Ah... crap.

[camrogers]

I knew. Even on an intuitive level I knew this. Nonetheless it's worth having it all spelled out and bookmarked.

Crap.

- Caffeine: Cup of Pain, Liquid Stress
- 6 Things That Are Secretly Turning You Into A Bad Person

Comments

[greylock]

I knew I weened myself off coffee for a reason.

[darren_stranger]

I've been toying with the idea of experimenting with going caffeine free for a while, but get stuck on the issue of timing. Shuffling through caffeine withdrawals at work doesn't seem like a great plan, but then who wants to feel like crap on the weekend? Now this notion of withdrawals taking *months* isn't particularly encouraging.

[camrogers]

How much do you drink? If it's only a cup a day then, seriously, it's no biggie.

[darren_stranger]

Between tea and coffee, i'd guess about 4-5 cups a day. Enough to think i 'need' my next cup when it's due.

I've heard quite a few people singing the praises of going caffeine free lately, enough to make me curious, but when it starts to sound less like 'stop drinking it for a couple of days and you'll feel great' but more a long, drawn out process of cutting back, adjusting and plodding through the day with a woolly head, just to see if i feel somehow better without it in the long run, curiosity tends to run out of steam.

I guess i've got to decide whether to try it seriously as a long term thing.

[camrogers]

I used to drink 2 litres a day, waaaay back when. Got serious migraines. Got off it by halving intake each week. Worked fine.

[greylock]

My experience has been: I don't get caffeine widthdrawals.
So I may be atypical, but I have found (largely) going without coffee no big thing. I'll have the odd cup to be sociable, and I do abuse it on weekends, but I also abuse No Doze on occasion.

Not that I want to argue with the medically-types who might have done the research, but I find the claims a little far-fetched, at least insofar as people might actually notice the symptoms.

[camrogers]

Christ, I notice it after three sips. Dead set. It changes the way I think. Anxiety scenarios just BLOOM.

Not so bad if it's a cup every second day - it's actually fairly benign - but if I have one a day... Jesus.

[greylock]

Anxiety scenarios just BLOOM.

I expect we're starting from different places. I am quite often anxious in crowds, but if I'm in familiar surrounds, or I'm already extremely focused, I just don't get worried or anxious.

but if I have one a day... Jesus.

My standard cup of coffee at home is two teaspoons of instant coffee or three scoops in the plunger.
If I haven't had a coffee in a two or or three weeks the effect of me speeding up can be quite obvious. Otherwise I never really notice the impact aside from, sometimes, a sharpening of the brain at work, but I sometimes think that is as much the impact of going for coffee than anything.

[darren_stranger]

Going without caffeine, i feel tired and wooly-headed. A cuppa clears that up. Don't know if that's actual tiredness, withdrawal symptoms or some sort of placebo effect. Either way, it's always much easier to just grab that cuppa and get on with stuff. (This is why i never tried hard druigs).

[camrogers]

The tiredness and wooly-headedness is a side-effect of withdrawal.

Caffeine fools you into thinking you're getting a kick. The best explanation of it I've ever read I found over at:

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/02/22/coffee/

[greylock]

Don't know if that's actual tiredness, withdrawal symptoms or some sort of placebo effect.

Could be any one of the three, I suppose.

All this talk of coffee is making me crave one. But I know I'm not tired, or don't need it, I just want to get up from my desk.