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Day 1 of cold turkey caffeine withdrawal


Doc H

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You mean like completely quitting? No alternative?

I used to drink a few pots of coffee every day and lots of cola. I swicthed from coffee to tea years ago (I still drink cola) and my energy levels are much more even. I don't crash like I used to.

4 mugs a day when I work.  Sometimes one mug during the weekend - which tells me that I am not as addicted to tea as I was to coffee, which was a 7 days a week affair.

I can't imagine life without any caffeine, though.

Edited by Rain
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4 hours ago, Rain said:

You mean like completely quitting? No alternative?

I used to drink a few pots of coffee every day and lots of cola. I swicthed from coffee to tea years ago (I still drink cola) and my energy levels are much more even. I don't crash like I used to.

4 mugs a day when I work.  Sometimes one mug during the weekend - which tells me that I am not as addicted to tea as I was to coffee, which was a 7 days a week affair.

I can't imagine life without any caffeine, though.

Yes. Completely. I’ve suffered from migraines most of my life. It’s been quite debilitating. Before getting on Aimovig 5 years ago I got at least 20 a month.  Unfortunately, my body has built up a resistance to the medication and I have to make some life changes again. 

Over the last year I noticed the caffeine has been triggering the migraines. Or rather the inconsistency of intake from day to day. I talked to my neurologist and was advised to cut the caffeine from my diet. 

I’ve already cut out cured or processed meats, aged cheeses and anything that has MSG (which is a problem, a good portion of my diet is Japanese - an influence from my mother who is from the old country).

The only caffeine I’m getting is from the decaf coffee. Apparently, that’s gotta be limited in quantity or it’s gotta go altogether. 

Grumpy, am I? Yes. Easily frustrated? Very much so.

I never realized how much of an affect caffeine has on a persons’ ability to focus. Because I am feeling that I can’t focus on anything for any length of time.

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I had to limit my caffeine intake too.  Still have it in the morning but maybe a small cup late morning but none in the afternoon.  I also will have some tea that has caffeine in the morning instead of coffee sometimes.  Herb tea is my evening tea.   Hard to give it up completely but with my other health issues I was advised to limit caffeine intake.  Now that I don't have it later in the day I'm sleeping much better.   I have found a few Herb Teas that I enjoy. If you are new to tea buy a variety box to try them to find one you like.

 

 

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2 hours ago, Doc H said:

Over the last year I noticed the caffeine has been triggering the migraines. Or rather the inconsistency of intake from day to day. I talked to my neurologist and was advised to cut the caffeine from my diet. 

My wife is like that too.  No caffeine or too much caffeine can trigger migraines for her.    Wish you all the best in managing the migraines.  They suck!

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I used to get wicked migraines.  After keeping a log, mine turned out to be food-allergy related.  I found I have to stay away from the seasoning thyme, and can't have too much cheddar cheese.  I have no issues with a small amount of cheddar cheese, but once I hit some threshold, watch out!  Turns out there's a chemical called Tyramine in cheddar, and some other aged cheeses, that cause a lot of people issues.

As a side-note, if you get a boost from drinking caffeinated coffee, that means you were actually below the energy baseline you should be at!  In other words, you are not getting enough decent sleep and/or have other life-issues (like a poor diet or lack of exercise) that are draining your energy.  I drink coffee because I enjoy it, but can easily do without if necessary and can even go directly to sleep after having a mug.

When I did get a migraine, if I didn't address it IMMEDIATELY, I was screwed for several hours pulling my hair out in pain.  But, if I hit it fast, it went away very quickly.  Although I prefer natural remedies for everything, I don't know of one (other than avoiding what causes 'em!).  The original recipe of Tylenol Sinus used to work, but the new version doesn't.  That said, Excedrin Migraine REALLY works for me and wipes out the pain from the one or two migraines I still get during a year.  YMMV! ?

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23 minutes ago, craigb said:

As a side-note, if you get a boost from drinking caffeinated coffee, that means you were actually below the energy baseline you should be at!  In other words, you are not getting enough decent sleep and/or have other life-issues

unfortunately our bodies are all unique and what works for one might not work for another.  

