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Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal
palegray.net writes "CNN is running an article on the notorious effects of caffeine withdrawal, a problem that seems to be affecting an increasing number of people. Citing numerous reasons why people might need to cut back on their caffeine intake (pregnancy, pre-surgery requirements, etc), the story notes a significant number of people who are simply unable to quit. I drink around eight cups of coffee a day, along with a soda or two, and I definitely suffer from nasty withdrawal symptoms without my fix."
You, sir, are a member of the Caffeine Underacheivers Club of the World. Until you can regularly consume an average of three or four pots of coffee in day (30 to 40 cups) without experiencing caffeine intoxication, you have no idea what how "nasty" withdrawal can get.
I'm at that point, I admit it. Withdrawal, for me, starts after about eight hours without caffeine. I get a serious headache, quickly followed by nausea and a general flu-like feeling. Left unattended, it's damn-near incapacitating. Fortunately, a single cup of coffee vanquishes all symptoms within 30 minutes.
Anyway, is this caffeine withdrawal stuff really news to anyone? Anyone?
Nothing beats the feeling of the first cup of hot coffee hitting the tummy early in a cold workday.
I have tried quitting before, and it just seems to kill my brain, both with pain and sluggishness. I'm not exactly sure why I tried to quit, because I enjoy coffee quite a bit. Today I've had 3 cups of coffee and a Starbucks Double Shot. I still have over half the work day to do, and will probably have a couple more cups of coffee & another double shot at the end of the day to keep me awake on the road. Tonight is date night with my wife, so we'll probably go to the local cafe and have a mocha after dinner.
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
Seriously dude, slow down. My wife used to drink about four Starbucks espresso drinks a day, and she noticed she was visibly trembling. Her doctors told her her heartbeat was erratic and racing, so she cut down to one or two coffee drinks a day. She's much more normal now.
The "geek chic" lifestyle, massive amounts of caffiene and Red Bulls, pulling all nighters to punch out code, scarfing down whole pizzas and gaming until all hours, it's not really good for you. Moderate. Get some exercise. Take multivitamins and get a good nights sleep. You can actually be as productive with healthy living and one cup of coffee as you are in stimulant and sugar overload, and you won't be burning the candle at both ends.
Plus, you really won't have to worry about withdrawal when you're stuck on an island with no WiFi, no coffee, but plenty of hot native girls.
I once visited a friend for a week and they didn't have any coffee. I wasn't too bothered at first as there was plenty of booze but I woke up after two days with a slight hangover (not that much booze the night before) and a pounding migraine. I had no energy and double vision, the migraine got so bad I was sick.
I thought a coffee would help me feel a little better so I dragged myself to the store round the corner and bought some. As soon as I'd drunk a small cup of coffee my migraine started to disappear and I could see straight again.
I was on around ten triple strength cups a day which would be about three grammes of caffeine. I've since cut down to three cups a day!
Nick
I'm doing two sodas a day at work.
I should quit now before it gets worse. I've gone two days without problems, so lets see how it goes.
I used to consume a couple liters of caffeinated beverages daily. 4 or 5 years ago my wife and I decided to switch completely to bottled water. There weren't really any health reasons to our decision - we just wanted to try it. I remember having headaches for a few days, and feeling lethargic, but the withdrawal wasn't too bad.
We still primarily drink bottled water, but when eating out I'll drink a tea or soft drink. The nice thing is that if I have extra work to do, or am driving on a long trip, I can drink a bottle of pop and it actually is a stimulant for me, as opposed to something my body relies on just to maintain the status quo.
Better known as 318230.
I broke my caffeine addiction by plowing into it headfirst. I used to tear through soda like a man insane. Then, completely unintentionally, I went cold turkey for about a month. Result: increased sensitivity to caffeine. I now naturally limit myself to around two cans a day because anymore than that gives me jitters, a racing pulse, and headaches.
I can quit whenever I want!!!!
I stopped drinking caffeine in high school when the perma-shakes set in. I was having somewhere near the equivalent of 30-40 cups over the course of a 19-20 hour day and getting about 4 hours of sleep in order to keep full time school, full time job, and a very active social life all going.
The shakes quit after about 3 days. The headache after about 2 weeks. And somewhere about 2 years later I no longer felt permanently exhausted.
The nice thing now is that I find I can stay awake as long as I need to as long as I don't have high-sugar foods or have any alcohol. I just catch up the next day with little or no problem. I can't imagine going back to caffeine. As a computer-geek, I think it would be hard to do it just in moderation. Everyone else around me has the perpetual can of Coke next to their mouse.
I stop cold turkey for awhile, so that my tolerance isn't so high. I like getting some effect from one cup, and I can definitely build up quite a tolerance. If I can find some time where nothing critical is due, I'll go without and take tylenol to fight the symptoms. Drinking lots of water seems to help, too.
http://bgcommonsense.blogspot.com
If caffine is a drug, my office is the largest opium den this side of the mississippi...
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
While I was in college I became addicted to caffeine. I would wake up tired, and have a cup of coffee, later in the day I would feel worn down and drink a "soda." In the evening I would have another cup of coffee so I could study without falling asleep. This put me in a downward spiral that just kept getting worse and worse.
I discovered that, even though I slept at night, I wouldn't get any rest. I would wake up just as tired as when I went to bed. There was a simple reason for this, that evening cup of coffee. If you want to cut back on your caffeine intake, I have one piece of advice:
Don't drink any caffeine for at least four hours before bedtime
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
I used to drink huge amounts of coffee and caffeinated sodas, but I quit both. It does take a while to go back to zero, but it's worth it. I'm more awake without caffeine and the effect of caffeine is more distinct when I do drink a coffee or soda these days.
I too have experienced caffeine withdrawal many times. My internist recommended that when I choose not to ingest caffeine anymore, I should start taking 2000 mg of vitamin c daily for about seven days. I have subsequently done this everytime I decide to take a hiatus from caffeine and it has worked wonders - no headaches and no nausea!
In my experience, the withdrawals start on the next day and last for about 48-72 hours. The normal dose of Tylenol (Acetaminophen) solves the problems for me.
Wow.
So many addicts to such an awful tasting substance.
Addiction + Marketing can do amazing things.
8 cups, really?
You are part of study of the health effects of overconsumption of caffeine substances. The study is relatively new, and very popular.
Thanks for participating.
Green tea has helped me reduce my previously epic caffeine requirements. You can find flavored tea with less than 25 mg caffeine, which increases mental alertness without making me jittery. I also drink Tazo organic chai in the morning, because it a coffee-like taste, and it gets me moving.
Compulsive coffee drinking is a side-effect of being over-worked, mentally exhausted, and still having a mountain of work. I know I can't make it through the occasional 18+ hour work-day without it.
I might suggest switching to tea. It has less caffeine than coffee and I find the lift much more refreshing. I started by cutting off coffee after a couple cups and switching to tea, then gradually reducing the amount of coffee. I've cut my coffee consumption in half after just a couple weeks. Beats going cold turkey.
Start with black tea. It's got more bite for coffee drinkers. Add a dash of cream if it's too bitter. Then switch to white and green teas. Trying to go from coffee to white tea is like trying to switch from German beer to American beer, too much of a transition all at once.
Always thought it was odd we don't drink more tea here in the states. Everywhere I went in Europe tea seemed to be the preferred drink. In Russia you drink it in a glass with lemon, in England with a biscuit thingy, in India with enough sugar to clog a truck motor. I've been many places where coffee wasn't available but never where I couldn't get tea. Even at Starbucks when you order tea instead of proper brewed hot tea, you get a cup of hot water and a tea bag. It seems...primitive.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
well, to make caffeine useful again, for example.
i dring two cups of tea a day at most (no coffee at all because i don't like the taste) and when i really need a push, a cup of coffee or gyokuro is absolutely sufficient to awake me.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
For the rest of the world, this is paracetamol. You might think I'm being picky, but when my (then) 9 months old had a fever when we were in the states, there was a lot of confusion between me and the pharmacist trying to work out what the other was talking about. If the USA could just use the standard international name it would help a lot.
I had some bad symptoms from quitting a mere 1 pop a day habit: headaches, lethargy, depression, for about two weeks. Even now, years later, I still have frequent, intense cravings.
Play Command HQ online
Until I saw a doctor on a morning TV show explaining that you CAN overdose on caffeine (a feat I previously thought impossible) I never considered quitting. On that same interview he explained the ratios of caffeine in regular instant / espresso / cappuccino etc After that I have resisted the urge to buy a coffee maker on the grounds that it'd probably kill me. I apply the same logic for resisting the urge to buy a deep fat fryer as I LOVE fried chip-shop-style chips which are soaked with fat. Too much of a good thing can be very dangerous to your health.
I wonder how many people have really experienced a caffeine hit, compared to how many just think they have. I've been a heavy coffee drinker for over half my life, with an average of between 20 - 25 mugs (not cups) per day depending on what I'm doing and have only ever had ONE single caffeine hit.
After a long day at college (I think I was awake all the previous day and night before) I had a mug of coffee when I got home, went to the bathroom and my eyes suddenly sprung open. I mean WIDE open, Frodo Baggins open.....for about maybe 15 seconds I was the most awake I'd been in a long time, which then wore off very quick and my eyelids drooped back to very tired. I went from being overtired but still awake to WIDE awake and back to tired in the space of about 20 seconds. This was about maybe 12 years ago so some of the details are hazy. It was either a caffeine hit, or I was temporarily possessed by something; personally I'd put money on the caffeine.
