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How Your Brain Becomes Addicted to Caffeine

235 points by Libertatea 13y ago

fruitbatsh 13y ago
addiction or not, my code is more composed and creative under the influence of coffee
- RyanZAG 13y ago
  Have you taken two week breaks without any coffee to compare? If the article is correct, after two weeks you should have kicked off the addiction. If you're comparing day 1 with coffee vs day 2 without coffee, you might be falling into a trap.
  - cLeEOGPw 13y ago
    I was not drinking coffee until half a year ago. I completed my assignments, but it was slow process, i had trouble concentrating, got often distracted from the task. Staying awake during most of the days was the hardest "work". Then, after reading some articles on tea and coffee effects decided to try it out. The result was impressive. I was like 4x more productive, could solve complicated tasks and not get distracted by anything during whole day, only drinking 1 cup in the morning. Then I thought maybe I just got better, and tried it without coffee again. Result - similar performance as before coffee, except some improvements in the fields I was able to make while under the influence of coffee.
    - arjie 13y ago
      How interesting! I don't drink coffee but the few times I've tried it, I perform much worse than otherwise. The results are often like the stay-up-late-and-code results. I have to correct and redo loads of work when I come off the coffee.
      - cLeEOGPw 13y ago
        Interesting. Probably the effect differs from person to person.
    - KriptoNYC 13y ago
      This works for a period but eventually fades to the point where you take in caffeine just to reach the level of performance you had before you used it. The quality of work is often different as well, in my case it's more of a pushing to get things done at any costs, without refinement or nuance. BTW- If you google "caffiene brain blood flow" you'll find out that it reduces blood flow to the brain by 20%. That can't be good...
      - VMG 13y ago
        > you'll find out that it reduces blood flow to the brain by 20% ... if you're a preterm infant
        KriptoNYC 13y ago
        Actually it applies to everyone who consumes it, and the body has a limited ability to compensate for it. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19219847 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19219847
    - maaaats 13y ago
      Firstly: One personal anecdote means nothing. But what I really want to say is that what you're saying doesn't work in the long run. If you never drink coffee, it can be used as drug to help concentrate. But when drinking it daily, as the article states, your body will adjust and now you need coffee just to get to the old level without coffee.
      - jackpirate 13y ago
        >Firstly: One personal anecdote means nothing It's the only thing that matters to the person in question.
        freshhawk 13y ago
        If you mean "matters" as in allows them to share their emotional experience then sure, of course. If you mean "matters" as in allows you to gain knowledge about what actually happened to you? Then it means nothing, from whichever perspective you care to choose.
    - nosefrog 13y ago
      I've noticed similar but more subdued effects when going on and off coffee. I don't feel any physical effects from coffee (as long as I stay below about 3 cups), so I often take long breaks from it when it simply isn't convenient for me to drink it. I've noticed that when I don't drink coffee, not only do I have trouble focusing, but I'm less likely to exert the effort to try new things or put the effort into understanding difficult subjects. I also feel the same trouble even staying awake that you noted. I get significantly more done when I incorporate coffee into my day. Another thing that works for me is formulating a plan of action before I have any coffee, and then drinking it when I start. The caffeine and the ritual put me in the right mindset to get real work done.
- AmVess 13y ago
  Up until you start to phosphoresce...then it's time to cut back.
- consonants 13y ago
  Perhaps your addiction is influencing your perception of your coding performance. The best way to test this is to find an impartial third party to compare your caffeine-code to code you wrote before you started drinking coffee (as in, not the code on day you DIDN'T drink coffee).
jsonne 13y ago
I had a massive caffeine addiction (think 2 large cans of redbull a day) about a year ago until I quit cold turkey. It may be in my head, but after about a month off the stuff I felt like I had more energy than ever.
- narcissus 13y ago
  I read once that the level of energy you feel from caffeine is actually your normal energy level, and that the 'boost' you feel is actually the caffeine dragging you out of a low. Or something like that. And I can only presume this is after you've been consuming it for a while. Up until recently I would drink about a pot of coffee a day. I've also gone cold turkey and while I have fallen off the wagon a couple of times, I've felt more energised (especially in the morning) and definitely less irritable. I'm also finding that my sleep these days is amazing!
- jsaxton86 13y ago
  I used to drink two cans of Mountain Dew per day. I was 100% dependent upon it -- without my Mountain Dew I couldn't function at all. Anyway, I recently took a few weeks off between jobs, and during that time, I decided to quit caffeine cold turkey as well. I feel great! Some benefits include: -Sleeping better -Being awake and functional in the morning, even before the caffeine kicks in -Having a consistent energy level throughout the day -24oz of soda/day is not healthy, so getting that out of my diet was definitely a good thing The only downside is that the startup I work for now has a tab with a number of local coffee shops that I can't take advantage of :(
  - tocomment 13y ago
    Decaf?
    - lostlogin 13y ago
      Depending on the place you get it, the label decaf often doesn't mean much. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132260 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132260
jebblue 13y ago
Caffeine has been found to have beneficial effects in fighting diseases like Alzheimer's: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20182037 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20182037 ...and for Parkinson's: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23879665 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23879665
terhechte 13y ago
I quit Coffee/Caffeine around twice a year for the amount of around 3 - 5 weeks for some sort of cleaning of the system. It is always awful, I get bad headaches, I feel tired, I can't concentrate, I basically loose 1-2 days of productivity. However, after that, I start slowly, only with one espresso per day, and then gradually move back up until I hit the 5 cups a day again, and that's when I quit cold turkey again. I do agree that my body feels great when I'm not drinking coffee, however I like the taste of it so much, that I always have to fall back to it. Still going cold turkey twice a year feels good.
- mjn 13y ago
  > I like the taste of it so much, that I always have to fall back to it I find decaf actually helps with this. I like both the taste and the ritual of coffee, but don't like the jitters it gives me if I have more than one or two cups a day. So I typically switch to decaf after the first cup, and still enjoy the rest. Unfortunately this was easier to do before I moved from California to Denmark. Here it's easier to find nonalcoholic beer (every supermarket carries it) than decaf coffee (fewer than half do), and it seems to be regarded with a degree of cultural suspicion.
  - terhechte 13y ago
    I'm also having decaf every couple of days out of the same reason. For what it's worth, the Nespresso from Nestle has really good decaf espressos. They taste very close to a normal espresso. Half the time I'm using my Nespresso only for decaf (my normal coffee is usually handpicked local-roasted that I prepare in a french press). Nespresso also has three different decaf variants.
    - lostlogin 13y ago
      Where do you get ones that you like? Do you check expiration or something like it so as to get fresher ones? I've only ever found them awful. We have a machine at work that I avoid, but I'd experiment if I had hope.
    - kayoone 13y ago
europestup 13y ago
I don't like coffee, but when I need a kick I use caffeine pills. I only use them sparingly, they're very useful, and I don't find any drawback!
wissler 13y ago
Why quit cold turkey and invite suffering, when all you have to do is reduce your intake over time?
- gcb0 13y ago
