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."

Comments

multiple withdrawals

[abysmilliard]

The last time I quit caffeine (it only stuck for a few months), I killed it good by ALSO giving up cigarettes, sugar, and drinking at the same time It creates a situation where you feel so fucking miserable that really, you stop worrying about caffeine or really anything else, for that matter Anyways, caffeine exits your system after about three days. I suggest giving it up when you next have the flu, next have a really, REALLY bad bender, or next time you have a fever. The other feelings will be so painful, additional misery shouldn't bother you (much)

I started looking through the google links...

[tuxette]

...and found some pretty funny stuff:

"Caffeine is the Christian drug of preference. Drink a glass of red wine or light up a cigarette during Sunday Night Fellowship Hour, and you will be thrown out on your ear. But a two-hundred-gallon pot of black adrenal-rush will bring friendly smiles of delight. The meeting would not be the same with the absence of its nutty aroma filling the church basement. Little white Styrofoam cups floating in small clusters of heavenly conversation." link

Otherwise, I found this interesting: Scientists cast doubt on caffeine addiction.

What about caffeine insensitivity?

[Our Man In Redmond]

I'm curious about the other side of the coin. I do about a six-pack of Diet Coke a day, but I don't seem to show any signs of addiction if I don't get my caffeine. No headaches, no jitters, nothing. In addition, it doesn't seem to affect my ability to sleep. The only difference I can tell between the caffeinated and non-caffeinated versions is taste.

Granted that's my major source of caffeine (I don't do coffee or tea) so in any case I don't get a lot. I wondered whether other people have seen similar effects, and how widespread this might be.

Re:What about caffeine insensitivity?

[oneiron]

Yea, that's how I was. Never noticed any headaches or anything else... I never had problems sleeping.

Don't be fooled, though. The caffiene is still affecting you. You will get much better sleep if you're not hopped up on caffiene. Caffiene keeps you from reaching the lower frequencies of brainwave activity where your body recovers the best... Quit for a week, and you might notice feeling much more refreshed in the morning. I know I did. That's why I never went back.

Re:What about caffeine insensitivity?

[palmtree3141]

Oddly enough, caffeine's effects on people vary greatly and has a pretty high correlation with how introverted or extroverted a person is... Extroverts respond to coffee, introverts to alcohol, generally. It's not perfect, but a very statistically significant correlation.

Actually this is a good idea!

[rkuris]

Here's a paper describing the positive effects of nicotine. Since cancer generally takes 20-30 years from the time you start smoking, if you're around 50 or 60 years old, the positive effects of starting to smoke outweigh the negative effects, although the studies aren't complete yet.

Some doctors have considered prescribing nicotine as a cure for a variety of ailments, including schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, attention deficit disorder and colitis.

I'm thinking about it!

Re:Actually this is a good idea!

[spicedhamhawg]

That's not nicotine, it's one of the B vitamins. I don't recall the exact name anymore (haven't lived in Japan for over a year) but it's not nicotine. This has been discussed on /. before, some time ago. At any rate, the name of that particular B vitamin does begin with "nicotin."

To address the original poster's question, I'm semi-addicted to caffeine, but not to the point that I get headaches if I stop, and I often go without any caffeinated drinks from Friday afternoon until Monday morning.

If you're really heavily stuck on caffeine, though, a slow tapering off is the best way to do it. Since part of the thing with caffeine is the act of drinking coffee (just as with cigarettes, it's not just the nicotine addiction, but the physical act of smoking), so one approach (I haven't tried it, but it seems logical) is to start cutting the caffeine level in your coffee by mixing it with decaf. Start with mostly regular and a little decaf, and gradually increase until it's eventually all decaf.

If that's too much work, get some caffeine pills and figure out how many equal one cup of coffee. Start with a full load, then start backing down by one pill, and then another, until there's only one left. Then maybe to half a pill, or maybe just go cold turkey at that point.

Or, take two weeks of vacation and have yourself locked in a room with no access to coffee, just an Internet connection and a toilet, and have your meals passed through the door :-)

Re:Actually this is a good idea!

[MillionthMonkey]

Nicotine is something your body needs, and actually produces itself.

I call bullshit. Nicotine is an alkaloid and a poison, and while there are drugs (hallucinogens even) that occur in the body, nicotine is not one of them. There is nicotinic acid (niacin or vitamin B-3) but that's a precursor to nicotine in tobacco plants. In humans it's a precursor for molecules like NADH. Nicotine acts at nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, but not at muscarinic acetylcholine receptors. Acetylcholine and nicotine have little else in common.

Half Caffeine diet worked for me

[EDA Wizard]

I was drinking a pot or more of coffee each morning with a couple of cokes and shots of espresso in the afternoon. I was getting light headed and would get tired randomly throughout the day. I decided it could be the caffeine so I tried to quit cold turkey and had similar problems quiting. The headaches were the worst part for me. My solution turned out to be a new blend of beans.

I'm a Peet's Sumatra fan so I went to my local Peet's and had them blend a 50/50 mix of decaf Sumatra with a regular Sumatra. This alone cut my consumption by half and I didn't even notice the missing caffeine.

