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Best Way To Beat A Caffeine Addiction?
ethanms writes "I'm pretty sure that I'm addicted to caffeine... I get nasty headaches if I skip coffee and soda for a day. If I go even longer, then the headaches get worse and I start to become (even more of) a pain in the ass to those around me. Within five or ten minutes of a cup of joe or can of Mountain Dew the headache is gone and I feel fine... There's plenty of advice out there for dealing with addiction, but I'm really interested in how other /. users have managed and controlled their own caffeine intake, especially considering how heavily it is pushed by many development / engineering communities. 'Just drink more' isn't really the answer I'm after either."
Just do it. I had headaches for a week, but I've been free 18 months now.
Some hints for this approach - drink a lot of ice cold water. Use pain relief without caffine (some pills have caffine in them) when you need to feel normal. Eat healthy and exercise.
I'll suck, but it'll end.
I suppose that would work, but have you ever had a caffeine-withdrawl headache?
I stopped getting them (the caffeine-based ones at least, see below) after about a month when I quit.
I'd tried reducing my caffeine intake, but I just kept going back to it (especially when I had early morning meetings), so I figured cold turkey was the only way it was going to happen.
I'd been drinking caffeinated beverages of one kind or another for about fifteen years (since I was ten or so), and at the end of it I was taking No-Doze in the morning and drinking a thermos full of coffee or black tea every day.
It's been about six months, and I have only two minor complaints:
- I can't drink the tea at my favourite Chinese restaurant anymore.
- *Not* drinking caffeine (a painkiller) means that now I feel the migraines I've apparently been getting for a few years (according to my doctor). They're pretty infrequent, though, so I just keep a bottle of aspirin around.
It took about three months before I wasn't really tired in the mornings. After that I was able to sleep normally and my hands don't shake anymore. Maybe I can finally use a soldering iron properly =).
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
The explanation i got from a biochemist when i tried to quit was that the signal-molecules that are there when you are tired compete with the caffeine molecules for the cells receptors (cafeeine is a competitive inhibitor).
The body compensates by overexpressing the receptors, so after a while everything works like you before you started drinking coffee, but if you try to quit you become tired very quickly (because of the extra receptors).
The receptors have a turnover time of a little more than a week, so if you that long you should be ok again... but it's not really a question of the caffeine leaving the body, as much as a question of protein-turnover in your brain.
The advantage over cafeeine addiction over cigarette addiction is that when the physical addiction is gone, then you are ok.
With smoking, the physical addiction is just a tiny part of your addiction.
(note: I am NOT a biochemist)
"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." -George H.W. Bush
One day I just made the decision to stop. I went through about a week solid headache but after that the craving was gone, it really wasn't hard to get rid of.
A year later I couldn't find anything to drink but a coke so I tried one and couldn't stand the taste. At this point I don't think I could ever drink Coke again, the taste is just nasty.
Over time I finally moved myself to mostly water. Being a sugar addict also it took a little while to get used to drinking water. Water works well as an appetite suppressant as well as keeping you well hydrated. Your headaches may not be due to lack of caffeine as much as lack of water.
The downfall is that you run to the bathroom more than anybody you know. But to trade that for less headaches, a happier stomach, and overall better health was definitely worth it. You'll find that drinking water instead of anything else will make you feel better. I found that feeling better was a big contributing factor to me being more productive, both at work and at home.
Take a week and make sure you are well hydrated. WELL hydrated. A glass an hour. If your urine is almost clear you're doing well. If you get into too much water it may be good to replenish yourself with a sports beverage once in a while.
That's another issue. When I drank coke all the time I thought Gatorade was too bland and didn't have any flavor. After a few months of dedicating myself to water a glass of gatorade tastes like pure sugar to me. Suddenly I don't crave sweets as much. Cakes, cookies, candy - they all seem a bit overpowering.
All these positive things just from dropping the sugar and drinking water. Everybody was stunned when I first went to a restaurant and ordered water. Even I felt odd. Now it is just the obvious choice, everything else tastes far too sweet.
Give it a try and let me know how it works for you!
Most of the common addictions (nicoteine, alcohol, caffiene) have a short withdrawl period, usually just a couple of days.
Obviously, you have not been a smoker, a drinker, or soda drinker.
I have quite smoking twice. The first time, It was somewhat difficult, but not bad. I did not smoke for 6 months. Then I thought just one while at a bar. By the night I had smoked a packed and was back at it for about 4 years. When I quit the 2'nd time, it was a bitch. For the first week, I basically stade away from everyone; I was on a 1 week vacation and just kinda of slept through it. After that, I get rid of all my old smoking habits. To this day (3 years later), I still crave cigs when in old habits (such as eating and studying).
In years past, I have drank large amounts (as well as did other things) and would be considered an alchoholic by some definations. Yet, I found it trivial to go with out for months on end. Each of us have their own addictions.
So what is the point? If the poster is having a difficult time withdrawing and really wishes to, then I suggest taking about 1 week off from work, avoid old habits, and sleep it off. Once you get past it, then avoid all caffeine. Over time, you may be able to go back to a little bit, but based the posting, I doubt it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Water ... "Ah, foul stuff that is."
