Giving up coffee

sbfluter · Post by **sbfluter** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:52 pm

I'm trying to give up coffee. Actually, caffeine. I've been drinking coffee for many years.

I have started by drinking a cup of tea instead. It's much weaker than the thick coffee I make. When the big headache came on, I took advil and it went away. I had two days of the headaches.

Today I didn't have the headache, so maybe it's time to give up the tea.

The main difference I've noticed is I am much sleepier overall. I fell asleep at 7:30 last night and was reluctant not to sleep the morning away. I felt like taking a nap today in the afternoon today.

Maybe I'm catching up on all the sleep I missed over the years.

Have you tried giving up caffeine?

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 6:54 pm

I've tried it about a million times. It's hard to do, but not impossible (a lot of people who become Mormon do it, after all). Good luck!!

BillChin · Post by **BillChin** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:13 pm

Like some smokers, I am only a social coffee drinker. I don't drink it at home. Sometimes when it is cool, I have some tea. It is not a big deal to me. A bit of caffeine doesn't do much harm.

I gave up on carbonated drinks. That was a long road because I used to drink about a liter a day of soda. Mostly I drink tap water now.

sbfluter · Post by **sbfluter** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:17 pm

I'm giving it up because it's an unnecessary expense, by the way.

emmline · Post by **emmline** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:18 pm

No. I love caffeine.

Post by **Dale** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:26 pm

Funny drug, caffeine. I drink one cup of coffee in the morning and, typically, a caffeinated soft drink at lunch. If I skip the morning cup, I'll get a nasty headache by noon which is unresponsive to any treatment including caffeine,aspirin, ibuprofen, etc. If I skip the noon caffeine, I'll probably feel weird by late afternoon, but the headache might come about half the time.

It's funny how such small doses of caffeine will make you dependent. I'm laughing. It's funny. But, ironically, I think it's the caffeine I'm on that makes it seem funny to me. Hahahahahahahahhahah!!!

Bothrops · Post by **Bothrops** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:31 pm

I really like coffee, and sometimes I can drink 3 or 4 cups a day. Anyways, I'm not dependent of it, and I can avoid it for months or years if I want to.
I don't think it's harmful in little doses (1 cup per day is nothing to worry about).

pipersgrip · Post by **pipersgrip** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:42 pm

I like my coffee very strong, but only drink it Mon-Fri in the mornings. I stay away from soda. I really don't need it, but I love the taste.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:57 pm

Being hypertensive, I had to give it up (caffeine causes blood pressure to spike). This was not at all easy, as I love coffee. Tea doesn't do anything for me - just off-tasting hot water. I still get the sleepiness, but it doesn't hit me now until the early evening.

The only thing I've found that combats the sleepiness is getting up early and getting moving. I walk for an hour before work. This keeps me going for the rest of the day. I'll have to start doing something in the evenings too, just to keep awake until the proper bedtime.

I suspect a lot of this is just creating new body habits to replace the addiction.

djm

cowtime · Post by **cowtime** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:45 pm

My husband was able to delay taking blood pressure medication for several years by giving up caffeine.

Whew, I'm glad that so far mine has stayed normal. I's be hurtin' if I had to give it up. Not coffee in my case it would be Dr. Pepper.

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:00 pm

Did you try decaffeinated yet?

feadogin · Post by **feadogin** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:46 pm

I drank caffeinated coffee for many years until it started giving me heart palpitations. Then I decided to switch to decaf. I did it gradually, cutting back to half caff and then just to 1 spoonful of caff and then total decaf. It was pretty easy & I didn't have to give up my morning ritual of coffee. And as soon as I cut out the caffeine, I got pregnant, which I had been trying to do for a year and a half.

So watch out!

J.

djm · Post by **djm** » Sat Mar 22, 2008 10:49 pm

Oh, dear. And here I thought I was just putting on a bit of weight.

djm

Jack · Post by **Jack** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 9:28 am

djm wrote:Oh, dear. And here I thought I was just putting on a bit of weight.

djm

It's the pot.

hyldemoer · Post by **hyldemoer** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 10:11 am

Decaf coffee has caffeine in it. The decaffeination process doesn't remove all the caffeine. It just reduces the amount of caffeine in the coffee.

I think a big problem with the whole subject of self-medication with the herb Coffee is that people usually don't recognize the difference between being awake and being "wired".

Caffeine has its values, especially if you need to push yourself to do something like study or drive somewhere late at night, or be bright and clever for an early morning meeting.

If you're accustomed to self-medicating with caffeine on a regular basis though,
the threshold of theraputic dosage is probably going to be much higher than someone who doesn't use the chemical on a regular basis.

Those who don't drink coffee regularly will feel its effects more easier when they do drink it.