  I may not be the best example because i try to quit every now and then... But i feel rthat quitting in steps does absolutely nothing. I would keep reducing and not noting any change in body behavior. Until i go past some threshold (2 espressos) them i get the same as fully quitting
- regularfry 13y ago
  Because it's quicker. You trade the mental effort of remembering to dose down over a longer period against physical discomfort for a day or so. Personally I don't find cold turkey too bad. The second day after I stop I'll have a headachey, nauseous afternoon (which is almost entirely handled with paracetamol as long as I stay hydrated), but after that it's more a matter of habit.
  - vidarh 13y ago
    If your withdrawal is over after a day or two, your withdrawals are mild. You're lucky... Caffeine withdrawal can get really nasty. Think a full week of evening shakes so strong you can have a hard time ingesting anything, fevers, headaches that paracetamol won't make go away, diarrhea.
- consonants 13y ago
  As an opiate addict in recovery, and having experienced caffeine withdrawal: taper, taper, taper. There is no excuse not to. Going cold turkey is an ego-motivated action, in my opinion. It's the 'If I can endure this acute suffering and beat it, then I'm stronger for it' attitude, and gives a false sense of inflated accomplishment. The reality is that you put yourself through needless torment so you could feel better about yourself, while a rational person whose goal is to actually beat the addiction realizes that their chance of returning to the substance increases substantially with how bad the withdrawal symptoms are. If you want to quit, do everything you can so that you don't go back to ingesting the substance in question. That means reducing the chances you'll relapse because withdrawal fucking sucks and the only thing that will fix it is either waiting or using again. Guess which one your brain will try to convince you to do (hint: its the one with the least amount of immediate suffering)?
gruseom 13y ago
It's hard to believe, but caffeine withdrawal is classified as a mental illness in the recently updated DSM, the bible of psychiatry. http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/daily-dose/2013/06/10/caffeine-withdrawal-really-mental-illness/1w3BI7OVgRqcYlf3YDt5PN/blog.html http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/daily-dose/2013...
- eksith 13y ago
  Not terribly comforting to know this. But I can attest that quitting coffee was one of the more painful things I've attempted. And failed at : http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/quitting-coffee-cold-turkey-abject-failure/ http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/quitting-coffee-cold-...
  - gruseom 13y ago
    I've quit on two or three occasions for a year at a time. What worked was to gradually lower the dose until you're close enough to zero that zero isn't hard. I did that over a couple weeks, and it was so much easier than cold turkey that I don't know why more people don't try it.
    - peteretep 13y ago
      +1 I'll also add: this works best for me when I switch to decaf and take caffeine pills. Then I can start to decrease the caffeine dose independent of the tasty hot drink.
  - aswanson 13y ago
    I've tried a few times, lasted a few months, and relapsed. Ive noticed the psychological triggers are far more powerful than the chemical, at least in my case. E.g., cold weather and the smell of it in my local store is harder to resist when Im in my normal workday routine than a weekend stop in same said store.
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    Ah, those headaches. I vomited, struggled to see and couldn't talk or move properly. If someone had told me they were about to kill me I'd have vomited a thank you to them. I get migraines occasionally, but coffee removal seems a trigger.
dmead 13y ago
quitting caffeine was way harder than i thought it was going to be. i still have doubts if i'll ever be as productive
JohnDotAwesome 13y ago
I read this as I sip my daily coffee.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  And I'm lying in bed waiting for the machine to warm up. Best part of the day arrives early on.
dsego 13y ago
I can do without caffeine, but I actually enjoy drinking coffee. I love the taste, the smell and the ceremony of preparing it. I like to make turkish coffee and espresso in my moka pot. I've also recently bought a french press. I don't smoke, so making coffee gives me a reason to take a break from the computer. Maybe I could switch to tea, but tea isn't as exciting for me.
dhughes 13y ago
I never used to drink coffee it made me feel very jittery and short of breath with just a sip, the guys where I worked as a kid (14) went on coffee runs, make that I went on coffee runs, and once I got a coffee and whoa jittery! Although a Lebanese store owner used to give make Lebanese coffee for me when I was a 14 or 15 plus some nice pistachio baklava, the coffee didn't bother me as much, weird. Anyway 20 years later I started shift work and when installing equipment when the building I was working at was being built we had coffee breaks more to keep warm in an unheated concrete box during a Canadian spring. Now I like coffee (?) but most often it's a latte, cappuccino, espresso or some coffee flavoured drink but sometimes I get four shots of espresso. Now I have GERD and caffeine is a trigger, at worst I am vomiting up stomach acid and my throat feels like there is a golfball stuck halfway down it. Yet I still drink coffee :(
- DevMonkey 13y ago
  I have GERD (hiatal hernia) and I stayed away from Caffeine for years because I was told it would trigger it. They also said to avoid spicy foods and exercise regularly. I started taking Prilosac and exercising regularly about 5 years ago. Now I can pretty much eat what I want (I go through a bottle of Sriracha every 3 months, it goes on everything :D). I think the key to managing GERD is the exercise and medicine. When I don't exercise I have more reflux. If you are not exercising regularly (which means exercising long enough to get super hungry), then you might want to try it to see if it improves your symptoms. Anecdotally, I think the GERD diet is total bullshit, I've tried it (with out meds) and I still experienced enough discomfort to convince me to take medication. Edit: I forgot to mention I drink coffee every morning.
  - dhughes 13y ago
    Hello fellow GERD-er, I've never heard of the GERD diet my doctor just throws pills at me. Exercise for sure, when I started shift work my gym trips started to suffer until a few years later I stopped going. I had gone to the gym since just after high school, almost 20 years, and biking in the summer. My undiagnosed GERD grew worse a few years later but wasn't discovered until my dentist put two-and-two together about why my teeth were so sensitive. I unknowingly discovered it years earlier when having bad coughing fits I discovered an antacid helped calm my coughing. Unfortunately the Prevacid I took (lansoprazole) I think was causing my terrible pain in my back in the morning. I was diagnosed with fatty liver which I am sure was caused by the Prevacid since it's the only drug I take, I don't drink, don't smoke, pretty much no drugs other than caffeine. Doctor put me on dexalansoprazole but that makes my guts hurt, then Tectra (pantoprazole magnesium) which also hurts. So I'm back to square one which is I eat small meals and exercise like a normal human should be doing anyway :/
gruseom 13y ago
Voltaire famously drank something like 50 cups of coffee a day. When someone told him it was a slow poison, he replied, "It must be very slow." That's the story at least. Don't know if it's true.
- pdenya 13y ago
  30 not 50 but yea, still a crazy amount. "Voltaire was also known to have been an advocate for coffee, as he was purported to have drunk it at least 30 times per day. It has been suggested that high amounts of caffeine acted as a mental stimulant to his creativity." - wikipedia
  - gruseom 13y ago
    If you follow Wikipedia's source for that, here is what it actually says: In France, meanwhile, Voltaire was reputedly downing between 50 and 72 cups of coffee a day Encyclopedia authors shouldn't cut numbers in half. In any case, the reported number varies wildly and I've never been able to track down a source for it. They're probably all made up.
    - mbell 13y ago
      It seems to me that the measurement here comes into question. What is a cup now vs what is a cup then? At what brew strength? etc.
    - anthuswilliams 13y ago
