This article (and it's second part) couldn't have come at a more helpful time. I have such an unhealthy relationship with caffeine (and sugary drinks in general), that I would literally go days without drinking any water. If it didn't come from a 7-11 or a coffee machine, I wasn't going to drink it.
Just this week, I decided to quit cold turkey, and drink nothing but water, and it has been eye opening. I didn't realize how much I depended on the drinks to get me through the day. But going just-water is definitely the only way I could have done this. Something about knowing I have nothing to look forward to besides water helps me just drink water, instead of waiting until I can find some energy drinks, and getting dehydrated in the process.
Not everyone is going to have as unhealthy relationship with caffeine as me, but I'm hoping my kidneys and gut will thank me. I know 22 year olds seldom suffer from heart attacks, but I'm not going to be 22 forever, so might as well start now.
I would literally go days without drinking any water.
The idea of that is horrifying. I can't imagine voluntarily putting myself through that in the absence of some sort of extreme drought situation. Personally, I'd be miserable without 64 - 128oz of water first thing in the morning. I've long suspected that a lot of people who think they're addicted to caffeine are really just chronically dehydrated.
I think there's a lot of truth in that. The most surprising thing to me has been how much water I've been drinking. Around 3 quarters of a gallon a day, which is far more than I would drink of anything before. And I think that will have a whole bunch of benefits beyond just the lack of caffeine.
I think I was less caffeine addicted, and more sugary-caffeinated drinks addicted.
I used to not drink coffee, joined the high-end VFX industry, started to drink a lot, e.g., 3 big dark mugs at work each day. We had top-of-the-line espresso machines and great coffee so it was easy. Something I noticed is that on weekends, I had systematically huge migraines, those were soothed by drinking more coffee...
The issue is that caffeine has a vaso-constricting effect on blood vessels [1], which then, when they re-expand by lack of caffeine creates the migraines.
One day, I decided to stop, I had an horrible week, constant migraines, it eventually stopped and I never really had coffee since then. Only 2 times during conditions where I needed which added the benefit that the caffeine had a really strong effect then.
I'm certainly missing the taste and ritual, so I replaced coffee with green tea, not as good but no migraines!
I'm very sensitive to caffeine and get jittery and anxious around the 80mg mark. But I also adore coffee and keep ramping up. Eventually I'm at 240mg per day and can't actually function, I'm just a terrible person that doesn't sleep much at night. I really wish we'd make caffeine harder to get :D
Speaking of which, time to cycle down. Back to tea or water.
personally I've found the best way to go cold turkey is when you have a cold or the flu.
if you're going to feel like shit you might as well have something to blame it on and once you finally get over it you'll feel good enough to not worry about the lingering withdrawals
The author went old turkey. That is rough. For me going cold turkey caused massive headaches. I cut out caffeine a decade ago. It was a haphazard affair. I wanted to improve my sleep, so I started limiting my intake by stopping in the afternoon. At the same time I started having anxiety and panic attacks in the morning before my first dose. It was so bad I lost 10 pounds. That’s when I started to figure out “hey this might be a problem”. Over the course of a month I reduced my caffeine intake to zero. No headaches. Panic attacks went away. Ymmv.
Congrats on quitting, even for something considered "mild" like caffeine it's not easy. I had the same issue with headaches so I scaled down by mixing increasing ratios of decaf in my coffee grounds over a couple months, starting with just 25% decaf. The gradual reduction in potency was barely noticeable. Once you get to 75% decaf you're basically drinking full decaf already (decaf usually still has like 10% of the normal caffeine content) and I had no ill effects from quitting completely after that. If you subsequently decide to relapse with decaf or half-caf it's also much easier to quit again.
I did the cold turkey thing too. No headaches, but what did happen was day 1 I was groggy but functional. Day 2 I was just so unbelievably sleepy, I took the day off work and slept all day. Then all night, and most the next day. By day 4 the sleepiness was wearing off but wow, I was hit with an adenosine freight train. I have had aches in some big muscle groups like my quads, it felt like the day after running a marathon with no training. Turns out this is a known (though not very common) side effect of caffeine withdrawal. It took about 10 days before I felt more or less normal again.
I drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day. Mostly espresso drinks.
There are/were times where I travel or go camping and stopped taking coffee. Other than maybe a very mild headache the first day there weren't any issues.
I enjoy the taste, the rituals, and the temporary boost. But I know I'm addicted ;) There are lots of articles about how it's a good thing but I'm pretty sure it has some impact (not always positive) on my mood.
I’ve gone off coffee for months at a time as a test, but to be honest it’s about the same for me on vs off after the adjustment period.
When I go off, after the headaches, I get good sleep without trying, but so do I on coffee if I have my last one no later than 1pm (where good == 7 hours).
