A little article that covers some aspects of kicking coffee and having caffeine withdrawals, as well as options for alternatives in case anyone is interested: https://www.breakfastcriminals.com/how-to-stop-drinking-coffee/
“When people ask me if I drink coffee, I say I don’t do hard drugs.” – Dr. Andrew Weil
As I start to feel less exhausted and meh, I’m playing with the idea of another step down from where I’m at with 300mg, but I also know that I have a tendency to get a little too intense about everything I do. Finding the balance between too much and not enough has always been difficult for me.
When I get off caffeine, I get sugar cravings and I’m hungry more often. I midigate that by trying to fix my wrecked sleeping schedule at the same time, which then helps counter the cravings all around. Right now it can take up to two hours before I feel human, though it’s getting better.
For me, personally, I try to find weeks to cut back or cut off the caffeine where I don’t have to be 100%, because that is important to me–to be productive, to use my time wisely, to not show anyone how much I might be suffering and not to be too miserable to be around.
The habits of a ‘functional addict’ at work.
This week was not a great week for running on less than optimal, but next week will be better and part of me mentally toys with simply going all the way, but I know I won’t. I’ll go down to 150mg, and then from there I think I will go down to 0.
Quitting caffeine is like a juggling act for me.
Juggle the sleep habit change. Juggle the food intake. Juggle the energy output. Juggle my interpersonal relationships. Juggle my responsibilities. Juggle the physical suffering and the emotional lows.
I’m aware of how all of these things combine to give me excuses to stay with status quo. They always have and caffeine is no different. I know I have to provide myself with the best environment for success. So… 150. Maybe starting tomorrow or maybe Sunday.
Thanks for keeping us posted!
I’m interested to see how you feel when you go down to 150mg a day. The last few weeks I’ve been around 300mg a day or slightly less, so I’m curious to see how much of a change going below that can have! Granted, everyone is different.
Keep up all the hard work 
Thanks. From past experience, it’s just more of the same; although, with energy drinks you’re also detoxing from the extra crap in it, and the one I’m hooked on right now is a brand I only started drinking this year, so it could have a different effect.
I was also going to reply to a comment you made on an earlier post, but the week has been a little hectic, so I’ll do it here.
I’ve spent a rediculous amount of money on my teeth too and I’ve learned through experience that energy drinks may not stain the teeth like coffee, but they do eat away at the enamel. I had the craziest experience where I had a permanent retainer reattached several months ago, and I had some crazy issues (long story) that led me to believe that the certain energy drink I was currently pounding was eating away at the newly laid dental cement and I was having a reaction to it.
I try to drink out of the can through a straw now. 
But my teeth are definitely one of the reasons I have for quitting in general.
Today will not be the day to take the next step. I did my part, went to bed within the appointed hour, but my 19 year old cat is not fond of change and has taken to crying loudly in my face between 1-2am. I wasn’t able to get back to sleep until about 4:30, then she woke me up again around 6. I could make the decision to sleep in, but I dutifully got up to keep to my goal.
Life is made of choices. That’s it. Cause and effect. The cause of my current suffering, my current effect, are previous choices. I need a good night sleep to take my next step down. I know myself well enough that to not do that is to set myself up for failure.
I’ve read in some places that some people who quit caffeine for good express that they never feel quite as good as they did when they used caffeine. It’s an interesting notion and I would love to see someone do studies on this, on how caffeine could possibly rewire something in the brain to produce that.
Or, prehaps, it isn’t physical at all, but a memory that people hold on to of when caffeine worked for them. I think all addicts have points where they look back on the “good” memories of their drug. I wonder if that could be a factor.
However, the number of stories I’ve read online over time have talked about how much happier they are without this ubiquitously accepted psychoactive drug. Better sleep. Better energy. Not a slave to something else.
Freedom.
There are a lot of reasons to stop using caffeine, I think, but freedom is a primary one for me. I hate feeling dependant on anything. I hate being in debt in any shape or form. And isn’t that what addiction is? A loan we take out on the future? A loan on pleasure, on energy, on escaping?
