5 ms·

I have always hated coffee so I've previously had some kind of energy drink in the morning for weeks at a time. Those suckers are bizarrely addictive. It's on

by tombert 2mo ago

I have always hated coffee so I've previously had some kind of energy drink in the morning for weeks at a time. Those suckers are bizarrely addictive. It's one thing to have one shortly after you wake up, but I found myself craving them later and later in the day, and of course that makes it harder to sleep...which makes me more likely to have energy drinks the next day. I stopped the daily consumption when I realized I was having around 800mg of caffeine a day, which couldn't possibly be good for me. I quit energy drinks cold turkey and just did Diet Coke, which I cut off at 2pm; even with that weening off I still got headaches and felt miserable for three days. I will still occasionally consume an energy drink if I'm traveling and I need to wake up super early, but thankfully these are very outlier events.

layer8 2mo ago
I mean, you could say the same thing about coffee.
- tomjakubowski 2mo ago
  Drip coffee has ~40-50% more caffeine per 8oz serving than Red Bull (about 90-100mg vs 65mg). The nice thing about coffee is that the mouth-puckering tannins make it harder to absolutely pound them, like one can do easily with cans of Red Bull.
  - neutronicus 2mo ago
    Yeah, the real problem with Red Bull is that it's caffeine-spiked Gatorade. So you're drinking to satisfy cravings but also just because you're thirsty.
  - quickthrowman 2mo ago
    A 12 oz can of Celsius has 200mg of caffeine.
- munk-a 2mo ago
  You could but you'd be quite disingenuous if you did considering that coffee delivers caffeine without a bunch of added sugar.
  - tombert 2mo ago
    I was drinking the sugar free energy drinks, so I wasn't getting a ton of sugar. Still not saying it's healthy but it wasn't because of too much sugar.
  - layer8 2mo ago
    Sugar-free energy drinks aren’t rare (at least here in Europe), and people are putting fat and sugar in their coffee as well.
  - presbyterian 2mo ago
    Sugar free/low sugar energy drinks are really common, and most coffee drinkers I know are mixing in sugar or creamer or something in their coffee, so I don't think they're that different. Personally, as someone who is super sensitive to bitterness, coffee has never worked for me, so if I need a caffeine boost, I go for a sugar free Red Bull or a white Monster
- tombert 2mo ago
  Probably. As I said, I've always hated coffee so I've never really had any desire to consume large quantities of it, so I can't speak to that. I will say, though, energy drinks do become a relatively expensive addiction. A Monster energy drink can easily cost 3-4 dollars, so if I had three of those a day we are talking $10+ of cost. If you get off brands they're cheaper, but even still I think they're overpriced. I know it's a meme that people pay like $6 for a coffee at Starbucks, but I think if you buy the coffee beans yourself or instant coffee it's relatively cheap.
  - layer8 2mo ago
    $3-4 is a lot. They are 0.99 € here (tax included).
    - deleted 2mo ago
      [deleted]
    - tombert 2mo ago
      It very much depends on the brand. I was initially buying the Monster drinks at a local gas station where I believe they were $3.25. Eventually I transitioned to the Aldi brand which was I think around $1.
      - layer8 2mo ago
        I meant specifically the Monster drinks. Red Bull for example is closer to 2 € here. The cheapest Aldi energy drinks are 0.29 €.
        tombert 2mo ago
        You pay a significant markup getting it at gas stations, but looking at a Monster on Walmart.com, it's still like $2.68. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monster-Energy-Zero-Ultra-Energy-Drink-16-fl-oz/36716922?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1102&from=/search https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monster-Energy-Zero-Ultra-Energy-... I guess it's cheaper in Europe.
- neutronicus 2mo ago
