, not from not drinking it and then drinking it (because i don't usually go more than 24h without coffee now so i dunno) but from having more than usual. i never get one from not drinking coffee.

too legit to quit but I do blame coffee for systematically starving around noon (because of the acidity) and forcing me to rush out to buy the most filling food I can get (thereby ruining my diet)

Had two cups of earl grey this morning and feel pretty good. I just might limit myself to a single cup of coffee at work around 2 or 3 so I'm not falling over myself at 6pm.

yerba mate cured me of a coffee addiction AND i felt great the weeks i was drinking it regularly

People that say to others "I haven't had MY coffee yet or wait until I've had MY coffee".

i've noticed ever since i've had my Keurig i drink coffee like a fucking mad man. Recently they installed a Keurig at the office too!

Man so everyone knows the common problem of getting a headache after not getting the usual caffeine fix, right? Does anyone have the weirdo other problem of: you haven't drank any caffeine in a long time, and when you do drink a cup of coffee or whatever, you get a huge headache?

This happened to me the other day! I wasn't sure if it was the coffee, though, or what.

I've consumed pretty much no caffeine in the last five years (not even caffeinated tea), but lately, I have been enjoying a cup of decaf on Saturday or Sunday morning. (My body's so unused to caffeine that even decaf gives me a palpable buzz. Can't imagine what full-strength would do to me.)

yes i used to get the same high from decaf, then i had a kid....DARK ROAST EXTRA BOLD NOW baby.

i have 2 per day at the most (or 3 small cups when i make them at home.) i usually don't even finish the second cup, actually.

Yeah I should get a moka pot again, it made just the right amount of coffee. If I make it now I use my French press and feel guilty that I made 4.0 cups of coffee and drank 0.7 of them.

u know dark roast has less caffeine than light roast

^^^ came here to post just that

sad coffee nerd lols

pro tip: moka pot coffee has a lot more caffeine than you would expect

so there was a quitting coffee thread in the sandbox & though it didn't make much of an effect on me at the time (coffee is occasional for me), i think it start something rolling & i have become super conscious of how much tea i drink (a bunch, like all day long), & am trying to reduce it, & am finding the whole thing alarming. like i just wondered if it was constant tea that was providing the weird sometimes subtly constant thing i previously thought of as 'low-level caffeine buzz' but now realise was in fact just a general squint-inducing headache, which i feel like i've had for six months.

anyway, i think some other people wanted to lean on a thread like this for their coffee-specific issues.

braaaain...dying...

i'm in phase two, after cutting back significantly, in which i'm now drinking zero caffeine (i cheated and had a mountain dew at work yesterday to keep from snapping at coworkers)

you are one of the true heroes

I dunno if I'll ever commit to quitting caffeine

You have my sympathies. Did this again recently (see also: Caffeine headache) and it was pretty rough for a few days there. I basically went down from three espresso drinks a day, to a cup and a half of my roommate's strong drip coffee, to now just a cup of tea every morning. Have had to resort to a Coke in mid-afternoon a few times. There were two or three days in the first tea week that I just got so damn tired I couldn't get a damn thing done.

i know i'm addicted because i don't want to quit. i can't imagine ever quitting, or ever wanting to quit!

^^^ I'll never voluntarily give up coffee. It is too pure a pleasure.

i was drinking over a pot a day just to keep level, it wasn't doing much of anything for me anymore. i just got tired of needing it just to function, tired of every time i tried to go camping or get away in some fashion that i'd still be tethered to it. tried cutting back a number of times before but i just can't moderate, i shoot right back up to pot-a-day levels before i know it. all or none!

there's still nothin like a great big breakfast w/ bacon and eggs, coffee and orange juice

yay arby's! i'm also on no caffeine at the moment. sometimes when i'm feeling weak, i make some decaf. (there is apparently some caffeine in decaf, but i've never had the caffeine headache problem so i think it's minimal unless you're downing it).