      When I first heard this claim, it was about the French author Honoré de Balzac. This claim about Voltaire makes me doubt both. I'm not saying that it's impossible to have two famous French writers habitually drinking an atypically obscene amount of coffee, just that it makes the claim seem more dubious.
- vidarh 13y ago
  Sounds exaggerated, unless he had insane tolerance levels or the coffee was very weak. Typically you count ca. 70mg for a cup of coffee, though of course it varies a lot with type. If we assume 50mg, that's 2500mg... For comparison, weight lifting supplements tends to max out at about 400mg, and from experience if you take those amounts and then don't do a hard workout, you're bouncing off the walls and it's horrible. I find it hard to imagine effectively spacing out 2500mg in a way that'd leave me focused rather than jittery as hell, despite a very high tolerance level, and without wrecking any hope of decent sleep.... Then again, tolerance levels for caffeine varies greatly - at one point I'd often drink a red bull right before sleep.
trumbitta2 13y ago
Recently I woke up no more able to hear anything from my left ear. My hearing has always been higher than most people's. Long story short, as part of the cure, the otolaryngologist prohibited me to even smell caffeinated coffee for like forever. I instantly switched to decaffeinated coffee. The one I drink has half the caffeine it must have to be legally said to be decaffeinated. I didn't experience a single effect of caffeine deprivation. Not a single time. All in all, I don't think caffeine is a drug like others. I think is a drug to someone, and it isn't to someone else.
- kayoone 13y ago
  Ugh, did your hearing recover ?
  - trumbitta2 13y ago
    It did, fortunately. Thanks for asking :) It was a mini-stroke to a tiny blood vessel in the internal ear, that's why no more caffeine... Now, when I get the rare glass (250ml) of coke like once per month with pizza, I also get some minutes of pain to the ears and feel very very stupid XD
phatbyte 13y ago
What's life without a little addiction ? ;) Coffee is small dosages is not bad for you, many studies say that in fact it's healthy in a long term. In my case, I drink my morning black coffee, and one espresso after lunch and another after dinner. It fixes my daily "addiction" and I don't see it interfering in my life like an actual drug would, say cigars/alcohol/etc..
- Retric 13y ago
  It's really hard to separate if it's small amounts of coffee that's useful or the brain chemistry / lifestyle of people who drink small amounts of coffee regularly.
- staticfish 13y ago
  ""actual drug""
- staticfish 13y ago
  ""actual drug""
karpathy 13y ago
I was hoping that the article would also mention some approximate amounts you have to drink per day to start to get withdrawal effects. Are there no studies of this? As one personal data point, I drink 2-4 cups daily and a few months ago I decided to suddenly stop just to see what happens. The results were very unexciting: I felt nothing. No headaches, no fogginess, no significant loss of alertness (although I did need more time to "warm up" in the morning from my groggy morning states). Otherwise I felt normal and after a week of unexciting I just went back to drinking coffee because it tastes good and works when you need it. At least from my personal study then, it seems 2-4 cups daily is not enough to get any adverse effects.
- abrowne 13y ago
  I tried the same thing with the same results. Me: 1–3 cups coffee and/or tea.
- spankalee 13y ago
  Good point. I drink about 1-3 cups a day, and wonder sometimes how dependent my energy and mood is on caffeine. I _think_ I feel groggy without a morning cup, but I'm too lazy or unconcerned to track how I feel, how much I drink and factors like sleep very closely. I'd love to read more about studies on this, I'm sure they're out there.
- nashequilibrium 13y ago
  I 200mg caffeine table before morning workout. Then a total of 3 to 4 cups of coffee. I can drop the coffee and move to tea, go without coffee(especially on weekend get ways) and still have no withdrawals.
  - bpatrianakos 13y ago
    Tea is just as caffeinated, if not more caffienated than coffee. So what you're doing is no different than quitting Red Bull and switching to Monster without withdrawal. Some teas are decaf but in general the most common teas are caffienated. Even most decaf things are low or almost free of caffeine but not totally. I suggest you try quitting coffee and tea together and seeing how you feel.
shekyboy 13y ago
That is why I created this http://www.getjumpstart.me/ http://www.getjumpstart.me/ We had our baby girl earlier this year, which led to sleepless nights and several cups of coffee during the day. My dad who has been practicing yoga for decades recommended a different route, which involved a 10 minute session involving deep breathing. One thing led to the other and we built this app to help everyone who may have this problem. Sorry for the shameless plug but seemed very topical.
- shekyboy 13y ago
  Currently the app works with FB login. Rookie mistake on my part. Update is in the works to enable email only option
NDizzle 13y ago
Neat article. I'd like to hear about the next step in the process. Why Aspirin cures the caffeine headache, but something like Tylenol will not.
thinkersilver 13y ago
It would also be interesting to see research on coffee's effect on a wide range of personality types. I've quit and haven't used in ~19months. Back then I'd drink 3-4 espresso's a day. Quitting was one of the most unpleasant and unbalancing experiences of my life. I kept a log of headaches, moods and fatigue before and after going cold turkey; and it was a long while (months) before the fogginess, tiredness, muscle spasms and irritability became manageable. The rush and withdrawal effects of coffee on individuals seems to me to differ widely. I have friends that only got a slight barely notable buzz from it, but for me, I got the buzz, pleasure and motivation from my morning espresso. It was my on switch. I think when I began to realise my psychological dependency was a bit unusual, was when I noticed how jittery and restless I was before my morning espresso. The first sip would correct that and bring with it a strange zen-like calm; the hustle and bustle of the day would dim to a dull hum and I would regain my presence of mind and I could function again. I promptly decided to quit.
Dewie 13y ago
The article doesn't seem to mention whether coffee is healthy or not. One thing is if it is addictive, but if it is healthy (or even if it just isn't unhealthy), I've got to ask... so what if it is addictive? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg
- aestra 13y ago
  I am sure that it is dependent on the individual. I know some people who can't have caffeine due to various health reasons and others can't tolorrate the effects.
drakeandrews 13y ago
Interestingly, I've found that a significant part of my own addiction is behavioural. If (for whatever reason), I know I'm not going to be able to drink tea for a few days, as long as I have something to replace it with that has an appropriate amount of ceremony to it I don't really exhibit the withdrawal symptoms the article mentions. On the other hand, if I just try and stop I feel useless for about a week (possibly longer, I've only stopped for that long once).
zmmmmm 13y ago
I've always maintained a strict rule that I don't drink any caffeine after midday, preferably not after about 11am. The theory being, this leaves my brain without caffeine for at least half of its time, which should thus prevent the brain modifications from setting in. However I've never had anyone confirm this is a valid approach, but it seems to work ok as far as I can tell.
- keeperofdakeys 13y ago
  I don't think this would stop it. However, the caffeine would be out of your system by the time you are going to sleep, so you would be able to sleep well.
eeeeeeeeeeeee 13y ago
I drink 2-4 cups of caffeinated coffee each day and I really don't have any problems. I drink Red Bull every now and then, too. On days that I don't have caffeine I do feel "sluggish" but it's not awful. I enjoy the ritual of drinking coffee plus the taste. I don't have any problems sleeping unless I have caffeine very late in the day. I get a solid 7-8 hours of sleep each day without any problems. So, I don't really see the reason to quit caffeine.
magoon 13y ago
As I read this article and thought to myself, "hmm maybe I should go cold-turkey for a couple weeks" since I certainly have been building up a tolerance, I got an alert for this email (I can't make this up): From: My Starbucks Rewards <Starbucks@e.starbucks.com> Subj: The next one's on us. In fact, it's already on your Starbucks Card.
- jacques_chester 13y ago