I must be one of the few that just doesn't touch the stuff. I don't even generally like the smell. Never drank it -- coffee that is. And I only drink soda for lack of better fruit juice.
I believe half of /. needs to check themselves into a clinic.
Drugs are bad, m-kay?
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
I was once very addicted to caffeine. While I wasn't one of the guys who could keep 4 pots a day down, but I had 64oz of coffee before 3pm. I eventually figured out it was hurting my sleep -- not my ability to get to sleep, but the quality of it. Caffeine has a half-life of 7-10 hours in the system, so consider that in any plans. It takes 2 weeks for your brain to adjust to new levels of caffeine. As such, the best way to step down is to keep drinking the same amount, just the last batch made every day should have one tablespoon replaced with decaf. If only make one batch (like me), then just step it down a tablespoon at a time.
Today, I drink about 40oz of decaf a day (5mg of caffeine per 8oz of decaf coffee so around 40mg of coffee, less than an average cup of full-test), and I'm down to significantly less than a full cup of coffee at bedtime.
2-3 advil was able to subdue the pain and I can't recall feeling tired.
Now, I substitute soda with water and when I need something with flavor I hit the Hi-C and Koolaid. (Make it at home with only 1/2 the called for sugar, still tastes great!).
Now, I'm not tired at all. In the AM at work (8am), I have a hot chocolate with breakfast for a little sugar wake up and I'm good until my 11pm bedtime.
I won't say I feel healthier or better in any way, but I know that not putting all that crap into my system every day is probably doing more good than harm (comparatively). So that's the plus I keep sustaining.
I also have no care in the world to go back either. Coke tastes great! But the money I save (albeit little) and knowing I'll probably be better off in the long run just seems better than Coke.
To each his own though.
well, to make caffeine useful again, for example.
i dring two cups of tea a day at most (no coffee at all because i don't like the taste) and when i really need a push, a cup of coffee or gyokuro is absolutely sufficient to awake me.
Exactly. I used to consume 6-10 cups of coffee worth of caffeine a day, and that was just to get me to normal. Now I have 0 caffeine on a typical day and I can very, very easily pull an all nighter on 1-2 cups. Also, I feel better when I wake up and go to sleep than I used to.
There's no benefit at all to caffeine addiction.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
I think we should take the next logical step and create an IV form to compete with the more 'harsh' drugs out there.
Wouldn't mind sitting programming all day with a nice slow drip of caffeine...
I say don't drink and drive, you might spill your drink. Before you get behind the wheel just stop and think.
During most of the year I have 18-24oz of coffee every morning, and sometimes another 6-8oz or a caffeinated soda/energy drink after lunch. So about 3-6 "cups" a day.
But during Lent I go cold turkey. Just stop on Ash Wednesday. (I give up alcohol at the same time, FWIW.)
The only side effect I ever experience is becoming a zombie from 1p-3p every day for the second week I'm off the stuff. The first week I'm fine. The second week I'm a zombie and completely unproductive for two hours in the afternoon. Weeks three to six I'm fine, though I start earnestly looking forward to resuming my morning ritual by week six. My sleep patterns don't change. My personality doesn't change. I don't experience physical pain.
I really recommend everyone try this. Give up something you love for six weeks. Detach. When you get back together your relationship will be healthier. You will have a new appreciation for what you gave up.
Of course, this requires sacrifice and introspection. Good luck with that, seriously.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
To sum up TFA: If you drink a lot of coffee, then don't drink any, you get a withdrawl headache.
As if anybody didn't know. Move along. Nothing to see here.
Seriously why would anyone choose to quit? I periodically quit just to feel the pain of it but that is just self flagellation.
I had to.
A hand tremor as a surgeon is _not_ what your patients want to see. As an aside, to break the ice with some patients I do a variation of the Gene Wilder's deputy on "Blazing Saddles"....
Pt: So how steady are your hands?
[I hold up a steady left hand]
Pt: Good, steady as a rock!
[While bringing up a flapping right hand and with a southern draw]
Me: Yeah, but this here is ma' operatin' hand.
Usually get a good chuckle from my patients, but every once in a while I get a wild-eyed-jaw-dropping-looking-for-the-nearest-fire-exit look that totally makes the joke worth it.
Because it's bad for you?
I used to be addicted to the high, but I couldn't stand the lows - migraine-like headache for hours (sensitivity to light, sound, etc.). I tried taking more caffeine to keep the lows away, but that ended the same - once I crashed, I got a migraine-like headache that wouldn't go away until I got a good-nights sleep. The worst part was, I would crash DURING THE WORKDAY, so my work performance was actually suffering.
Once I understood that the migraines were from withdrawal, I decided to quit cold-turkey - nothing but aspirin and lots of water. I took a long weekend over July 4th: the first day was pure anguish and pain, and the second day was worse. But the third day, I could function, and I was feeling pretty good by the fourth day when I went back to work.
After a week, I felt better than I had for years, and I was surprised to find I didn't have the cravings anymore. I also had more get-up-and-go in the mornings than I ever did on caffeine. And YES, I could code just as well without the boost.
If you've got even an ounce of willpower, you can quit too, but I would recommend taking a long weekend away from the world.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Am I the only one here who doesn't take caffeine?
I don't drink coffee (it gives me a headache)
I don't drink tea (I don't like the smell. Don't tell the government, they'll probably revoke my British citizenship)
I don't drink cola (I don't like the way my teeth feel afterwards)
At work, I drink mostly water. Sometimes I drink a fruit cordial/squash.
At home, again I mostly drink water, but quite often drink fruit juice.
In a restaurant/pub/nightclub it's either cider (that should prove I'm English) or a spirit and a mixer (lemonade, juice).
I used to drink 2 pots a day but quit cold turkey one week when I had a bad flu. I never noticed the withdrawal, thanks to the flu! Now I'm caffeine-free.
I got so bad that I was having serious mood swings and other negative caffeine related issues - not withdrawal but issues when fully doped - so I gave it up. It was hard for a few days but doable. I feel a lot better now although I still don't sleep.
The hardest part is finding a diet caffeine free soda at every fast food place.
I think we shouldn't be feeding caffeine to children. It should be regulated similar to alcohol or tobacco.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
I never drank anything caffeinated at all until late in college. (Never liked soda or coffee, hadn't learned to like tea.) Then I woke up sick the day of a final exam. I got some triple-mocha-something-or-other, and felt fine all through the test. Then, on the bus ride home, I realized I wasn't turning my head to look at things, I was jerking my head around like a bird.
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
I moved to Colorado about 7 years ago. Since then I've had a lot of ear aches due to the altitude change. (I'm from Louisiana, pretty much sea level).. My ears would be ringing a little after the half hour drive to work... But about 8 months ago, I quit drinking caffeine for health reasons (cutting out all the caleries, the acids, etc in sodas). About a week after I stopped, my head stopped ringing when I drove..and now I can wear headphones for longer than 30 minutes without my ears feeling like they're going to start bleeding.. It's kinda weird what caffeine can do to you. I've probably drunk about 4 sodas since I quit (When I come into work exhausted and need the pick me up). If you have ear problems, you might want to try cutting back/quit drinking caffeine and see if it helps you.
Caffeine works to keep us awake by competitively inhibiting the binding of Adenosine to sites in the brain. The body attempts to return to homeostasis by producing more Adenosine receptors (this is when your tolerance is built up) which means when you stop drinking caffeine, all the Adenosine in your synapses gets binded much faster. (leading to the withdrawl symptoms).
Depending on how MUCH you drink, YMMV when giving it up, but most people can get over it in a week or two of total caffeine abstinence and a handful of aspirin / headache medications to help you bear through it. You CAN get over it though. Giving it up isn't NEARLY as challenging as quitting tobacco or other addictive substances.
Best way to prevent getting hooked is to not make your caffeine intake routine; in other words, like all things, exercise moderation.
Yes you can get a withdrawal headache and feel a little tired. But two days or so and you're golden. Never mind that all you need to do is pop a Tylenol or other headache reliever and you won't even notice that part of the withdrawal.
Even trying to put "caffeine addiction" on the same level as Nicotine and other drug addictions is insulting to those trying to quit substances with serious drug addiction and withdrawal symptoms.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
__
This reminds me of a guy from the UK asking me to help him import some Tylenol. He'd been in the states with his wife and it was all he could find that would help her headaches.
After much discussion, trying to figure out if she'd used something odd like a acetaminophen-codeine mix or something, it turned out that yes, he really just wanted a higher dosage of paracetamol than is commonly available where he lives (they'd been using Tylenol Extra Strength). Apparently taking more pills at once was all his wife needed to do.
They have nicotine patches, don't they? Why isn't there a caffeine patch, for those times when you can't drink it?
I think I just gave away another million-dollar idea. oops.
Luckily most serious caffeine addicts just sit in front of their computers 24/7 and have no muscle definition what-so-ever to worry about.
You are who you are, let no one tell you different. But, never close your mind to a new point of view.
I drink about 40 ounces of coffee made at American strength (one tablespoon per 5 ounces water). I recently tried to quit by drinking 4 ounces less per day. Besides feeling nervous it actually went fine. That is until two days after my last cup, WHAM! I got a nasty headache. I had presumed that caffeine fading would result in not being dependent, and not having to face withdrawal at the end, and I was wrong. Actually the withdrawal doesn't really start until after you're done drinking coffee. Whether you go cold turkey or gradually cut back you still have to face the withdrawal. The only time I successfully quit coffee (albeit for only a month) was when I quit cold turkey just because the worst is over quicker. I have tried about every fading scheme you could come up with going from over in a week to over in a month, but no matter how slow you take it you can't get away from the withdrawal.