And a proper flat white is so, so good. Therefore I accept my addiction and have two a day!
I quit for a month, 15 years ago and I just hated how it felt like I lost my intellectual curiosity.
I can completely relate with Paul Erdos on quitting stimulants "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person"
Instead of my mind always racing with all these ideas I had this quiet, calm, boring mind.
I used to drink a few cups of coffee a day. I've been completely off caffeine for several years now. It's at a point where a single chocolate chip cookie will have me wired for an hour. I occasionally fantasize about the effects that a cup of full strength coffee would provide. This drug is very powerful when used sparingly. It's easy to forget what it used to be like when you're drinking 2+ cups every day for years on end.
I used to drink what was probably an unhealthy amount of caffeine on a daily basis. Not out of any discernible addiction, more as a thing to do that mildly improved my focus and tasted good. I got cut off for the day by the coffee bar at work one time after having an iced latte with 10 shots of espresso, which itself was after a few other drinks IIRC.
It's probably been a decade or so at this point since I've consumed caffeine with any regularity, but on the odd occasion that I do have a cup or two of coffee, I wouldn't say the effect is particularly remarkable. I guess it just affects everyone differently.
I drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day (or double espressos) and have done so for about 20 years. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up is drink coffee. When we had our first child over three years ago, my wife said she wanted me to stop drinking coffee for a few months so I could nap on demand. I quit cold turkey. It was fine. Several months later I went back to drinking coffee and it was still fine. There was definitely a noticeable difference but nothing like you're talking about.
Everyone's sensitivity to caffeine is different. For example, if I miss my one 8 oz. cup each morning, I have a massive headache by 1:15pm.
When work picks up, like a big project, I might increase my intake to a larger 12oz or 16 oz coffee per day, but then I'll end up sustaining that too long after the project ends.
After a while, I'll do a cold turkey reset to zero caffeine. It takes 4 days and about 800mg of Ibuprofen each day to make it through the headaches. Luckily no other withdrawal symptoms.
I have friends that only drink coffee on weekdays... I don't get how that can be done! For me, coffee is preventative medicine.
As you said, everyone is different. I drink coffee (~2 shots of espresso) almost at the exact same time every morning. Then again after lunch.
There's basically zero impact if I miss the morning one.
I've done multiple stretches of not drinking coffee (weeks/months), with also basically no noticeable changes: not more or less tired, no change in sleep, etc.
Huh. Your comment made me realize something weird: if I drink coffee in the afternoon or evening I have a hard time falling asleep at night... but I can almost always do a little daytime nap, say at noon when I've drank my customary two cups of morning coffee
I've quit a couple times and always get those symptoms. At the very least id get massive headaches. Also if you're drinking that much is it very weak coffee? I'd use a mocha pot
Think the author's case is extreme and so is his remedy.. For most that drink 3-4 cups a day or so there's no need to stop imho.
There's numerous benefits that keep appearing in medical lit, including protection vs atrial defibrillation, stomach cancer etc.
For me I stopped briefly during bad bout of gastritis with all the withdrawal symptoms listed but have resumed since. No known bad effects so far. Yes my tummy is not in ideal condition but that's due to other vices like alcohol.
I reduced my coffee intake gradually back in ‘21-‘22down to just green tea in the morning. I did not notice any real changes in my life aside from two points. I took longer to ramp up productivity and alertness in the mornings. I also now eased into my “go to bed” routine at night whereas on coffee it was a much more dramatic crash. We ended up having our first kid mid-‘22, and I got back on the java wagon. Of all potential vices, this one certainly feel lightweight. I just don’t drink it after Noon.
I actually intentionally stopped drinking caffeine when we had kids. Long nights of little to no sleep made me absolutely not want to mess with my sleep cycle any more. I started drinking tea once the kids got older and sleep was once again regular.
For me caffeine is something to enhance my well rested self. Not something to make my body ignore important signals regarding rest.
I stopped drinking caffeine in my everydays, reserving it for occasions that are more meaningful to me, like a weekend of chores around the house, or going out to a party.
Drinking it every day makes me a bit jittery and anxious, and I feel that my employer doesn't deserve the increased productivity that it brings. Turns out that I get the same salary, even though I'm noticeably slower, less creative about my solutions, and less focused. In turn I'm steadier, more thorough. A good tradeoff, especially on a personal level, and I don't miss it at all, even though I was drinking 4-5 coffees as day in my "prime".
I also quit "cold turkey", like the author. Headaches on days 3-7 or so, which I managed with a low dose of paracetamol. They weren't too bad, but I tolerate headaches really badly :)
I used to get chronic headaches all through high school. I exclusively drank Mt Dew. When I got to college I was too lazy/cheap to actually go buy soda for my dorm, so I inadvertently went cold turkey. I had a headache for about a week, then after that, my years of chronic headaches were solved.