  No need to go cold turkey. Progressively substitute decaf for regular. If you have you own espresso machine, this is pretty easy to do over the course of a few weeks.
rbsn 13y ago
I generally don't drink coffee because it makes your breath smell. It is really awful when you're talking to colleagues or clients with "coffee breathe".
zxcvvcxz 13y ago
This raises a very interesting question: what is an optimal stimulant (or stimulant enabler) dosage routine? I think it's clear that in the short term something like caffeine is a net positive. But how do we mitigate negative longer-term effects like tolerance and dependency? Every week I take a "detox day" - typically Sunday. I cut out caffeine and generally add a fair bit of exercise (preferably 45 mins of cardio). I find this helps cleanse and reset my system. I also free-run my sleep on the weekends, further helping to "reset" everything. My logic here is that I can be stimulated for most of the week while taking a day to undo any longer-term effects that may be done (such as the increase in adenosine receptors). As a result I try not too schedule anything too important on detox day, as I'm a bit less sharp mentally. I actually don't mind working then - the only effect is that it takes longer to "warm up". It's the social obligations where I want to make sure I have that extra little kick ;) I've been interested in supplementing with modafinil for a while, but I refuse to do so just yet on the grounds that we don't understand how it works well enough. That, and since the drug is relatively new we don't have studies on long-term effects. As much as I love stimulant-enablers and mental optimization, I refuse to do so at the risk of my health.
virtualwhys 13y ago
Recently I cut my normal coffee intake (2 very strong 16oz cups per day) to a single mild 8oz cup in the morning. Suddenly I was depressed, like meaning had been swept out from under me, not to mention a 2 day headache. On the 3rd day the clouds broke and I started to feel much better, better than the best of days high as a kite on caffeine. Have more energy, less irritable, sleep better, etc. I'll be surprised if I go back to previous levels, seems incredibly unhealthy from the less is more side of the fence.
DigitalSea 13y ago
I quit drinking any caffeine for a week once, an experience I won't forget any time soon. I think some have varying degree of withdrawal symptoms but I recall a couple of days in having one of the worse migraines I have ever experienced, if I moved my head it hurt, blinked or even chewed my head would ache. I got hand tremors, I became incredibly fatigued and somewhat antisocial as well. After a week I returned to normal but have since started drinking coffee and tea again as it is hard to not drink any of those (especially client meetings). So it's definitely an addiction, one that your body is quite dependent on. Although even though I tried to stop drinking, I never once had the urge to make a tea or coffee, it's weird in that caffeine addiction seems to be one of those things we don't feel like we need and more of just a habitual need if anything. I never got to the point in my week detox where I felt like killing people for a caffeine fix or stealing from loved ones. It's surprisingly hard to avoid caffeine, it's in more things than most people realise. It's in soft drink, it's in chocolate, a lot of decaf coffee still has low levels of caffeine. While if you want to live a life without, tea, coffee and chocolate you might mostly avoid ingesting caffeine, lets be realistic, it's unavoidable...
- aptwebapps 13y ago
  When I have coffee or tea on a regular schedule and it's interrupted I get mild but irritating headaches. This was happening a lot a while ago and I got sick of it and quit. I was only drinking that much of it at the time so my withdrawal wasn't too bad, although I'm sure there's individual variation as well. Now that I don't have it on a regular basis, I'll have a small cup of weak tea if I'm tired and have a lot of work. The effect of even a small amount is immense when you don't use it regularly. I can have it at about two in the afternoon and I'll still be alert way past my bedtime. The only problem with is tea or coffee smells so good when someone else is having some ...
dustyleary 13y ago
I'm surprised to see the caffeine withdrawal horror stories: I drink what I think is a lot of caffeine. I just counted what I've had today, a normal day in terms of caffeine: 1 cup of aeropress coffee in the morning, which I make very dark/thick, so it might count as 2 cups, perhaps more, of "normal" coffee... And since the morning, another 9 shots of espresso, and a couple of cans of coke zero. When I go off of caffeine, I get a mild headache for a few days to a week, and that's it. . One mildly interesting story: I used to play a lot of counterstrike, at relatively high levels, but below 'pro'. Once, I went off of caffeine, and went through the withdrawal. During withdrawal, my counterstrike ability worsened. After withdrawal, I was noticeably better than I had been when on caffeine. But, when I finally went back on caffeine, I was on a whole new level. Opponents that I had trouble with before were almost comically easy to beat. I can definitely see why caffeine is consider a PED for certain Olympic sports.
shire 13y ago
Who would want to quit drinking coffee? Can anyone give me some negative health outcomes of drinking coffee? Other than the coffee breath which is awful.
- Tomis02 13y ago
  Among others it can lead to heart problems, as experienced by a relative of mine after 20 years of drinking coffee. So good luck with that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee#Risks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee#Risks
sdfjkl 13y ago
What I would like to know is, is caffeine consumption a zero-sum game? I.e. assuming you consume a constant amount of the stuff (let's say two cups of coffee a day), once your brain has adapted to this intake, is there any advantage in the habit compared to me never drinking any? Or does it effectively make your now adapted mind work just like if you had never consumed any caffeine at all? I've gone clean a few times now, and the effects and time-frame given in the article seem head-on. I have a feeling that I function no worse without any caffeine than when i was drinking regular doses, except my mental performance is more even throughout the day (no spikes after a cup of latte and no tiredness in the evening after I stop drinking). Also, I sleep a lot better. Additionally, being completely off caffeine gives me a powerful tool strictly for emergency use - if I really need to drive all night without falling asleep at the wheel or push out a new release before going away for a week, one cup of coffee works like magic. I do reserve it for really important cases only, and made it a rule to not drink any for at least two weeks after that to clear up again.
- jwilliams 13y ago
  There is definitely a phenomenon of caffeine tolerance, but it seems complex and varies a lot with the individual. Caffeine is largely self-administered, so there is also situational tolerance. Even if you have some effect, you're conditioned to expect it. The two combined means perceived tolerance varies quite a lot. is there any advantage in the habit compared to me never drinking any? There is the enjoyment of it.
mordae 13y ago
When I drink caffeine, I got really upset stomach, end up with diarrhea, racing thoughts, loops, frequently inability to concentrate on the come down. I have a 250g bag of anhydrous caffeine powder. I always take some out with me in a plastic tube. If I can recommend something, it is not to swallow it. It quickly absorbs from the mouth and I perceive it to be much cleaner experience. Also, the duration is much shorter which makes it ideal to wake yourself up for the long way back home at night, but still does not prevent you falling asleep in an hour or so.
ytodo 13y ago
Bäh! That much of Ad`s in these postings... and i`m really O/T now... When you talk about Regular Coffeemachine, Coffeshops, Clubmate Energydrinks or at last Espresso my point is that you did`nt get the "coffee-thing" at all. Yes, prefered flavor and tastings are wide spread, and maybe i try too much of methods making coffee and too many different sorts of coffeebeans, during my life. When i told you that everything in life can be a zelebrated as a ceremony, an when you grind the beans slowly by hands, the whole room`s getting filled withe aroma of the beans, and then brewed the coffee by hand (only 2-3 cups per do) and yo combine the coffee with something from the time when you were a child and lots o work, and then settle back and savour your cup, than its more than paying bucks to commercially "coffee-to-go-energy-drinks" or whatever you suggest.

