Caffeine

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I've cut out almost all caffeine for 3 weeks now. I mixed out my regular coffee with decaf whenever the jar was half empty to avoid any epic withdrawal symptons. I was drinking 15+ cups a day. At least one cup per hour I'm awake (7am till midnight)

I still have the occassional real coffee such as a single in a coffee shop or a work meeting when it's laid on. So perhaps 3 coffees this week, plus a diet coke most days. Enough to keep full withdrawal at bay.

On the positive side my anxiety has reduced 1 notch, so instead of 7s, I'm a 6 most of the time. I am also sleeping an hour earlier. So 12am-1am, rather than 1am-3am.

I am now completely floored by everything else though. Light sensitivity and losing myself in my mind. I spent an hour the other day putting on a pair of socks. I'm stimming a lot more and generally absent to everyone else. I was like this a lot more like this when I was younger, I couldn't drink coffee till I was 17, i couldn't tolerate the taste.

Can anyone explain what's happening here? Am I still in withdrawal or have I been self-medicating with caffeine? I find myself just staring at a pencil tip or a crack in the table for a large amount of time. The wife is getting annoyed.

Jason.

This is the exact reason I drink only Caffeine rich fluids. Primarily coffee, the occasional tea, and Dr. Pepper as a last resort.

I also use Nicotine, and find the combination of the two to thoroughly keep me cranked up enough to stay in the moment the majority of the time. (Ie. it doesn't take an hour to put on my socks)

I used to be so distracted I was nearly despondent, until my folks started letting me drink soda...lol...it only snowballed from there as I found the use of caffeine to be a suitable, although not perfect, form of self medication.

I do it, not to that extent, but I've been through periods of similar. In my experience, it's probably vitamin deficiency, on a "normal" day, I can get by on just one cup (large cup) of strong coffee or a good energy drink in the morning, but I've had my periods of like 4 energy drinks or big cups of coffee a day. I'm guessing the reason I need one cup is just for addiction purposes, but yeah.

One big thing I'm realizing now, I need actually about 9-10+ hours of sleep every night, 6-7=not good. Partially that's from working out, though, and just needing more recovery time than average. But, if you don't take a multivitamin, take one now, also, supplement with probably 2000mg vitamin C, and a B vitamin supplement, and see what happens. Also, one thing that I think is helpful is ginseng, too, take some ginseng in the morning, it's not quite as "peaky" as caffeine, but it's good stuff for energy and focus. Yerba mate tea, too, might be ideal for you if you need caffeine, it's only like 30mg a cup, so not much at all, but it's got other xanthines similar to the ones in chocolate and green tea, so it's like a nice focused calm caffeine buzz, if that makes sense. When I wasn't lazy, I had good results brewing a pot of that tea and just having one cup of coffee in the morning.

But yes, the fun of self medicating with stimulants. Woohoo. The only way I figure I can "detox" from caffeine is if I was just placed in a house in the woods by myself with zero obligations for like 2 weeks, but since that's not happening, self medicating with natural stims, yay.

I'm looking into taking Maral Root, and Golden Root, both are Russian herbs athletes there used a lot. Adaptogens.

Good luck dude, I know how much this sucks.

Thanks for your replies, I found this article earlier: http://www.scn.org/autistics/pharmaceuticals.html

"Caffeine is sometimes useful for people with Asperger's Syndrome to maintain alertness in circumstances which tend to have the opposite effect, e.g., an afternoon work meeting. Colloquially, I have seen several comments to the effect that, "caffeine is the only drug for autism."

Oh well I'll give it another week, then try introducing it in moderation. It could be a very long withdrawal phase. I think I need to work out what's worse, or find a better stimulant.

I chew nicotine gum 24x7 btw. I'm spending £30 a week on that habit (whereas actuall smoking was £15) It would be an interesting experiment to cut out nicotine as well as caffeine for a while.

Jason

I was totally addicted to caffeine there for awhile when I realized how sharp and alert I was on it. I would make a pot of coffee with a cup of grounds and drink half of it in the morning, and have 3 or 4 triple monster energy drinks put down by 5pm (I worked till midnight or later on 2nd shift). I would get really tense though, sometimes saw things out of the corner of my eye, and when my blood pressure started getting bad, I knew it was time to quit. Plus it was expensive!

I didn't start off drinking that much, but after about a year of self medicating with caffeine, I had slowly been increasing my intake when I got accustomed to the current dosage. I think if I had had much more I probably would have had a seizure or heart attack or something. Now I drink 1-4 cups of coffee in a day, sometimes not at all, and that is after I went cold turkey for six months straight, not even tea.

I wanted to add that now, instead of drinking suicidal quantities of caffeine, I try to eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables and get plenty of sleep. I know exercise would help but I'm just not getting around to it. Oh and I try to avoid refined carbs, although that is a constant struggle; I love my bread!

In my early 40's I started quitting caffeine and reducing sugar.
It has been 4 years without caffeine now. There have been trade offs, but overall I am much better off.

Through my 20's and 30's I lived on soda for the caffeine and sugar - to feed my hyperactivity. It was bad for my health.

