The Caffeine Circus Cycle of Fail

Life in Recovery
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@BroccoliHighKicks Interesting. I’d never heard that. Thank you for putting it out there!
@Hailstrom Thank you for your words. It’s been an uncomfortable and miserable ride, but I think the recovery will feel all the more better for it. Glad to hear you’re still on track! It sounds like you’ve found a nice sweet spot for yourself, for the most part, and that’s perfect.
@Beachy You know, for many people caffeine has a good spot in their lives, so maybe tackling it depends on how detrimental it is for you. It seems to me that moving on to no caffeine could be difficult for you because of the habit you’ve built around it. That first warm drink in the morning had imprinted itself onto your brain. What do you think about moving to a cup of black tea, then to herbal?
@Nordique Thank you for asking. I’ll answer below. Also, is staying under 400mg still being beneficial for you?

Today I still feel pretty bad. The excess sleep I’ve been enjoying has slowly been moving into poor sleep. From my own personal expereiences, this will eventually become pretty bad, even with the OTC sleep medication (which I’m considering boosting just to get over the worst of the insomnia and poor sleep phase). I’m also feeling hungrier as my sickness begins to pass, and I am still tired and achy in a way that is clearly caffeine related. My head continues to throb and I feel unreasonably irritable. I’m feeling a little clearer today, but still very mentally fuzzy. Also still lack of motivation and low mood.

I don’t want my personal experiences to demotivate anyone from quitting caffeine. For some reason, I tend to have very pronounced and extended problems when quitting caffeine while some people have an easier time. I’ve wondered about this and have considered that it could have a connection to some of the other drugs I’ve done in the past and that something has been altered in a way that causes that. Or perhaps it could be that my sensitivity to stimuli (whether internal or external) causes me to perceive my symptoms as being stronger than they are. Of course, we build our lives on perceptions, so then for me it is simply the reality of what I experience.

Regardless of the reasons, I still feel miserable to a point and impatient to begin getting back to my life and moving at full speed.

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It think I already wrote it here. I have severe withdrawal symptoms as well. I remember being sleepy for some weeks and catching up the sleep. These were good symptoms as I now know. Last time I did I could barely sleep and have heavy pain in my lower back and also elsewhere which I normally don’t have. I don’t have pain in my lower back. So, this forest makes me somehow hesitant.
I thank God really, that I didn’t have physical withdrawal symptoms when I quit alcohol. It made it a lot more easy.

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I’m sorry to hear you’re still struggling :pensive:

I hope the side effects pass quickly this time despite your history with caffeine.

Yep, for me 400mg or below seems to be the magic number. I have my preworkout supplement first thing in the morning before I work out; so that is 200mg at about 8am.

Then I have one energy drink around 2pm, which is another 200mg. I don’t get jittery or anxious and I still sleep very well and can fall asleep quickly.

The danger for me comes on my days off work when I get bored and feel tired more easily because I’m not the best at keeping myself occupied. Those are the days when sometimes I will go for a second energy drink, which takes me to 600mg. I tend to only do that once or twice a month and I’m trying to be better about not doing it at all.

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Doing much better today, though still struggling with patchy sleep and mood issues. I don’t really have ‘good days’ but rather ‘good patches’. I will have an hour or several where I feel good, then suddenly I will be extremely tired and need to sit/lay down.

I get about 5 hours of undisturbed sleep thanks to OTC sleep medicine, but then my cat wakes me up for food and after that sleep comes and goes until I finally get up for good. I think the sleep will eventually even out as much as it can until my cat dies (she is 19 and needs a lot of care).

Once I feel like everything has come to some kind of equilibrium, I’ll work on getting off the sleep medicine. Other than that, my appetite is now a raging monster and I’m doing my best to midigate that until it also hopefully calms down.

@anon74766472 while I’m not happy you’ve had bad caffeine withdrawals as well, I am a little glad to know that I’m not just some kind of wuss or something. It’s hard to believe such bad symptoms come from dropping such a commonly accepted substance, but I guess that goes to show that just because it is accepted by society doesn’t mean it can’t have negative effects.

@Nordique Glad to hear things are going well for you. I get what you mean by drinking more caffeine when bored or not as occupied. It sounds like you’re doing good though over all. I’m happy to hear that!

