I'm pretty sure I'm chemically dependent--or pretty goddamned close--on caffeine. Quick back story: I hate coffee. I tolerate tea. I've never been a soda drinker. Thus, I avoided--for most of my life--the perils of caffeine addiction. But recently, I've been scarfing down cans upon cans of Pepsi Max and sugar free Red Bull, both of which are loaded with fifty-gajillion espresso's worth of caffeine along with a heap of artificial stuff that can't be too good either. But--and I mean this seriously--I'm utterly dysfunctional until I've gotten a jolt in the morning. Another at 8am-ish. One more at lunch. None after that. Severe headaches if I even think about skipping a caffeine dose. Don't lie you know you are too. I see you Starbucks junkies sucking down double-mocaccinos in your car. ~String
You could taper off. This minimizes the headaches and might even evade them. Sugar free red bull contains Phenylalanine This essentially ends up being epinephrine dopamine and norepinephine. In general, along with the caffeine, you are telling your body there is a serious emergency. You get short term gains in that suddenly you have focus and energy, as you would if there was a physical threat on the veldt. The downside is....that is not what is really happening, so you are scaring yourself, essentially, all the time you are awake on these drugs. I say, drugs. It takes quite a while for the body to remove all caffeine at if you have some serious intake you are never without some rolling around in your body telling you there is a crisis. Pepsi Max has asparatame. Please watch this documentary on aspartame..... http://video.google.se/videoplay?docid=-6551291488524526735# Note how it got around the FDA via Rumsfeld who headed the company. If the doc does not scare you off aspartame, well, no advice here will. The transition from this kind of ongoing stimulation to an actual relaxed resting state can seem depressing. You will definitely catch up on sleep and be low energy as you detox. On the other hand you will stop stealing energy from your own future. EDIT: I should have added....these things are hard. I mean, it is nice to be instantly alert. It is nice to be able to find drudgework suddenly stimulating. It is unpleasant when the energy drop hits and the next can does instantly work. It gives us control. It's no surprise that caffeine and alcohol are legal. If people could not use the former to crank up for work and the latter to come down after work, there would be a slow revolution.
Just quit. Kicking it isn't that bad. Sure you'll have a headache for a week, but that's it Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Been there.. and I 'tapered off'.. somewhat. I read somewhere that it's unwise to go cold turkey though.
I never felt more alert because of caffeine and I don't feel any different now that I kicked it. I think the above is only relevant for people that are not addicted.
actually caffine has quite a short half life which is why you see office workers getting one more regually than people smoke. As a drug to be adicted to its better than alot. If your worried about the other things switch to coffee or tea and see if you still get the headaches as if you skipped it.
Before I began drinking coffee regularly, I would often sleep in in weekends. Now I get up pretty close to the same time I do on work days to get my caffeine fix. I joke about being a coffee junkie, but it is a worthwhile trade off for me. I do hold it to two cups of coffee in the morning, and one Coke with lunch.
Have you tried five hour energy? I've never used it, but I have a friend who swears by it. Also, try eating an apple with peanut butter with breakfast. I recently started a new job that requires me to get up very early, and I've found that an apple gives me more energy than a cup of strong coffee, and the energy sticks with me a lot longer. But if I don't take some form of protein with it, by blood sugar will spike, and then plummet.
