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 work in the office 4 days a week and drink coffee on those days only. Turns out when I’m home, I can make myself not so bored I fall asleep lol
I’ve let it go. Sometimes you just have to admit it’s not for you and cut your losses. Nowadays I stick to prescribed stimulants, which currently is none. There will be some bad days, but that’s life. Just get through it, the good days will be on the other side.
Well, it’s better than alcohol. Caffeine is the reason I have a successful career. Alcohol is the reason I can’t drink alcohol anymore
It’s not that I can’t drink anymore. I just got too good at it and it’s not fair to the other drunks.
You used to be my hero
I’ve gone back and forth. I’m doing well sticking to 2 rules. No more than 2 normal caffeinated drinks per day and never after 2pm.
Edit: and I drink 2-3 cups of decaff coffee per day but there is no limit on that.
I’ve never heard this, but it is pretty much where I’ve landed (though I will sneak a third in on farmers market days because one of the stall has the good coffee, but it’s later than I want to have my second dose).
Love when a parenthetical is longer than the original sentence.
FYI there is still a wee bit of caffeine, and there are other rando stimulant chemicals in decaf btw
Yes, I shouldn’t say ‘no limit’ but a sensible limit is fine.
Our brains crave novelty, or new stimuli. It seems appropriate to me to switch from one stimulant to the next as you build tolerance to each. If there are enough to cycle through, hopefully resistance to each one will drop by the time you need to return to it.
The problem it seems you are facing is that there aren’t enough different stimulants to cycle through, as well as some possible fear-based thinking about overuse (because we live in a society that forces that thinking upon us). So you’re thinking of switching stimulants on and off rather than moving on to the next one.
Hobbies that highly stimulate the brain also function as doses of stimulants when used with intention.
Honestly, it reads like an unhealthy relationship with drugs lol
I used to do the same. On and off with massive amounts of coffee per day. Whiplash from caffeine withdrawals. This was before my diagnosis though; back then I only knew that caffeine made me feel calmer and focused.
There’s medications you can talk to a doctor about; in my experience they are more effective than caffeine and smoother in their effective timings. I used to take Vyvanse, once per day in the morning. Lasted all day, no sleep problems, no jitters etc. I’m not a doctor so this isn’t medical advice, just sharing my experience.
I had to stop because it interacted with a new medication I absolutely had to take. If my situation didn’t change, I would still be taking it.
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.
Everytime i need to quit caffeine i buy a case of orange Gatorade. The red 40 symptoms and extra hydration offset the caffeine withdrawal. Got to start the caffeine cut off on a Friday so by Monday’s return to work the symptoms are mostly gone.
I’m in that group where caffeine is calming (often makes me sleepy) and I never have physical withdrawl if I skip a couple of days. My cousin on the other hand is physically addicted to the caffeine. I have seen how it affects him if he doesn’t get any.
Personally, if caffeine affected me that way, I’d never touch the stuff ever again and I’d look for other solutions and coping mechanisms.
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
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How do you feel about tea? I couldn’t get into coffee but black tea is subtle yet strong enough for me it seems.
It works better, as it is more evenly distributed. But eventually the same problem, and guarana does the same job better.
I personally feel like tea the way I make it (not too dark, no sugar but some stevia) is too much liquid to drink too much of, and it keeps me hydrated (if the pee ain’t clear, death is near!)
I’ve never heard of guarana before, sounds cool, I wonder how it tastes and whether it’s available near the price of the cheap store tea bags I’m using now.
Taste is horrible, better take the powder in a capsule, or mix it with a protein shake. But the effect is very even over several hours.
@AddLemmus I find it builds tolerance really quickly in a way that the amphetamine just doesn’t.
So I’ll use it to soften the Elvanse/Amfexa drop and to help me sleep (up to 3 espressos helps me to sleep, more than 3 keeps me awake), but after a week or so of that I need to do cold turkey on it to reset my tolerance.
Caffeine give me super powers but the disruption to my desperately needed sleep inevitably causes something fucking terrible and life-changing to happen.
But there’s more to it than just “caffeine”. I can drink matcha pretty much as desired with little difficulty. But instant coffee will fuck up my life before the end of the jar, which arrives rapidly.
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