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Wishing you well on your health journey! Changes can be challenging but may be rewarding. I am not able to have a strong amount of caffeine like in coffee, but i do enjoy and appreciate the small amount in dark chocolate which also has compounds that some say are beneficial. Dark chocolate is not to everyones liking, especially very dark but for me its tasty and a nice little boost.  

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14 hours ago, Doc H said:

Yes. Completely. I’ve suffered from migraines most of my life. It’s been quite debilitating. Before getting on Aimovig 5 years ago I got at least 20 a month.  Unfortunately, my body has built up a resistance to the medication and I have to make some life changes again. 

Over the last year I noticed the caffeine has been triggering the migraines. Or rather the inconsistency of intake from day to day. I talked to my neurologist and was advised to cut the caffeine from my diet. 

I’ve already cut out cured or processed meats, aged cheeses and anything that has MSG (which is a problem, a good portion of my diet is Japanese - an influence from my mother who is from the old country).

The only caffeine I’m getting is from the decaf coffee. Apparently, that’s gotta be limited in quantity or it’s gotta go altogether. 

Grumpy, am I? Yes. Easily frustrated? Very much so.

I never realized how much of an affect caffeine has on a persons’ ability to focus. Because I am feeling that I can’t focus on anything for any length of time.

That's a lot of changes to your diet - which is not easy. With my French (French Canadian) background, cheese and cured meats were an important (and favorite)  part of my diet. Eventually, I realized that my body was working really hard to process that type of food, so I had to eliminate them from my menu almost entirely.  Now the only cheese I eat is cottage for breakfast. Or whatever's on the occasional pizza during the weekend. 

But the consequences for me weren't half as bad as what you go through.

Japanese cuisine, man...  A few months of dating a Japanese girl and I was hooked. Whatever night she brings leftovers from her grandma is the best night of the week. These two got me re-aquainted with sodium, although that's the exception, not the norm.  But yeah, MSG... I get that.

Inability to focus was the number one symptom for me every time I quit smoking (I eventually quit for good in 2013). I guess it makes sense since nicotine is a stimulant too. The good news is that, obviuously, this eventually subsides. So hang in there!

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I quit caffeine for good in the first lockdown. I had tried years before and crashed miserably after only three days with pounding headaches. This time I went down from several cups a day to just one - in a morning. Then after a week I subbed that with decaff, you can get some really good decaff coffee now (using water instead of chemicals to remove the caffeine) - including ground - so this is now my go to and I really don't miss it. 

I never realised how bad my caffeine addiction was, I would get a headache by the end of a day if we had been out somewhere and I had not had a coffee - completely nuts. Also, caffeine has a diuretic effect that I really don't miss.

Hang in there, you will crack it.

Andy

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I am on day 5 of a no-caffeine regimen.

One day last week I experienced what I can only assume was a panic attack. Heart pounding, shaking hands and an illogical feeling of being in imminent danger, you know the old fight-or-flight response. I'd never felt that before, and it just arrived out of the blue. Could have been at least partly psychological, as I have been under unusually high levels of stress lately.

Stopping the coffee was easy. Just switched to mint tea and Lorazepam.

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14 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

One day last week I experienced what I can only assume was a panic attack. Heart pounding, shaking hands and an illogical feeling of being in imminent danger, you know the old fight-or-flight response. I'd never felt that before, and it just arrived out of the blue. Could have been at least partly psychological, as I have been under unusually high levels of stress lately.

 

Were you watching network news?

If you really want to improve your lives, THAT is what you should be giving up! 

Edited by RobertWS
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37 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Stopping the coffee was easy. Just switched to mint tea and Lorazepam.

Have you tried Celestial Seasoning's Sleepytime "Extra"? It has calming Valerian Root, along with Spearmint Leaf, Lemongrass Leaf and Hawthorn Berry.

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54 minutes ago, RobertWS said:

Were you watching network news?

If you really want to improve your lives, THAT is what you should be giving up! 

Actually  social media like FB. Also the idea for news is watch a balanced amount from a lot of sources. Sort of like we should have a balanced diet. ?

Hope you're doing good in your journey Doc.

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