And they were hyping a study about Modafinil being addictive because it affects dopamine receptors. I bet it would make an excellent OTC replacement for caffeine!
BTW Advil knocks out withdrawals for me if I want to quit!
You'll be a lot better off and your body will appreciate it.
I'm not a coffee person. I like my tea (I'm American) and when I need to get things done on little sleep (which is often, full-time job + full-time courseload + part-time work study + 3 year old mini-geek + side project = very little sleep) I tend to rely on Amp or at least a bit of Mountain Dew. Or I rely on various caffeinated Slurpees from the 7 Eleven that is two minutes from my apartment, which are my person favorite as a "starter" caffeine drink.
I don't drink caffeine due to a kidney disease I have. I watch my blood pressure so I don't drink any caffeine.
Once you don't have caffeine for two weeks, your tolerance is basically zero. You can have a little bit of caffeine and it will have a large effect.
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
I inadvertently got off the stuff one day (super busy day), and decided to quit it cause I felt so lousy. I felt lousy for 2 weeks before my body stopped craving the stuff.
Of course, I'm currently drinking my 3rd cup of coffee.
the most painful, grueling thing I've ever done, and from what I can tell, compared to other /. residents, I didn't even drink that much. It was basically a two-week debilitating, disorienting migraine followed by rapid weight-loss (although the weight-loss was a pretty welcome development, to be honest). The nausea and pain were so bad I didn't even realize I was losing weight, and all of my friends thought I was sick or dying because I looked so pale and couldn't function. Now I have a cup of tea once a week or so and can't really tell much of a difference between my performance while drinking caffeine and with no caffeine, once I got over the first few weeks.
I didn't start drinking coffee until I was 26. Then, it was because I stopped drinking a liter or two of Mountain Dew every day. Well, soon I was up to two pots, about a half gallon or so, every day.
Well, the anxiety attacks started kicking in pretty hard core, so I switched to decaf for about five years.
When I went cold turkey last November, I had the worst case of passing out at my desk. Two, Three times a day. Decaffeinated coffee is anything but!
But three weeks, and I kicked it. Now I have maybe one cup a week, if that.
Still drinking Diet Coke - when I stop drinking that, I'll probably have another crash, but then it'll be all over.
I drink around 7 or 8 cups of coffee a day, along with a soda or two...
With researchers growing kidneys, and the diabetes cure pending in a few years, I guess you'll be fine now you've destroyed all the pertanant OEM equipment (inside you).
The Admin and the Engineer
Be advised that you need to allow scripts from turner.com to run in order to RTFA. You don't need to enable dl-rms.com.
I find that annoying.
I also wish enabling scripting in Noscript only affected the one tab. If I enable something for one page that is also a site wanting to run scripts on other tabs, they all reload to let beacons run on all of them. If it just included a count of open tabs that reference the disabled domain I could make a more informed choice about which host to enable, though I'd prefer it just enable for the one tab and its descendants.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Killing accidently poorly moderated post. Meant to put insightful and hit redundant instead...
"Don't meddle in the affairs of a patent dragon, for thou art tasty and good with ketchup." ~ohcrapitssteve
-1 useless anecdote
Some people are lucky enough for regular pain relievers to work. I am not one of those people.
I quit cold-turkey because I got migraine-like headaches every night, and NOTHING short of a night's rest would get rid of the pain. Tylenol and Ibuprofen did nothing, Aspirin dulled it but did not remove it.
As you might have surmised from this thread, caffeine withdrawal effects vary from person-to-person. DO NOT assume that everyone can get a quick fix for their symptoms just because it works for you.
That said, if Tylenol works for you, then consider yourself lucky, and enjoy your caffeine. I, in turn, am fortunate to find that I no-longer miss the caffination.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
Caffeine should be listed as a controlled substance in the US of A under Schedule III. It might be prescribed, but other drugs are better at increasing wakefulness as opposed to being a simple stimulant with negative effects on short term memory and attention like caffeine. Therefore no accepted medical use.
Potential for abuse is essentially a measure of the substance's addictiveness, but is not explicitly defined in law. Certainly it has less potential for abuse than Sch. II drugs, but it does lead to dependence.
Anyone who says it should be available OTC without prescription is admitting there are flaws in the drug laws, which can be used to selectively enforce morality instead of providing for the safety of the citizenry.
You, sir, are a member of the Caffeine Underacheivers Club of the World. Until you can regularly consume an average of three or four pots of coffee in day (30 to 40 cups) without experiencing caffeine intoxication, you have no idea what how "nasty" withdrawal can get. I'm at that point, I admit it. Withdrawal, for me, starts after about eight hours without caffeine. I get a serious headache, quickly followed by nausea and a general flu-like feeling. Left unattended, it's damn-near incapacitating. Fortunately, a single cup of coffee vanquishes all symptoms within 30 minutes. Anyway, is this caffeine withdrawal stuff really news to anyone? Anyone?
Ah, apparently, the only person who will consider this news to is the leader of the ATF, whom after reading your post, will be summoning a task force for the War on Caffeine(TM). You've made it fairly obvious that we shouldn't be bothering with those pesky meth labs anymore...
I used to drink a cola for lunch and one for dinner, occasionally more. I've been on just water for a month or so now, other than one with dinner one or two nights a week. I feel pretty good, no withdrawl. Not a huge difference but I know cutting out that sugar and caffeine is a good move.
Isn't it interesting caffeine is legal despite the fact it is more addictive and causes more health problems than marijuana. So then why is marijuana illegal yet caffeine is still legal? Gotta love the double standards.
Caffeine withdrawal? Come on. Try being addicted to heroin, Xanax, or some other prescription medication or even nicotine and simply stopping cold turkey. I think my cold turkey withdrawal from caffeine was no where near the hell that I endured when I decided to "go straight."
I was expecting your signature to be something funny about webcams from Logitech.
I've set the over/under at 8 for how many times folks have responded to one of your posts with something semantically equivalent to my comment.
Not A Sig
I owe my university degree to caffeine, if it wasn't for Jolt cola (and its various delicious flavors), I couldn't have done 3 years of courses in 1 year. After that I was working for a company that had me doing 72 hours on, 12 hours off. After a few years of that I worked for a company that had me on the night shift for 6 months at a time. My friends used to say that If I stopped drinking Jolt they would have to close up the local plant. Two years ago I went to a regular day shift and haven't felt the 'need for legal speed' in a while. Drugs are good so long as you don't abuse them, I used it when I needed it. If you dont need it, dont do it.
-Ours is the wisdom of Solomon, the magic of Merlyn, the fall of Icaris.
I still feel tired after half a gram of caffeine.
I'm so not quitting the only thing keeping me semiconscious.
I am an anesthesiologist. I regularly see people who drink 6 cups a day and have to go without food or water before surgery.
Intravenous caffeine is available as a drug and I will give it to patients in a dose of 250-500 mg. to prevent bad withdrawl headaches.
If a heavy coffee drinker has his last coffee at 8pm and goes without until he wakes from surgery 18 hours later he will probably have a withdrawl headache.
Interestingly, IV caffeine is also used to lower the seizure threshold in electroconvulsive therapy for depression. It promotes a longer seizure.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Tylenol is rougher on the liver than Ibuprofen. This is important because of all the alcohol users here.
Caffeine has never had any obvious effects on me. In other words, I can consume as much as I want, and it doesn't keep me awake, doesn't give me an energy boost, etc. I can literally drink a few cups of espresso and hit the sack and fall asleep. (Assuming of course that the aftertaste doesn't keep me awake...) Can't tell any difference at all between regular and decaf. So my question is, is it possible for it to have some other bad effects for me, even if it doesn't *seem* to affect me at all?
There is no -1 Disagree mod. Slashdot.org/faq defines mod options. USE IT.
My first thought was "Well, duh! Of course it's going to hurt if you stop taking a stimulant your body is accustomed to." What kind of idiots don't know caffeine is an addictive drug?
Then I realized most don't know it, and I blame the War On Drugs. It has led to oversimplified thoughts like "Cocaine, heroin, cannabis are drugs, and drugs are evil. Alcohol, caffeine and nicotine are not evil, so they must not be drugs."
In fact, all drugs have some effects on mind and body. Depending on the quantity of the drug, the individual taking the drug, and the context of the usage, some of those effects are good, some are bad. Some drugs are illegal, because their bad effects generally outweigh the good, and some are legal because society has decided that the bad effects are generally not too bad. Some are restricted because they have good effects in only very specific contexts, and the potential for very bad effects in most other contexts.
When can we get past the "all evil" propaganda and get to a more nuanced "be aware of the effect it will have, take appropriate precautions." mindset?
I hate it when I make a joke and I get modded "+5 insightful". Mod the stupid comments "funny", not "insightful", pleas
Like everything else cut back slowly. Instead of 8 go 6 for a week, and then push lower and lower, eventually you'll be down to 1-2 cups and home free. I went from drinking all kinds of pop(coke,pepsi) by downgrading to mineral water (yes it sucks) and then abandoning that for actual water. glad I got of that stuff.
did you forget to take your meds?
No medical use would be schedule I
Caffeine has medical uses: to stimulate respiratory drive in neonates and also to lower seizure threshold for
electoconvulsive therapy.
Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
There is the concept of "maintenance dose" in addiction. I find that just one soda, small cup of coffee / Nescafe, or one No-Doz are enough to forestall the headaches. One or two days of this "maintenence dose" and I can go cold turkey.