  As a coffee drinker the "bizarrely addictive" comment does not resonate with me at all. I don't really have trouble keeping myself to, like, 1.2 coffees a day. I can't imagine drinking 6-7 coffees in a day to get to 800 mg caffeine. Unless you add ice or sweetener it's bitter and hot, so it's a lot harder to slide down the slippery slope of just drinking it whenever you're thirsty and simultaneously getting addicted to the caffeine and the sugar. To say nothing of whatever else is in the energy drinks. Although I guess plenty of people who drive a lot do this with the sugary Starbucks drinks in the giant mugs.
  - layer8 2mo ago
    I don't particularly like coffee, so it's not addictive for me as well. But neither are the energy drinks that I actually like. Conversely, there are people heavily addicted to coffee, whether you want to call that "bizzarely" or not. So, we can haggle over details, but overall I don't see a dramatic qualitative difference.
  - bitwize 2mo ago
    Coffee is also slightly diuretic, so it's not a "drink to quench your thirst" drink, at least not to me. Water (plain or fizzy/flavored), milk, diet sodas, etc. fill that niche.
neutronicus 2mo ago
I swore off energy drinks in high school after someone brought a case of them on the bus to a football game and I drank one and got horrible diarrhea and had to shit in the woods at halftime.
- unknown_user_84 2mo ago
  dude, don't even get me started on those bang energy drinks. I don't know what they put in them but monsters do not make me run to the bathroom like those things do. it might be a caffeine threshold thing I don't know. monsters have about 180 mg of caffeine bang drinks have I think 300 mg. the bang drinks even used to have creatine in them which would actually make you sick if you didn't have anything to eat around the time you drank it. they have reformulated. so wouldn't it surprise me if the bang people were putting some weird stuff in there that was basically acting as a laxative. I have no idea.
  - opan 2mo ago
    Both Bang and Monster contain artificial sweeteners, unlike Red Bull. Maybe that could be what upset your stomach.
  - sellmesoap 2mo ago
    Sugar alternatives might be the problem, for me sucralose is a countdown to a space launch.
    - unknown_user_84 2mo ago
      yeah that's absolutely a strong possibility and I thought about that. though I've noticed it doesn't happen with monsters and it happens every single time with bang energy drinks. to the point that they were very useful for getting regular again. strongly possible that monsters and bang use different artificial sweeteners. I'll see if I have a can laying around. maybe that in combination with the caffeine it's kind of like a train running downhill right out the butt. pounding 300 mg of caffeine a can tho... as a 10+ year recovering veteran of the ephedrine caffeine stack, it's territory I don't ever want to get into again.
mmsc 2mo ago
Feeling miserable for three days seems ... unlikely after 800mg/day of caffeine. I say that to mean, it should be much longer (been there, done that, took many months) Caffeine use especially at that level massively grows the amount adenosine receptors your brain has, and they don't just disappear overnight. A 500ml Diet Coke (assuming you don't mean the caffeine free version) also contains about 65 mg of caffeine, which is the same as an espresso. I'm not sure if you really quit. Caffeine is also in a surprisingly large amount of soft drinks you wouldn't expect.
- isoprophlex 2mo ago
  Right now I think 800 mg/d of caffeine would send me to the ER lol. Discontinuing 800mg/d steady state, cold turkey... that would mean 3 weeks of migraine-like headaches I couldn't even get away from 2 cups/day until i started hyperbolic tapering by slowly mixing decaf into my regular beans.
- tombert 2mo ago
