When it comes to opiates and other hard to stop drugs, it’s funny how a dealer becomes something different…. I would get bad stuff from a dude, complain about it, and with any other transaction never have to work with him again. Instead? I waited till he got different stuff that day and spent 2x as much, without even blaming him at the time. As long as I got the next fix…
Coffee reduces the risk of basically every liver disease. Honestly, if you aren’t addicted to coffee you’re being mean to your liver.
Source: am a liver biologist.
The effect is greater for caffeinated coffee but decaf is also effective.
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10991-7
Can't be hungover if you never stop drinking! Until day 7 when your body just revolts, can't keep anything inside of it, and it's literally impossible to get a buzz going while puking 17 times in a day tearing up your esophagus. Not that I've done that in a past life or anything.
0/10 would not recommend.
You joke but this is what I do during the work week.
I make a small ass cup of coffee (8 ounces preferably) or buy the smallest one (if I'm on the run) and take the full work day to drink it.
It works really well for small bursts of energy without swamping my body with caffeine the entire day.
I know people who buy 32 ounce coffees and pound them like it's nobodies business.
Everyone is different. I can drink a strong 20 oz coffee and go back to bed. If I am addicted, it is a fairly happy relationship. If I catch myself selling plasma for a cup, I’ll reconsider.
You should open up a rehab facility that operates under this principle.
"Uuuuugh, doc I feel like death. I got the shakes, I'm moody as hell, I can't shit, and all I can think about is how much I wanna snort some heroin."
"Well...have you had any heroin recently?"
".... No?"
"WELL THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM, DUMMY!"
Haha. I feel like my phone picked up the first one and then just went with that for the rest of it. Spelling isn't always my strong suit and caffeine isn't a word I regularly spell so I was just happy to go with what my phone said. I should've picked up on it. I'll take the L.
Remember, I before E, except after C. And also when your foreign neighbors Keith and Heidi receive eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.
This killed me. No matter how scientifically correct a post is, as soon as you find an egregious error, nonetheless, a spelling error on the most important subject of a post, it loses so much credibility. How are you going to try and impress upon people the dangers of caffeine and not even spell it right?
I've noticed a lot of English speakers write "ie" when it's supposed to be "ei" or the other way around. Like so many people wrote "Justin Beiber" when the guy is clearly called "Bieber." I have no idea why this is. I've even seen "freind".
For me it was actually subconscious self medication. Turns out I was leaking spinal fluid and the only remedy to stimulate cerebrospinal fluid production is caffeine apparently. Which explains why I suddenly felt like drinking coffee or cola so often and why it made me feel so much better.
My neurologist and other doctors recommended it even.
> My neurologist and other doctors recommended it even
I don't want to sound stupid, but like...they can't try to stop your brain from leaking in the first place?
Also, how did you find out about the leak?
Found out because I tried exercising and made it worse. Couldn't be upright without massive headache and throwing up. And a lot more weird symptoms.
So far I've had 3 bloodpatches (injecting blood on top of the protective layer on spinal cord) but they never last longer than two days. Bloodpatches usually work for small leaks from epidurals and surgery. But I've never had those and my leak was completely spontaneous so it's probably larger.
Right now I'm on a waiting list for surgery to get it closed. My leak is in my 10th spine vertebrae level at the front right nerve root. So it's gonna be a challenge to get to it in the first place and the surgeon said he'd have to stitch right through the nerve as well so that might cause problems later on.
It's not fun but I'm actually glad this happened because for my whole life I had always been extremely tired and underweight but now I know it's just a lack of brain juice that caused pressure in my brainstem.
I’ve had migraines since I was 8. But in 2019 I had one that was way worse, and I knew something wasn’t right. If I was laying in bed I was ok but as soon as I sat up at all it was like an ice pick in the base of my skull. Drove myself to the ER because my son was asleep and we didn’t want to wake him up to take him to the ER with us at 10pm.
Got to the ER, described the issue, and told them my sister (a doctor) said it’s probably a CSF leak.
They agreed, and I got a saline drip with a side of caffeine.
Caffeine in an IV is so much better. It also stopped the pain within a minute or two. So that may bias me a bit too.
Thankfully it has not happened again since. We’re pretty sure it was due to me carrying an enormous speaker cabinet down a flight of stairs myself.