235 points by Libertatea 13y ago

fruitbatsh 13y ago

addiction or not, my code is more composed and creative under the influence of coffee

RyanZAG 13y ago
Have you taken two week breaks without any coffee to compare? If the article is correct, after two weeks you should have kicked off the addiction. If you're comparing day 1 with coffee vs day 2 without coffee, you might be falling into a trap.
- cLeEOGPw 13y ago
  I was not drinking coffee until half a year ago. I completed my assignments, but it was slow process, i had trouble concentrating, got often distracted from the task. Staying awake during most of the days was the hardest "work". Then, after reading some articles on tea and coffee effects decided to try it out. The result was impressive. I was like 4x more productive, could solve complicated tasks and not get distracted by anything during whole day, only drinking 1 cup in the morning. Then I thought maybe I just got better, and tried it without coffee again. Result - similar performance as before coffee, except some improvements in the fields I was able to make while under the influence of coffee.
  - arjie 13y ago
    How interesting! I don't drink coffee but the few times I've tried it, I perform much worse than otherwise. The results are often like the stay-up-late-and-code results. I have to correct and redo loads of work when I come off the coffee.
    - cLeEOGPw 13y ago
      Interesting. Probably the effect differs from person to person.
  - KriptoNYC 13y ago
    This works for a period but eventually fades to the point where you take in caffeine just to reach the level of performance you had before you used it. The quality of work is often different as well, in my case it's more of a pushing to get things done at any costs, without refinement or nuance. BTW- If you google "caffiene brain blood flow" you'll find out that it reduces blood flow to the brain by 20%. That can't be good...
    - VMG 13y ago
      > you'll find out that it reduces blood flow to the brain by 20% ... if you're a preterm infant
      - KriptoNYC 13y ago
        Actually it applies to everyone who consumes it, and the body has a limited ability to compensate for it. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19219847 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19219847
  - maaaats 13y ago
    Firstly: One personal anecdote means nothing. But what I really want to say is that what you're saying doesn't work in the long run. If you never drink coffee, it can be used as drug to help concentrate. But when drinking it daily, as the article states, your body will adjust and now you need coffee just to get to the old level without coffee.
    - jackpirate 13y ago
      >Firstly: One personal anecdote means nothing It's the only thing that matters to the person in question.
      - freshhawk 13y ago
        If you mean "matters" as in allows them to share their emotional experience then sure, of course. If you mean "matters" as in allows you to gain knowledge about what actually happened to you? Then it means nothing, from whichever perspective you care to choose.
  - nosefrog 13y ago
    I've noticed similar but more subdued effects when going on and off coffee. I don't feel any physical effects from coffee (as long as I stay below about 3 cups), so I often take long breaks from it when it simply isn't convenient for me to drink it. I've noticed that when I don't drink coffee, not only do I have trouble focusing, but I'm less likely to exert the effort to try new things or put the effort into understanding difficult subjects. I also feel the same trouble even staying awake that you noted. I get significantly more done when I incorporate coffee into my day. Another thing that works for me is formulating a plan of action before I have any coffee, and then drinking it when I start. The caffeine and the ritual put me in the right mindset to get real work done.
AmVess 13y ago
Up until you start to phosphoresce...then it's time to cut back.
consonants 13y ago
Perhaps your addiction is influencing your perception of your coding performance. The best way to test this is to find an impartial third party to compare your caffeine-code to code you wrote before you started drinking coffee (as in, not the code on day you DIDN'T drink coffee).

jsonne 13y ago

I had a massive caffeine addiction (think 2 large cans of redbull a day) about a year ago until I quit cold turkey. It may be in my head, but after about a month off the stuff I felt like I had more energy than ever.

narcissus 13y ago
I read once that the level of energy you feel from caffeine is actually your normal energy level, and that the 'boost' you feel is actually the caffeine dragging you out of a low. Or something like that. And I can only presume this is after you've been consuming it for a while. Up until recently I would drink about a pot of coffee a day. I've also gone cold turkey and while I have fallen off the wagon a couple of times, I've felt more energised (especially in the morning) and definitely less irritable. I'm also finding that my sleep these days is amazing!
jsaxton86 13y ago
I used to drink two cans of Mountain Dew per day. I was 100% dependent upon it -- without my Mountain Dew I couldn't function at all. Anyway, I recently took a few weeks off between jobs, and during that time, I decided to quit caffeine cold turkey as well. I feel great! Some benefits include: -Sleeping better -Being awake and functional in the morning, even before the caffeine kicks in -Having a consistent energy level throughout the day -24oz of soda/day is not healthy, so getting that out of my diet was definitely a good thing The only downside is that the startup I work for now has a tab with a number of local coffee shops that I can't take advantage of :(
- tocomment 13y ago
  Decaf?
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    Depending on the place you get it, the label decaf often doesn't mean much. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132260 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17132260

jebblue 13y ago

Caffeine has been found to have beneficial effects in fighting diseases like Alzheimer's: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20182037 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20182037 ...and for Parkinson's: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23879665 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23879665

terhechte 13y ago

I quit Coffee/Caffeine around twice a year for the amount of around 3 - 5 weeks for some sort of cleaning of the system. It is always awful, I get bad headaches, I feel tired, I can't concentrate, I basically loose 1-2 days of productivity. However, after that, I start slowly, only with one espresso per day, and then gradually move back up until I hit the 5 cups a day again, and that's when I quit cold turkey again. I do agree that my body feels great when I'm not drinking coffee, however I like the taste of it so much, that I always have to fall back to it. Still going cold turkey twice a year feels good.

mjn 13y ago
> I like the taste of it so much, that I always have to fall back to it I find decaf actually helps with this. I like both the taste and the ritual of coffee, but don't like the jitters it gives me if I have more than one or two cups a day. So I typically switch to decaf after the first cup, and still enjoy the rest. Unfortunately this was easier to do before I moved from California to Denmark. Here it's easier to find nonalcoholic beer (every supermarket carries it) than decaf coffee (fewer than half do), and it seems to be regarded with a degree of cultural suspicion.
- terhechte 13y ago
  I'm also having decaf every couple of days out of the same reason. For what it's worth, the Nespresso from Nestle has really good decaf espressos. They taste very close to a normal espresso. Half the time I'm using my Nespresso only for decaf (my normal coffee is usually handpicked local-roasted that I prepare in a french press). Nespresso also has three different decaf variants.
  - lostlogin 13y ago
    Where do you get ones that you like? Do you check expiration or something like it so as to get fresher ones? I've only ever found them awful. We have a machine at work that I avoid, but I'd experiment if I had hope.
  - kayoone 13y ago

europestup 13y ago

I don't like coffee, but when I need a kick I use caffeine pills. I only use them sparingly, they're very useful, and I don't find any drawback!

wissler 13y ago

Why quit cold turkey and invite suffering, when all you have to do is reduce your intake over time?