I went a good 10-15 years without a drop of soda and I’ve never had coffee. The only caffeine I got would have been a little from chocolate, which was never eaten for the caffeine. More recently I’ll have the occasional soda, typically only if I’m sick. I’ll have a Dr Pepper.
I am lucky enough to get regular palpitations. I read that caffeine can make them worse, so I stopped for a few months. They got worse. Talked to my Dr about it and he said yeah, sometimes it doesn't work like you'd think.
(Along the same lines, actually, I also made my palpitations much worse this year by dramatically improving my physical fitness. Turns out that slow heart rate for me means more palpitations. Heart rates above ~70 means almost no palpitations. Something about overdrive, but I am not an expert.)
So at least I don't have to give up my caffeine ;-)
> Question Does consumption of caffeinated coffee have a beneficial, detrimental, or neutral effect on the risk of recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF) episodes?
> Findings In this multicenter randomized clinical trial including 200 patients with persistent AF undergoing cardioversion, the risk of recurrent AF was significantly lower in the group allocated to coffee consumption (47%) compared with the abstinence group (64%).
In my penultimate year I was struggling under a huge lecture and lab workload, working at the weekends, and partying too.
I developed stomach pain and went to the campus doctor, who sent me off to A&E (ER) with suspected appendicitis. My appendix was fine, but the doctors thought I might have a stomach ulcer. I discharged myself early to get back to the library, so never actually got a diagnosis!
I was drinking 3-4 cups of coffee and ~500mL knock-off Red Bull a day, eating a poor diet, and then drinking alcohol in the evenings. I went cold turkey and spent an entire weekend in bed with the worst headache imaginable.
I think I managed a few months before cracking and getting back on coffee. I quit cold turkey again a couple of times but in recent years I titrated off of it by gradually changing ratio of caffeinated to decaffeinated beans in my coffee at home. I drink 1 - 2 small cups a day now.
I've been off of all forms of caffeine for about 40 years. I was thoroughly addicted to it, and in my 20's, I was drinking about six cups of coffee per day. It took me three tries to kick the habit, and the final time I quit (all cold turkey), I felt like a heroin addict (I assume). I had cold sweats, shakes, headache, and vomiting. I missed two days of work while recovering.
I'll never forget how awful I felt, and it's a constant reminder for me to never go back to caffeine. I make coffee for my wife every morning, and the smell is enticing, but I can easily resist. My wife is a zombie when she wakes up, and she really needs the coffee. She doesn't seem to have an issue with it, and usually has only one cup per day. Now when I wake up, I'm alert and ready to go.
Caffeine is difficult to avoid, and it's such a commonly used drug that most people do not give it a second thought.
Another interesting side effect I noticed while doing coffee was the poor quality of the code I had written on the previous day. I was doing embedded assembly (6809) at the time, and each morning, I would pick up where I left off and notice a ton of mistakes. It looked like I was high while I wrote the code. Under "normal" circumstances, my code is often error free, and requires minimal debug.
But you never had to quit - studies don't indicate that moderate caffeine consumption had negative health effect, even had unproven heart benefits (as a runner, it certainly doesn't make me slower). And I don't think this is the result of "Big Coffee" skewing the scientific consensus.
I quit (each time) because I didn't like the withdrawal symptoms I was having on the weekends, when I didn't get enough. I went back to it (each time) because everyone else was doing it, and it seemed so easily justifiable.
To each his (or her) own. I'm not an anti-caffeine zealot. If I was, I wouldn't have been married to my wife for over 30 years. I like the way I feel when I'm not on drugs, but I don't disparage those who do them.
Thank you, andsoitis, for returning to this blog post. I also appreciate all the comments here, especially folks telling their stories.
I should write a sequel now.
I'd drink 12-15 cups of coffee a day and start the day with 12 Oreo cookies and after I solve my first computer problem, usually in 15 minutes, I'd knock down another 12 Oreos. Now, its zero Oreos and one cup of coffee max a day, with many days, no coffee.
I cold turkeyed once and did not feel much except for the first few days, probably because I am not a heavy drinker.
However, I picked it up later because I always want to drink something with taste, and the mix of coffee, some milk and sometimes a bit of sugar does provide satisfaction without feeling the guity of gaining weight.
I got a headache when I had to show up fasted for a blood test. Didn’t like that at all so I got decaf for home morning coffee. I can drink whatever in the afternoon and now no headache when I fast for blood tests. Much happier about that outcome.