  My goal wasn't to completely quit. The goal was to keep my caffeine intake less than or equal to 400mg (the FDA's recommended max) and to cut it off at 2pm. I didn't cold-turkey cut off caffeine. I stopped getting acute headaches after about three days; other prolonged side effects are harder to quantify. I should also clarify, it wasn't 800mg every day (which I realize I didn't make clear), it was just one thing where I saw that at least a few days of the last week I had consumed 800mg.
- jodacola 2mo ago
  Everybody's physiology is different, but I drank a full pot of coffee every day, for about 15 years. After Getting Older™, I was noticing more and more effects that I didn't like, so I made the decision to (mostly) detox off caffeine using decaf beans. Cold turkey would have destroyed me. I went with the following schedule: * Week 1: 75% caffeinated/25% decaf beans * Week 2: 50% caf/50% decaf * Week 3: 25% caf/75% decaf * Week 4: 100% decaf At week 4, I entered a full failure mode I hadn't yet experienced, namely migraines that were untouchable by OTC medications. Only caffeine helped. I tried to get through the week to "be done" with the weening but couldn't. So... * Week 5: back up to 25% caf/75% decaf! * Weeks 6-12: decreasing caffeine by half each week (to the point I was measuring beans using my home scale). After week 12, I was able to go without caffeine, and now I drink 1 cup of coffee and, if I'm feeling wild, I'll occasionally get an espresso. My physiological dependence on caffeine was no joke, but I feel a heck of a lot less anxious and jittery after cutting it down to where I'm now at.
jjtheblunt 2mo ago
coke etc will destroy your teeth, if not cleaned off regularly. ( don't "ask me how i know" ! )
- gruez 2mo ago
  > if not cleaned off regularly. Just rinse it off with water?
  - imzadi 2mo ago
    It's an acid, which softens your enamel. You should ideally rinse with something that remineralizes the enamel, i.e. flouride.
    - amelius 2mo ago
      [flagged]
    - marcuschong 2mo ago
      I've been drinking loads of coke Zero (up to 3 liters a day, these days it's about 2 liters), and my teeth are fine. I'm 40 and have been drinking it for most of my life, it started when I was about 16, with regular coke back then. Maybe I'm lucky.
      - b3ing 2mo ago
        Hope you don’t have diabetes
        marcuschong 2mo ago
        I'm regularly afraid of things like that, not only for drinking too much coke but also for not having exactly the healthiest lifestyle overall. I've tried reducing coke a few times with some luck here and there, but eventually got back to it everytime. For now, my annual checkups are good.
      - 2mo ago
InsideOutSanta 2mo ago
You're describing caffeine addiction. This also happens with coffee. People at the office sometimes ask me how I manage to get up in the morning and be in a good mood without having a cup of coffee. I suspect that most of them are only in a bad mood after waking up because they have mild caffeine widthrawal.
- jwrallie 2mo ago
  That is likely true, but there are other factors. For example delayed sleep phase paired with fixed office work hours. I bet many people that have a slight 1-2h shift compared to the average are using an early morning coffee to make things work.
  - sneak 2mo ago
    Not sure why you’re downvoted, this is HUGE. Most humans have a circadian rhythm that tends toward slightly longer than 24 hours, and waking up at the same time every day can be very difficult for some percentage of us.
    - cma 2mo ago
      That's if they are in a cave experiment: without that the sunlight cycle regulates it back to 24hr. But not for everyone, and that's N24/non-24, not DPSD, delayed-phase sleep disorder.
      - bluefirebrand 2mo ago
        Not everyone lives in a place with relatively consistent sunlight either If you're far north you have really long days in summer and long nights in winter
  - ehnto 2mo ago