Really, cut down on the sodas. The coffee is fine, but as soon as I started working at a place without free sodas, I lost ten pounds and my blood sugar went down 20 points.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
as a college student, I ran on as little as 2-4 hours of sleep at night. I had taken a bunch of extra credits, had a 15 hour a week part time job, another 24 hour a week part time job, and was involved in a few campus organizations. sleep was a luxury. my day would involve several 44 oz cups of pepsi, at least one bottle of green tea, and occasionally a grande cup of coffee from the university starbucks.
when I went home for christmas break, I was in such pain that I doubled over and laid on my side without having a reason why. as soon as I got myself a coke or pepsi, I was ok.
after that, I went on a caffeine hiatus for about 2 1/2 years before even taking any caffeinated products again. I just didn't want to fall into that same trap. I'm glad that I was able to kick my habit, but the old adage rings true: moderation is the key.
I still prefer drinking decaffeinated teas and such, and occasionally I get a headache from taking in too much caffeine if I have a strong cup of coffee or something, but it's nice every once in a while. just not every day.
I've taken a fair deal of drugs (though I usually prefer depressants), and I've only ever noticed Caffeine affecting me to a noticable degree when I took 500mg of the stuff.
It wasn't very pleasant, the effects were notably a fast heart rate, jumpiness, and paranoia. Not really conductive to getting any work done, as my attention span was actually reduced.
OT - "It's been 5 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment"... slow down? what is this, yahoo answers?
I used to have a caffeine addiction from drinking lots of Coke for many years. I got over it by having a cold. For 3-4 days I couldn't stand the taste of Coke, so didn't drink any. And, already being ill, the withdrawal symptoms didn't bother me. By the time I got over the cold, I didn't need caffeine any more. Simples!
Doesn't work. I'm addicted to code.
What's worse is if I've been doing math. That gives me really horrible dreams of numbers trying to combine and interact in different ways. I always dream as if I can find some new better way they should work but of course I never can get a better result. Ick. At least with the code my brain actually can find better patterns while I sleep.
What's weird is when you code without fully waking up. You can accomplish some amazing things but trying to understand the code you've written is all but impossible sometimes. When I was working more with AI I'd come up with some pretty good mental leaps and have no memory of having woke in the night much less having coded anything and trying to untangle the code to see how it worked was a total no-go because it just didn't seem like it should work at all.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
It is used in Excedrin.
Every year at Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av, which are both 25 hour fasts, caffeine addicted jews get withdrawl headaches. A few years back they came up with a solution: caffeine suppositories. It seems eating is more than just putting something in your digestive system.
Headaches and flu-like symptoms are merely the more common and benign aspects of withdrawal. In some cases (speaking from personal experience here), withdrawal symptoms can include paresthesia, akin to Bell's palsy, and vastly lowered heart rate (on the order of 20 bpm). These symptoms can appear weeks after the initial curtailment of caffeine ingestion.
Too bad I already posted in the thread, or you'd have my mod points too.
Man is the animal that laughs.
And occasionally whores for Karma.
So the whole point of this article is to let me know that I will get a headache if I don't get my daily fix of caffeine? It doesn't take a genius to figure that out....
Seriously... mods....
I'm not proud to admit it but that has been my experience. Even when I was hooked on speed, I still needed my coffee every "day" or I would have withdrawal symptoms! Cigarettes were far easier to kick as well. The coffee monkey is viciously tenacious.
You know, a number of my friends suffer from caffeine addiction of different levels, yet I've never shown any signs of it despite consuming two or three times more than they do when we get together. In fact, we all consumed about the same amount until I got into college, and could no longer afford it, so I cut it down to a few times a week with no ill effects.
I'm waiting for the Govt. to Tax my addiction away.
I go through periods where I'll be having 8-10 cups a day, every day, for months on end ; and then at the turn of a hat (say, going on holidays) can cut back to 0-2 a week with no noticeable withdrawal symptoms. I cant imagine how much it would suck to deal with withdrawal symptoms like those described, every time I changed my level of intake down like that; I'd probably give up caffeine all together
TIAEAE!
"Be a Mover and a Shaker! Get More things Done! DRINK COFFEE! For everything that's Right in your life. The Coffee Generation." Moving and shaking ....yeah, I get that when I don't get coffee....
You keep going until you die..."Me".
How to drop from 8 cups a day to 1 (or none)? Excedrin.
Excedrin, "the headache medicine", is a combination of aspirin, acetametaphin and caffiene. Among other things, caffiene is a vaso-diliator (which is why it's included in Excedrin in the first place). So when you stop taking it, the blood vessels in your head snap back like rubber bands and you end up writhing in agony. /much/ caffiene in Excedrin, but there's enough to take the edge off the withdrawl symptoms and the aspirin/acetametaphin do the rest.
There's not
IINAD, so use as directed.
I keep trying to pick fights, but I can't shake this Excellent karma.
Yes, I am a coffee fiend but not to an extreme amount. I have a question about coffee consumption.
In the morning, I have a hard time functioning until I have had a cup of coffee. (I probably am not unusual in this respect.) After the first cup or two, I can consume coffee throughout the rest of the day without any effects. I can even have a cup of coffee right before going to sleep and can sleep normally. NOTE: I don't need coffee to sleep and I don't drink it before sleeping very often. It's just that I can just consume it in the evening without it keeping me awake. I had a roommate who, whenever he had coffee after 5:00 PM, would not be able to sleep that night. He was as much a coffee fiend as I am but could drink it only in the morning or afternoon. Needless to say, my coffee drinking habits drove him crazy.
The question is... Coffee seems to have a different effect on me depending on the time of day. In the morning, it is a strong stimulant for me. In the evening, it doesn't have any effects. For people like my roommate, it is always a strong stimulant. Has anyone else noticed this? If you know the answer, what is it?
... even if you're not addicted. It's thought to work by narrowing the blood vessels in your brain, which relieves pain by lowering the pressure the blood vessels exert on the brain tissue.
There's a reason they put caffeine in Excedrin and similar drugs.
I've been feeling chronically worn out for a few months, and realized a little over a week ago that I was drinking a lot of pepsi, and not really benefitting from it, but just drinking it to avoid the withdrawl symptoms. I decided to quit, and it wasn't the first time I've done so, so I knew what to expect.
Funny thing is, this time the withdrawal wasn't so bad as other times. I had a slight headache, not really bad, for about two days. I was very sleepy the first day, and went to bed right after work the first day, and slept a total of about 10 hours that night. But upon waking up, I felt very refreshed and well-rested, much better than I normally do after a typical night's sleep. I haven't had any cravings for it at all, either.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
The problem with what you are saying is that huge swaths of people are perfectly happy with drug laws that are used to selectively enforce morality.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the Juice of Java that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains, the stains become a warning; it is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion."
Wish I knew who first came up with that one.
have another cup of coffee. I find it interesting how many posts are related to how much coffee people should be drinking. I understand the article is related to caffeine withdrawal, but seriously, grow up. Drink gallons of it if you want or don't drink it at all or drink it in moderation. I'd finish it off by asking "who cares?" but apparently a lot more people than I'd like to admit do care, or at least they imply it by their recommendation. Busy-bodies, that's what they used to be called. Now they're called Sustainable Life Evangelists or something or other.
Caffeine lets me function normally (not in a just-wakes-me-up kind of way). Without it I can get pretty useless, although I can't take it all the time because the bad eventually outweighs the good. So I cycle between drinking coffee and tea a lot for about three weeks and then a month or two without it.
Too bad it doesn't cure anxiety, or maybe I could call that psychiatrist and maybe get the proper meds (if I can afford them, of course).
I have weeks in which I drink ten cups of coffee per day and I have weeks in which I drink nothing but water. I've been drinking coffee since I was about seven or eight years old (not the ten cups a day of course) and I've never had any adverse effects from either the caffeine intake or not taking it at all. On the other hand: I've become immune to its stimulating effect as well.
Until you can regularly consume an average of three or four pots of coffee in day (30 to 40 cups) without experiencing caffeine intoxication, you have no idea what how "nasty" withdrawal can get.
You, sir, should really visit an endocrinologist if you're drinking 30-40 cups of anything per day.
Unless you're constantly sweating in high heat, and are losing liters of water per day, such high liquid consumption may be a sign that your body is trying to compensate for something.
Most probable guess - diabetes.
I remember working on stressful coding job, where the stress and coffee flowed in unending streams. When I finally started taking stock of things, I was drinking about 8-10 cups of coffee a day, and by cups, I mean my mug which held about 2 cups. I spent an entire summer doing that. When I realized just how much caffeine and coffee I was consuming, I immediate cut down to no more than three cups a day. I now drink less than a cup a day on average, but I have never noticed any withdrawal effects other than a mild caffeine induced headache. The effects of drinking as much caffeine as I previously mentioned, were much more noticeable: lousy balance, occasional uncontrollable trembling, body aches, lousy immune system, dull throbbing sensation, racing heart, and a tendency to develop zits.
At my worst I was having around 8 cups of tea or coffee at work with the occasional Red Bull from the canteen, and 3 litres of Red Bull-like energy drinks in the evening.
Doing that on a regular basis started making it so I felt almost high or drunk at some points in the day while consuming caffeine so I gave up all but about 1 cup of tea a day. My usage of energy drinks and coffee are climbing again but yeah the headaches are the worst bit more so because I hate taking pain killers.
But I think I am going to have to give up cold turkey. I need a new group of friends that don't think caffeine is excellent!