Caffeine is an easy dependency, but not to break Caffeine is the one thing I simply cannot defeat. It's been too long. In my struggles against nicotine, I've mounted some decent efforts to quit smoking. Eighteen months once. Eight months a second time. I failed at my last attempt, and am gearing up for yet another "final" stand. But caffeine? Actually, now that I think about it, there was a period of years when I abandoned coffee and Pepsi altogether. Coincidentally, I also started taking antidepressants either during or shortly after that time. Yes, caffeine is an easy chemical dependence. Right now, my refrigerator is stocked with Pepsi Throwback—because I adore the stuff—and I'm drinking plenty of coffee because mother dearest brought some back from Guatemala, and it's good. If we ever happen to get together, maybe I'll try making klava for the first time. It's a long process and a strange way to treat coffee, but apparently it can be done for real, and it ain't bad. Meanwhile, if you can get a proper almond latte, who knows, you might start liking coffee. Of course, this isn't what you want, probably. Maybe you should look into quality chocolate. Barring that, maybe, if yur stomach can take it, you might start popping an aspirin a day for health. Some common brands have caffeine in them; see Lieberman et al., 1987. Caffeine isn't the worst thing in the world. The downside is it can play havoc with your kidneys if you're not careful. (I tried dropping caffeine as a response to hematuria.) But the "energy drinks" aren't reviewed by the FDA, so I really couldn't tell you what all is in them and how addictive they are. Some have ginseng, some taurine, and some this nasty South American stuff called guarana, which, for your purposes, is simply a marketing word for even more caffeine. Looking around, I see some fretting about ginseng, but I suppose that's part of the "a little knowledge can be dangerous" idea; I'm not seeing any reliable suggestion that ginseng is addictive. Pepsi Max contains ginseng. Likewise, there is plenty of fretting about taurine, but I don't see any evidence that it's addictive. If I recall, your history includes fast drugs; that might be part of the reason you're responding so strongly to Pepsi Max. Or, perhaps, my memory is wrong, in which case simply strike the preceding sentence. The worst thing about Pepsi, though, in any form, is what it does to your teeth and stomach. Remember the syringe scare some years back? Company executives pointed out there was no health danger, as Pepsi was acidic enough to kill any potential biological hazard about the syringes. That's comforting in a way, sure. But it's also a little unsettling, when you stop to think just how acidic these things are. (Coca-Cola can be used to make chrome shine.) ____________________ Notes: Lieberman, H.L., et al. The effects of caffeine and aspirin on mood and performance. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 7(5). October, 1987. Nootropics.com. September 12, 2010. http://www.nootropics.com/caffeine/aspcaf-moodcog.html
I used to drink a fucking lorryload of Red Bull. Then 2 things happened...one, the recession, and two, I used to get a pinpoint intense pain right where my adrenal glands would be. I couldn't tell you if it was actually from hitting them with an assload of caffeine, but I haven't suffered from it since drinking moderate amounts rather than enough to kill a small animal. Oddly enough, I never got addiction symptoms. I think it's mainly that intense taste I was addicted to. I wanted one even if I was hyperactive just for that taste. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Caffeine in coffee (1,3,7 trimethylxanthine), theophylline (so-called "caffeine") in tea (1,3 dimethylxanthine), and theobromine in chocolate (3,7 dimethylxanthine) are three different-but-related chemicals that our bodies metabolize differently. Most of caffeine (84%) is metabolized into paraxanthine (1,7 dimethylxanthine), which neither so-called "caffeine" in tea nor theobromine metabolize into. Notice how people describe tea as "refreshing" and "soothing", whereas coffee is for waking up and getting going. And, of course, some people find that theobromine makes them "feel good". I kicked caffeine 16 years ago because I was a slave to it (or the pounding, mood-altering headaches), and I must wean myself off it if I accidentally drink it. The can't-get-going feeling in the morning for coffee drinkers is the withdrawal symptom of caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant, so your body slows down your brain with a natural depressant, which happens to be longer lasting than caffeine. That's what you're feeling in the morning when you can't get going.
Lol, I was never able to get going in the morning, way before I'd discovered caffeine Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I'm a night owl. Never grown out of it.
Damn. I read somewhere that Coke (not the white flaky stuff, though not necessarily discounting that) is more popular with the coastal liberal crowd and Pepsi with the pastoral conservative crowd. Always bucking the trend, Tiassa. Also, the throwback stuff is full of sugar which I fear even more than the engineered substances I'm consuming. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! No McGriddles? You do realize that McDonald's Monopoly is almost upon us? Save your pieces! Did you forget this thread: Belgian Chocolate? Trust me, I already love the stuff and eat plenty. Your memory is correct. Though it's been years, I was a fan of meth, blow and ecstasy. Meth especially. . . though I somehow avoided the worst that such an addiction can give. I'm seriously ADHD, and from what I've read, those like me have a tendency towards uppers, which--conversely--have a focusing effect on our minds. Not worried about my teeth. I don't "sip" the stuff and I don't drink it all day long. I have--maybe--three a day, and I--literally--pound them when I do drink them. Same for Red Bull. Though, as to the stomach, I do have serious IBS, and I can't imagine it helps my bubble-guts much. ~String
I was addicted to a caffeine, and I kicked it. I bought a tooth whitening kit, and reasoned it's perhaps worth steering clear of the drinks that were staining my teeth while using the kit. So no wine, coffee or tea. After about three days I got a dull headache that felt someone was cutting my frontal lobes out with a wooden spoon. I rang a friend, who had given up caffeine, and he confirmed, yes this was the start of the withdrawal, but with a fair wind, it'll only last a few days. So, three days later, the headache finally subsided. I now limit myself to two cups of coffee or tea in the mornings only. I work from home, so it's all to easy to just keep stoking the percolator. I now just drink water in the afternoons, and that helps keep me well hydrated for when I run. I was telling a colleague about this experience, and she said she'd had a similar experience, except it coincided with a bout of food poisoning. She'd had a dodgy burger while away for the weekend, and got food poisoning. After a couple of days of vomiting, and just drinking water, the caffeine withdrawal started, and she got the headache. Her Doctor was then concerned she might have contracted Meningitis, so that worried her. But of course, as soon as she felt well enough, and had that first coffee, bingo, the headache went, and the penny dropped.
