4 ms·

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/lif

by 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.
- vpeters25 13y ago
  I've done it several times. It takes me about 8 days to shake caffeine dependency. The first time was pretty hard, the next ones have been easier. I plan it a few weeks in advance usually starting a thursday so I get through the worst of it over a weekend. If I'm not taking vacation the following week I reduce it down to just work, food and lots of sleep.
arbuge 13y ago
I'm guessing that the pressure to put it in the DSM had something to do with being able to bill health insurers for drugs which help with the withdrawal symptoms...
- gruseom 13y ago
  Hmm, that at least sounds plausible. Usually when institutions appear to behave stupidly, the reasons are not so much stupid as non-obvious.
- stephengillie 13y ago
  You're probably very right. Unlike what GP posted, the DSM isn't the bible of psychology. In Basic Psychology in college, I learned that the DSM only exists to help insurance companies classify and bill the practices of psychologists.
  - dragonwriter 13y ago
    Which is pretty much backwards, it's written by the American Psychiatric Association, not the insurance industry; certainly it is relevant to insurance, but not it's not written to help insurance companies do anything; it's written to document the accepted clinical practice of the psychiatric community in order to (among other things) help the psychiatric community secure full reimbursement for clinically-appropriate care from insurance companies.
    - stephengillie 13y ago
      So you're saying it's a guide for psychiatrists to push bills to insurers, not pull bills from them?
AngrySkillzz 13y ago
Why is everyone calling it the "bible of psychiatry" now? I had never, ever heard that name until this year when the media ran a bunch of slam articles on the DSM V.
- gruseom 13y ago
  Because it's much shorter than "standard diagnostic manual" and means about the same thing. To say "the media ran a bunch of slam articles" gives the wrong impression, in my view. There is a wide and serious critique. When one of the loudest critics of DSM V is the chairman of DSM IV, that's more than a smear campaign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Frances http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Frances
ChuckMcM 13y ago
Fascinating. I drink a lot of caffeinated soda, and yes when I stop for an extended time I can feel the effects, the headache, the foggines. But in general in 48hrs its gone, I vacationed at a place in Hawaii that had no caffeine available left on Friday stayed for a week. By Nonday all "withdrawal symptoms" were gone. I subsequently went back a couple of times and 'prepped' by stopping caffeine intake two days before departure and felt fine for the whole trip. Long way of saying I suspect it would be challenging to apply for long term disability if you couldn't afford to buy/ingest caffeine :-)
doctorstupid 13y ago
That's so drugs can be prescribed for it. When you're addicted, you need a drug. When you kick the addiction, you'll need another drug.
tachyonbeam 13y ago
Possibly, they put this in the DSM because people often consult with many symptoms due to caffeine withdrawal, rather than any medical or psychiatric condition. They want to make sure that psychiatrists are aware of this and at least ask the patients about their caffeine consumption before making the wrong diagnosis.

by gruseom 13y ago

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.
vpeters25 13y ago
I've done it several times. It takes me about 8 days to shake caffeine dependency. The first time was pretty hard, the next ones have been easier. I plan it a few weeks in advance usually starting a thursday so I get through the worst of it over a weekend. If I'm not taking vacation the following week I reduce it down to just work, food and lots of sleep.

arbuge 13y ago

I'm guessing that the pressure to put it in the DSM had something to do with being able to bill health insurers for drugs which help with the withdrawal symptoms...

gruseom 13y ago
Hmm, that at least sounds plausible. Usually when institutions appear to behave stupidly, the reasons are not so much stupid as non-obvious.
stephengillie 13y ago
You're probably very right. Unlike what GP posted, the DSM isn't the bible of psychology. In Basic Psychology in college, I learned that the DSM only exists to help insurance companies classify and bill the practices of psychologists.
- dragonwriter 13y ago
  Which is pretty much backwards, it's written by the American Psychiatric Association, not the insurance industry; certainly it is relevant to insurance, but not it's not written to help insurance companies do anything; it's written to document the accepted clinical practice of the psychiatric community in order to (among other things) help the psychiatric community secure full reimbursement for clinically-appropriate care from insurance companies.
  - stephengillie 13y ago
    So you're saying it's a guide for psychiatrists to push bills to insurers, not pull bills from them?

AngrySkillzz 13y ago

Why is everyone calling it the "bible of psychiatry" now? I had never, ever heard that name until this year when the media ran a bunch of slam articles on the DSM V.

gruseom 13y ago
Because it's much shorter than "standard diagnostic manual" and means about the same thing. To say "the media ran a bunch of slam articles" gives the wrong impression, in my view. There is a wide and serious critique. When one of the loudest critics of DSM V is the chairman of DSM IV, that's more than a smear campaign. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Frances http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_Frances

ChuckMcM 13y ago

Fascinating. I drink a lot of caffeinated soda, and yes when I stop for an extended time I can feel the effects, the headache, the foggines. But in general in 48hrs its gone, I vacationed at a place in Hawaii that had no caffeine available left on Friday stayed for a week. By Nonday all "withdrawal symptoms" were gone. I subsequently went back a couple of times and 'prepped' by stopping caffeine intake two days before departure and felt fine for the whole trip. Long way of saying I suspect it would be challenging to apply for long term disability if you couldn't afford to buy/ingest caffeine :-)

doctorstupid 13y ago

That's so drugs can be prescribed for it. When you're addicted, you need a drug. When you kick the addiction, you'll need another drug.

tachyonbeam 13y ago

Possibly, they put this in the DSM because people often consult with many symptoms due to caffeine withdrawal, rather than any medical or psychiatric condition. They want to make sure that psychiatrists are aware of this and at least ask the patients about their caffeine consumption before making the wrong diagnosis.