One great thing was a 16 year old Diana Lee Pepe. The other was a good cup of coffee. Living without one is as bad as living without the other.
Every year, my buddy and I give up caffeine for Lent. We're not that religious, but it's something "good for us". This year wasn't so bad. a little lethargy the first day and that was it. Then again, I usually stick to Pepsi/Coke.
Last year, however, was the first year I tried giving up caffeine. I don't really remember that day. Oh, I remember that I traveled to work, "something" happened and I went home and slept, but... The details are incredibly fuzzy.
All that said. ... I really miss Dr. Pepper. Why don't they make a caffeine-free Dr. Pepper? Why, God, WHY?!
(Okay, so I'm a Dr. Pepper addict. Don't judge me!)
Writing code without coffee might suck, but try flying an airplane for 14 hours without caffiene... At least if you fall asleep at your computer, the worst that happens is you wake up with a strange imprint on your face!
(Of course, the same thing might happen to pilots, it's just that the imprint comes from a mountain)
Assuming people don't know what they're taking shows you as a noob. Yes, there are pain remedies out there other than aspirin (ASA for you non-US folks), and some of them like Excedrin contain caffeine. But many of us grew up with old-fashioned aspirin, and when we want it we buy bottles that say "Aspirin" on them; if we mean Acetaminophen we'd probably say Tylenol. It's particularly important to people who have high blood pressure because aspirin helps reduce risk of strokes and heart attacks (and low-dose aspirin is generally recommended for old people even if they don't have high blood pressure, so get off my lawn, punk!) On the other hand, hospitals primarily use acetaminophen (aka paracetamol) because many people have aspirin allergies or stomach irritations, so the risks of aspirin are usually higher than the risks of liver and kidney damage from acetaminophen.
Aspirin developed by Bayer in Germany, and after the War To End All Wars, the US, France, Russia, and a few other countries ripped off their patents and trademarks as part of war reparations, so Aspirin and Heroin are not trademarks of Bayer in the US. Bayer's still the best-known brand here.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I got bored at work one day and brewed a pot of coffee with 3 times the amount of grounds we normally put in a pot. I have to admit watching my coworkers bounce off the walls for the next hour and half had me giggling for days. If I turned any of them into addicts though, I will have to work hard on feeling guilty. I can't decide if that would make the joke better or worse....
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
Before my friends and I aged, with most getting married and having a kid or two by now, we use to LAN about once a month. At first we'd have a few cases of Mt. Dew in order to stay up all night... but I'd start getting headaches around 3 or 4am which I usually attributed to being tired.
Then once I decided to just drink water all night. I was able to game til 7am and still feel pretty good. While I have no actual evidence, I think my headaches and drowsiness were caused more by becoming dehydrated than by being tired. What I learned that is I should go with water first if I'm feeling fatigued. I still enjoy a coke once or twice a week, along with a couple cups a tea once or twice a week.. but drinking 80-100oz of water a day normally keeps me feeling good and alert.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
I had to give up caffeine. Long story short, I fell while working on a roof and hit my chest hard on a pile of bricks. Most likely damaged my pericardium.
While it healed up, anything that made my heart beat harder made the pain worse. So that meant caffeine - all of it - had to go.
Week long headache. A whopper too, right in the temples. Miserable. But once it's gone, it's gone for good. You can beat it if you have to.
Some advice if you're willing to try. Avoid Excederin. It's a caffeine pill mostly - that's why it cures headaches. It gives you another fix and postpones the withdraw another 8-12 hours. Then you need another one. Avoid chocolate. Read labels. And avoid yerba mate - it has caffeine. If you're going to do it, the only way to do it is cold turkey, 100%. Even the slightest sprinkle of caffeine will halt ALL your progress and you'll have to start from scratch again. And that means another week's worth of headaches.
Anyways, after I healed up I never went back. I am a decaffeinated programmer. Rarest of the rare. It feels great, too. No nervousness, no sweats, my nails look great. And I sleep better than I ever have. That's one of the reasons computer types stay up late - they have to come down off the caffeine before they can sleep.
Once it's out of your life and you have that reference to make a comparison from, you realize just how big of a drug caffeine actually is. It's messing with you more than you probably think it is.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Decaffeinated coffees have finally gotten to taste pretty good over the last couple of decades; it's much better than the evil days of powdered Sanka. Rather than cutting off cold-turkey, you can start brewing your coffee with half decaf, and gradually decreasing the amount of real stuff.
I've done cold turkey on occasion - I'd been working on a death-march programming project, and by a couple of days before we had to ship our demo, I'd reached the point that coffee wasn't making me more awake, it was just making me more jittery, so I quit. Bad headaches for two weeks - it was a couple of years before I started caffeine again. Normally if I'm doing too much caffeine I'll cut back gradually.
Unfortunately, I picked up a tea habit a couple of years ago, and decaffeinating tea takes out most of the tea flavor. Herbal teas are fine some of the time, but black tea tastes good and gives me a nicer buzz than coffee because it's a somewhat different mix of alkaloids.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I generally drink 2L of diet cola per day.
That's around 200mg/day. I generally don't drink on weekends and I've not really noticed withdrawal symptoms.
Mind you it could be masked by my sleeping more on weekends.
A couple of decades ago, an acquaintance of mine and his druggie friends decided to try smoking caffeine. After all, cocaine and opiates and THC all have some what different effects if you're smoking it as opposed to eating purified powder or eating the raw plant form (typically higher impact for a shorter period of time, but it's often qualitatively different as well.) So they crunched up some caffeine pills and smoked them..
You *really* do not want to do this! He said that all the nasty effects of caffeine happen all at once - the jitters, headaches, nausea - and it was Not Fun.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I guess that's what the headaches were, then...
I average maybe 1 soda a day, and maybe 2 coffees a week. Occasionally I'll go a day or two without any caffeine. Sometimes I get some headaches, but I'm never too bothered with them.
I would be what they call an "outlier". I drank two hulking energy drinks yesterday, and I'm drinking a coca-cola right now. I experience neither burst of energy, nor enormous crash because of caffeine. I simply drink it because the flavor and fizz is good.
I quit caffeine once (due to the paranoia), but I got tired of all the noise my computer made when I rested my face in the keyboard.
But I can painlessly quit whenever I feel like it. I use a modified binary exponential backoff algorithm. For example, if I'm drinking 1 cup a day:
Backing the dosage off slowly completely avoids headaches. For me. YMMV, but give it a shot. If you usually drink more, you might want to take a few more days (2 days per binary step).
Speaking from experience, weaning off caffeine (coffee) is a pretty straightforward process without experiencing any withdrawals.
First, limit your total intake of coffee. If you're at 2, 4, 8 or 10 cups, it doesn't matter. Just limit yourself to that amount.
Then, week by week, increase the amount of decaf in your brew. Start with 10% decaf with 90% regular, and over the next few weeks, move that mix the other direction.
Within a few weeks you'll be at 100% decaf and can then work (if you still feel the need) to lower the amount of decaf you're drinking.
You'll still get the psychological benefit / anchor of drinking that hot beverage too.
I've done this multiple times when my wife and I went no caffeine for pregnancy reasons.
You stereotypers are all the same...
First beware the perils of caffeine, then the withdrawal won't seems as bad. There are a lot of health dangers and risks from caffeine. Coffee growers organizations are spending millions of dollars to convince consumers that coffee and caffeine is not dangerous. They pay university researchers to produce research and claim correlational studies provide evidence that caffeine will keep you from dying from a myriad of diseases. Researchers such as Dr. Peter Martin, director at Vanderbilt University's Institute for Coffee Studies unethically tell the public all is well, drink more caffeine -- without cautioning about the studies which have proven coffee's hazards to health. The institute receives millions in funding from the Assn of Coffee Producing Countries (Brazil and Columbia), a Coalition of Central American Coffee Producing Nations, the National Coffee Assn of USA and the All-Japan Coffee Assn. Ethic Soup blog has an excellent series of coffee and caffeine articles at: http://www.ethicsoup.com/caffeine-the-worlds-most-popular-drug.html Here is a brief listing of results from scientific studies that indicates the extent of caffeine perils: -- Caffeine in coffee has been linked to cancer of the liver, bladder, kidney and pancreas. -- Harvard School of Public Health showed that drinking two cups of coffee a day may double the risk of cancer of the pancreas. -- Coffee is a complex chemical compound. Researchers have identified more than 300 substances in coffee, of which caffeine is but one. Tar and other chemicals formed when coffee is roasted have caused bladder cancer. -- A recent study at John Hopkins Medical Institute found people who drank five or more cups of coffee a day had two to three times the risk of coronary heart disease. -- Osteoporosis: a study of over 80,000 patients showed a relationship between brittle bones and heavy coffee consumption. Caffeine is known to leach calcium from the bones. --Pregnancy: an increase of miscarriages, still births, breech births and low birth weight have been connected to coffee consumption. Most experts say coffee should be totally avoided during pregnancy. -- Infertility: coffee appears to slow down the mobility of sperm, plus increase the incidence of abnormal sperm. Research shows that women who drink more than just one cup of coffee a day reduce their fertility by as much as 50 percent. Check out Ethic Soup's article on how caffeine is in everything: http://www.ethicsoup.com/2009/02/caffeine-is-in-everything-how-much-is-in-you.html#more Even though withdrawal from caffeine can be HARD, just think of all the health problems you will no longer have to worry about! It's worth it.
Cold turkey is the only way to go. I quit caffine 5 years ago. I felt like crap for two weeks. Then it got better.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
"I drink around eight cups of coffee a day, along with a soda or two, and I definitely suffer from nasty withdrawal symptoms without my fix."