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Thank you!! I’m happy things are going better today for you too :slightly_smiling_face:

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There are several threads on caffeine on this forum that can be found if someone uses the search function; however, I wanted to link some of the posts about caffeine that I think have a lot to offer as far as comments and advice. I may add to this list in the future as well.

@moderators is it possible to get this post pinned at the top of the comments on this thread so it’s easy for people to find?

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Today I had less caffeine than normal. Just one energy drink and about a half a cup of coffee (not at the same time lol).

I can definitely tell the difference in my anxiety and nervousness levels when I have less caffeine.

@Chiron I hope you’re doing well :slightly_smiling_face:

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I had about 3 weeks of caffeine freedom before that little voice started whispering to me. I was slowly on the mend (I have a long period before I get back to normal from quitting caffeine), and then I ran into a time where I was busy and still not sleeping the best, and I thought, “Just for a couple days.”

Famous last words. :laughing:

I did give myself a hard limit of 300mg a day, at the very least so I didn’t automatically shoot up to god knows what. This morning, however, I woke up and I thought, “No more starting today.”

I didn’t sleep well last night, so it’s not like I was well rested. I just thought about how I knew where this was all going, and that I needed to correct course.

I’ve been thinking about how I’ve found caffeine to be such a difficult thing to quit, despite everything else I’ve given up, and I think that maybe there is something within me that still hasn’t quite been resolved. That thing, whatever it is, that fuels my need to reach for something outside of myself.

I suppose that’s something I’ll have to keep trying to figure out, but for now I will endulge my sugar cravings for the next couple days, and try to get more sleep as my body tries to get more energy.

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I just read this fascinating article by Michael Pollan about caffeine as an “invisible addiction.” He talks about many different aspects of our use of caffeine, the history around coffee and tea, and what happens to bodies/minds/sleep patterns. I thought people on this thread might want to check it out!

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Thank you for this great article. I am still using as I know the upcoming withdrawal symptoms and I am scared of them. :scream::expressionless:

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I found it so interesting that all the circadian rhythm researchers he interviewed for this article didn’t use caffeine. I also appreciate that phrasing of “using caffeine” as it reminds us that it is indeed a drug.

I started cutting back a few months ago and have halved my old normal intake. It’s stayed pretty level for a while and I feel less anxious and less likely to get irritable. But I’m going to start making another reduction now. I don’t know if I’ll completely eliminate but I’d like to keep the intake minimal.

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Great article! Thank you for posting it here. :slight_smile:

One part I loved was about how King Charles II tried to outlaw it, but the people simply ignored his decree; and, as such, he discontinued his proclamation as if he was being merciful to the people rather than let a spotlight be put on the truth that he truly has no power if people do not obey him. No outcry, no protests, no angry mobs, just simple and peaceful noncompliance.

This happens today as well, and I wish more people would understand that all power lies with the people. If the people simply ignored laws and other such things that are not to the benefit of the people, that there is no way these very few people who are “in power” or our so called “leaders” could truly do anything about it. It has nothing to do with the so-called “right” or “left”, but rather the people of the world against those who seek to enslave them.

Buuuuuut, on the actual topic of caffeine, there are a lot of good points in there. I think the parts about sleep are especially pertinent. My elderly cat wakes me at all hours of the night–at 3am because she wants food and needs the medicine in it, but then all the other times she gets scared because she can’t “find” me, because I’m not up and moving, so once I wake up, she settles down beside me while licking me, drooling on me, and putting her cold wet nose on me, which makes it hard to go back to sleep. :sweat_smile: :roll_eyes: :sob: I love her so much, but *whyyyyyyy~~~~* :sob: :sob: :sob:

I honestly think this is part of why it’s so hard for me to give up caffeine once and for all. I quit, then go back, quit, then go back. And really caffeine doesn’t make it better because it really does mess up my sleep. I know I sleep better when I don’t use caffeine.

One of the things he said about people in the past finding they could work longer with caffeine is so on point for today. I mean, it does have a lot of negative effects, and yet it is legal and maybe even encouraged. So who benefits in the end for all these people taking in copious amounts of a drug that isn’t actually good for them? We could say the people individually do, but also corporations and businesses benefit when their workers devote more time to their jobs. But at the end of our lives, we’re not going to wish we worked at our jobs more.