Stopping greatly reduced issues with my stiff neck and I also noticed that my hands are not nearly as cold as before. I drink black tea time to time, but it is nowhere near as addictive as coffee so I have no trouble with moderation.
I like to stop caffeine for a few days and then drink back, basically it feels so amazing drinking it that way because the effect that has on me, it's better than If I drink it everyday.
Someone who used to be a prolific commenter here, who was also an emergency medicine nurse(!), pointed out that for the most part, for long-term caffeine addicts, everything "good" about caffeine was simply the cessation of withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal cessation feels great! You can stay that way all the time if you like.
I had a rough bout of insomnia 10 years or so ago, and one of the things I did as a result was to cut caffeine completely. I thought it would be super hard to do. Maybe it was? I don't remember, it's been so long. I have no idea why I'd ever deliberately consume material amounts caffeine again.
I think it's probably a garbage drug. Whether it's strictly true or not that it has no beneficial effects once you're acclimated to it, telling myself that made quitting really easy, so I recommend just accepting the idea. There are better addictions to nurture.
I stopped caffeine in large part because of the culture around it. So many people treat it like a competition: who needs more before they can get started in the morning. Like some kind of perverse contest over who’s more addicted, as if that’s something to be proud of. Even this article starts the same way—a brag over how many pots they needed.
I adopted the perspective of treating it like a drug, and to use it for its benefits when appropriate.
I know lots of people who joke about it -- "haha not human until I've had my cup" -- but I've never been anywhere where people treat it like a competition.
Did you read the article? The opening statement points directly to this type of culture (not specifically at work, but in society in general), and your example of people joking about needing their first cup is part of the same. Other commenters in this thread allude to similar.
I’m a little surprised you haven’t been exposed to this type of bragging. (It’s very similar to people who brag about how much alcohol they can drink, which is a very common type of contest people have).
It had become increasingly clear to me over the last few years that my anxiety disorder was being massively exacerbated by caffeine. It took so long to figure this out because it takes 6-7 hours _after_ a single coffee for it to hit, and if I'm drinking coffee the whole time, I'm always a bit anxious, rather than an obvious cause-and-effect.
In April I tapered down to one espresso a day, and then half an espresso, and then finally nothing. I'm still drinking a _lot_ of decaf, which is helpful (although check your decaf, some is still caffeinated enough to not be worth the name).
Immediate symptoms from going to half an espresso to zero espressos a day was massive dysphoria and melancholy. Around week 4 I started Wellbutrin, which made it very hard to figure out my moods reliably until it had settled down. Around week 12, I was off caffeine and feeling like myself again except minus the anxiety.
I miss it. I have had, since then, I think 4 real espressos. It gives me a reliable energy boost, and makes me happy, but then 6-7 hours later, the anxiety I lived with most of my life is back until I nap, take a benzodiazepine, or wait it out 12 hours or so.
All this to say: if you have GAD, and still drink coffee, try not drinking coffee for a month, and see where you end up. I would describe myself as no longer having GAD, although I am still titrating down the (fairly effective) SSRI I was on to manage it.
I have never drunk coffee. However, I do take a very very small dose of caffeine pills. The pills are 200mg but I break them into tiny pieces and micro dose around noon with last dose around 3pm. Some days I take 100mg total, other days I take 200mg total. Another thing I do is eat proper food at same time because otherwise I become jittery.
I also cycle off caffeine or taper the doses every few months when I am travelling.
My stomach is solid.
Does anyone know if the acidity is from coffee or caffeine itself?
I am coming up on a year without caffeine like this guy. I was never addicted like he was, nor did I face severe health problems from it. I just noticed that the quality of my decision making went way down on caffeine. I was not able to prioritize things properly. I would feel strangely tired or lazy sometimes or way too energized. Now without caffeine, every day I feel stable, productive, and happy.
This article (and it's second part) couldn't have come at a more helpful time. I have such an unhealthy relationship with caffeine (and sugary drinks in general), that I would literally go days without drinking any water. If it didn't come from a 7-11 or a coffee machine, I wasn't going to drink it.
Just this week, I decided to quit cold turkey, and drink nothing but water, and it has been eye opening. I didn't realize how much I depended on the drinks to get me through the day. But going just-water is definitely the only way I could have done this. Something about knowing I have nothing to look forward to besides water helps me just drink water, instead of waiting until I can find some energy drinks, and getting dehydrated in the process.
Not everyone is going to have as unhealthy relationship with caffeine as me, but I'm hoping my kidneys and gut will thank me. I know 22 year olds seldom suffer from heart attacks, but I'm not going to be 22 forever, so might as well start now.
I would literally go days without drinking any water.
