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.
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.
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!!!
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).
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.
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.
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.
This is certainly true.
I used it when I was in college to prod myself into wakefulness for after-lunch classes.
When I went back to school a few years ago, I was an every-morning coffee drinker. I’d try to restimulate my alpha-waving brain with a hit from the coffee bar after lunch, but the effect ranged from zero to negative–it actually made me sleepier.
Horrid stuff. There’s something about decaf that tastes off, to me. If I’m going to pour a bitter infusion of scorched beans down my neck, I’m gonna want a reward for the exercise.
Decaf. The very thought.
Had a brief meal before a gig at a bandmate’s home, and I hadn’t yet had my morning cuppa joe, and all he could drum up on short notice was Coca-Cola. Normally I don’t do soft drinks with my repast - it’s just wrong for me, somehow - but my eyes were falling out of my fuzzy head and I was a bit desperate, so I accepted his kind offer while witnessing my departure from my usually unbendable norm with all the fascination of a rat faced with a cobra.
He offered me the choice of decaffeinated Coke and “extra crispy”. Yes, thought I. He understands.
What’s the problem? Wired is good. Bouncing off the walls is even better. Besides, what’s bad for you this week, is good for you next week, so why bother yourself reading all the doom and gloom? Even if you do die from a cuppa coffee, it’ll save you from a long painful death from cancer of the alzheimer’s gland.
There are lots of benefits to coffee. The usual antioxidants, of course, but research is showing that it may delay the onset of type II diabetes and other icky things. Plus, it’s full of xanthines!
Coffee with chickory is even better. Tastes like chocolate. Sure, you get wired from it, but it’s a smoooooth and mellow sort of wired.