    I have a delayed sleep phase. In the modern working world that means I am not as effective as I could be, and it puts a lot of stress on my body to be awake when work requires. The stigma is real, no one truly believes it, especially those who love work. But I don't choose it, I would rather be a morning person so it wasn't such a grind to deal with the trivial office bullshit surrounding start times. Appreciate that some people may have suggestions on how to change and become a morning person. I'll ask this, with your job, your family and other responsibilities in mind, could become a night owl?
tristor 2mo ago
I like energy drinks, but I prefer coffee. I drink my coffee black. About the only time I drink an energy drink for these past few years is when driving long distances. I don't like the chemicals used in sugar free sodas/energy drinks, and I don't like consuming a lot of unnecessary sugar, I also really like the flavor of properly prepared coffee. I go through phases, but I generally just have 1-2 cups in the morning and that's it, but when I'm driving I might have 3-5 energy drinks over the course of 8-10 hours of driving. I understand the appeal, but it's just never hooked me the way people talk about them.
strbean 2mo ago
Consuming that much caffeine is terrible for your heart. If you find yourself consuming a lot of caffeine regularly, you would probably be much better served by Adderall. You can get the same stimulant effect with much less wear and tear on your body. If you want to put it to the test without breaking the law or going through the hassle of getting a prescription, you can try taking 1 or 2 Sudafed (the real stuff that requires ID), which I've found to be functionally equivalent to a low dose of Adderall. (The normal caveats about health risks of stimulants apply to this comment - avoid if you have a heart condition, etc.)
- deleted 2mo ago
  [deleted]
- cess11 2mo ago
  Why do you expect pseudoephedrine to be less nasty on the cardiovascular system than caffeine? Recommending going from caffeine to amphetamine comes across as rather weird to me. 'It seems you have trouble regulating intake of a weak stimulant most people have little issue with, how about you take one of the strong, seriously treacherous ones instead?'
  - strbean 2mo ago
    > Why do you expect pseudoephedrine to be less nasty on the cardiovascular system than caffeine? I'm not advocating for substituting pseudoephedrine for caffeine, but rather using pseudoephedrine as a one time proxy for amphetamine to see how well it works for you. > Recommending going from caffeine to amphetamine comes across as rather weird to me. With respect for the potential for abuse and addiction, that's a good point. My suggestion comes from a firsthand account of an adult with undiagnosed ADHD who self medicated with grossly excessive coffee drinking. Their doctor suggested getting assessed for ADHD and making the substitution out of fear for their cardiovascular health. I assumed the parent commenter was overusing caffeine to self medicate for attention issues, but didn't think of the possibility that it was pure addictive behavior.
    - cess11 2mo ago
mattmaroon 2mo ago
I make my own all natural energy drink. I too don’t like coffee much, no matter how hard I’ve tried, but also those things have a lot of chemicals other than caffeine in them. You can buy powdered caffeine derived from green tea. I do bottling including my own sodas so I have ready access and you might have to buy at least 1 lb, which is a lot of caffeine, but it’s worth it for your health. I don’t drink more than 200mg in a day and usually not even that much so maybe I’m at a gram a week-ish. So a lb would last me for over 8 years. Get a jewelers scale and you’re good to go
- dopa42365 2mo ago
  Pure caffeine is dirt cheap to produce at the enormous scale that it is consumed worldwide. Appeal to nature is a logical fallacy. Just get some perfectly fine caffeine if that's what you want, nothing wrong with it.
m463 2mo ago
> I quit energy drinks cold turkey https://wondermark.com/c/389/ https://wondermark.com/c/389/
ekjhgkejhgk 2mo ago
> Those suckers are bizarrely addictive Caffeine and sugar, both are addictive. For me personally, I find sugar much harder to drop, than caffeine. I wonder how it is for other people.