xp i'm also all or none. this is like my millionth go around quitting coffee, it's so easy to fall off the wagon when there's a tempting pot of freshly made coffee at work every morning

ou don't quit coffee, you give up - never give up- keep fighting! God can help

given how much sad pleasure I take from enjoying a coffee, I can't really fathom being without it. It's kinda pathetic

tired of every time i tried to go camping or get away in some fashion that i'd still be tethered to it.

yeah, the only times i'm really even cognizant of my addiction is when i'm on a camping trip, or i spend the night at someone's house and realize in the morning that they don't have coffee and there's not going to be an easy way to get coffee. then i suddenly feel like a dope fiend because it's all i can think about.

but the 99% of the time that i wake up in my own house and make a cup, or grab some on the way into work. mmmmmmm nothing like it. :)

tha reason to never camp is loss of coffee privlegdes

so many reasons not to camp

yeah - where to shit

i have had coffee every single day for about 10 years straight now. :-/

You have to both shit, and get off the (coffee) pot. Untenable.

I guess they need to invent a portable toilet/mr coffee machine that is powered by the sun

luckily Mr Veg is almost as much of a coffee fiend as me - he got us a thermal french press for camping trips, pre-grinds the coffee the day before we leave... MWAH delicious

I have one of these that I use at work to make/drink coffee and it came from a camping store so no excuse, campers! http://www.rei.com/product/792857/rei-double-shot-press-mug
I thought about buying a second Aeropress for work but that just seemed silly.

I genuinely have no idea why anyone would quit coffee except I guess stomach problems. OTOH I went years and years never drinking it and didn't feel I was in a horrible cognitive fog.

Ehhh, just didn't like:

a) feeling of dependency on something, having to do this thing before i can really do anything with my day
b) sense that it's probably not REALLY good for you
c) $
d) definitely does get to my stomach sometimes

Thing is, I really do like going out to breakfast and having coffee with it just seems natural, and they keep refilling the cup while you work on the crossword, which also seems natural, and then, blammo. I guess I could just ask for decaf, duh.

You need to improve your crossword skills.

Dude, the Times one is tough! Last week they had this pretty reasonable crib where all the long play-on-words things were like advertisements for things that debuted at certain world's fairs, and I still couldn't resolve one of the corners areas. Ugh.

I remember that one. That was kind of a weird gimmick.

No stomach problems but really affected my sleep when I have enough trouble sleeping anyway...

^^

i also worry a lot about what drinking an entire pot+ a day does to my metabolism and stuff. there are a bajillion articles out there on the health detriments of coffee, but then there are also tons out there saying exactly the opposite (one specific battle that seems to pop up is coffee's link to diabetes), so man idk.

that camping mug is cool but a lotta times it's just not in the cards to build up another fire in the morning, boil more water. and when you're on a pot a day a little mug ain't doing it.

hmmm. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/quit-coffee_b_1598108.html

In the 1980s and 1990s several prospective cohort studies were done to investigate the correlation between coffee and diabetes. Many of those studies reported that there is an inverse dose-dependent association with the risk of Type 2 diabetes. This means that for reasons still unclear, all those research studies found that the more coffee people with normal blood sugar drank, the less risk appeared for developing Type 2 diabetes. Several constituents in coffee might be responsible for these consistent findings.

Chlorogenic acid in coffee might inhibit glucose-6-phosphatase, an enzyme that regulates blood sugar metabolism in the liver. It could also be due to the indisputably-high levels of antioxidants, which have a benign effect on insulin sensitivity.

Not surprisingly, the news channels then sounded the bell that coffee was protective, and we all enjoyed our cup of joe without any remorse.

Until the next report.

Some curious minds wanted to know exactly who was protected. And why? How? These studies showed that in people with Type 2 diabetes coffee intake was correlated with insulin spikes and increased blood sugar after a meal. Further research has shown that the caffeine in coffee might be the culprit responsible for the secretion of higher levels of insulin from the pancreas.