Amateur. I used to drink 1.5 two liter bottles of Coke every damn day. Then in January I dropped that to two 12 ounce bottles a day. Then in February I dropped that to one 12 ounce bottle a day. And then last month I dropped it to one bottle a week.
Headaches? Yep, got those. Know what I did about them? I took a couple advil and crawled into a dark hole. After a few days the headaches stopped and I was fine.
I noticed a few things, too. One, I could eat spicy food again. It used to be I had to take an antacid if I was even going to LOOK at something spicy. Now? I eat what I want. I don't get crippling migraines anymore. I don't have those days where I feel like something died in my gut. I don't have "days" of any sort anymore - I have more energy, I can think more clearly and best of all I've got back all the money I used to spend on Coke. Plus since what I am drinking is made with sugar rather than HFCS I'm not bombarding my system with that crap any more.
Yes, caffeine withdrawal is a bitch, but it's worth it. When you consume a drug it should be because you WANT to, not because you NEED to.
Millions of dollars have been spent on well-designed, well-controlled studies in attempts to find some harm that coffee does. They have all failed. Humans have been drinking so much coffee for so long that if it did any harm at all, the results would be obvious.
One of the benefits of caffeine is that it interferes with insulin and its role in sweeping the glucose and fats out of your blood stream and hiving them off as triglycerides (we call this "you get fat"). If you suddenly stop caffeine intake, what you experience is a hypoglycemic crash when the backed-up oversupply of insulin cleans the sources of free energy out of your blood stream.
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
Ive switched from coffee to green tea. It is a hell of a lot healthier. Just have a look at this study: for men, 12% lower risk of dying from any cause, 22% lower risk of dying from CVD, 42% lower risk of dying from stroke. Its even better for women.
Open Source Alternatives
Hi. I'm John, and I'm a caffeine addict.
But I have almost completely decaf'edm twice. Here's how I did it:
1. You do it on a vacation of 1 to 2 weeks. Why? Because your habits are so uprooted that you are more amenable to big changes.
2. During vacation, you go on caffeine maintenance -- one or two cokes, or whatever it is that is the lowest amount you can tolerate.
3. At the end of vacation, you go cold turkey. This is the hardest part, but if you're lucky, your body will have adjusted for the big decrease in dosage.
In the final phase, I was tired for 3 weeks.
Now I feel great and unburdened.
I stayed off for some three years, then relapsed.
In Dec. 2008 I decaf'd again, with some slippage. I've had three or four cups of coffee since (along with the trace amount in decaf coffee).
I also had a completely generic experience involving caffeine addiction that I would like to share on these here interwebs!
Are you kidding? Caffeine is the only thing that enables my cardiovascular system to FUNCTION.
Try 2 1L bottle of Diet Coke on the way to school, and then 3-4 cases after class and between the nest school day. By the time the weekend comes around, you pretty much crash and can sleep all weekend.....
(thunk!) .....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
our brains are regulated by chemicals. Some people find their lives are easier by adjusting those chemicals with drugs.
Drugs are not inherently bad when used wisely. No more so than food is.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
After I eliminated caffeine from my diet, my Dyshidrosis Dermatitis is significantly more manageable and I have far fewer outbreaks. Now if I even drink one cup I notice my skin breaks out significantly. Alcohol has as similar effect but dries out my skin even further causing painful cracking.
Namaste
can be bad for you?
No shit?
And this is supposed to be something new?
Tea has been drank by most of the worlds population for 3200 hundred years and they are saying 'its affecting more and more people' ? The only thing drank more is water itself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea
I really wish we'd stop with this bullshit 'more people now than ever!!!!!' Every year there will be more people doing it, the population of humans on the planet is increasing, doesn't change the ratios one bit. Ignorant reporters.
Does someone actually pay these journalists to write these stories or does CNN just watch the blogs of teenagers now?
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
If you have a bad enough case of ADD, I don't know that you could ever suck down too much caffeine. Your brain wouldn't be reacting to it like a stimulant, because the brain was starved of stimulation in the first place, which is what the caffeine (or Ritialin or ?) provides. That's not to say you can't still get addicted to it; after all, it's performing a useful neurochemical service for you that you'll dearly miss when it's gone. Still, I'd figure that people with "real" ADD traits in abundance probably wouldn suffer withdrawal symptoms as bad as would a neurotypical person.
And I have done it loads of times. Now I just take it as a stim when I actually need it - like before an exam or such.
I used to drink 2-3 cups a day at work, as it was one of the ways to actually take a break from work.
Being a non-smoker - if I took a break, I probably took coffee too.
But, as I had no habit of drinking coffee at home I didn't notice I had any problems until summer vacation.
As the withdrawal headaches kicked in I was like a zombie for 3 days.
First I thought I was simply very tired - I did just wrap up a ton of work that (coincidence, coincidence...) popped up couple of days before my vacation.
And then it hit me - I was no longer drinking coffee.
After that I switched to tea. Lighter buzz but also lighter withdrawal symptoms.
Now, when I DO need that extra non-sleep time or concentration I've noticed that it is best if I switch to coffee a day or two before the actual engagement.
If I start drinking days ahead it has no positive effect. I just keep drinking not to start falling down as soon as caffeine saturation of my body falls bellow a certain level.
After the job or the exam is over - I quit coffee and start having 2-3 cups of green tea per day. Kinda like switching from heroin to methadone.
It helps to reduce the headaches somewhat and it keeps me out of the "zombie state" as it boost my metabolism.
After a couple of days - I can quit tea as well. With almost no headaches or "metabolism lows".
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Believe it or not, I totally read the headline as "Beware the Perlis of Caffeine Withdrawal," and I thought of the famous quote,
-- Alan J. Perlis
Since then, people have discussed "syntactic salt," "saccharine," and "syrup." I thought someone had discovered syntactic caffeine.
$META_SIG_JOKE
There's no benefit at all to caffeine addiction.
I benefit from my caffeine addiction because I hate my job. Sure, I can put up with a lot if I going skiing at lunch, or ride singletrack to work, but in the shoulder seasons I have to do something.
If I try to put up with work un-caffeinated I get these terrible headaches and I can't sleep at night.
The girlfriend has exceptionally low blood pressure, so low that she has trouble with anesthetic or even codeine knocking her into a faint.
She has a prescription from her high school doctor for 3 cups of coffee a day to help her along.
We framed it.
Just don't take 2000 mg's of C at once, break it up into at least 2 doses of 1000mg's. If you don't, your body will quickly let you know it was to much.
You want to come to the East End of London, me old china, and I'll show you tea that isn't weak! Proper builders brews.
I'm telling you, you could stand a spoon in some of the brews you get down the proper caffs. Proper traditional places with a big tea pot always on the go, they pour you a couple of inches from that into a mug and then top up the other 2/3 of the mug with hot water. I swear the tea in those big tea pots is some sort of nuclear brew that's been stewing in there since the days the Cutty Sark used to sail up the Thames, they just top it up with a couple more spoonfuls of leaf tea every Christmas and it gets heavier and heavier and more and more evil.
My first job was in a hospital with a couple of retired Navy guys, they'd been through the war, I was the youngest so I was "the boy" and any time we had a problem I was sent to make a pot of tea so we could stand there with our mugs and suck our teeth and sip our tea and work out how to get the box through the door or whatever. Taught me how to make proper strong brews those lads did.
I think your green tea is the happy asian gentle stuff*, nothing wrong with it but not for yer average British builder, you know... you'd get laughed off a site if you tried bringing that along...
cheers though! Nothing like a lovely cup of tea eh? (or 10 or so).
*no disrespect to asian builders, I bet if you're on a building site in Singapore or Tokyo or wherever the lads there can probably brew green tea to some frightening level of intensity too...
So because you have a problem you could not control on your own, you think the government should come in and save people.
This happens all the time: people have a fear, problem, or gripe, always about something they can not control, so they ask the government to come in and fix it for them. This is cowardly.
This is what you do: you take responsibility for your shortcomings, and you deal with them individually. If you see a problem in someone you care about, you talk to them about it. That is how social change is supposed to occur, not through the diktat of a gun.
Do you feed caffeine to your kids? I don't. They also get very little sugar. But I drink at least a (small) pot of coffee every day. I don't want it to be regulated. If you regulate something, you set that something up to have a grey market. If you ban it, there will be a black market. It doesn't reduce it's consumption, it juts makes it more covert.
The 'slippery slope' argument holds here. You don't like caffeine, so you say "regulate". Someone else doesn't like smoking, so they say "tax". Someone else doesn't like trans-fats, so they say "ban". Before you know it, we're living in the Orwellian "Demolition Man" world.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Man, if you drink 30 or 40 cups of coffee a day, you are a coffee filter.
After university I went through caffiene withdrawl. While in university I drank a lot of coffee. I had a 22 ounce cup. I would fill it and empty it 3 times (on average day) between morning and 2 in the afternoon (11 ounces on average per hour). After that, I would switch to coca cola (caffiene with carbonated water and sugar). I would stay on coke till about 9 pm. I could sleep about midnight (depending on papers/assignments/labs/lectures and basic read-it study). I did this for years (ok with university coop, 5 years). After convocation, I went down to about 1-2 normal cups per day. OUCH! Things were kinda tough for about 6 months. Its not a strong addiction, but you notice it when its gone.
Gradually reduce your intake and in a week you will be free of it, with no real side effects.