It is nice sleeping and my dreams are better. During the day I'm very level, although I still drift off frequently. It is not the same when I was addicted to caffeine, more of a trade off. I still have to work and most of the time I can force myself to focus for good periods (30 to 45 minutes at a time).

Caffeine was hard and long to get off of. I too started off mixing caffeine free. Still it took almost 3 years to be completely free. There is no-way I would ever go back on caffeine.

Sugar - I'm still working on it. I'm down to about 1/10 of the sugar I use to get. I still use it for energy as I'm still pretty hyperactive.

I have found that getting exercise every day helps. During the work days I bike to work, then run up to the 6 floor a few times during the day. That helps get blood flowing to my brain. It is a natural way to get a similar effect to caffeine. Trading one addiction for another : /

I drink coffee every day, though it's more out of habit rather than addiction, I'm sure. I went on a few weeks without caffeine and didn't feel different. It's just enjoyable to drink coffee, I think I could be fine with just drinking decaf.

I'm unsure whether caffeine increases or reduces my anxiety, if I had to guess I'd say it decreases the anxiety I feel, but seems to remove my ability to think more clearly. So I'm probably gonna have slip-ups either way.

Yes. Your symptoms are caused by a signaling molecule called adenosine, a byproduct of cellular metabolism that inhibits neural activity. In other words, it acts as a brake on brain cell activity, makes you feel mildly ret*d and urges you to take a nap.

Coffee counteracts the effect of adenosine. Caffeine molecules bind to the adenosine receptors of your brain cells and block them, so that adenosine can no longer act on your neurons. This puts your brain into overdrive, since it no longer gets the signal to take a break and get some rest.

Alas, your brain realizes that something is not working as intended if you drink coffee on a regular basis, and tries to compensate by generating additional adenosine receptors. After a while, you need to drink more and more coffee to get your energy boost. And if you stop drinking coffee all of a sudden, you're completely screwed.

That's what you're experiencing right now. Your brain has grown oodles of extra adenosine receptors over time, which increases the effect of adenosine on your nervous system tenfold and lowers your IQ to that of a moderately bright sea urchin. It will take a while for your brain to reset itself and lose those now unnecessary extra receptors. Until then, you'll be constantly exhausted and barely able to function.

@crazycatlord. How long is this readjustment likely to take? I did lower caffeine intake quite slowly, reducing by 50% every 5 days or so. I still get around 100mg a day from sodas.

Thanks for the info, very informative.

Jason

You guys ever tested your coffees "caffeine" mg. As if your buying them from a coffee shop. You could be drinking 320mgs per cup of coffee.

& if they can make 320mgs coffee, I wonder how much is in each type of coffee & also in what people make themselves.

I just drank nescafé instant, like most addicts I like the same brand. That's rated at 45mg a cup in the UK. I rarely drink real coffee. I dislike the disgusting things coffee shops do to milk.

Jason

My body doesn't seem to be able to handle caffeine. I love the taste of nice coffee, but if I have more than 2 cups a day I get so hyper I can't concentrate on anything, and I get the shakes real bad.

It's a pretty powerful drug, I think a lot of people underestimate it. Energy drinks with high doses of both caffeine and glucose are a particularly big shock to the system.

The real question you've got to ask yourself is, why do I need this? As David Baddiel notes in his book "Time for Bed" many insomniacs are caffeine addicts because they're so shattered during the day that they need the coffee to function. But of course that also means they don't sleep, so then they get up feeling shattered, and need another coffee.....

As others have said, a healthy diet and regular exercise seem to be the best long term alternatives. It's really a question of discipline - doing things right is much harder than the 'quick fix' of caffeine, or indeed nicotine. And that's not being preachy, it's just a truth. I can't handle coffee but I do still smoke and I drink a lot of alcohol, and I know I need to be healthier, but it isn't easy. If you have the time and the fortitude to see it through and play the long game rather than being reliant on quick fixes, that's admirable.

I drink about 3 cups every day. It's enough to keep me awake.

I cut down my coffee intake drastically last week. I was probably drinking the equivalent of 15 cups of coffee a day too.

I now know why I was drinking so much of it - it causes the release of dopamine in the brain and I have ADHD.

I have now been prescribed Strattera for my ADHD so I am now down to 3 cups a day max and may even cut out caffeine altogether.

Reducing my caffeine intake is also helping to reduce my general low-level anxiety too.

I don't miss my coffee and I have experienced no physical or psychological withdrawal symptoms.

I am quite fortunate in this, as I experience absolutely no withdrawal symptoms when I stopped drinking alcohol, on the spot, around 8 months ago.

Despite having a fairly addictive personality, I seem to have a high level of immunity to substance addiction! Strange but true

I don't drink coffee so my caffeine mostly comes from soda. Yesterday I had a major caffeine crash after 1.5 drinks of Pepsi. I normally don't have a caffeine crash drinking that little. So I guess this means I have a problem and need to cut down fast. Luckily I only drank a 20 oz bottle and didn't have a crash.

My dad only buys Big K (Kroger store brand soda) which I think has some bad amounts of caffeine. I will get crashes just from drinking one regular glass of it compared to the name brand.

But I need caffeine just like everyone else due to my sleeping problems so it's a lose-lose situation here for me.