Damn. I seem to be one of the few who can guzzle caffeine the way normal people breathe air, then go off it with no ill effects. I wonder why?
Hey all you caffeine addicts, you'd better cut back or it may well drive you to murder!!!! Or maybe to falsely confessing to a murder. Well, whichever argument the court finds more plausible... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100920/ap_on_re_us/us_caffeine_defense
I've been a daily coffee drinker for the past 3 years (1-2 cups per day, black) I recently started to question my habit and took a 2 month break. Once I made it through withdrawals, the results were incredible. I felt a connection to my inner being that I haven't felt in a long, long time. I truly believe that caffeine has a numbing effect on our core being, our true emotion. Without coffee I am more peaceful, far less irritable, sleep much better, look much better(better skin) and have better focus. Shoot- my sex drive even returned! As someone who has suffered from severe depression, I can confirm that coffee does have anti-depressant properties, but they are short-lived. In retrospect my caffeine use triggered a sort of 'manic' lifestyle. I became overly talkative but thoughts were less controlled and less clear, and by midnight I was apathetic and craving sugar. This was from merely one cup a day (usually). I kid you not, those two months without caffeine were the best two months I've had in years. I felt truly at peace, truly happy, opposed to the chemical-induced elation produced by a morning Joe. Unfortunately one cruel night/morning sent me spiraling back into daily use. I was up all night writing a paper, and I bought a coffee to stay awake for my 9 am class. That was all it took to re-start the vicious cycle. Over the next three weeks I continued to drink coffee, and in short time the deep happiness/peacefulness was gone. That isn't to say life was bad; it wasn't. But I truly believe that caffeine numbs us from what lies within. And for someone with a blessed, exciting life, being numb is the last thing I want. Caffeine is one hell of a drug. And one I plan to avoid entirely.
so is my roommate. he says it has a nice placebo effect for waking up, but without all the negatives!
No, not really. A Red Bull has ~80mg caffeine which is about the same as one cup of regular coffee, or slightly less than a concentrated coffee drink like an espresso. So, that’s 3 Red Bull drinks a day? Which is equivalent to 2-3 cups of coffee per day. I don’t think caffeine addiction is what’s going on here. People with caffeine addictions drink several (or more) cups of coffee each day.
I've been a (sometimes recovering) caffeine addict for 50 years and I hate coffee. I drink tea and diet cola, and eat lots of chocolate. My sensitivity to caffeine is fairly high, although it's finally changing now that I'm in my late 60s and my body no longer works reliably. Ten years ago I could pour out two ounces of Diet-Rite Cola into a measuring cup on Saturday morning and it would keep me bouncing off the ceiling for the whole weekend.
That's the way I am, I used to love it, now I'm really sensitive. Sometimes I can get wired on de-caf! Not all brands of de-caf are totally free from caffeine.
IMHO the pop and 'energy drinks' are far worse for you than coffee or tea. In fact, recent studies have shown both coffee and tea to be protective of brain health. Real Age pushes moderate consumption for health reasons. I am in the 3 cups of coffee for breakfast and a mug of green tea in late morning club myself. Yes, coffee and tea are stimulants if you drink them regularly. It is difficult for me to get wired on anything anymore though as I run 9 miles every morning with my Labrador. That settles me down and chills me out for the whole day, caffeine or no.
After 12 years of addiction to caffeine... I finally quit using it. I feel so much better in the mornings. That is, the time it takes me to "get moving" went down from 1-2 hours to about 10 minutes. Also, I no longer have morning headaches.
White tea is lower in caffeine, smoother-tasting, and packs an anti-inflammatory punch. I try to guzzle hot white tea these days. Between the chronic asthma, the chronic sinusitis, the allergies, and the general achiness of being middle-aged, I need all the food-based anti-inflammatories I can scarf. I try to save coffee these days for those more sleep-deprived moments. But I also take L-theanine, which has anti-anxiolytic and attention focusing properties...that synergize with caffeine. I'm on Theophylline for my asthma. Theophylline is an old-line asthma drug, not used much...I can't seem to tolerate what's considered a regular dose(barfies), but at the same time, my asthma gets worse if I don't take it...and it's cheap. It's a caffeine analogue. My inhalers include two different adrenalin analogues. Oh, and I megadose quercetin for the allergies...works very well indeed...unless I forget to reorder...I missed about a dose and a half of the quercetin b/c I didn't order in time...yep, it really helps control my allergies... By megadose I mean 8 grams of it twice daily...I worked up to that. Quercetin seems to cause mitochondriogenesis in vitro and in vivo in mice. I like to put on a good caffeine buzz in the morning...it helps me concentrate. For me, getting going in the morning has gotten to be easy due to working out regularly.
Everytime I need a coffee or a glass of coke, I slice a bit of lemon, fill a glass with cold water, squeeze a tiny bit of the lemon juice in the water, and put the lemon slice on the glass. Don't know why it works, just relieved that it does. 10 years of coffee addiction (about 8 big coffees a day) almost defeated and I like my new ritual.
I been wanting to quit caffeine. I am a peaceful person but when i don't get my caffeine i go through withdrawal rage where i feel like i'm angry but i'm not it must be a chemical imbalance.
I can assure you String I haven't been sucking down anything in my car. Did you make any progress on withdrawing from caffeine? Interesting fact - tea contains more caffeine per pound than coffee.
No progress. Totally addicted. I'm on vacation again next week and I've successfully moved into my new home. All that behind me, I'm going to try Tiassa's method: substitute Excedrin in decreasing amounts until I'm free. As a recovering addict, being dependent upon even a socially acceptable substance weighs on my conscience. This all started a year ago when I began driving over an hour to work. Now I live less than fifteen minutes from my job. No excuse now. Must give up on caffeine. ~String
That's the trouble with addiction - sometimes you kick the habit, only to find it replaced with another. The substitution should work to get you away from this, although more than likely you'll find a new routine to take it's place. Usually it takes extreme self-discipline before you get to the addict stage to really get past all addictions. Remember addiction is a problem, vices are not. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
My method for kicking my addiction to caffeine was to slowly decrease the amount I was taking in over a few weeks. My morning routine used to be to wake up and pop 2 caffeine pills (400 mg). After years of getting sick of waking up with a pounding headache and ending the day with a headache... I cut about 25 mg every few days... sometimes as much as 50 mg. After 3 or 4 weeks, I threw the rest of the bottle away and that was it. Some days I was fatigued, and some days I had a burst of energy (perhaps my body's way of trying to compensate for a lack of caffeine). The fatigue was caused by a flood of adenosine that caffeine has been blocking all these years. So my only course of action was to tough it out during the day and go to bed early. All-in-all, this was my only successful attempt at quitting caffeine usage. The trick was to make a decision to quit. That decision thwarted all my desires to get back into the habit. Today, I can enjoy the occasional caffeinated drink without the negative side effects (for the most part). The other day I had a Red Bull and had the most energy I've ever had from caffeine since I was 15. But my desire to keep doing it is not there.