Clearly higher insulin and glucose levels are not the work we want to bestow on a body healing from insulin resistance. Considering that diabesity affects nearly 1.7 billion people worldwide and growing, the nightly news now sounded the alarm of caution that perhaps our coffee habit is a detrimental addiction needing to be kicked to the curb.

i mean i'm not a diabetic, but interesting

i am back on a quasi-quit jag, reasons =

1) will sleep better
2) less waking tired and sluggish every morning
3) fewer headaches
4) also reduces non-caffeine-based self-medication for headaches

(all effects attested to from previous breaks)

i love love love coffee but i think it cuts into my working/writing routine when not on deadline -- next hard deadline is two months away, here's to a headache-free late summer

i have considered switching up to green tea but maybe that is a frying pan / fire situation

luckily i dislike tea in all its forms

even chai? I like coffee fine but I don't know what I'd do without chai

I drink nuts amount of coffee.

Last holiday, the opportunity for coffee drinking was negligible. Didn't particularly miss it, until one day I felt like I'd like one. Even then, if they hadn't had it, it would not have been a biggie.

More surprised there wasn't any crayvinnnggsssss

even rooibos and pu-erh and russian brick tea

I have found since I started taking arctic root (proper name Rhodiola Rosea) every day I barely crave any caffeine on a morning any more. It actually gives me an energy jolt that lasts all day. Although I take it in tablet form and couldn't vouch for brewed method of ingestion practiced in the Russian arctic regions for centuries. It probably tastes like bear piss but it's effects and benefits as a natural stimulant are exceptional.

verveine/verbena is pretty amazing as a late-nite rinse-out

no caffeine tho

my basic intuition -- about myself anyway -- is an energy jolt is energy borrowed from the future and that while you can obviously set up a cycle of repeat-borrows (and do), you end up paying a price for this, same as two days after something's really adrenalised you you feel like shit

my price seems to be just constant low-level headaches -- they are shiftable (esp with caffeine) but are really only always deferred

plus i would like to sleep better sometimes

well-put.

I've been pretty bad at my quitting scheme this year but not awful. Splitting days about evenly between one cafe au lait when I have the urge to leave the house and go to the coffee shop, and one black tea when I stay home (sometimes topped up with a Coke later on, which come to think of it NEVER actually makes me feel better). Green tea hits my stomach way too hard. What's really hard to shake is when I go out for a full breakfast and it just seems so obvious that steady refills of a little off-white mug of drip coffee would just hit the spot perfectly. I don't think I've broken the habit hard enough yet where I could just indulge in that one day here and there and suffer no relapses in my overall project of cutting back. But good sleep and not having headaches and just generally being more even in my energy level throughout the day are all important things.

What I find with the Rhodiola is that it doesn't keep me awake at all, but it does give me lucid dreaming maximus - like when on nicotine patches. But I never feel like it is tapping out of future reserves. They have been using it in the east for millennia without much complaints. But if someone is sensitive to headaches it could cause problems I guess. I only just had my first migraine a few years ago and I thought I was dying or going blind! I am so unused to headaches it is probably one of the areas where I have to check my privilege:p It is strange because my mum was always afflicted with very debilitating headaches on a weekly basis, but i never get them at all.

I quit drinking coffee for a few weeks recently and noticed I would feel tired and like I was "coming to" for the whole day. One coffee in the morning was a ritual to get in a better mood for the day and certainly it elevated my mood to be able to deal with my office job. I'm back drinking coffee daily again, and I've traded the ennui for a momentary bump and an inevitable crash.

Got completely off coffee a few months ago. Wasn't sleeping, acidy stomach and even noticed my perspiration - when I did - left my clothes smelling bad. Began to drink black tea and green only and all that bs is gone now. Bye coffee! I loved ya but ...laters.

no coffee at all now for two months (w/one experimental relapse not repeated) -- i miss the taste a lot but not the effects

related matter in this thread:
the thread of ATRIAL FIBBING

article about sleep/coffee/etc

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/01/how-to-sleep/508781/

Tapering off coffee by substituting a less-caffeinated hot drink might not be everyone's cup of... eh, fuck it.

i've heard good things about yerba mate

i don’t want to shit up the Coffee thread so i’m here

and this sucks

on the plus side your breath smells even fresher

I switched to tea in October to see if it would stop the palpitations and it seemed to do the trick immediately. So no more coffee for me I guess.

