Has ANYBODY here quit caffeine? I’m on day 3 and I have had seriously severe headaches every single day! Any tips, Tylenol and water don’t seem to be helping. I’m the type of person that makes a 12c. pot of coffee in the morning and drinks the entire thing throughout the day. Maybe cutting back first would be better than cold turkey…?
i dont have any experience, but here’s a link to some info i just found
https://www.caffeineinformer.com/my-caffeine-detox
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Cut back slowly then switch to tea and cut back more.
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Yes cutting back slowly is imo the better option. I keep trying to cut down my caffeine, it’s a hard habit to break.
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I worked with someone who had to quit caffeine for health reasons, drank 2-3 pots a day, and had to quit very promptly after the doctor visit. My observation was that it sucked for her for a week or two, but she was able to tough through still working full time and it passed. She just suffered through the headaches and they went away after a while.
But with no pressing medical concerns, I don’t see anything wrong with cutting back in stages. After 3 days of no caffeine, if you do decide to just cut back, I’d go easy on resuming your coffee intake right off the bat simply because you’ve made progress already, your tolerance might be a bit lower already, and you don’t want to undo that.
It may be really tempting to keep drinking coffee from a pot that’s already made. If this is a problem for you, you can try making 4 cup pots at a time instead of 12, or even get some instant coffee — having to make a new cup will be a bit of extra work, so you’re more likely to make it when you really want it and not just every time you’re tempted.
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Thank you for the link. I was reading through and it says cut back 1/4c. every 3 days… At my rate that would take me months!!! Hahahaaaa!
But definitely after reading through all these comments I need to start drinking some caffeine again so I don’t have to feel so miserable (too bad it’s not easy weaning for alcohol). I just made a pot of 6c. we’ll see how the day goes.
Thank you!
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Thank you for your advice. I think this is a really good tip!
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After I gave up drinking, a dr. Pepper addiction kind of snuck up on me. People seriously underestimate how hard caffeine can be to get off of. I’m not off of it completely, but I don’t drink it everyday.
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I agree with the others, cutting back slowly will help with the caffeine withdrawal. I used to chug coffee when I was younger, gave it and soda up maybe 30 years ago and now have a cup or two of caffeinated or half caf coffee a day, plus decaf. Cold turkey when you drink a ton of caffeine is rough with those hellish headaches…then again you are a few days in…so almost there…they should subside soon…ish. 
Edited to add…dilute your full caf with some decaf while cutting back. And you don’t have to do it as slowly as recommended. A couple of weeks should do it.
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How can I tell if I have a caffeine problem? I don’t believe I have one, but this thread makes me wonder. I have rules about cola, I’m allowed to drink one glass each day during vacations and else three glasses each week, and I stick to those rules, except for a few rare occasions where I sneak in a chug or two.
I could argue that therefore I am not an addict, but on the other hand, those are typical addict arguments, so I could argue I am addicted?
So, I used to have, in a day: 1 pot coffee, 3 sugar free monsters, maybe a preworkout drink or capsule, and sometimes tea to top that off. I regularly consumed well over 1000mg of caffeine a day. Doctors say you’re not supposed to consume more than 450mg a day.
Tapering will always be less painful but your caffeine withdrawals will last longer because you’ll be dragging it out. I noticed in one reply you mentioned that by reducing at a certain pace it would take you months. If you don’t have an instant need to get off caffeine right now, taking it over a longer period of time couldn’t hurt.
But if you’re going for a quicker pace, you could do that cutting your regular with decaff trick–though this probably won’t work if you’re a coffee snob (I’m a coffee snob). You could also weaken your coffee. Measure how much grounds you usually put in, then slowly decrease the amount of grounds you put in. Also finding a caffeinated tea that you like and slowly replacing the amount of coffee you drink with tea will slowly help you reduce your caffeine intake as well. Once you replace all your coffee with tea, then slowly replace that tea with a weaker tea, then with water.
There are definitely different ways to do it. I did the above method with my coffee consumption. With the energy drinks I would reduce by half a can every 5-7 days. After getting off caffeine, if you decide you want to start partaking again, decide to only have caffeine 3-4 days out of the week and try to have days off between. You don’t want to get re-hooked. *But the take away is to not worry if you decrease your intake slowly or not, but just keeping at it. You can take big steps if you want but there will be more discomfort.
Good luck! There’s nothing like being caffeine free–except maybe having the occasional caffeine boost when you’re normally caffeine free because then it actually works like it’s supposed to. Lastly, pro tip, don’t have caffeine if you’re going to get your lipids checked. Caffeine will actually make your numbers go up on the tests.
*Rewording edit for clarity.
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It gets better! For me, the first week was brutal. I just pushed thru the headaches.
After about a week, never even missed it.
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My girlfriend drank coffee every morning for years, she quit cold turkey and had dizzy spells on and off for a couple of weeks. She also told me that she didn’t feel herself from time to time. Keep us up to update see what happens, take care.
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Wow! Thanks for all the input. You definitely drank more caffeine than me!
I drank the 6c. pot that I made… After half of it (about 2hrs later) I realized that my 3 day headache had disappeared. Finished the pot but didn’t make anymore. Maybe I’ll just stick to this amount for a while and try to cut down again a little later.
Appreciate everything, and everyone’s help.
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I tried to give up diet coke but omg the headache was awful so I’ve started drinking it again. I drink lots!.
I thought I’d try again once I’ve got this no wine thing in the bag.