Not really. Phenylalanine is a very common amino acid that's found in virtually all meats, dairy, etc. You get a LOT more phenylalanine from eating a steak than you get from a can of Red Bull. The conversion of phenylalanine to neurotransmitters is regulated by the body, and you don't suddenly get a big spike of neurotransmitters in your brain simply because you had a can of it. The vast majority of it is simply used for protein synthesis or burnt for energy, just like all the other amino acids you eat. Also, the conversion into neurotransmitters - when it takes place - takes hours to occur. So it's certainly not responsible for the "energy boost" you might experience shortly after drinking a Red Bull. That's going to be mainly the caffeine. Phenylalanine seems to be one of the latest crazes for the "health scare" crowd. You can find all sorts of nonsensical bullshit about it on the internet that's directly contradicted by basic biochemistry.
So very British! Specifically "the penny dropping". Funny how the US and UK drift apart in some ways. That idiom was much more common place with my grandparents, and the last time I heard it was by a British (by marriage) great-aunt. She's deceased now, but she was a veritable treasure trove of anachronisms and classic British-ness that I miss a great deal. ~String
No sage advice Was that the outcome? I'm not doubting you; I just remember that someone did the research, but not the actual results. I've been developing a thing against high fructose corn syrup. And the Throwback really does remind me of the Pepsi I knew once upon a time. Let's see ... cigarettes and fast food. Those are the two things I need to quit. McD's Monopoly simply isn't going to help. Who knows, though? Maybe this time we'll actually win. Why yes, I actually did forget. Or maybe I missed it altogether. Either way, though, yeah. Good chocolate is ... yeah. And aren't ADHD drugs speedy? It's so counterintuitive. You can stand all night at a red light anywhere in town, Hailing Marys left and right, but none of them slow down. I've seen the best of men go past; I don't want to be the last. Give me something fast. —Sisters of Mercy I don't know. I just like the song. It comes to mind, for obvious reasons. I don't have much to offer for advice; caffeine addiction is wicked. But if there are any good Chinese herbalists in your area, maybe you can find a tea or some such that will go a little easier on your body than anything Pepsi has to offer. When I was nineteen or twenty, I remember we got hold of this liquid porcine adrenaline. You could get it at a health food store. It's probably been outlawed; I haven't seen the stuff in years. But maybe that's why I never liked cocaine. Have no idea what the stuff would have done to me over the long term, but it was ungodly fun while we were using it. I still have a "devil scar" on my left hand from those days. Being all strung out and shit one morning, and I decided it would be a good idea to heat the top of my lighter and then burn my hand with it. And it felt good. Something fast, indeed.
Liquid porcine adrenaline? Really? Why were they selling that? I assume it was for something other than recreational use by crazy young adults? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I love caffeine. Coffee, Latte's, Cappuccino's. Whatever. It got me thru college (classes all day then working third shift, all night study sessions, etc.) Nowadays I usually drink a large mug in the morning and a diet pepsi/coke/whatever for lunch. When I have a day off (really off, no "honey do" list or whatever), I'll usually not drink any coffee which means I'll end up with a headache by the end of the day. But I figure it's good to detox once in a while.
Yes, indeed Yeah, really. And no, I haven't a clue why they were selling the stuff. If I had to guess, maybe it was a "workout booster" of some sort. But I've never figured out what the point of that stuff was. It came in both tablet and liquid suspension forms. The latter was a cleaner, more refined, more powerful hit.