The idea of that is horrifying. I can't imagine voluntarily putting myself through that in the absence of some sort of extreme drought situation. Personally, I'd be miserable without 64 - 128oz of water first thing in the morning. I've long suspected that a lot of people who think they're addicted to caffeine are really just chronically dehydrated.
I think there's a lot of truth in that. The most surprising thing to me has been how much water I've been drinking. Around 3 quarters of a gallon a day, which is far more than I would drink of anything before. And I think that will have a whole bunch of benefits beyond just the lack of caffeine.
I think I was less caffeine addicted, and more sugary-caffeinated drinks addicted.
I used to not drink coffee, joined the high-end VFX industry, started to drink a lot, e.g., 3 big dark mugs at work each day. We had top-of-the-line espresso machines and great coffee so it was easy. Something I noticed is that on weekends, I had systematically huge migraines, those were soothed by drinking more coffee...
The issue is that caffeine has a vaso-constricting effect on blood vessels [1], which then, when they re-expand by lack of caffeine creates the migraines.
One day, I decided to stop, I had an horrible week, constant migraines, it eventually stopped and I never really had coffee since then. Only 2 times during conditions where I needed which added the benefit that the caffeine had a really strong effect then.
I'm certainly missing the taste and ritual, so I replaced coffee with green tea, not as good but no migraines!
1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2748160/
I'm very sensitive to caffeine and get jittery and anxious around the 80mg mark. But I also adore coffee and keep ramping up. Eventually I'm at 240mg per day and can't actually function, I'm just a terrible person that doesn't sleep much at night. I really wish we'd make caffeine harder to get :D
Speaking of which, time to cycle down. Back to tea or water.
Good luck.
The major plus of having low or zero baseline caffeine consumption is that when you really need a jolt, a single cup will have the desired effect!
personally I've found the best way to go cold turkey is when you have a cold or the flu.
if you're going to feel like shit you might as well have something to blame it on and once you finally get over it you'll feel good enough to not worry about the lingering withdrawals
The author went old turkey. That is rough. For me going cold turkey caused massive headaches. I cut out caffeine a decade ago. It was a haphazard affair. I wanted to improve my sleep, so I started limiting my intake by stopping in the afternoon. At the same time I started having anxiety and panic attacks in the morning before my first dose. It was so bad I lost 10 pounds. That’s when I started to figure out “hey this might be a problem”. Over the course of a month I reduced my caffeine intake to zero. No headaches. Panic attacks went away. Ymmv.
Congrats on quitting, even for something considered "mild" like caffeine it's not easy. I had the same issue with headaches so I scaled down by mixing increasing ratios of decaf in my coffee grounds over a couple months, starting with just 25% decaf. The gradual reduction in potency was barely noticeable. Once you get to 75% decaf you're basically drinking full decaf already (decaf usually still has like 10% of the normal caffeine content) and I had no ill effects from quitting completely after that. If you subsequently decide to relapse with decaf or half-caf it's also much easier to quit again.
I did the cold turkey thing too. No headaches, but what did happen was day 1 I was groggy but functional. Day 2 I was just so unbelievably sleepy, I took the day off work and slept all day. Then all night, and most the next day. By day 4 the sleepiness was wearing off but wow, I was hit with an adenosine freight train. I have had aches in some big muscle groups like my quads, it felt like the day after running a marathon with no training. Turns out this is a known (though not very common) side effect of caffeine withdrawal. It took about 10 days before I felt more or less normal again.
I drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day. Mostly espresso drinks.
There are/were times where I travel or go camping and stopped taking coffee. Other than maybe a very mild headache the first day there weren't any issues.
I enjoy the taste, the rituals, and the temporary boost. But I know I'm addicted ;) There are lots of articles about how it's a good thing but I'm pretty sure it has some impact (not always positive) on my mood.
I’ve gone off coffee for months at a time as a test, but to be honest it’s about the same for me on vs off after the adjustment period.
When I go off, after the headaches, I get good sleep without trying, but so do I on coffee if I have my last one no later than 1pm (where good == 7 hours).
And a proper flat white is so, so good. Therefore I accept my addiction and have two a day!
I quit for a month, 15 years ago and I just hated how it felt like I lost my intellectual curiosity.
I can completely relate with Paul Erdos on quitting stimulants "You've showed me I'm not an addict. But I didn't get any work done. I'd get up in the morning and stare at a blank piece of paper. I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person"
Instead of my mind always racing with all these ideas I had this quiet, calm, boring mind.
Never again!
Data point: Quitting in my 20s and 30s yielded headaches, but in my 40s and 50s quitting did not bring headaches.
(2013) At the time (76 points, 82 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5008593
Part 2 (231 points, 124 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017486
There's also a two-year follow-up: <https://bryanalexander.org/personal/two-years-without-caffei...>
(Posted to HN, but only two comments: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8791462>.)