I think I may be feeling slightly annoyed toward society as a whole right now. :laughing: I’m sure it will pass.

Like you, I also thought it was interesting that the circadian rhythm researchers he interviewed didn’t use caffeine. I guess when you really understand just how bad something is for you, it makes it easier not to be lured in.

Anyway, good luck in your cutting down! I’m personally on this bumpy road of, some days nothing, other days something, less, then more, etc. I think that part of me that wants to hang on to something chemical is figuratively thrashing around in its last death throes. :sweat_smile: :laughing:

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I’m a little late to the party and just found your post but thanks for posting! Excellent read. That’s wild that it’s included in the DSM-5.

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I keep coming back. I have to admit that I am powerless over caffeine. It sounds stupid. But I am. I fail every time I try to cut down, to replace it with decaf. I would end up drinking more decaf. This morning I already had too much caffeine and I decided to take a small ride out on my bike. We have a strong and cold north wind atm so it wasn’t fun at all. And all of a sudden I related my caffeine intake to the way I feel. I am restless, I feel the need to do something but cannot stick to it, I cannot concentrate on anything which is an awful feeling.

I am so scared of the withdrawal but there is only one way: through. I am glad I can write it down here. I often feel when I mention it that people tend to reply: what? Like the old then there is nothing fun in life anymore. And it puts so much pressure on me. More then alcohol caffeine, a coffer I realized to social events, gatherings for me.

I can only say that I am glad I had no withdrawal symptoms when I got sober alcohol wise. I think it would have been horrible.

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I think it only sounds stupid because using caffeine has become so ubiquitous in the every day life of most people, that you might as well be saying that you are powerless over water. It doesn’t sound stupid to me, of course; but then, I would have to say the same about myself.

Society tends to forget that they are consuming a drug with their morning joe, and that all drugs change the homeostasis of the body and mind, even if it is slightly, and when homeostasis is disrupted, it can be a little rough to return it the original neutral. And, of course, caffeine is “harmless”, so it doesn’t have the same stigma as going out to a bar for drinks, or drinking too much of it.

If you really sit back and think about it… We live in a pretty strange society.

Keep us updated on how you’re doing. Have you already begun? If so, how are you today?

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No, not yet. Think I will start on Wednesday. I really cannot put my mind around it. It is really like in my active alcohol addiction. And it is so much with other things as well. I am a big routine person. And I rarely change things. Sounds boring. But it gives me stability that I lack somewhere else.

I remember how unimaginable it was some years ago to not sit at home watching TV and drinking a bottle of wine. It was not only unimaginable, it was impossible. And with this I feel the same. Ahhhhh :expressionless::roll_eyes:

And the worst is that people won’t support me due to the stated reasons. I’ll keep you informed.

How are you going?

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I get what you’re saying about routine. I used to feel like I should be someone that is always able to pick up and go at any time, and that there was something wrong with me if I couldn’t, but now I get that routine works best for me, and I need to respect that. I think routine will help you stick to things too, once you get the ball rolling, but starting can be hard for sure.

They don’t call it a ‘habit’ for nothing.

I wish you were able to get the support you need, but I know you can do this anyway. You’ve kicked the booze bug, you can squash the caffeine critter too.

I had a fall back myself. I did well for a while, but life happened; and, in all honesty, it is so hard to stick with it, when my ******* cat keeps waking me up at all hours of the night. I know it sounds a little unkind, given that she’s an old lady who needs me, and of course I love her to death, but I go about my days in complete exhaustion sometimes because I can’t get the sleep I need. I’ve been trying to keep my intake low (for me), but some days it’s either decay into a puddle of tears from my own self pity, or grab a can of something that is likely eating my insides. :woman_shrugging: :sob:

I am actively trying to not have any on some days, or at least not popping open that next can or bottle.

When my little kitty finally passes away, I will be devastated to my core, but I will also probably sleep for a week straight. :neutral_face:

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Minus one night. I am still thinking of my mindset as I am struggling with this one atm. I am very scared of the withdrawal symptoms.
Okay, I think I found one that is appropriate. I can do this. I did it twice and I can do it again.

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You can do this! One moment at a time.

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I failed. Fuck it. I will cut down and sleep on the weekend. It’s not or hardly possible in the office staring at the papers and screen all day. Damn me.

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