by tombert 2mo ago

layer8 2mo ago

I mean, you could say the same thing about coffee.

tomjakubowski 2mo ago
Drip coffee has ~40-50% more caffeine per 8oz serving than Red Bull (about 90-100mg vs 65mg). The nice thing about coffee is that the mouth-puckering tannins make it harder to absolutely pound them, like one can do easily with cans of Red Bull.
- neutronicus 2mo ago
  Yeah, the real problem with Red Bull is that it's caffeine-spiked Gatorade. So you're drinking to satisfy cravings but also just because you're thirsty.
- quickthrowman 2mo ago
  A 12 oz can of Celsius has 200mg of caffeine.
munk-a 2mo ago
You could but you'd be quite disingenuous if you did considering that coffee delivers caffeine without a bunch of added sugar.
- tombert 2mo ago
  I was drinking the sugar free energy drinks, so I wasn't getting a ton of sugar. Still not saying it's healthy but it wasn't because of too much sugar.
- layer8 2mo ago
  Sugar-free energy drinks aren’t rare (at least here in Europe), and people are putting fat and sugar in their coffee as well.
- presbyterian 2mo ago
  Sugar free/low sugar energy drinks are really common, and most coffee drinkers I know are mixing in sugar or creamer or something in their coffee, so I don't think they're that different. Personally, as someone who is super sensitive to bitterness, coffee has never worked for me, so if I need a caffeine boost, I go for a sugar free Red Bull or a white Monster
tombert 2mo ago
Probably. As I said, I've always hated coffee so I've never really had any desire to consume large quantities of it, so I can't speak to that. I will say, though, energy drinks do become a relatively expensive addiction. A Monster energy drink can easily cost 3-4 dollars, so if I had three of those a day we are talking $10+ of cost. If you get off brands they're cheaper, but even still I think they're overpriced. I know it's a meme that people pay like $6 for a coffee at Starbucks, but I think if you buy the coffee beans yourself or instant coffee it's relatively cheap.
- layer8 2mo ago
  $3-4 is a lot. They are 0.99 € here (tax included).
  - deleted 2mo ago
    [deleted]
  - tombert 2mo ago
    It very much depends on the brand. I was initially buying the Monster drinks at a local gas station where I believe they were $3.25. Eventually I transitioned to the Aldi brand which was I think around $1.
    - layer8 2mo ago
      I meant specifically the Monster drinks. Red Bull for example is closer to 2 € here. The cheapest Aldi energy drinks are 0.29 €.
      - tombert 2mo ago
        You pay a significant markup getting it at gas stations, but looking at a Monster on Walmart.com, it's still like $2.68. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monster-Energy-Zero-Ultra-Energy-Drink-16-fl-oz/36716922?classType=VARIANT&athbdg=L1102&from=/search https://www.walmart.com/ip/Monster-Energy-Zero-Ultra-Energy-... I guess it's cheaper in Europe.
neutronicus 2mo ago
As a coffee drinker the "bizarrely addictive" comment does not resonate with me at all. I don't really have trouble keeping myself to, like, 1.2 coffees a day. I can't imagine drinking 6-7 coffees in a day to get to 800 mg caffeine. Unless you add ice or sweetener it's bitter and hot, so it's a lot harder to slide down the slippery slope of just drinking it whenever you're thirsty and simultaneously getting addicted to the caffeine and the sugar. To say nothing of whatever else is in the energy drinks. Although I guess plenty of people who drive a lot do this with the sugary Starbucks drinks in the giant mugs.
- layer8 2mo ago
  I don't particularly like coffee, so it's not addictive for me as well. But neither are the energy drinks that I actually like. Conversely, there are people heavily addicted to coffee, whether you want to call that "bizzarely" or not. So, we can haggle over details, but overall I don't see a dramatic qualitative difference.
- bitwize 2mo ago
  Coffee is also slightly diuretic, so it's not a "drink to quench your thirst" drink, at least not to me. Water (plain or fizzy/flavored), milk, diet sodas, etc. fill that niche.

neutronicus 2mo ago

I swore off energy drinks in high school after someone brought a case of them on the bus to a football game and I drank one and got horrible diarrhea and had to shit in the woods at halftime.

unknown_user_84 2mo ago
dude, don't even get me started on those bang energy drinks. I don't know what they put in them but monsters do not make me run to the bathroom like those things do. it might be a caffeine threshold thing I don't know. monsters have about 180 mg of caffeine bang drinks have I think 300 mg. the bang drinks even used to have creatine in them which would actually make you sick if you didn't have anything to eat around the time you drank it. they have reformulated. so wouldn't it surprise me if the bang people were putting some weird stuff in there that was basically acting as a laxative. I have no idea.
- opan 2mo ago
  Both Bang and Monster contain artificial sweeteners, unlike Red Bull. Maybe that could be what upset your stomach.
- sellmesoap 2mo ago
  Sugar alternatives might be the problem, for me sucralose is a countdown to a space launch.
  - unknown_user_84 2mo ago
    yeah that's absolutely a strong possibility and I thought about that. though I've noticed it doesn't happen with monsters and it happens every single time with bang energy drinks. to the point that they were very useful for getting regular again. strongly possible that monsters and bang use different artificial sweeteners. I'll see if I have a can laying around. maybe that in combination with the caffeine it's kind of like a train running downhill right out the butt. pounding 300 mg of caffeine a can tho... as a 10+ year recovering veteran of the ephedrine caffeine stack, it's territory I don't ever want to get into again.