I used to drink a few cups of coffee a day. I've been completely off caffeine for several years now. It's at a point where a single chocolate chip cookie will have me wired for an hour. I occasionally fantasize about the effects that a cup of full strength coffee would provide. This drug is very powerful when used sparingly. It's easy to forget what it used to be like when you're drinking 2+ cups every day for years on end.
I used to drink what was probably an unhealthy amount of caffeine on a daily basis. Not out of any discernible addiction, more as a thing to do that mildly improved my focus and tasted good. I got cut off for the day by the coffee bar at work one time after having an iced latte with 10 shots of espresso, which itself was after a few other drinks IIRC.
It's probably been a decade or so at this point since I've consumed caffeine with any regularity, but on the odd occasion that I do have a cup or two of coffee, I wouldn't say the effect is particularly remarkable. I guess it just affects everyone differently.
I'll never get back into daily morning caffeine. If anyone sees me doing this again regularly, you can just slap me. :)
I try to keep it to once or twice a week at most, and around lunch time, as I still like coffee. But this way you don't build a dependence.
This year I quit cold turkey and holy crap, night sweats, panic attacks, flu like symptoms for several days.
I drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day (or double espressos) and have done so for about 20 years. Usually the first thing I do when I wake up is drink coffee. When we had our first child over three years ago, my wife said she wanted me to stop drinking coffee for a few months so I could nap on demand. I quit cold turkey. It was fine. Several months later I went back to drinking coffee and it was still fine. There was definitely a noticeable difference but nothing like you're talking about.
Everyone's sensitivity to caffeine is different. For example, if I miss my one 8 oz. cup each morning, I have a massive headache by 1:15pm.
When work picks up, like a big project, I might increase my intake to a larger 12oz or 16 oz coffee per day, but then I'll end up sustaining that too long after the project ends.
After a while, I'll do a cold turkey reset to zero caffeine. It takes 4 days and about 800mg of Ibuprofen each day to make it through the headaches. Luckily no other withdrawal symptoms.
I have friends that only drink coffee on weekdays... I don't get how that can be done! For me, coffee is preventative medicine.
As you said, everyone is different. I drink coffee (~2 shots of espresso) almost at the exact same time every morning. Then again after lunch.
There's basically zero impact if I miss the morning one.
I've done multiple stretches of not drinking coffee (weeks/months), with also basically no noticeable changes: not more or less tired, no change in sleep, etc.
Huh. Your comment made me realize something weird: if I drink coffee in the afternoon or evening I have a hard time falling asleep at night... but I can almost always do a little daytime nap, say at noon when I've drank my customary two cups of morning coffee
People's sensitivities are weird
I've quit a couple times and always get those symptoms. At the very least id get massive headaches. Also if you're drinking that much is it very weak coffee? I'd use a mocha pot
Think the author's case is extreme and so is his remedy.. For most that drink 3-4 cups a day or so there's no need to stop imho.
There's numerous benefits that keep appearing in medical lit, including protection vs atrial defibrillation, stomach cancer etc.
For me I stopped briefly during bad bout of gastritis with all the withdrawal symptoms listed but have resumed since. No known bad effects so far. Yes my tummy is not in ideal condition but that's due to other vices like alcohol.
Ymmv
I reduced my coffee intake gradually back in ‘21-‘22down to just green tea in the morning. I did not notice any real changes in my life aside from two points. I took longer to ramp up productivity and alertness in the mornings. I also now eased into my “go to bed” routine at night whereas on coffee it was a much more dramatic crash. We ended up having our first kid mid-‘22, and I got back on the java wagon. Of all potential vices, this one certainly feel lightweight. I just don’t drink it after Noon.
I actually intentionally stopped drinking caffeine when we had kids. Long nights of little to no sleep made me absolutely not want to mess with my sleep cycle any more. I started drinking tea once the kids got older and sleep was once again regular.
For me caffeine is something to enhance my well rested self. Not something to make my body ignore important signals regarding rest.
I stopped drinking caffeine in my everydays, reserving it for occasions that are more meaningful to me, like a weekend of chores around the house, or going out to a party.
Drinking it every day makes me a bit jittery and anxious, and I feel that my employer doesn't deserve the increased productivity that it brings. Turns out that I get the same salary, even though I'm noticeably slower, less creative about my solutions, and less focused. In turn I'm steadier, more thorough. A good tradeoff, especially on a personal level, and I don't miss it at all, even though I was drinking 4-5 coffees as day in my "prime".