I’d be interested in reading other peoples’ reasons for why they might want to cut down or quit caffeine. Or, maybe you don’t want to. I’d like to read that too if anyone wanted to share.
That is so funny because I was actually just at the dentist for a cleaning and he told me that I have a couple of places where the enamel is wearing off… and I can tell because it’s definitely sensitive. Guess we just can’t win lol
I feel you! I’ve spent a lot of time and money on my teeth because they’ve been such a pain all my life. Coffee, tea, energy drinks… Can’t win! 
My dentist told me that if I was going to drink the energy drinks, then try not to sip on them all day–which I used to do all day every day.
And juggling expectations and changes in mood.
I dunno. The less caffeine I’ve had over the years, the more level I feel. But also level feels weird when you’re used to trying to throttle things all the time.
Level is nice too though, just… Different?
Likewise for kicking booze. Some people say, as did I, I feel so bored or blah or whatever after a little while.
But congratulations! That’s what not running on anxiety feels like. It’s called tranquility. 
Ah, caffeine.
I used to take around 480mg, be awake for 32 hours, then sleep 14 hours.
I eventually did cold turkey. You’ll be tired for like 2 days and after some time you’ll be able to wake up properly without caffeine again.
It’s safe to say I went from triple espresso to no espresso at all. Only when I manage to sleep less than 6 hours and I have a very long work day coming up, which is very rare since I time my amount of sleep very well.
I must say it’s fun to flex with being so energetic in the morning, seeing all the coffeeheads wake up late and groggy in my house
@Eke Yes definitely. Level is so calming and peaceful. Like you said, “tranquility”. I don’t personally feel anxious on caffeine, but there’s a different feeling to my daily life. Like I’m more alert and ready to spring in such a way that nature didn’t intend to be felt over long periods of time.
Caffeine actually tends to be an amazing mood lifter for me, so quitting puts me in a depressed and demotivated funk for a while until my moods level out. But I can tell it’s almost an unnaturally elevated state for me. So there’s the trade off, and I more often now I think that maybe having that level feeling, while not as “exciting”, is really the best thing to have.
That’s awesome that you have such a smooth and quick transition back to normal. I kind of envy you! It takes about 7-10 days for me to adjust when I reduce or cold turkey. Though that could be because I’ve taken in a lot more than you on a regular basis. 
Worst caffeine reduction decision I ever made was trying to cold turkey off about 1200mg a day. Yeah, that didn’t last.
I bet it is! How long ago did you get off caffeine? What were your reasons for doing it?
I haven’t been doing large amounts for about half a year I think. Feels good.
I did it cause it ate my wallet, and I could barely get outta bed everyday without my caffeine shot. Though I must say, I wouldn’t be able to handle more than 500mg’s - which I think is already impressive
Tomorrow is the day. I’m eying it balefully because I’m still not sleeping well. This is likely due to my unwise decision to also drop out some medication. Nothing I was abusing, or would be able to even, just decided that perhaps I can go without now, or I can get by.
So I got 4 hours of sleep last night and there are errands to run today in order that I may be tired and irritable alone tomorrow when I cut my caffeine intake by half.
One of the things that holds me back is that I know I’ll be more hungry. I’ll crave sugar like no tomorrow. This is a delicate subject for me as I struggled with my weight through childhood, adolescent, and off and on in adulthood. I’ve lost a lot of weight in my life, and while I’ve kept it off (mostly) for a long time, it took many years to finally change the way I felt about myself and how I saw myself in the mirror.
Caffeine has proved to be a “wonderful” substitute for food in some ways. But it hasn’t been healthy. And I used to make healthier choices. At least, that’s how I see it. In another life. I’m still healthy, but the obsessive drive to focus on being healthy faded away once I addressed the underlying fears and hurts that motivated me in that way.
Maybe, caffeine is a crutch for me. I think it could be. The promise of energy without eating anything. Part of a mindset of getting to the goal, no matter what the cost, I suppose.