gcb0 13y ago
I may not be the best example because i try to quit every now and then... But i feel rthat quitting in steps does absolutely nothing. I would keep reducing and not noting any change in body behavior. Until i go past some threshold (2 espressos) them i get the same as fully quitting
regularfry 13y ago
Because it's quicker. You trade the mental effort of remembering to dose down over a longer period against physical discomfort for a day or so. Personally I don't find cold turkey too bad. The second day after I stop I'll have a headachey, nauseous afternoon (which is almost entirely handled with paracetamol as long as I stay hydrated), but after that it's more a matter of habit.
- vidarh 13y ago
  If your withdrawal is over after a day or two, your withdrawals are mild. You're lucky... Caffeine withdrawal can get really nasty. Think a full week of evening shakes so strong you can have a hard time ingesting anything, fevers, headaches that paracetamol won't make go away, diarrhea.
consonants 13y ago
As an opiate addict in recovery, and having experienced caffeine withdrawal: taper, taper, taper. There is no excuse not to. Going cold turkey is an ego-motivated action, in my opinion. It's the 'If I can endure this acute suffering and beat it, then I'm stronger for it' attitude, and gives a false sense of inflated accomplishment. The reality is that you put yourself through needless torment so you could feel better about yourself, while a rational person whose goal is to actually beat the addiction realizes that their chance of returning to the substance increases substantially with how bad the withdrawal symptoms are. If you want to quit, do everything you can so that you don't go back to ingesting the substance in question. That means reducing the chances you'll relapse because withdrawal fucking sucks and the only thing that will fix it is either waiting or using again. Guess which one your brain will try to convince you to do (hint: its the one with the least amount of immediate suffering)?

gruseom 13y ago

It's hard to believe, but caffeine withdrawal is classified as a mental illness in the recently updated DSM, the bible of psychiatry. http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/daily-dose/2013/06/10/caffeine-withdrawal-really-mental-illness/1w3BI7OVgRqcYlf3YDt5PN/blog.html http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/blogs/daily-dose/2013...

eksith 13y ago
Not terribly comforting to know this. But I can attest that quitting coffee was one of the more painful things I've attempted. And failed at : http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/quitting-coffee-cold-turkey-abject-failure/ http://eksith.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/quitting-coffee-cold-...
- gruseom 13y ago
  I've quit on two or three occasions for a year at a time. What worked was to gradually lower the dose until you're close enough to zero that zero isn't hard. I did that over a couple weeks, and it was so much easier than cold turkey that I don't know why more people don't try it.
  - peteretep 13y ago
    +1 I'll also add: this works best for me when I switch to decaf and take caffeine pills. Then I can start to decrease the caffeine dose independent of the tasty hot drink.
- aswanson 13y ago
  I've tried a few times, lasted a few months, and relapsed. Ive noticed the psychological triggers are far more powerful than the chemical, at least in my case. E.g., cold weather and the smell of it in my local store is harder to resist when Im in my normal workday routine than a weekend stop in same said store.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  Ah, those headaches. I vomited, struggled to see and couldn't talk or move properly. If someone had told me they were about to kill me I'd have vomited a thank you to them. I get migraines occasionally, but coffee removal seems a trigger.

dmead 13y ago

quitting caffeine was way harder than i thought it was going to be. i still have doubts if i'll ever be as productive

JohnDotAwesome 13y ago

I read this as I sip my daily coffee.

lostlogin 13y ago
And I'm lying in bed waiting for the machine to warm up. Best part of the day arrives early on.

dsego 13y ago

I can do without caffeine, but I actually enjoy drinking coffee. I love the taste, the smell and the ceremony of preparing it. I like to make turkish coffee and espresso in my moka pot. I've also recently bought a french press. I don't smoke, so making coffee gives me a reason to take a break from the computer. Maybe I could switch to tea, but tea isn't as exciting for me.

dhughes 13y ago

I never used to drink coffee it made me feel very jittery and short of breath with just a sip, the guys where I worked as a kid (14) went on coffee runs, make that I went on coffee runs, and once I got a coffee and whoa jittery! Although a Lebanese store owner used to give make Lebanese coffee for me when I was a 14 or 15 plus some nice pistachio baklava, the coffee didn't bother me as much, weird. Anyway 20 years later I started shift work and when installing equipment when the building I was working at was being built we had coffee breaks more to keep warm in an unheated concrete box during a Canadian spring. Now I like coffee (?) but most often it's a latte, cappuccino, espresso or some coffee flavoured drink but sometimes I get four shots of espresso. Now I have GERD and caffeine is a trigger, at worst I am vomiting up stomach acid and my throat feels like there is a golfball stuck halfway down it. Yet I still drink coffee :(

DevMonkey 13y ago
I have GERD (hiatal hernia) and I stayed away from Caffeine for years because I was told it would trigger it. They also said to avoid spicy foods and exercise regularly. I started taking Prilosac and exercising regularly about 5 years ago. Now I can pretty much eat what I want (I go through a bottle of Sriracha every 3 months, it goes on everything :D). I think the key to managing GERD is the exercise and medicine. When I don't exercise I have more reflux. If you are not exercising regularly (which means exercising long enough to get super hungry), then you might want to try it to see if it improves your symptoms. Anecdotally, I think the GERD diet is total bullshit, I've tried it (with out meds) and I still experienced enough discomfort to convince me to take medication. Edit: I forgot to mention I drink coffee every morning.
- dhughes 13y ago
  Hello fellow GERD-er, I've never heard of the GERD diet my doctor just throws pills at me. Exercise for sure, when I started shift work my gym trips started to suffer until a few years later I stopped going. I had gone to the gym since just after high school, almost 20 years, and biking in the summer. My undiagnosed GERD grew worse a few years later but wasn't discovered until my dentist put two-and-two together about why my teeth were so sensitive. I unknowingly discovered it years earlier when having bad coughing fits I discovered an antacid helped calm my coughing. Unfortunately the Prevacid I took (lansoprazole) I think was causing my terrible pain in my back in the morning. I was diagnosed with fatty liver which I am sure was caused by the Prevacid since it's the only drug I take, I don't drink, don't smoke, pretty much no drugs other than caffeine. Doctor put me on dexalansoprazole but that makes my guts hurt, then Tectra (pantoprazole magnesium) which also hurts. So I'm back to square one which is I eat small meals and exercise like a normal human should be doing anyway :/

gruseom 13y ago

Voltaire famously drank something like 50 cups of coffee a day. When someone told him it was a slow poison, he replied, "It must be very slow." That's the story at least. Don't know if it's true.

pdenya 13y ago
30 not 50 but yea, still a crazy amount. "Voltaire was also known to have been an advocate for coffee, as he was purported to have drunk it at least 30 times per day. It has been suggested that high amounts of caffeine acted as a mental stimulant to his creativity." - wikipedia
- gruseom 13y ago
  If you follow Wikipedia's source for that, here is what it actually says: In France, meanwhile, Voltaire was reputedly downing between 50 and 72 cups of coffee a day Encyclopedia authors shouldn't cut numbers in half. In any case, the reported number varies wildly and I've never been able to track down a source for it. They're probably all made up.
  - mbell 13y ago
    It seems to me that the measurement here comes into question. What is a cup now vs what is a cup then? At what brew strength? etc.
  - anthuswilliams 13y ago
    When I first heard this claim, it was about the French author Honoré de Balzac. This claim about Voltaire makes me doubt both. I'm not saying that it's impossible to have two famous French writers habitually drinking an atypically obscene amount of coffee, just that it makes the claim seem more dubious.
vidarh 13y ago
Sounds exaggerated, unless he had insane tolerance levels or the coffee was very weak. Typically you count ca. 70mg for a cup of coffee, though of course it varies a lot with type. If we assume 50mg, that's 2500mg... For comparison, weight lifting supplements tends to max out at about 400mg, and from experience if you take those amounts and then don't do a hard workout, you're bouncing off the walls and it's horrible. I find it hard to imagine effectively spacing out 2500mg in a way that'd leave me focused rather than jittery as hell, despite a very high tolerance level, and without wrecking any hope of decent sleep.... Then again, tolerance levels for caffeine varies greatly - at one point I'd often drink a red bull right before sleep.