I also quit "cold turkey", like the author. Headaches on days 3-7 or so, which I managed with a low dose of paracetamol. They weren't too bad, but I tolerate headaches really badly :)
I used to get chronic headaches all through high school. I exclusively drank Mt Dew. When I got to college I was too lazy/cheap to actually go buy soda for my dorm, so I inadvertently went cold turkey. I had a headache for about a week, then after that, my years of chronic headaches were solved.
I went a good 10-15 years without a drop of soda and I’ve never had coffee. The only caffeine I got would have been a little from chocolate, which was never eaten for the caffeine. More recently I’ll have the occasional soda, typically only if I’m sick. I’ll have a Dr Pepper.
I am lucky enough to get regular palpitations. I read that caffeine can make them worse, so I stopped for a few months. They got worse. Talked to my Dr about it and he said yeah, sometimes it doesn't work like you'd think.
(Along the same lines, actually, I also made my palpitations much worse this year by dramatically improving my physical fitness. Turns out that slow heart rate for me means more palpitations. Heart rates above ~70 means almost no palpitations. Something about overdrive, but I am not an expert.)
So at least I don't have to give up my caffeine ;-)
This study was doing the rounds last week.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/28412...
> Question Does consumption of caffeinated coffee have a beneficial, detrimental, or neutral effect on the risk of recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF) episodes?
> Findings In this multicenter randomized clinical trial including 200 patients with persistent AF undergoing cardioversion, the risk of recurrent AF was significantly lower in the group allocated to coffee consumption (47%) compared with the abstinence group (64%).
Thank you! I’ve noticed exactly this…more palpitations when I don’t drink coffee. Two cups a day keep the palpitations away.
Reminds me of "In which things get worse"
https://wondermark.com/c/389/
I had a similar experience as an undergraduate.
In my penultimate year I was struggling under a huge lecture and lab workload, working at the weekends, and partying too.
I developed stomach pain and went to the campus doctor, who sent me off to A&E (ER) with suspected appendicitis. My appendix was fine, but the doctors thought I might have a stomach ulcer. I discharged myself early to get back to the library, so never actually got a diagnosis!
I was drinking 3-4 cups of coffee and ~500mL knock-off Red Bull a day, eating a poor diet, and then drinking alcohol in the evenings. I went cold turkey and spent an entire weekend in bed with the worst headache imaginable.
I think I managed a few months before cracking and getting back on coffee. I quit cold turkey again a couple of times but in recent years I titrated off of it by gradually changing ratio of caffeinated to decaffeinated beans in my coffee at home. I drink 1 - 2 small cups a day now.
Might give quitting a go again.
A great timeless article.
I've been off of all forms of caffeine for about 40 years. I was thoroughly addicted to it, and in my 20's, I was drinking about six cups of coffee per day. It took me three tries to kick the habit, and the final time I quit (all cold turkey), I felt like a heroin addict (I assume). I had cold sweats, shakes, headache, and vomiting. I missed two days of work while recovering.
I'll never forget how awful I felt, and it's a constant reminder for me to never go back to caffeine. I make coffee for my wife every morning, and the smell is enticing, but I can easily resist. My wife is a zombie when she wakes up, and she really needs the coffee. She doesn't seem to have an issue with it, and usually has only one cup per day. Now when I wake up, I'm alert and ready to go.
Caffeine is difficult to avoid, and it's such a commonly used drug that most people do not give it a second thought.
Another interesting side effect I noticed while doing coffee was the poor quality of the code I had written on the previous day. I was doing embedded assembly (6809) at the time, and each morning, I would pick up where I left off and notice a ton of mistakes. It looked like I was high while I wrote the code. Under "normal" circumstances, my code is often error free, and requires minimal debug.
But you never had to quit - studies don't indicate that moderate caffeine consumption had negative health effect, even had unproven heart benefits (as a runner, it certainly doesn't make me slower). And I don't think this is the result of "Big Coffee" skewing the scientific consensus.
I quit (each time) because I didn't like the withdrawal symptoms I was having on the weekends, when I didn't get enough. I went back to it (each time) because everyone else was doing it, and it seemed so easily justifiable.
Well that's an easy fix, just brew them on weekends too. Life is not just work and also deserve to be caffeinated.
To each his (or her) own. I'm not an anti-caffeine zealot. If I was, I wouldn't have been married to my wife for over 30 years. I like the way I feel when I'm not on drugs, but I don't disparage those who do them.
Thank you, andsoitis, for returning to this blog post. I also appreciate all the comments here, especially folks telling their stories. I should write a sequel now.
I'd drink 12-15 cups of coffee a day and start the day with 12 Oreo cookies and after I solve my first computer problem, usually in 15 minutes, I'd knock down another 12 Oreos. Now, its zero Oreos and one cup of coffee max a day, with many days, no coffee.
I cold turkeyed once and did not feel much except for the first few days, probably because I am not a heavy drinker.