Problem solved.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This Lent (2009), I gave up Mountain Dew. I was drinking 40 FL oz. per day of the stuff, which totaled to almost 200 mg/day of caffeine. I always hated weekends, because I couldn't get enough caffeine/sugar during those two days between Friday and Monday. I decided to break out of this.
I replaced my Mountain Dew consumption with bottled green tea. Felt great. Healthier drink in general, and less caffeine, and I felt great about it.
I picked up a bottle of Mt. Dew and a bottle of green tea one day in the school cafeteria, and looked at the nutrition stuff on the labels. The Mt. Dew had literally three times the caffeine of the green tea! I was disgusted. I'm not drinking that much Mt. Dew that often ever again. That much caffeine is a luxury, to be enjoyed on occasion.
Also, I have anxiety issues. This is also better for me in that respect.
I feel a lot better about myself in general now. I highly advise reducing caffeine consumption to about 100 mg/day or less, like I have now. That's tolerable by the body if you go a few days without it.
Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
I'd like to quit caffeine, but based on the comments here, quitting it apparently requires that your balls be removed.
I'm an addict, quite well known among my friends for my grumpiness and mental slowness prior to my first cup of coffee. I drink at least 6 cups a day, closer to 12 most days.
However I pretty much only drink coffee at work. On weekends I don't drink any, and when I go on vacation I generally don't drink any. That sometimes means that I'm going a week or more without coffee, clearly long enough to experience withdrawal symptoms.
Oh and I certainly experience them. Hell, I probably experience them even after a day without. Headaches, sluggishness, upset stomach, you name it. However, even as I'm experiencing these symptoms, it never really occurs to me to drink some coffee to make them go away. The urge to get "my fix" doesn't come over me, so if I've decided I'm not drinking coffee that day, I don't drink coffee and it takes basically zero will power for me to avoid it, even as I suffer from a nasty caffeine-withdrawal headache.
It's kind of weird, really, how this obvious addiction affects me. It's like my brain/body lack the ability to correlate the caffeine with the high, and the lack of it with the low, and so I lack the compulsion to go after it unless I'm in the environment where I normally drink coffee. Is this an advantage? Maybe. It also happens with foods -- some foods give me indigestion, but damned if I can be bothered to remember which and stop eating them.
The enemies of Democracy are
I weaned myself 4 cans of soda per day. I seem to try to quit about once a year. I hope this time it sticks. I feel so much better right now. My energy levels are nice and even. No more morning grogginess, beyond the usual amount from being a night person.
.txt file log of Pro and Con symptoms of ingesting caffeine. The cons were outweighing the pros for me. They say people who are prone to anxiety and panic attacks shouldn't do caffeine, and I concur.
I actually kept a
Other cons included teeth grinding, impatience with people, quicker to anger, just generally being on edge.
I think I am more sensitive to the stuff than most people, though. I was doing about 250mg of caffeine at my peak, mostly through Diet Coke.
Why, thank you. I almost had to look up that Excedrin on wikipedia. :-)
And please don't make it look like one of those 'pods' that you can put in a coffeemaker at a Days Inn or La Quinta.
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
In most of continental Europe, if you ask for a cup of coffee you get a watered down expresso
I've heard them refer to this style of coffee it as "American Soup". Curiously, I know a European resident who enjoys ordering her coffee our way sometimes.
I've dabbled in coffee withdrawal a few times and I personally find that the sugar withdrawal causes more issue then the caffeine.
For me caffeine withdrawal makes me tired and lethargic, but the sugar withdrawal gives me long headaches. I know this because I went to black coffee a few times and tested the withdrawal symptoms.
Maybe its just me... but the real addiction in my coffee is sugar.
FYI: withdrawal for me takes approximately 3 days... although the habit of taste will be indefinite.
FYI2: weed withdrawal is 2 weeks.
That's why I said Sch. 3. I was actually making a case for Sch. 1 but realized that would be absurd given the other criteria. I probably should have removed the "no medical use" part, since it does have minimal usefulness.
Adderall >>> Caffeine
But heck, if you can't control your caffeine intake there's no way you could handle amphetamines.
I like the Texan notion of personal responsibility as it pertains to alcohol. Now we ought to embrace that when it comes to any drug. Education is more relevant than preaching abstinence, both when it comes to sex and drugs.
Adderall, speed, meth, amphetamines, whatever are a brain drug. They can be performance enhancing for physically boring jobs, like coding and such, but are not a cure-all for sleep and feeling shitty due to poor health decisions. People get addicted to all of the above. Some don't. Why does the government get to decider whether I do or not? I want my tax dollars spent on making cool new technologies, going to Mars, education, and peace.
It varies from brain to brain of course but caffeine addiction is quite horrible, you just often don't realise you have it.
Ever get those weekend light headaches? Your body wants the caffeine you have each day but neglect to have at work.
It makes me very up and down, depressed / happy / depressed / happy - my evenings are normally horrible and morbid.
I realise it's different for others but much like many drugs, different people get different reactions.
I quit from caffeine for 5 months at one point and then had 2 in a single day with some friends.
They were quite shocked at my behaviour, quite seriously it was like I was on amphetamines (as someone who has had amphetamines in moderation, I can assure you the feeling was identical)
I was excitable, happy, couldn't stop talking, couldn't stop moving, had to look at things in my mates house, pick things up, hold a conversation constantly.
My mind was absoloutely racing, it was completely and utterly identical to taking a small amount of speed.
I've been on and off coffee at least 5 or 6 times in my life now, for stints of 4 weeks to 6 months.
There's something 'warm, happy and comforting' about a nice warm, sweet coffee - it's also social with friends.
The thing is, without coffee (and infact most processed foods, sugars) I'm generally more stable, more relaxed, my energy level maintain a more regular constant.
I feel healthier, I feel 'better' overall - but it takes about 3 weeks to properly wean off it and the temptation is often there.
I find I eat badly with coffee, I don't know why but coffee goes well with carbs (I'm an endomorph)
I emplore all of you to try it just for 6 weeks, go without - bear with the first 2 and see how you feel, if you don't see the benefit, you can always go back to coffee and enjoy it.
Some of you may not even know it's screwing you up, I didn't realise how bad the stuff is until I'd been having it for years.
Oh and finally, moderation is not an option for me, once I'm on it I have to up and up the dose until I'm at least at 3 strong cups a day, just to survive.
Unless you are like the op, you should be fine. I drink 3-4 cups a day, I'm 81KG, or 180lbs, and my withdrawl is either a minor headache, or just me being really sleepy. Not a big deal unless you are a bit crazy about it.
My doctor told me to quit caffeine, alcohol, or overeating, and caffeine was the logical choice. (I later found out he said "AND" not "OR", but that just wasn't happening, and doesn't affect the story.) Now that I no longer drink caffeine at all, if I do accidentally ingest some, I get very similar symptoms to those who don't get their regular fix of the stuff: that night, I can't get to sleep, and the next day I have a killer headache originating from the back of my neck, I am completely lethargic, and I can't concentrate to save my life.
My coffee costs are on the order of 90Euro per month.
So I stopped consuming caffeine entirely.
Now I sleep better, am more awake in the morning, and generally feel better.
I'll drink maybe one pop a week.
I notice that when I hear the word, "Addicted", I feel a slight subterranean urge to start acting.
--That is, to put myself through the drama of addiction. The cravings and the various difficulties. I wonder how much of this is really based on chemical addiction and how much of it is based on behavioral programming.
Coffee and tobacco are interesting. I've played with both. I wanted to try tobacco for a number of reasons and it was pretty cool. "Quitting Smoking" is this buggaboo of a thing in our society, so after I'd been smoking this pipe for several months, (and really quite enjoying it), I said, "Okay. Let's see what this Quitting Smoking thing is all about."
I was a little disappointed. Quitting smoking is pretty easy. It takes seven days for the chemical addiction to be overcome. After that it's entirely a question of behavior and brain chemistry. (Some people are naturally attracted to tobacco because it balances out their neural chemistry. There's a reason why cigarettes are so popular among those with various imbalances. It's self-medication and it helps. A lot. --For these people, I imagine that "Quitting Smoking" is probably much more challenging.)
It's basically like having a mild flu. It gets worse and worse until withdrawal symptoms peek somewhere between day 3 or 4, and then it smooths out. After 7 days are up, you're pretty much in the clear. The difficult part is this: Imagine having the flu, not the worst you've ever had, but pretty uncomfortable. Normally, you'd just tough it out because you have no choice. But with nicotine, you can make the symptoms vanish instantly. Hmmm! --The other part I found really entertaining was seeing the kinds of tricks my rational mind tried to play. As the symptoms progress, your mind will concoct all kinds of logical-seeming arguments for just smoking one more time. Coffee doesn't do that. --Coffee addiction is child's play. Two days, one head-ache, no real cravings to speak of, and you're back to normal. Big deal.
So overall, the whole notion of "Addiction" seems much overblown from my perspective. (Drugs are different for different people; you can't choose your base brain chemistry defaults, --not like behavior programming, which with enough work can be altered.) --Addiction is just a bodily reaction to a substance which you can measure and take into account. Knowing that quitting is just a process with a recognizable cost, I have no fear of using coffee when appropriate, and if I ever go through a period of extreme, prolonged stress, I'd certainly consider using tobacco again. It's really a pretty amazing drug, --though it does make you smell funny and if you smoke the crappy kind, it screws up your breathing. (That was another thing I wanted to learn about. All arguments of toxic additives in big tobacco products aside, the paper in cigarettes is soaked in a weak bath of salt-peter or something akin to it. Take all the tobacco out of a cigarette and light the paper and watch what happens. It's almost like slow-motion magician's flash paper. I found that cigarettes made me cough up fleghm, but that pipe tobacco, organically grown did not. Hmm.)