trumbitta2 13y ago

Recently I woke up no more able to hear anything from my left ear. My hearing has always been higher than most people's. Long story short, as part of the cure, the otolaryngologist prohibited me to even smell caffeinated coffee for like forever. I instantly switched to decaffeinated coffee. The one I drink has half the caffeine it must have to be legally said to be decaffeinated. I didn't experience a single effect of caffeine deprivation. Not a single time. All in all, I don't think caffeine is a drug like others. I think is a drug to someone, and it isn't to someone else.

kayoone 13y ago
Ugh, did your hearing recover ?
- trumbitta2 13y ago
  It did, fortunately. Thanks for asking :) It was a mini-stroke to a tiny blood vessel in the internal ear, that's why no more caffeine... Now, when I get the rare glass (250ml) of coke like once per month with pizza, I also get some minutes of pain to the ears and feel very very stupid XD

phatbyte 13y ago

What's life without a little addiction ? ;) Coffee is small dosages is not bad for you, many studies say that in fact it's healthy in a long term. In my case, I drink my morning black coffee, and one espresso after lunch and another after dinner. It fixes my daily "addiction" and I don't see it interfering in my life like an actual drug would, say cigars/alcohol/etc..

Retric 13y ago
It's really hard to separate if it's small amounts of coffee that's useful or the brain chemistry / lifestyle of people who drink small amounts of coffee regularly.
staticfish 13y ago
""actual drug""
staticfish 13y ago
""actual drug""

karpathy 13y ago

I was hoping that the article would also mention some approximate amounts you have to drink per day to start to get withdrawal effects. Are there no studies of this? As one personal data point, I drink 2-4 cups daily and a few months ago I decided to suddenly stop just to see what happens. The results were very unexciting: I felt nothing. No headaches, no fogginess, no significant loss of alertness (although I did need more time to "warm up" in the morning from my groggy morning states). Otherwise I felt normal and after a week of unexciting I just went back to drinking coffee because it tastes good and works when you need it. At least from my personal study then, it seems 2-4 cups daily is not enough to get any adverse effects.

abrowne 13y ago
I tried the same thing with the same results. Me: 1–3 cups coffee and/or tea.
spankalee 13y ago
Good point. I drink about 1-3 cups a day, and wonder sometimes how dependent my energy and mood is on caffeine. I _think_ I feel groggy without a morning cup, but I'm too lazy or unconcerned to track how I feel, how much I drink and factors like sleep very closely. I'd love to read more about studies on this, I'm sure they're out there.
nashequilibrium 13y ago
I 200mg caffeine table before morning workout. Then a total of 3 to 4 cups of coffee. I can drop the coffee and move to tea, go without coffee(especially on weekend get ways) and still have no withdrawals.
- bpatrianakos 13y ago
  Tea is just as caffeinated, if not more caffienated than coffee. So what you're doing is no different than quitting Red Bull and switching to Monster without withdrawal. Some teas are decaf but in general the most common teas are caffienated. Even most decaf things are low or almost free of caffeine but not totally. I suggest you try quitting coffee and tea together and seeing how you feel.

shekyboy 13y ago

That is why I created this http://www.getjumpstart.me/ http://www.getjumpstart.me/ We had our baby girl earlier this year, which led to sleepless nights and several cups of coffee during the day. My dad who has been practicing yoga for decades recommended a different route, which involved a 10 minute session involving deep breathing. One thing led to the other and we built this app to help everyone who may have this problem. Sorry for the shameless plug but seemed very topical.

shekyboy 13y ago
Currently the app works with FB login. Rookie mistake on my part. Update is in the works to enable email only option

NDizzle 13y ago

Neat article. I'd like to hear about the next step in the process. Why Aspirin cures the caffeine headache, but something like Tylenol will not.

thinkersilver 13y ago

It would also be interesting to see research on coffee's effect on a wide range of personality types. I've quit and haven't used in ~19months. Back then I'd drink 3-4 espresso's a day. Quitting was one of the most unpleasant and unbalancing experiences of my life. I kept a log of headaches, moods and fatigue before and after going cold turkey; and it was a long while (months) before the fogginess, tiredness, muscle spasms and irritability became manageable. The rush and withdrawal effects of coffee on individuals seems to me to differ widely. I have friends that only got a slight barely notable buzz from it, but for me, I got the buzz, pleasure and motivation from my morning espresso. It was my on switch. I think when I began to realise my psychological dependency was a bit unusual, was when I noticed how jittery and restless I was before my morning espresso. The first sip would correct that and bring with it a strange zen-like calm; the hustle and bustle of the day would dim to a dull hum and I would regain my presence of mind and I could function again. I promptly decided to quit.

Dewie 13y ago

The article doesn't seem to mention whether coffee is healthy or not. One thing is if it is addictive, but if it is healthy (or even if it just isn't unhealthy), I've got to ask... so what if it is addictive? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTVE5iPMKLg

aestra 13y ago
I am sure that it is dependent on the individual. I know some people who can't have caffeine due to various health reasons and others can't tolorrate the effects.

drakeandrews 13y ago

Interestingly, I've found that a significant part of my own addiction is behavioural. If (for whatever reason), I know I'm not going to be able to drink tea for a few days, as long as I have something to replace it with that has an appropriate amount of ceremony to it I don't really exhibit the withdrawal symptoms the article mentions. On the other hand, if I just try and stop I feel useless for about a week (possibly longer, I've only stopped for that long once).

zmmmmm 13y ago

I've always maintained a strict rule that I don't drink any caffeine after midday, preferably not after about 11am. The theory being, this leaves my brain without caffeine for at least half of its time, which should thus prevent the brain modifications from setting in. However I've never had anyone confirm this is a valid approach, but it seems to work ok as far as I can tell.

keeperofdakeys 13y ago
I don't think this would stop it. However, the caffeine would be out of your system by the time you are going to sleep, so you would be able to sleep well.

eeeeeeeeeeeee 13y ago

I drink 2-4 cups of caffeinated coffee each day and I really don't have any problems. I drink Red Bull every now and then, too. On days that I don't have caffeine I do feel "sluggish" but it's not awful. I enjoy the ritual of drinking coffee plus the taste. I don't have any problems sleeping unless I have caffeine very late in the day. I get a solid 7-8 hours of sleep each day without any problems. So, I don't really see the reason to quit caffeine.

magoon 13y ago

As I read this article and thought to myself, "hmm maybe I should go cold-turkey for a couple weeks" since I certainly have been building up a tolerance, I got an alert for this email (I can't make this up): From: My Starbucks Rewards <Starbucks@e.starbucks.com> Subj: The next one's on us. In fact, it's already on your Starbucks Card.