However, I picked it up later because I always want to drink something with taste, and the mix of coffee, some milk and sometimes a bit of sugar does provide satisfaction without feeling the guity of gaining weight.
I got a headache when I had to show up fasted for a blood test. Didn’t like that at all so I got decaf for home morning coffee. I can drink whatever in the afternoon and now no headache when I fast for blood tests. Much happier about that outcome.
Stopping greatly reduced issues with my stiff neck and I also noticed that my hands are not nearly as cold as before. I drink black tea time to time, but it is nowhere near as addictive as coffee so I have no trouble with moderation.
I get a stiff neck and cold hands sometimes, do I need to give up coffee now?!
I like to stop caffeine for a few days and then drink back, basically it feels so amazing drinking it that way because the effect that has on me, it's better than If I drink it everyday.
Someone who used to be a prolific commenter here, who was also an emergency medicine nurse(!), pointed out that for the most part, for long-term caffeine addicts, everything "good" about caffeine was simply the cessation of withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal cessation feels great! You can stay that way all the time if you like.
I had a rough bout of insomnia 10 years or so ago, and one of the things I did as a result was to cut caffeine completely. I thought it would be super hard to do. Maybe it was? I don't remember, it's been so long. I have no idea why I'd ever deliberately consume material amounts caffeine again.
I think it's probably a garbage drug. Whether it's strictly true or not that it has no beneficial effects once you're acclimated to it, telling myself that made quitting really easy, so I recommend just accepting the idea. There are better addictions to nurture.
I stopped caffeine in large part because of the culture around it. So many people treat it like a competition: who needs more before they can get started in the morning. Like some kind of perverse contest over who’s more addicted, as if that’s something to be proud of. Even this article starts the same way—a brag over how many pots they needed.
I adopted the perspective of treating it like a drug, and to use it for its benefits when appropriate.
where did you work where this was a thing?
I know lots of people who joke about it -- "haha not human until I've had my cup" -- but I've never been anywhere where people treat it like a competition.
Did you read the article? The opening statement points directly to this type of culture (not specifically at work, but in society in general), and your example of people joking about needing their first cup is part of the same. Other commenters in this thread allude to similar.
I’m a little surprised you haven’t been exposed to this type of bragging. (It’s very similar to people who brag about how much alcohol they can drink, which is a very common type of contest people have).
Ok cool man. I guess we’ve had a different cultural experience. shrug
It had become increasingly clear to me over the last few years that my anxiety disorder was being massively exacerbated by caffeine. It took so long to figure this out because it takes 6-7 hours _after_ a single coffee for it to hit, and if I'm drinking coffee the whole time, I'm always a bit anxious, rather than an obvious cause-and-effect.
In April I tapered down to one espresso a day, and then half an espresso, and then finally nothing. I'm still drinking a _lot_ of decaf, which is helpful (although check your decaf, some is still caffeinated enough to not be worth the name).
Immediate symptoms from going to half an espresso to zero espressos a day was massive dysphoria and melancholy. Around week 4 I started Wellbutrin, which made it very hard to figure out my moods reliably until it had settled down. Around week 12, I was off caffeine and feeling like myself again except minus the anxiety.
I miss it. I have had, since then, I think 4 real espressos. It gives me a reliable energy boost, and makes me happy, but then 6-7 hours later, the anxiety I lived with most of my life is back until I nap, take a benzodiazepine, or wait it out 12 hours or so.
All this to say: if you have GAD, and still drink coffee, try not drinking coffee for a month, and see where you end up. I would describe myself as no longer having GAD, although I am still titrating down the (fairly effective) SSRI I was on to manage it.
I have never drunk coffee. However, I do take a very very small dose of caffeine pills. The pills are 200mg but I break them into tiny pieces and micro dose around noon with last dose around 3pm. Some days I take 100mg total, other days I take 200mg total. Another thing I do is eat proper food at same time because otherwise I become jittery.
I also cycle off caffeine or taper the doses every few months when I am travelling.
My stomach is solid.
Does anyone know if the acidity is from coffee or caffeine itself?
Caffeine is a weak base, the acidity in coffee is from other compounds in the bean. (Tasty, tasty compounds)
200mg/day is not a "very very small dose". FDA recommended maximum safe amount is 400mg/day.
I am coming up on a year without caffeine like this guy. I was never addicted like he was, nor did I face severe health problems from it. I just noticed that the quality of my decision making went way down on caffeine. I was not able to prioritize things properly. I would feel strangely tired or lazy sometimes or way too energized. Now without caffeine, every day I feel stable, productive, and happy.
A couple of decades ago, I read that "le café est un emmerdeur biologique".
I still don't know how coffee tastes.