3 ms·

Ask HN: Stop drinking coffee

1 points by bjourne 8y ago

I want to know if there is anyone in the HN crowd that is in my position and has done it? I drink about 0.7-0.9 l per day and has done so for decades. While I haven't noticed any harmful effects (well.. except for being a night owl but I have always ascribed that to my personality type), it costs money and I'm dependent on it. Without having any in the morning, I can't think straight, get irritable and so on. Has anyone been in my position and experimented with going cold turkey for a month or so? What effects did you notice? Did you return to coffee?

ddelt 8y ago
I noticed a few things. 1) My digestion improved after about a week. But during that week, I became really frustrated that my typical 'elimination' time completely changed i.e. I was used to going to the bathroom in the morning, after coffee, but now found myself having to go in the evenings. 2) My productivity took a massive nose-dive until I got used to not drinking coffee, and then, despite all of the blogs I read on the subject, it did NOT return to "coffee-baseline". I no longer felt like there was a funk, but I also was clearly not performing at the same level as while I was drinking coffee. 3) I noticed I started getting depression like symptoms after I had completely weaned off of it. I don't think this would happen to everyone, but I think one of the primary reasons I was drawn to coffee in the first place was that it seems to have an anti-depressant effect on me when I drink enough of it (really any caffeine/stimulant does this though) 4) I primarily drink coffee during the first 8 hours of my day, so after a month of cold-turkey, I found that I had an intense time trying to stay awake around lunch time, with a second-wind of energy returning to me around 2PM. I found that I felt more energetic in the last 4 hours of my day prior to bedtime. Because of this, I found it more difficult to get to sleep, because I had grown accustomed to that exhausted feeling I would get near the tail end of the day, so adhering to a set bedtime was a challenge. 5) Probably the biggest gain was a massive boost in right-brained thinking. What I mean by that is, while drinking coffee, very clearly defined, left-brained tasks (like researching a problem, coding, writing something down, exercise, etc) were what I preferred to do. But after eliminating coffee for a while, I found that I was thinking a lot more creatively about things, and daydreaming more. Coming up with unique ideas for things I'd like to do/make. The problem with this was that I no longer felt the drive/motivation, or the mental acuity to actually do them. I felt like I could have better conversations with people, and was friendlier overall. I just basically wanted to draw pictures and hang out with my friends all the time. I enjoyed lunch more and noticed the subtleties in food a lot more. There were a lot more very small effects. Ultimately I returned to coffee/caffeine. If I could work in an industry where I could maintain the same standard of living but could rely on purely physical strength and skill, rather than mental information work, I'd probably eliminate stimulants altogether, and be healthier for it. I just find that to be competitive and basically maintain my job, I need the stimulants as a crutch, because there are so many more people who are better at development and naturally interested/motivated in it more than me.
- bjourne 8y ago
  Thank you for your very interesting story! I'm in the opposite boat as you are - very strong on left-brain tasks but probably right-brain deficient. Your experiences suggest that I probably should try quitting.
_Schizotypy 8y ago
Quitting a substance which you are physically dependant on is difficult, the easiest way for caffeine at least would be to start by restricting yourself to 1 cup in the morning for a month or so. You can then start making this one cup weaker and weaker. This should minimize the negative effects of withdrawal.

1 points by bjourne 8y ago

ddelt 8y ago

I noticed a few things. 1) My digestion improved after about a week. But during that week, I became really frustrated that my typical 'elimination' time completely changed i.e. I was used to going to the bathroom in the morning, after coffee, but now found myself having to go in the evenings. 2) My productivity took a massive nose-dive until I got used to not drinking coffee, and then, despite all of the blogs I read on the subject, it did NOT return to "coffee-baseline". I no longer felt like there was a funk, but I also was clearly not performing at the same level as while I was drinking coffee. 3) I noticed I started getting depression like symptoms after I had completely weaned off of it. I don't think this would happen to everyone, but I think one of the primary reasons I was drawn to coffee in the first place was that it seems to have an anti-depressant effect on me when I drink enough of it (really any caffeine/stimulant does this though) 4) I primarily drink coffee during the first 8 hours of my day, so after a month of cold-turkey, I found that I had an intense time trying to stay awake around lunch time, with a second-wind of energy returning to me around 2PM. I found that I felt more energetic in the last 4 hours of my day prior to bedtime. Because of this, I found it more difficult to get to sleep, because I had grown accustomed to that exhausted feeling I would get near the tail end of the day, so adhering to a set bedtime was a challenge. 5) Probably the biggest gain was a massive boost in right-brained thinking. What I mean by that is, while drinking coffee, very clearly defined, left-brained tasks (like researching a problem, coding, writing something down, exercise, etc) were what I preferred to do. But after eliminating coffee for a while, I found that I was thinking a lot more creatively about things, and daydreaming more. Coming up with unique ideas for things I'd like to do/make. The problem with this was that I no longer felt the drive/motivation, or the mental acuity to actually do them. I felt like I could have better conversations with people, and was friendlier overall. I just basically wanted to draw pictures and hang out with my friends all the time. I enjoyed lunch more and noticed the subtleties in food a lot more. There were a lot more very small effects. Ultimately I returned to coffee/caffeine. If I could work in an industry where I could maintain the same standard of living but could rely on purely physical strength and skill, rather than mental information work, I'd probably eliminate stimulants altogether, and be healthier for it. I just find that to be competitive and basically maintain my job, I need the stimulants as a crutch, because there are so many more people who are better at development and naturally interested/motivated in it more than me.

bjourne 8y ago
Thank you for your very interesting story! I'm in the opposite boat as you are - very strong on left-brain tasks but probably right-brain deficient. Your experiences suggest that I probably should try quitting.

_Schizotypy 8y ago

Quitting a substance which you are physically dependant on is difficult, the easiest way for caffeine at least would be to start by restricting yourself to 1 cup in the morning for a month or so. You can then start making this one cup weaker and weaker. This should minimize the negative effects of withdrawal.