If you don't like the 'taste' of water, then you probably never had good clean water.
Get a five stage Reverse Osmosis water filter. They are truly amazing. They are so good they're in a whole different leage than those regular water/icemaker filters. The water from the reverse osmosis filter tastes better than bottled water. No foulness, no bitterness, no aftertastes, no lighheadedness, no smells, no nothing, just absolutely pure and clean water. Everything you make with it tastes better, even coffee or tea itself. About $150 at Samsclub, will last for years.
--- Hindsight is 20/20, but walking backwards is not the answer.
I quit smoking too, and I did it cold turkey a few years ago. I didn't smoke for two years, but then I picked it up again (at burning man of all places in the world).
Second time around, I was really pissed off at myself. I decided enough is enough, and I stopped, and haven't smoked for a while now. I've been weak at the pub a few times since I quit the second time, but I've managed to recover pretty nicely. Next morning when I woke up after having a cigarette in the pub, I decided it was only a minor setback, and I went on track straight away. Now it's been a few months since I had the last cigerette, and I feel really good.
It may have been easier for me to quit smoking than a lot of people, because I didn't actually like smoking. I hated what it did to my throat. I'd wake up with a bad throat, and that annoyed me.
BTW: I was smoking for around 7 years in total.
I know that you are trying to break a caffeine addiction, but quitting smoking is very similiar. You just have to do it cold turkey. If it gets really bad, just remember why it is that way. Instead of thinking that a cup of coffie will fix the problem, remember that it is the source of the problem. You've come as far as asking for help, that means you really wanna quit... just do it!!
In the end, only YOU can do it. Remeber that.
FYI, Moutain Dew in Canada (in Ontario at least) contains no caffeine. IIRC it is illegal to caffeinate non-cola carbonated beverages up here in the frozen north.
Drinking that much coffee is not good for the body. I learned the hard way: wore out my adrenal system.
It's not so easy to quit as some people suggest.
First time I quit cold turkey, spent three days in bed with wracking headaches and no appetite for food. The headaches became less severe after three days, but my body was not yet at peace. Suffered unproductively for the better part of two weeks and then started drinking coffee again to get on with my life. But a lot less than before.
Another iteration of quiting and unquiting got me down to about two or three large cups a day.
Then I had a prescription medication that interacted badly with caffeine and I had to quit again. Still had the headaches for several days, but this time my life didn't stall completely. A month later I still couldn't function at full intensity, so I started drinking one cup each morning.
At one cup of moderately strong coffee, I can quit anytime without a headache. At 1.5 cups per day, missing a day is risky. At 2 cups per day, I'm fully addicted. It can vary over a wide range from one person to another.
After many hard fought battles, I figure it takes the best part of three months for the body to fully adjust to a different caffeince consumption level. People forget that coffee has hundreds of other alkaloids, not just caffeine. Decaf coffee affects cognitive structure (not in a good way) without causing the same vascular effects.
Now I stick to about one cup a day, the level where I know I'm not addicted. Can miss a day with only a little blah to deal with.
Tea never worked at all as a caffeine substitute for me, nor do any of the colas. It's not just the caffeine you have to live without.
The best trick I learned was to change my brewing methods.
First, use a high quality dark roast with intense flavour. Dark roast has less caffeine, because some of the caffeine is destroyed in the roaasting process. If the roast is good, I find I'm less tempted to cheat on the ratio.
Don't use a French press. I love the body of a French press, but it comes at the price of extracting in triplicate. I switched to drip, which was (un)depressing at first, but I got used to it.
Grind your own beans. Some roasts can be ground a lot finer without losing flavor or becoming bitter. A fine grind with a quick brew cycle will extract more flavour relative to the amount of caffeine. Don't ask me about the physics, I don't understand it either.
Brew in smaller batches. I used to use brew length as an indicator for the quality of a roast. If the roast can be extracted in a French press for more than four minutes without becoming nasty, the roast is really good. With a French press, the coffee tastes better if you pour from about ten inches above the top of the Bodum in a slow drizzle. I could never figure out why this worked, but then I learned that this is just enough time for the water temp. to drop below 200 degrees. Water right at the boiling point does something nasty to coffee beans. But, oh, I was saying don't use a French press only the memories are too good.
Even with a drip, the extraction cycle is important. The problem is that if the coffee tastes like crap, my first instinct is to fix the problem by tossing twice as many grounds in the filter basket.
Drip coffee makers don't scale: the length of the extraction cycle varies with the amount of water processed. Shorter extraction cycles are better for getting good coffee with less caffeine.
For my small Braun drip, anything over half a pot creates difficulties with balance. I drew a black line at the fill level which produces an optimum exrtraction cycle: it works out to two 10 ounce cups.
Even with the black line, I had a constant battle with an expanding miniscus. Some days I could make that miniscus so large, I could squeeze an entire third mug out of the deal.