I don’t know. Just some thoughts from a very tired mind.
I have been following your conversations here and am now determined to give it another try. This week beginning from tomorrow 1 cup of coffee /day then none. I did it several times. The first time I did, it was a wonderful experience. I slept like dead for 2 weeks and felt so good afterwards. Waking up and falling asleep natural. Being awake and in good energy throughout the day. The other time I did, I suffered, I had severe back pain and felt like a wreck, slept like crap. This was last November.
So here I am. 
It’ll be so hard. I can do it.
This is great! I hope you have another positive experience this time around. Please keep us updated on how it goes for you. I know you can do it. You can do anything you put your mind to. I’m cheering for you on this end of the Internet.
I’m at two weeks of cutting back on caffeine. I mostly do tea now and if I do have coffee it’s just half a cup and that’s it, but I’ve only done that probably four times in the last two weeks. I really feel the difference, just less stressed and much happier. No crashes. It’s kind of crazy that I was just drinking so much coffee and now I’m not. I didn’t even realize how much it was effecting me, and I let it go on because it felt like it was all I had left for a chemically induced altered state after giving up alcohol and weed. But of course, it wasn’t serving me either… I feel much more balanced now 
I can do it. But as you said @Chiron I have to pick the time wisely. In two two weeks I’ll have 2 weeks off, nothing to concentrate on, chilling, being at home. This will be the right time. I am not drinking tons, two or three cups a day, mostly before noon. I want to do it. I dread it bc of the withdrawal symptoms. I am a chicken
@MagicILY That’s awesome. It’s kind of crazy how much of a difference caffeine can actually make in our lives and in some ways we don’t even think about it being a drug that we might want to stay away from. You’re doing amazing. I’m so happy for you and all the efforts you’ve been putting into yourself overall.
@anon74766472 That sounds like the perfect time to do it. Getting off caffeine can be miserable and setting yourself up for success is important. I like it. I’m a chicken too! No shaming from me! I personally hate feeling bad, so I absolutely get it.
Today I cut down by 1/4. I’ll either do that for 2 or 4 days, then go down the other 1/4. I decided to take it a little easy on myself. Honestly it’s because I have a lot of things to catch up on, and I don’t want to be completely useless.
I slept very well last night so the reduction isn’t so bad. I do feel anxious and I have the munchies. Which in turn makes me feel more anxious. Normally, I’d take this out by giving myself a good hard workout, scrubbing the house, or working in the garden (or all three), but I’ve been dealing with some serious lower back pain this week that prevents me from doing all of that.
I’ve been having very strong caffeine cravings though. Yesterday and today. Yesterday was really hard, to be honest. Yesterday I stepped back my progress by having 2 energy drinks, but I also knew that I could bounce back from that today. The thing is that with the reduction in caffeine, the second can was actually very effective, and I wanted another one–badly.
You know, that hike in energy and mood, the reason why it grips me so much. It was hard to resist, but I did.
When it comes to energy drink reduction, I am very meticulous. Actually, in general I can be that way. This is how I work it:
I divide the weight, then weigh out what I want to cut out. In this case, it was 118g of energy drink. I put a lid on it and stick it in the fridge. Tomorrow, I’ll do the same thing. If I decide to reduce after that, then I’ll just drink the two containers of energy drink; however, if I decide to go out two more days, then I’ll weigh another 118g and then the next day after that I’ll have the three containers.
This works very well for me, though I know it might not work well for others. I like to know exactly what I’m taking in and reducing. I like the order and it gives me a sense of looking at it in a subjective matter. Like I’m my own science experiment. But on the upside, I have done this before, and I know how my body will react because I’ve done it in the past with such precision.
So! What about you guys? What kind of method have you followed, will follow, or are thinking about that would work/works for you?
I keep coming back to this thread because I think it’s trying to tell me something…
Aagh the caffeine pills. I think tomorrow I will try to cut back from 2 a day to just 1 (2 cups of coffee)
