Quitting Caffeine

**Dogmama** · 10-04-2008, 04:15 PM

It's time. It makes my hot flashes turn into forest fires. I get buzzed & then grumpy & then really sleepy. I don't drink a lot of caffeine. I mix my coffee 50/50. BUT, I still get the horrid headache, the depression & fatigue when I start cutting back. Sometimes I think I should just go cold turkey & get it over with. I've heard the vitamin C flushes it from your system....?

Any tips or tricks? Besides hiding the sharp instruments? Cold turkey or slow? My problem with slow is that it prolongs the agony. I don't suffer well.

**michelem** · 10-04-2008, 04:42 PM

Oh, I feel for you! I went cold turkey and felt like you-know-what for about 2 weeks. The fact that I cold-turkeyed sugar at the same time probably didn't help how I felt during the withdrawal time, BUT, I feel SO MUCH BETTER now that I am off the caffeine and sugar. It really was worth it all.

Good luck to you!

P.S Caffeine cravings went away rather quickly as compared to the sugar cravings. I still get sugar cravings from time to time. Now that Halloween candy is on display, I really want candy corn. Pretty disgusting, huh?

**berkeley** · 10-04-2008, 04:43 PM

I've been off caffeine for 2 years now, after being a 2-3 cup in the morning kinda gal.

The trick for me was cutting down slowly, and replacing that morning cup o' joe with something else hot and tasty. For a long while I still needed SOMETHING in my hand to drink in the morning, even though the caffeine part was kicked.

For me, I started with going to 50/50 decaf. Then to tea for a few weeks, then to green tea.... and then to decaf.

I have done the cold turkey thing with caffeine before, and it HURTS. My head would feel like it was going to explode and I became totally non-functional. So for me, cutting back was the best way.

**shootingstar** · 10-04-2008, 05:01 PM

Hope you pull through this one, Dogmama. Perhaps switching to herbal teas?

I can't be of much help since I still like my caffeine coffee( at work) and tea at home (due to cost of coffee) but without sugar in past 1/4 century. But always with abit of milk. I just get my sugar in other food sources. Need to cut down here.

**michelem** · 10-04-2008, 05:16 PM

Oh, yes, I really like herbal teas at work (it's cold year-round in my office, so I HAVE to drink hot stuff while there or I'll freeze). Otherwise, I drink lots of water and add a little bit of organic non-sweetened lemon juice and stevia for flavor.

**Red Rock** · 10-04-2008, 05:32 PM

I wish you luck in cutting out the caffeine.

When my first husband died, I had to completely stop drinking coffee due to stress and time. I was having rapid heartbeats as I was going up stairs. It was so bad that was what convinced me to stop. I think I was only doing about one cup a day which is not a whole lot. So going cold turkey did not bother me much.

Instead I picked up tea. I still have coffee in the house but it is 50/50 decaf and real stuff. The only time I allow myself to drink any is on Sunday. Otherwise, I have tea, both black and green as well as real and decaf. I also have a stash of herbals too. So between the combonation of everything, there is something that will suit my fancy when I am needing something to drink. I also have spiced cider and hot chocolate. So the bases are really covered.

I hope this helps. I did not have any adverse affects from not drinking coffee.

Red Rock

**Mr. Bloom** · 10-04-2008, 06:15 PM

I've cut back...but can't cut it out. There's some stuff on the Health section.

I've started drinking diluted fruit juices instead...and that helps. For me, it's the insomnia that results from cutting out the caffeine that's a killer. I've not gotten the headaches this time.

Good Luck

**vinbek** · 10-05-2008, 09:06 AM

I quit cold turkey because my doctor told me I had fibroids and caffeine enables them to grow faster. I drink decaf coffee and teas. Its probably been about 10 years now. I also drink diet drinks, when I have one, that are caffeine free. But you know, chocolate has caffeine and I haven't given that up yet. Probably never will....

**violette** · 10-06-2008, 05:52 AM

Last year, I noticed that I couldn't open bottles because my joints hurt so bad, guess what... it was the coffee, so as soon as I started on decaf, the pain was gone, but the headaches were bad in the morning and I couldn't stay awake so I went 50/50. I was a bit of an addict, 5-6 cups a day and I'm talking "Starbucks-strong" coffee.

**tulip** · 10-06-2008, 04:28 PM

I gave up coffee two years ago. It was the best thing I ever did for my health (well, that and leaving a dying marriage and quitting a dead job, but I digress).

I started drinking coffee at age four--yep, 4 years old. It's what my family did--they gave kids cafe au lait. It's a Cajun thing. Mostly milk, but enough coffee for me to really enjoy it. By the time I was in high school I was drinking coffee (alot stronger) every morning. In college, morning and afternoon. That was decades ago, by the way. I had tried to quit before, with miserable results. Headaches, fatigue, irritability...

Then I just lost my taste for it--plain and simple. I just didn't want it anymore; it didn't taste good. I was going through some serious stuff in my marriage and some extreme self reflection. All that might or might not have anything to do with my lost need for caffeine. I also lost alot of weight - 20 lbs-- because I stopped having my 1000 calories before work (that's a Starbuck's double grande latte and a slice of coffee cake or a muffin--which are really dessert in disguise).

I drink tea now. One cup of Irish Breakfast in the morning with milk and sugar. It's delightful.

One thing that may help is something that smokers use to stop smoking. That is, if you are going to have coffee, just have coffee. Don't read the paper, or drive, or chat on the phone while drinking your coffee. Just concentrate solely on the coffee. You may find that all by itself it's not that great. Maybe.

**RoadRaven** · 10-10-2008, 10:03 AM

Silly question... why drink decaf - isn't the caffeine "bleached" out of it??? Why not just have something else completely?

Regarding drinfking caffeine (not decaf) coffee, I have "slpurges" of coffee drinking, but when I have a specific race, or set of races coming up, I stop drinking anything with caffiene in it at least two weeks out.

Its a legal performance enhancer, so I have a cup of java an hour or so before the event begins.

(A couple of our local boys who are international/semi-pro racers take flat coke or mountain dew in their water bottles so they keep getting caffiene and sugar hits on their longer rides. They prefer that to all the "special" sports drinks.

**Nokomis** · 10-10-2008, 11:01 AM

Very, Very slowly - transitioning tablespoons per day in your mix between caf- and decaf. Give it a week or 10 days to change over to decaf, then replace decaf coffee with teas. If you get the headache, have just a little bit of caffeine, and keep working down.

or

Cold Turkey. It'll hurt bad for 2-4 days, but then you're done.

I've done both, but find I do best with just a little bit of coffee, and I enjoy it, just need to keep from over doing it. I've also found quitting sugar is by far more painful than this.

You can do it!

**sfa** · 10-10-2008, 11:06 AM

Slowly! I went cold turkey after a period of heavy caffeine use and it was hell. Seven weeks of daily, excruciating headaches. Just awful.

The second time I cut out caffeine I did it more gradually (and wasn't such a heavy user to start at that point) and it was much more bearable. I had about a week of muzziness as my body adjusted, but none of the awful pain.

Sarah

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