I also dropped the espresso in the afternoon and I drink about half the coke that I used to.

I'm thinking about dropping to a 25% caffeine blend of Sumatra and brewing two pots a day. It still will be less caffeine than I used to drink and it gives me something to drink in the afternoon.

Good luck. Be happy you aren't trying to quit crack. My half crack plan doesn't work as well as this.

Masturbate more

[ToadMan8]

Do you think about drinking coffee / dew when you are masturbating? I didn't think so.

Really though, what causes the headaches (my most hated withdrawl symptom) is the capalaries in your head constricting back a bit after the caffine caused dialation and thus the headache (same w/ other headaches, just not caused by caffine).

Sex (and thus masturbation) releases natural chemicals that can reverse some of those effects.

Re:Mental discipline

[Radish03]

That's not always a viable solution.

I get migranes, and for them I take Excedrin Migrane pills. Usually I take 2, which in total contain 130 mg of caffiene (~3 cans of coke, ~9 Penguin Mints), and this makes the headache go away pretty quickly. For about a month straight during my senior year of high school, I got a migrane at almost the same time each day (give or take 20 minutes) so I would take the Excedrin and the headache would go away in about an hour. I was somewhat suspicious about this, as it happened daily, and I started to wonder if I was addicted to caffiene, so I experemented a bit. Some days I would bring something caffienated with me (like a Code Red Mountain Dew) and drink that before classes started. And wouldn't you know it, I didn't get headaches those days.

When I did get a headache, however, I would have trouble paying attention to the class (paying more attention to the feeling that my brain was getting too large for my skull). So to go without caffiene completely wasn't a very good idea, so I started working myself off of it slowly. I got some caffienated mints, and would just eat a few of those before I knew I'd get a headache, and maybe a few more around the time I'd get a headache if I felt one coming on. And thats pretty much how I dealt with it, but I had to take it pretty slowly to ween myself from the caffiene.

Re:Caffeine addiction?!? Gimme a break!

[Xyverz]

I think the problem here is that you're not looking at the right problem. Caffeine is not so much psychologically addictive as it is physiologically addictive.

I also seriously doubt that somebody who only drinks 3-4 cans of soda a day is going to suffer as much as somebody who drinks 6-10 cans a day.

As much as I'd like to give up caffeine, I do like the taste. Fortunately for my pocketbook, Wal*Mart sells their brand cheap, and it's justabout as good as the real thing. I tend to go through about ... oh ... six or seven cases (24-cans per flat) of soda a month. Generally more, if you count all the soda from the fast-food restaurants.

Yes, I'm fat. ;)

The last time I tried going cold turkey I was physically ill for a week. The physical affects went away when I started drinking soda again.

Bah.

Re:Easy

[c1ay]

Do you smoke? Once I quit smoking I gradually lost my craving for coffee as well. It wasn't long before I caught myself pouring a cup of coffee and noticing later that I didn't even drink it. Prior to all this I was in exactly the same boat as you, no coffee = blinding headache. If you do smoke I used Nicorette to help me with my demon, perhaps it will help you with yours.

Re:Just bear through it.

[dsplat]

Ordinary headache remedies will reduce the severity of the headache during caffeine withdrawl. However, some of them include caffeine. Check the label.

Also, dehydration isn't going to help anything. Make specific plans for what you are going to drink. Caffeine-free sodas work okay if that's what you're looking for. Water and juice are fine. I switched to seltzer. I lost the caffeine and the caleries at the same time. And it tastes better than the tap water.

Some Alternatives

[DynaSoar]

Caffeine is one of 3 methylated xanthines, the others being theophylline and theobromine. Taking the others can serve to reduce withdrawal. Caffeine is the most addictive because it's the fastest acting of these, just as crack is the most addictive form of cocaine. You can find these chemicals in:

1. Chocolate. It has 10% of the caffiene of coffee, but contains these other also. It also contains PEA, "an endogenous neuroamine, increases attention and activity in animals" (http://www.chocolate.org/pea.htm). PEA may be the most neglected and useful of the brain amines. Chocolate makes many people just feel better; this may be why.

2. Guarana: An "herbal" (actually the inside bark of a tree) that contains all 3 of the chemicals, caffeine least. However, it can become a substitute addiction, and it costs more than chocolate. There was a soda that had guarana, but only as a flavoring, not a "suppliment". Some "power drinks" have guarana, but can also have ephedrine, which is not a good thing.

3. Foods: Caffeine acts by increasing norepinepherine (NE) levels in the brain. Take it away and NE drops. This is the mechanism of addiction. Any foods high in phenylalanine or tyrosine are good dietary precursors to replace the NE the body isn't getting now that caffeine isn't forcing its production. High phenylalanine or tyrosine foods are typically your high-protein foods, meats and fishes, dairy products, whole oats and wheat. Here's a picture of the metabolic pathway involved (http://www.life-enhancement.com/article_template. asp?ID=356). You'll notice it says "(nor)adrenalin" instead of (nor)epinepherine. Same chemicals, outside or inside the blood/brain barrier. Yeah, caffeine gives you adrenalin.