The stroke of genius was to throw the caraffe away. Now I brew my coffee
(mod parent up, someone - he made some good points)
Well, that's at least a cogent counterargument. But let me make myself clear. I am not saying I agree or disagree that we need 8 glasses of water a day. I'm saying that I'm a skeptic. I agree with Valtin's argument that proof we need such a large amount of drinking water for everyday activity is suspiciously lacking. It seems to be ubiquitously 'common knowledge' and 'doctor recommended' but for something which is so strongly preached by "the entire medical world," as you state with some accuracy, shouldn't there be volumes of studies? Where are they? At the very least, I'd expect to see something demonstrating that healthy octogenarians drank more water during their lives then their sick and deceased cohorts. As it is, the best pro-water study I could come up with turned out to be sponsored by Brita. That's not very reassuring.
It could very well be that Valtin's a crackpot. But is he wrong?
(BTW, I do drink plenty of water myself. Pascal's Wager, and all that.)
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
Acetone is naturally produced in the body when acetoacetate spontaneously decarboxylates to form it (instead of being enzymatically reduced by NADH to beta-hydroxybutyrate). When people go on that Atkins diet, the ketogenesis overflow pathway is very active and you can smell acetone on their breath. Plus it is present in dietary sources. So the body can handle its presence and you can ingest a tablespoon of acetone with no ill effect. But the OP wasn't talking about acetone. It was talking about nicotine, and claiming it is legitimately found in the body. It is not.
Whether or not it's called a "poison", if you're going to claim that nicotine is produced naturally in the body, the onus is on you to say where.
Houses are cheap.
They are if you live Buttfuck, Nebraska or in your mom's basement. They aren't if you live in London or New York and have ten years worth of mortgage payments in equity.
Freebasing is a long forgotten art.
By the time you've developed a taste for it, you'll find that whipping up a few rocks with bicarb in the microwave achieves exactly the same effects. And there's nothing at all artful about spending a weekend picking your face, pulling your hair out or crawling around the carpet looking for that last tiny piece of rock that you swore you'd dropped.
The problem with water filters is that, while they do filter out anything which might taste a bit odd to you, they actually remove a number of helpful things from the water, which are added by your local water department (e.g. vitamin B, and fluorine, the dental benefits of which are substantial and documented), and some things which aren't (the amount of iron accumulated in processing and pipes is well within the range of useful to your body). Other sediment picked up along the way isn't particularly harmful either, although it does nothing for you.
So really, if you drank nothing but fresh and clean, pure water from day one, you'd have awful and horrible teeth. Ask your local dentist about the benefits of fluoridized water if you don't believe me.
---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
Disclaimer: I'm an ER doc, and I treat several migraine patients a day.
The origin of migraines is incompletely understood, and the vascular theory is only one of the hypotheses that are used to explain the origin of migraines. In addition to the vascular theory, some evidence points to serotonin and dopamine receptor involvement... the truth of the matter is that nobody knows.
However, that said, read this thread and you'll understand why an entire industry has grown up around migraine treatment... everyone's are different. There are entire clinics and centers that do nothing but treat migraines... do an internet search and you'll find some. There are neurologists out there who make a good living treating nothing but migraines.
If you read the list of medications that are used to treat migraines, it reads like a pharmacy inventory... everything from cardiac medications to anti-seizure medications, sedatives, steroids, anesthetics, narcotics, anti-psychotics, and everything inbetween. If a person has migraines long enough, they eventually find out something that works for them, primarily through trial and error... once you go through the common drugs with no relief, there's almost no other way to find a treatment for refractory migraines.
For my own part, I've found one thing that almost universally relieves migraines: sleep. Sometimes the treatment of a particularly severe migraine involves nothing short of knocking a person out with drugs so that they can go home and sleep it off.
Back on topic, however... caffeine is an effective treatment for migraines, particularly in the early phase of the headache. Keep in mind, however, that one man's meat is invariably another man's poison: caffeine relieves migraines in most people, but causes them in others.
All I can say is know your triggers, avoid them, and treat EARLY.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
From http://www.cdc-cdh.edu/hospital/cardio/art44.html
Now before folks call me alarmist, this is not true of everybody. I happen to be someone with a very high sensitivity to caffeine, and one of my brothers has this too, though interestingly neither of my parents do. I discovered how sensitive I was to caffeine after it put me in the cardiac wing of a hospital for a day and a half with an atrial fibrillation, even though I am fit and don't smoke.
That experience has left me thinking that people are awfully blasee about using what can be a very strong stimulant for people with certain biochemistry. So let me add that to all the other excellent advice about getting used to drinking water.
One other thought:
If you don't have hypertension, you might try snacking on sunflower seeds periodically. The salt gives you a wicked urge to drink water, and the seeds take enough work to crack that you don't really go through that many calories.
Tea is actually a really good way to wean yourself from caffeine if cold turkey isn't working for you. Tea comes in MANY varieties, and has different amounts of caffeine for each (do a little research). You can find some that are nearly as high in caffeine per cup as coffee, and others as low as 1mg per cup.
Find some types that you really *enjoy* the flavor of, and then order them from highest caffeine to lowest. Figure out a schedule and work your way down accordingly.
Not only did this work for me, but there are a lot of other benefits to drinking tea or green tea.