mmsc 2mo ago

Feeling miserable for three days seems ... unlikely after 800mg/day of caffeine. I say that to mean, it should be much longer (been there, done that, took many months) Caffeine use especially at that level massively grows the amount adenosine receptors your brain has, and they don't just disappear overnight. A 500ml Diet Coke (assuming you don't mean the caffeine free version) also contains about 65 mg of caffeine, which is the same as an espresso. I'm not sure if you really quit. Caffeine is also in a surprisingly large amount of soft drinks you wouldn't expect.

isoprophlex 2mo ago
Right now I think 800 mg/d of caffeine would send me to the ER lol. Discontinuing 800mg/d steady state, cold turkey... that would mean 3 weeks of migraine-like headaches I couldn't even get away from 2 cups/day until i started hyperbolic tapering by slowly mixing decaf into my regular beans.
tombert 2mo ago
My goal wasn't to completely quit. The goal was to keep my caffeine intake less than or equal to 400mg (the FDA's recommended max) and to cut it off at 2pm. I didn't cold-turkey cut off caffeine. I stopped getting acute headaches after about three days; other prolonged side effects are harder to quantify. I should also clarify, it wasn't 800mg every day (which I realize I didn't make clear), it was just one thing where I saw that at least a few days of the last week I had consumed 800mg.
jodacola 2mo ago
Everybody's physiology is different, but I drank a full pot of coffee every day, for about 15 years. After Getting Older™, I was noticing more and more effects that I didn't like, so I made the decision to (mostly) detox off caffeine using decaf beans. Cold turkey would have destroyed me. I went with the following schedule: * Week 1: 75% caffeinated/25% decaf beans * Week 2: 50% caf/50% decaf * Week 3: 25% caf/75% decaf * Week 4: 100% decaf At week 4, I entered a full failure mode I hadn't yet experienced, namely migraines that were untouchable by OTC medications. Only caffeine helped. I tried to get through the week to "be done" with the weening but couldn't. So... * Week 5: back up to 25% caf/75% decaf! * Weeks 6-12: decreasing caffeine by half each week (to the point I was measuring beans using my home scale). After week 12, I was able to go without caffeine, and now I drink 1 cup of coffee and, if I'm feeling wild, I'll occasionally get an espresso. My physiological dependence on caffeine was no joke, but I feel a heck of a lot less anxious and jittery after cutting it down to where I'm now at.

jjtheblunt 2mo ago

coke etc will destroy your teeth, if not cleaned off regularly. ( don't "ask me how i know" ! )

gruez 2mo ago
> if not cleaned off regularly. Just rinse it off with water?
- imzadi 2mo ago
  It's an acid, which softens your enamel. You should ideally rinse with something that remineralizes the enamel, i.e. flouride.
  - amelius 2mo ago
    [flagged]
  - marcuschong 2mo ago
    I've been drinking loads of coke Zero (up to 3 liters a day, these days it's about 2 liters), and my teeth are fine. I'm 40 and have been drinking it for most of my life, it started when I was about 16, with regular coke back then. Maybe I'm lucky.
    - b3ing 2mo ago
      Hope you don’t have diabetes
      - marcuschong 2mo ago
        I'm regularly afraid of things like that, not only for drinking too much coke but also for not having exactly the healthiest lifestyle overall. I've tried reducing coke a few times with some luck here and there, but eventually got back to it everytime. For now, my annual checkups are good.
    - 2mo ago

InsideOutSanta 2mo ago

You're describing caffeine addiction. This also happens with coffee. People at the office sometimes ask me how I manage to get up in the morning and be in a good mood without having a cup of coffee. I suspect that most of them are only in a bad mood after waking up because they have mild caffeine widthrawal.