Caffeine truly is addicting. However, it is one of the weakest addictions. It's easy to break and the withdrawals are not bad. Also, it can typically be used safely by those previously addicted, without necessarily causing re-addiction.

I am not a physician. But then I'm not prescribing anything, and what I offer as suggestions are not controlled substances. I am, however, a professional neuroscientist with a fair amount of experience in psychopharmacology, and prior to getting my doctorate, worked for several years as a licensed substance abuse counselor.

Me, I'd go for the chocolate. Whether I need it or not.

Q: Why is there no twelve step group for caffeine addiction?

A: I DON'T HAVE TIME TO WAIT AROUND FOR THAT.

Re:Easy

[Cruciform]

Cold turkey is easiest if you wean yourself away from the psychological triggers first.

Change your coffee drinking habits before you stop drinking it altogether.

With smoking, I stopped doing it indoors, whether I was at home or in a public place where it wasn't allowed anyway, it was helpful to get in a habit where I couldn't do it in my comfort zones.

Figure out what routines you have that are typically accompanied by a cup of java and do something to modify them. Even if it means putting off reading the paper till 2 minutes before you have to leave for work and you only have time for a quick sip before you run out the door.

Break the habits and surviving the first 72 hours will be MUCH easier.

And if quitting doesn't work the first time, rest a week or two, and then try again. Don't give up trying and promise yourself you'll try again next year. Push yourself a bit farther each time instead.

One quitter's story

[zerocircle]

I suppose that would work, but have you ever had a caffeine-withdrawl headache?

Yup. After pretty much living on Pepsi and then Coke for my high school and college years (though I was never a coffee drinker), I stopped cold turkey in January 1992. I had a headache -- constant, low-level, not piercing -- until that April. Then my head was fine.

What amazed me most was that my digestion improved dramatically. After about a month, I realized with great surprise that my whole food tube worked smoother than ever; my colon had been virtually tied in a knot for years. This may seem excessively prosaic, but believe me, well-working innards are an unfathomable blessing.

A couple of years ago, in my usual post-prandial sleepyheadedness, I decided to try a Frappuccino. BAM! I was awake! I was mentally productive! I was ON! And, very shortly, my abdomen was vaguely crampy and bound-up. I tried it again the next day: The mental effect was far less pronounced, but the digestive malaise was back in full force. That was the last experiment I needed.

After quitting, I did have a more pronounced fuzz in my head in the morning, much harder to shake off. But I've found that an all-night decongestant removes that and lets me bounce easily out of bed in the morning -- it seems to be breathing-related, not a matter of caffeination (though the two may be linked somehow; IANAMD).

It's hell for a while, but if you stick with it, you may find that quitting caffeine (and paying separate attention to your other problems) makes you a lot healthier in the long run. Did for me.

Re:cut your dosage

[mikehoskins]

I had a bit of a wise word from an old work colleague concerning addiction to caffeine, among other things.

He said that if you get really sick, you can quit almost anything you're addicted to.

So, follow the advice above by tapering off to a point that you are confortable with. Then, the next time you get really sick, decide to go cold turkey and not pick up the habit again.

I got kidney stones, partly from drinking 6-8 Cokes a day (full of caffeine, carbonated water, and sugar -- lots of diuretics), and partly from not drinking enough water. I spent three days in the hospital for that one. After that, I really dropped off the Cokes and increased my water intake.

The only other time I got a kidney stone was just before I finally decided to really cut back on caffeine. Fortunately, I didn't have to go to the ER with this one....

I'll tell you that caffeine withdrawal doesn't begin to compare with kidney stones!!!

So, scale back now, and quit the next time you get really sick....

I now drink Coke ONCE a month.... (I never liked coffee or tea, though.) I may drink a hot chocolate once or twice a month during the fall/winter months. I occasionally eat chocolate. I drink lots of water, instead.

I don't get kidney stones any more, either....

Re:Water & Exercise

[XO]

Ahh.. yes.. Back when I first got into caffeine overdosing. lol...

I would drink coffee for much the same reasons that people would drink alcohol - when depressed, down, sad, etc go out and drink.

When my girlfriend at the time dumped me, I headed straight to the coffee shop. Ordered "Walk the Plank". This is 24oz of concentrated espresso, as the sign on the coffee shop wall calls it. And then the added bonus to this, was throwing some ice in it, to cool it down to a palatable temperature. 15 minutes later, and 24 oz of espresso less, in my glass.. order another one. This one made it about half an hour on my table. Then I got up to drive home. Had to stop at a friend's house halfway between the coffee shop and my home, and explain that I was so wasted on caffeine that I couldn't drive. I fell asleep, almost immediatly when my head hit the pillow on the couch. I woke up, about 5 hours later, SO WIRED I COULDN'T FREAKING BELIEVE it, and was then awake for the next 52 hours continuously.

I try to keep my caffeine intake down to a bottle of Mt. Dew or so a day now.