How to quit caffeine.

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How many caffeinated drinks do you drink everyday?

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Ophelia Jones

Ophelia Jones

kiwifarms.net
Joined
Apr 11, 2021
So, I drink anywhere from 4-6 cups of coffee a day mostly with skim milk. I'm pretty sure thats not healthy because I can only sleep for 5-6 hours at night.
I've tried drinking decaf and tea but it feels like my brain craves the caffeine specifically, so i get grumpy in the evening if I don't load up on coffee in the morning. It feels terrible because it's like a physical addiction and makes me feel like a junkie.

Has anyone else tried quitting caffeine? If so what was your strategy?
 
You ween off it and/or replace it. The addiction goes away after about a week if you go cold turkey.
I've tried drinking decaf and tea but it feels like my brain craves the caffeine specifically
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I don't think there is a painless way to avoid that.

energy drinks -> yerba mate -> tea ->green tea ->decaf tea
 
Make a conscious effort to not buy it when you go to the shops. If it's not in your house, you wont use it.

That's what I do with lots of stuff, alcohol, caffeine, junk food, dead hookers etc
 
You know, there was a time where I actually managed to quit it all. But then I was back on my bullshit full force. Coffee, tea, energy drinks, caffeine pills. In the off chance that I over did it in kickboxing or kettlebell exercises, even my pain relievers had caffeine in them.

Kicking caffeine is very much so a life style change and not just a diet change. Honestly, switching to tea is not pleasant but if you condition yourself into liking it, you might find yourself enjoying it unironically.
Neigh said:
energy drinks -> yerba mate -> tea ->green tea ->decaf tea
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This is honestly a pretty reasonable path.

Do you by any chance, use coffee as sort of a makeshift anti-depressant and mood stabilizer? If that is the case, you will notice that you will be going through a catty period. But honestly, there will come a time where you normalize a bit. Caffeine is one of the most used and abused stimulants out there. If you can cut back to even a cup of coffee a day, that would be much better for you. Honestly, if you need to be productive and caffeine is your productivity-life hack, a caffeine holiday and gradual return to a sensible amount will actually work in your benefit.

Good luck. It can and probably will be a miserable experience. Also, avoid "coffee culture" people. They'll just tell you that coffee is "better than meth" and will just further normalize drinking an entire pot in a day.

Shit, are you dehydrated all the time too? Honestly, getting into the habit of just drinking copious amounts of water and changing your socks daily are just little things that sort of nudge you to "being your better self". If you have some fancy Ninja-mega dick coffee maker, might be worth unplugging it and downgrading to something way shitter too, to discourage programming a machine to brew a pot each morning, etc etc. So much of it is in your routine and habits. Climb out of the rut, rather than doubling down and enforcing it into a trench.
 
Lady Reines said:
Do you by any chance, use coffee as sort of a makeshift anti-depressant and mood stabilizer?
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Nah, at least i don't think so. I've never been severely depressed or anything. I just get super low energy and sluggish. Thinking about it, it's probably because my brain is dependent on it. Yeah dehydration is a big problem too. Recently though, I've replaced 2-3 morning coffees with a protein smoothie with a teaspoon of coffee powder in it and after that I only drink 2 cups of tea (One in the afternoon and one in the evening). Soon, I wanna replace the one in the evening with mint tea (which apparently has less caffeine).
 
Ophelia Jones said:
Nah, at least i don't think so. I've never been severely depressed or anything. I just get super low energy and sluggish. Thinking about it, it's probably because my brain is dependent on it. Yeah dehydration is a big problem too. Recently though, I've replaced 2-3 morning coffees with a protein smoothie with a teaspoon of coffee powder in it and after that I only drink 2 cups of tea (One in the afternoon and one in the evening). Soon, I wanna replace the one in the evening with mint tea (which apparently has less caffeine).
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That is good at least. For some people, coffee addiction starts as an ersatz anti-depressant and the boosted energy level is just a bonus. So at least its not an emotional dependence ontop of a pseudo-physical one.

Sounds like you're doing much better, honestly. I didn't realize this thread was already some weeks old.

Goes without saying, certain teas as a sleep aid and good, reasonable amount of sleep can really do wonders. Caffeine was once such a huge part of my life, that I'd happily forgo sleep to get ahold of some more.
 
Here's how.

First week when you drink your morning coffee, pour out a tenth of it and replace it with whiskey.
Second week pour out a third and replace it with whiskey.
Third week half.
Fourth week three quarters.
After that go 100% whiskey.
 
Coffee addiction can be solved with alcohol and vice versa. However, the only way to kick both of them is death.
 
I drink coffee once in a blue moon. Water is key gentlemen.
 
Lady Reines said:
Do you by any chance, use coffee as sort of a makeshift anti-depressant and mood stabilizer?
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Clinical depressant here and anxiety sufferer here - I'll most emphatically state that I do, because walking around under a constant mental fog sucks. For as long as I can remember, I've never experienced "shakes" or excessive irritability, but that's most likely just due to altered neurochemistry.
 
If you're sluggish in the morning then try increasing fats and reducing sugars in your diet. The goal is to stabilize energy levels and reduce sugar crashes/highs. If you manage to maintain a constant energy level then you eliminate the dependency on coffee and will be able to quit more easily. Try whole milk or cream instead of skim milk while you ween off of coffee.
 
Or could do on keto, which should keep energy levels high without caffeine, or at least let you switch to tea easier.
 
Anonymus Fluhre said:
Why would you want to stop drinking caffeine? It's the life's blood of the working class and insomniacs.
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Kind of funny how people push coffee addiction both for dating and for work-related smalltalk. Say you enjoy smoothies and water and you're stamped a psycho.
 
If you drink caffeine regularly over time, the brain build tolerance for it. Neurons or some shit, and then you need more caffeine to get the same kick.

I would recommend cold turkey when you got a week off, because you will feel like shit.
 
I use coffee merely as a kickstarter. Essentially just 1 cup immediately after waking and then 1 cup before the gym.

It's moreso a habit than an addiction. I've had days where I haven't had a cup and didn't realise until the next morning with that caffeine withdrawal effect of mad headaches.

I'd say caffeine isn't that bad if you're not consuming more than 200mg a day (~2-3 solid strength coffees). Above that and you're depriving yourself of the ability to max out on caffeine when you really need to.
 
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