jacques_chester 13y ago
No need to go cold turkey. Progressively substitute decaf for regular. If you have you own espresso machine, this is pretty easy to do over the course of a few weeks.

rbsn 13y ago

I generally don't drink coffee because it makes your breath smell. It is really awful when you're talking to colleagues or clients with "coffee breathe".

zxcvvcxz 13y ago

This raises a very interesting question: what is an optimal stimulant (or stimulant enabler) dosage routine? I think it's clear that in the short term something like caffeine is a net positive. But how do we mitigate negative longer-term effects like tolerance and dependency? Every week I take a "detox day" - typically Sunday. I cut out caffeine and generally add a fair bit of exercise (preferably 45 mins of cardio). I find this helps cleanse and reset my system. I also free-run my sleep on the weekends, further helping to "reset" everything. My logic here is that I can be stimulated for most of the week while taking a day to undo any longer-term effects that may be done (such as the increase in adenosine receptors). As a result I try not too schedule anything too important on detox day, as I'm a bit less sharp mentally. I actually don't mind working then - the only effect is that it takes longer to "warm up". It's the social obligations where I want to make sure I have that extra little kick ;) I've been interested in supplementing with modafinil for a while, but I refuse to do so just yet on the grounds that we don't understand how it works well enough. That, and since the drug is relatively new we don't have studies on long-term effects. As much as I love stimulant-enablers and mental optimization, I refuse to do so at the risk of my health.

virtualwhys 13y ago

Recently I cut my normal coffee intake (2 very strong 16oz cups per day) to a single mild 8oz cup in the morning. Suddenly I was depressed, like meaning had been swept out from under me, not to mention a 2 day headache. On the 3rd day the clouds broke and I started to feel much better, better than the best of days high as a kite on caffeine. Have more energy, less irritable, sleep better, etc. I'll be surprised if I go back to previous levels, seems incredibly unhealthy from the less is more side of the fence.

DigitalSea 13y ago

I quit drinking any caffeine for a week once, an experience I won't forget any time soon. I think some have varying degree of withdrawal symptoms but I recall a couple of days in having one of the worse migraines I have ever experienced, if I moved my head it hurt, blinked or even chewed my head would ache. I got hand tremors, I became incredibly fatigued and somewhat antisocial as well. After a week I returned to normal but have since started drinking coffee and tea again as it is hard to not drink any of those (especially client meetings). So it's definitely an addiction, one that your body is quite dependent on. Although even though I tried to stop drinking, I never once had the urge to make a tea or coffee, it's weird in that caffeine addiction seems to be one of those things we don't feel like we need and more of just a habitual need if anything. I never got to the point in my week detox where I felt like killing people for a caffeine fix or stealing from loved ones. It's surprisingly hard to avoid caffeine, it's in more things than most people realise. It's in soft drink, it's in chocolate, a lot of decaf coffee still has low levels of caffeine. While if you want to live a life without, tea, coffee and chocolate you might mostly avoid ingesting caffeine, lets be realistic, it's unavoidable...

aptwebapps 13y ago
When I have coffee or tea on a regular schedule and it's interrupted I get mild but irritating headaches. This was happening a lot a while ago and I got sick of it and quit. I was only drinking that much of it at the time so my withdrawal wasn't too bad, although I'm sure there's individual variation as well. Now that I don't have it on a regular basis, I'll have a small cup of weak tea if I'm tired and have a lot of work. The effect of even a small amount is immense when you don't use it regularly. I can have it at about two in the afternoon and I'll still be alert way past my bedtime. The only problem with is tea or coffee smells so good when someone else is having some ...

dustyleary 13y ago

I'm surprised to see the caffeine withdrawal horror stories: I drink what I think is a lot of caffeine. I just counted what I've had today, a normal day in terms of caffeine: 1 cup of aeropress coffee in the morning, which I make very dark/thick, so it might count as 2 cups, perhaps more, of "normal" coffee... And since the morning, another 9 shots of espresso, and a couple of cans of coke zero. When I go off of caffeine, I get a mild headache for a few days to a week, and that's it. . One mildly interesting story: I used to play a lot of counterstrike, at relatively high levels, but below 'pro'. Once, I went off of caffeine, and went through the withdrawal. During withdrawal, my counterstrike ability worsened. After withdrawal, I was noticeably better than I had been when on caffeine. But, when I finally went back on caffeine, I was on a whole new level. Opponents that I had trouble with before were almost comically easy to beat. I can definitely see why caffeine is consider a PED for certain Olympic sports.

shire 13y ago

Who would want to quit drinking coffee? Can anyone give me some negative health outcomes of drinking coffee? Other than the coffee breath which is awful.

Tomis02 13y ago
Among others it can lead to heart problems, as experienced by a relative of mine after 20 years of drinking coffee. So good luck with that. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee#Risks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_coffee#Risks

sdfjkl 13y ago

What I would like to know is, is caffeine consumption a zero-sum game? I.e. assuming you consume a constant amount of the stuff (let's say two cups of coffee a day), once your brain has adapted to this intake, is there any advantage in the habit compared to me never drinking any? Or does it effectively make your now adapted mind work just like if you had never consumed any caffeine at all? I've gone clean a few times now, and the effects and time-frame given in the article seem head-on. I have a feeling that I function no worse without any caffeine than when i was drinking regular doses, except my mental performance is more even throughout the day (no spikes after a cup of latte and no tiredness in the evening after I stop drinking). Also, I sleep a lot better. Additionally, being completely off caffeine gives me a powerful tool strictly for emergency use - if I really need to drive all night without falling asleep at the wheel or push out a new release before going away for a week, one cup of coffee works like magic. I do reserve it for really important cases only, and made it a rule to not drink any for at least two weeks after that to clear up again.

jwilliams 13y ago
There is definitely a phenomenon of caffeine tolerance, but it seems complex and varies a lot with the individual. Caffeine is largely self-administered, so there is also situational tolerance. Even if you have some effect, you're conditioned to expect it. The two combined means perceived tolerance varies quite a lot. is there any advantage in the habit compared to me never drinking any? There is the enjoyment of it.

mordae 13y ago

When I drink caffeine, I got really upset stomach, end up with diarrhea, racing thoughts, loops, frequently inability to concentrate on the come down. I have a 250g bag of anhydrous caffeine powder. I always take some out with me in a plastic tube. If I can recommend something, it is not to swallow it. It quickly absorbs from the mouth and I perceive it to be much cleaner experience. Also, the duration is much shorter which makes it ideal to wake yourself up for the long way back home at night, but still does not prevent you falling asleep in an hour or so.

ytodo 13y ago

Bäh! That much of Ad`s in these postings... and i`m really O/T now... When you talk about Regular Coffeemachine, Coffeshops, Clubmate Energydrinks or at last Espresso my point is that you did`nt get the "coffee-thing" at all. Yes, prefered flavor and tastings are wide spread, and maybe i try too much of methods making coffee and too many different sorts of coffeebeans, during my life. When i told you that everything in life can be a zelebrated as a ceremony, an when you grind the beans slowly by hands, the whole room`s getting filled withe aroma of the beans, and then brewed the coffee by hand (only 2-3 cups per do) and yo combine the coffee with something from the time when you were a child and lots o work, and then settle back and savour your cup, than its more than paying bucks to commercially "coffee-to-go-energy-drinks" or whatever you suggest.