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?
With any drug, you have to understand that chasing the same level of effect you get when you start will only cause your tolerance and dependence to deepen. You have to accept that for the first two weeks of use, its all diminishing returns. However, eventually a equilibrium can be reached so long as you have consistent doses and don’t try increasing to compensate. Then you can enjoy the slight benefits of things like caffeine in the early morning without the habit growing and the downsides with it.
Also specifically with coffee/tea (and other caffeinated beverages)its important to remember that they’re diuretics. This means they cause you to expel a lot of water and you have to drink more water to compensate or you will become dehydrated. I find that drinking a cup of water before having coffee reduces the chances of a headache developing substantially.