jwrallie 2mo ago
That is likely true, but there are other factors. For example delayed sleep phase paired with fixed office work hours. I bet many people that have a slight 1-2h shift compared to the average are using an early morning coffee to make things work.
- sneak 2mo ago
  Not sure why you’re downvoted, this is HUGE. Most humans have a circadian rhythm that tends toward slightly longer than 24 hours, and waking up at the same time every day can be very difficult for some percentage of us.
  - cma 2mo ago
    That's if they are in a cave experiment: without that the sunlight cycle regulates it back to 24hr. But not for everyone, and that's N24/non-24, not DPSD, delayed-phase sleep disorder.
    - bluefirebrand 2mo ago
      Not everyone lives in a place with relatively consistent sunlight either If you're far north you have really long days in summer and long nights in winter
- ehnto 2mo ago
  I have a delayed sleep phase. In the modern working world that means I am not as effective as I could be, and it puts a lot of stress on my body to be awake when work requires. The stigma is real, no one truly believes it, especially those who love work. But I don't choose it, I would rather be a morning person so it wasn't such a grind to deal with the trivial office bullshit surrounding start times. Appreciate that some people may have suggestions on how to change and become a morning person. I'll ask this, with your job, your family and other responsibilities in mind, could become a night owl?

tristor 2mo ago

I like energy drinks, but I prefer coffee. I drink my coffee black. About the only time I drink an energy drink for these past few years is when driving long distances. I don't like the chemicals used in sugar free sodas/energy drinks, and I don't like consuming a lot of unnecessary sugar, I also really like the flavor of properly prepared coffee. I go through phases, but I generally just have 1-2 cups in the morning and that's it, but when I'm driving I might have 3-5 energy drinks over the course of 8-10 hours of driving. I understand the appeal, but it's just never hooked me the way people talk about them.

strbean 2mo ago

Consuming that much caffeine is terrible for your heart. If you find yourself consuming a lot of caffeine regularly, you would probably be much better served by Adderall. You can get the same stimulant effect with much less wear and tear on your body. If you want to put it to the test without breaking the law or going through the hassle of getting a prescription, you can try taking 1 or 2 Sudafed (the real stuff that requires ID), which I've found to be functionally equivalent to a low dose of Adderall. (The normal caveats about health risks of stimulants apply to this comment - avoid if you have a heart condition, etc.)

deleted 2mo ago
[deleted]
cess11 2mo ago
Why do you expect pseudoephedrine to be less nasty on the cardiovascular system than caffeine? Recommending going from caffeine to amphetamine comes across as rather weird to me. 'It seems you have trouble regulating intake of a weak stimulant most people have little issue with, how about you take one of the strong, seriously treacherous ones instead?'
- strbean 2mo ago
  > Why do you expect pseudoephedrine to be less nasty on the cardiovascular system than caffeine? I'm not advocating for substituting pseudoephedrine for caffeine, but rather using pseudoephedrine as a one time proxy for amphetamine to see how well it works for you. > Recommending going from caffeine to amphetamine comes across as rather weird to me. With respect for the potential for abuse and addiction, that's a good point. My suggestion comes from a firsthand account of an adult with undiagnosed ADHD who self medicated with grossly excessive coffee drinking. Their doctor suggested getting assessed for ADHD and making the substitution out of fear for their cardiovascular health. I assumed the parent commenter was overusing caffeine to self medicate for attention issues, but didn't think of the possibility that it was pure addictive behavior.
  - cess11 2mo ago

mattmaroon 2mo ago

I make my own all natural energy drink. I too don’t like coffee much, no matter how hard I’ve tried, but also those things have a lot of chemicals other than caffeine in them. You can buy powdered caffeine derived from green tea. I do bottling including my own sodas so I have ready access and you might have to buy at least 1 lb, which is a lot of caffeine, but it’s worth it for your health. I don’t drink more than 200mg in a day and usually not even that much so maybe I’m at a gram a week-ish. So a lb would last me for over 8 years. Get a jewelers scale and you’re good to go

dopa42365 2mo ago
Pure caffeine is dirt cheap to produce at the enormous scale that it is consumed worldwide. Appeal to nature is a logical fallacy. Just get some perfectly fine caffeine if that's what you want, nothing wrong with it.

m463 2mo ago

> I quit energy drinks cold turkey https://wondermark.com/c/389/ https://wondermark.com/c/389/

ekjhgkejhgk 2mo ago

> Those suckers are bizarrely addictive Caffeine and sugar, both are addictive. For me personally, I find sugar much harder to drop, than caffeine. I wonder how it is for other people.