damn tracer, sending strength <3

the coffee thread reminds me of audiophile shit sometimes lol <3 in a good way

Sheesh how much coffee were you drinking camaraderie? and you too Tracer if you don’t mind answering

Not even that much! I'd say 3-4 cups a day. 2 in the morning, then a double espresso in the afternoon. But I've done this for pretty much ever since I can remember. A decade? Two? So the switch has been a little rough. I feel fuzzy and disconnected, like what I imagine antidepressants might feel like. The edges sanded off. I miss ol' rootin tootin Tracer. And it takes.. several seconds to like, form the words of a response if somebody asks me a question. It's like Flowers for Algernon lol

Worth saying too this was not my idea; my doc recommended it as a mitigation for my migraines

I was having two, maybe three cups per day, but I have a heart condition which causes frequent tachycardia.

I felt groggy for a few days but now feel significantly better in the mornings especially (the "before I've had my coffee" time)

Sincere best wishes to you both

I know more people that have cut out coffee than have cut out alcohol, tbh. I couldn't imagine. The same neuroscience doc I posted about in the alcohol thread, he's brought up coffee a few times, and given his objective buzzkill-ness I keep expecting him to tell everyone to cut it out, too, but he keeps finding positive things to say about coffee/caffeine. For example, not only is its dopamine kick much, much lower than stuff like chocolate, but chemically it actually positively affects your dopamine receptors in a beneficial way (as opposed to the usual peaks and valleys of its stimulant peers). Surprising.

Anyway, good luck! I hear the first two weeks of quitting anything can be the toughest.

yes post all my procedures (see the atrial fibbing thread for details) i have a high resting heart rate and have intermittently come off coffee for a few months at a time to see if that makes a difference

well it doesn't so i'm back on right now -- my cardiologist says absent other problematic symptoms the high heart rate isn't concerning him especially (check in again at the end of the year) and as far as he's concerned coffee is unrelated and good for you in other ways

once i've actually fkn moved house -- i whish this could hurry up a bit lol -- i might try cutting down again as i want to shift all my habits a bit in the new place (walk more, swim more, lose some weight, eat a salad) as i definitely sleep much better after the several (many) days of dreary grief

mainly i fall off the wagon bcz hard-deadline subbing & proofing needs me to be SHARP AS A PIN FIRST THING (but my plan is to be doing less of that also, as it pais less and less and less and less)

Ugh, I have both migraines and heart palpitations, so I guess I probably should cut out coffee, but I'm scared of the withdrawal migraines and what will happen when I don't have it to help me focus.

(lol not me discussing proofing and being sharp as a pin and then spelling "pays" as "pais")

fwiw have have had only a low-level headache for one (1x) day as a result of this and today i'm actually feeling pretty good mentally, just a bit bereft of my little ritual

In my experience, the brutal symptoms (headaches, fogginess) are all really, really frontloaded in those first few days. Superstitiously, I go for rehydrating drinks, hot showers, Tylenol and naps. Eventually you're on the other side.

and that’s where i am

guys i have been taking only magnificent shits

A good substitute for the ritual aspect, I've found during times where I had to swear off coffee: heating a cup of broth.

i am drinking roiboos tea like my life depends on it. probably will develop some form of roiboos-inflicted malady

I gave up alcohol five years ago to save my life and my marriage. I'm sure as fuck not giving up coffee.

guys i have been taking only magnificent shits

lol a barry zito macro for every occasion

i just had coffee again and gents this is the stuff

sorry wrong thread. or is it.i am absolutely flying. seeing through the universe. cracking jokes before i even start my sentence.

sightly unsettling vibes in my extremities and general heart location

thread's here if you need it :(

the thread of ATRIAL FIBBING

:/

i think i'm okay. but suddenly very emotional

caffeine's a hell of a drug, kids

god i fucking love roiboos

stand by for a "quitting roiboos and the ensuing effects" thread

🤖

Did the thing of drinking restaurant coffee which revealed that I was in a worse mood than I thought :(

One brand that for whatever reason does not give me that weird erratic takeoff and crash on the runway feeling is Lavazza.

Perhaps I spoke too soon