Over the decades, I keep switching between caffeine times and caffeine-free times.
It’s like this:
- need an extra boost for morning or afternoon, and it is really important
- it becomes a regular thing again, at least 1xmorning, 1xafternoon
- ups and downs are too strong, switching to guarana
- it works, even boost now
- It turns into madness, e. g. not enough sleep, and it prevents me from napping, or even night sleep is not good anymore. Also, completely dysfunctional in the morning.
- optionally increase up to double dose
- unpleasant withdrawal
- back to start after a month, year or two years
Right now, I’m on day 3 or 4 of a very unpleasant withdrawal again. Headaches, poor sleep quality, muscle and joint pain. Also, the Elvanse boost is really diminished, a lot. Tragically, in terms of productivity and mood, it worked really well with caffeine, just too much madness.
Do you think just staying off for good is the way to go?
I’ve used caffeine “medicinally” for over a year now. I start with a microdose until it’s not effective, then increase the dosage weekly until I’m at more than 1.5 cups of coffee daily, then I drop down to a microdose again to wean myself off while still having a little something for the withdrawals, then stay off it until I “need it” again.
I’m also bipolar, so that does change things for me, but I think it also motivates me to be really intentional about my caffeine intake so I don’t end up in the ‘madness’ stage you described.
I’m also self-employed and only work 20hrs per week, so I have the privilege of taking the recovery time I need because I can just put a pause on the “extra stuff”, which I realize most people don’t have the option of doing.
I think if you can be intentional about it, it can be worth it, especially if you can be so intentional about it as to not need a recovery period