My current 'addictions' include Coffee and downloads of sci-fi TV. But with no current Doctor Who and Dollhouse heading for the axe, I guess that issue will resolve itself.
-FL
Now I have 0 caffeine on a typical day and I can very, very easily pull an all nighter on 1-2 cups.
Seconded. Maintaining your caffeine sensitivity is very useful, on occasion.
You are obviously far too committed to breaking the stereotype of the nerd as the ideal physical specimen. You contrarians will cut off your nose to spite your face - or, in this case, dilate your capillaries into a stroke to spite society.
In other words, detox gently.
I now stay on 2 cups of damn good coffee a day (breakfast and lunch) and I'm fine. On weekends I don't get withdrawal symptoms when I take less.
Oh, and try kicking sodas altogether. Apart from the caffeine overdose, the sugar transforms into fat almost instantly. Or, the aspartame poisons you. Also, you'll realize that very few sodas actually taste good.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Coffee is sacred, and many of us rape ourselves with shitty, commercial/sub-commercial coffee forcefully produced exclusively by third world nations, for primary export to US (like with coco, and sugar)...hahaha...Americans sure do forget that this world is faceted to a pattern/precision yet known...if yer gunna drink coffee, buy something that doesn't suck...its like, if you are addicted to a shitty version of a drug and not its pureness, then you are definitely f-ing yerself,,,especially at 3 pots a day....that is several thousand mgs of caffeine, not to mention all the depleting side effects of its diuretic characteristics. I love coffee, and slang it hard, so treat it with respect, and tell those scientists to do some better research on something else.
Tried it for six months. No noticable positive effects.
Everything in moderation naturally but masturbation is pretty important for a healthy sex life and even porn can actually help...
Either that, or get a better set of reading glasses.
I originally read the mail header as
"Beware the Penis of Caffeine Withdrawal"
Ah, the suggestive powers of excessive Pinoqachole consumption!
several cups of coffee a day???
I have a few sodas a day (we're talking a couple hundred milligrams, if that [maybe 150]), and I'm quite under control. (one around wakeup, one midmorning, one with lunch and/or one in the early afternoon, maybe)
If I get a decent night's sleep (which is hard/unlikely during the work/school week even if I hit the sack at a reasonable hour), I really find myself quite able to have only 1 or 2 cans/day ( 100mg), or even not bother with it at all.
If I really haven't gotten enough sleep (say because I've been up way too late posting on Slashdot), I find that caffeine simply doesn't cut it, even in above-average quantities.
Energy drinks aren't cost-effective per milligram of caffeine; I need to test whether the other stuff in them does any good for me.
I wonder what effect non-caffeinated soda has (I like ginger ale and root beer in that category). I wonder if there's a placebo effect/alternate effect from the fizziness?
Never like the idea of coffee, hot and bitter is hard to drink IMHO; some people love it, but I don't understand.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I've discovered caffeine withdrawals are nothing a bowl of hash can't fix. 1 a day keeps the doctor away.
Try moving out of the US.
These symptoms are apparently location bound - never heard of anybody not on American soil feeling even the slightest withdrawal effects.
And there, they drink _real_ coffee...
Why 7-Up? I remember when I was young our family doctor always recommended 7-up too when I had a bout of diarrhea or food poisoning. But as I grew up, I just drank Gatorade and it worked fine (thinking that it should rehydrate me even better than a cola).
Does 7-Up have more electrolytes in them than sprite? Why not coke, pepsi, or mountain dew? And would Gatorade be even better than 7-Up?
FWIW, I found this link for what they say is a rehydration drink recipe.
You know, one time we had a office caffeinated, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink full coffee mug. The smell, you know that caffeine smell, the whole office. Smelled like, victory. Someday this coding project's gonna end...
I have been on 2 cups of Starbucks coffee a day for months and then just quit cold turkey without any symptoms. Didn't drink coffee for a few weeks (moved offices and the coffee shop was too far to walk), then started drinking coffee from a different source. I have fallen asleep while sitting in a boring class (a few years back) while drinking coffee with the coffee cup in hand. These days I have my own coffee machine at work and have one or 2 cups a day. I have gone without any coffee recently too. The only effect of coffee that I feel is a small boost in energy if I didn't sleep well the previous night. I never get the jittery or hyperactive feeling that people talk about. Anyone else like me?
-ItsME
I have been on 2 cups of Starbucks coffee a day for months and then just quit cold turkey without any symptoms. Didn't drink coffee for a few weeks (moved offices and the coffee shop was too far to walk), then started drinking coffee from a different source. I have fallen asleep while sitting in a boring class (a few years back) while drinking coffee with the coffee cup in hand. These days I have my own coffee machine at work and have one or 2 cups a day. I have gone without any coffee recently too. The only effect of coffee that I feel is a small boost in energy if I didn't sleep well the previous night. I never get the jittery or hyperactive feeling that people talk about. Anyone else like me? P.S: After I post, if I refresh the page, I don't see my post. What's up with that? Anyone see this post?
-ItsME
No, it's really not. Not to be rude but if you've been smoking a pipe for a few months then frankly you're a dilettante.
I'm an ex-smoker. I smoked for 20 years and I've given up many times, hopefully this time for good. Breaking the physical addiction isn't fun but as you point out it's really not that difficult - the nicotine's out of your system in 3-5 days so you're a bit short & shitty but you get over it.
The tough part is breaking the psychological addition. At it's best, smoking is an enormously pleasurable activity and one that you associate with all sorts of other activities - drinking alcohol, after a meal, with a coffee, waiting for something (no kidding), having a laugh with other smokers. Smoking is something you associate with pleasurable activities.
And you also associate smoking with negative things - if you're stressed you want a cigarette. If something bad happens (eg you're facing a firing squad and someone asks "any last requests?") you want to smoke. Smoking is something that helps you "cope" with the bad times.
When you're quitting, and even once you've quit, any time you do one of these activities you find yourself gagging for a cigarette. It just feels "right" to be smoking while you're doing them.
Breaking that habit is *hard*. Really hard. Can't tell you how hard that is. When every beer you've had for 20 years was accompanied by a cigarette you *really* miss it. Doesn't help that your will power diminishes the more beer you drink.
It's all about behaviour...
"I'm addicted to placebos.
I've thought about quitting, but it wouldn't make a difference."
That sounds like Stephen Wright.
The tap water tastes different?
Does it really? Or do you just think it does because you're paying for special water? Chances are your bottled water comes from a municipal water supply anyway.
If you really value purified water that highly, that's up to you. But you'll get much more value for your dollar if you buy a filter instead of paying Coca-Cola a buck or two to make coke without syrup and fizz, and ship it around the country for you. That's pretty dumb. If you're on the go and need some water now, I can understand buying a bottle. But habitually buying bottled water is just dumb.
It depends on where you live. Over here (Uruguay, SA), the tap water is drinkable (and that's about it), but we have some of the best spring waters in the world (see for example):
http://www.pmgeiser.ch/mineral/index.php?func=disp&parval=98
So I think it's worth it to pay a buck a day for the bottled water.
There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.
There is at least a possibility that the caffeine is ruining the sleep that you are getting.
For me, I end up feeling less rested the next day if I consume much caffeine after about noon.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
"Until you can regularly consume an average of three or four pots of coffee in day (30 to 40 cups) without"
Say you're in the office and you polish off 40 cups per day and it takes you say... 12 minutes to finish off each cup then if you drank every cup back to back with zero downtime it would take you a full 8 hours to finish. On top of that you took 40 trips down the hall to refill your cup. If these trips take 2 minutes each you've now wasted and hour and 20 minutes of your work day.
To go even further, 40 cups of coffee at 175ml (sorry I'm Canadian) is 7 LITRES of liquid (1.75 Gallons for the rest of you). An average piss is 300-800 ml depending on the size of your bladder. If you peed out half of the liquid in the coffee that pegs you at approximately 9 trips to the bathroom during work. If each of these takes 7 minutes from the time you leave your coffee scented office chair you've just wasted another hour.
In conclusion, you're destroying your body and wasting your life with peeing, pouring and sipping - litterally.
It's all about behaviour
Agreed. That was exactly my point.
Here's another. . .
Nicotine, like caffeine is a very curious drug. It has the effect of sharpening perceptions, increasing awareness and calming down fear-based reactions without adversely affecting judgment.
I find it rather telling that governments spend so much energy villainizing tobacco. One of the first governments to launch whole-heartedly the whole "Anti-smoking" campaign was Nazi Germany. --I think it might have something to do with population control. Wars on Terror, and similar, count on manipulating fear responses and un-clear thinking in populations.
Fear of Addiction is used mercilessly as one of the tools in this campaign. And I don't think it has anything to do with the government caring for our health. --Otherwise, why not campaign against the various well-known causes of obesity? Or the epidemic levels of mis-prescribed anti-depressants? Or any of the dozens of things which are both common and harmful. My guess is that these other things don't act to strengthen the collective mind of the populace.
-FL
That would be the Friday Lunchtime Magic Pint. All gnarly problems of the week become shallow and are solved in the two hours following the Magic Pint.
I did this over about ten years. The worst effects were in university, where I once found myself waking up in front of a Coke machine at 8am with a half-full can in my hand, and absolutely no memory of how I got there. Considering I never drank... alcohol, anyway... it was a little disturbing.