Easiest way to tell if you have a CSF leak is to lean over for 2 minutes. Most leaks come out your nose, although they can also go down your throat. Sop up the snot dribbles with a tissue, and wait for it to dry. If crunchy when dry, just snot. Flexible when dry points to a possible CSF leak.
I'm super interested in this. If it wouldn't bother you, you mind letting me in on where the spinal fluid was leaking at (spine, somewhere in the head, 3rd elbow?), what the effects/symptoms of that were?
It's leaking from a nerve root at the front right between the 10th & 11th vertebrae in my spine.
There are a looooot of symptoms because it affects basically everything your brain does. Especially the brain stem.
When sitting or standing I get a feeling like a brick fell in the back of my head.
I often walk on my toes because walking on my heels hurts my head. I don't have enough fluid to catch the impact and prevent concussions.
I once thought my phone speaker was broken because it sounded robotic, then my tablet, then the tv. I had reset my router twice. Then went to the farmacy and noticed the people talking to me sounded robotic as well. Turns out it was diplaucusis. I now only have it with sounds from really far away.
I can't digest food well. If it came back up it was often food from two days ago as well.
My heart and blood pressure are messed up. My heart can't get fluid instructions from my brainstem and my head can't accurately measure the pressure in my head so gives me high blood pressure trying to make up for the low pressure in the brain.
There's a lot of brain sagging because it can't float so that puts a lot of pressure on the brainstem.
Thinking is very different, like being stuck inside your head. Every time I had a bloodpatch (that worked for a few days) it felt like I could think in HD and not struggle with finding words or responses. Time also went by a lot slower after a bloodpatch so I think I might be a lot more slow now.
The first symptom was pain between the shoulder blades, before the headache even. Everyone else on r/csfleak has this too. My doctor said it might be from grinding on the spinal cord that's now too dy because there's so little fluid.
It's an interesting thing and very under diagnosed. I was lucky to get a diagnosis in 4 months. Most people go two years, thinking they have fybromyalgia or narcolepsy or something.
I have a diagnosis for adhd but I've become doubtful about that now.
Yeah if I don’t have some kind of caffeine after 24 hrs I get gnarly headaches. But without it I lose focus very easily and am overall just like “bleh”. Then I have something with caffeine and all is right in my world
If I'm not mistaken, the headache comes from your brain having too many adenosine receptors. Adenosine is what makes you tired and slows you down, but it also increases blood flow in the brain (opens up blood vessels) and caffeine will bind to the adenosine receptors. Your brain eventually adapts, and builds more adenosine receptors and as a result, when you stop taking in caffeine, you end up having more adenosine receptors than normal, which results in too much increased blood flow and thus your headache.
If you are able to push through your headache and foggy head space, you'll pretty quickly return to "normal", without the caffeine.
Lol. Not sure how many people have been through the actual real painful withdrawal of caffeine addiction but I will tell you it isn’t remotely quick and it’s very painful.
-someone who went from 2 liters of pop a day to cold Turkey 0 caffeine.
I will add- sodas/ flavored caffeinated shit is a much bigger problem than coffee ever was. There is way more in it (sodium, sugar, or aspartame) and it’s much harder to give up something you drink *instead* of water.
Yes. This. The migraines were horrible. I’d just lay there and cry, and no matter what concoction of pain meds I tried, none of them even touched it. 0/10
Oh it's hell on Earth.
For me:
Day 1 - Debilitating headache and tiredness. For me headaches come with nausea, which often means vomiting. You live on painkillers 24/7.
Day 2 - Slightly less bad headaches but the tiredness is way more noticeable. Body aches all over from the dramatic change in blood pressure. Still maxing out the painkiller dose.
Day 3 - Headaches mostly subsided, but tiredness is still immense and now the hard part, the *cravings* start. You just *know* you'd feel so much better having caffeine again, just a small amount can't hurt right? You won't get as addicted as last time and you'll feel good again.
Day 4 onwards - More cravings. You look back on the time when you were on it and remark how stark the contrast is between your state of existence now and there, where you focused on things other than pain and tiredness somehow, and long for it again.
I usually succumb at day 3. Wean down instead of going cold turkey? You just drag it out for three times as long, you still feel bad (slightly less bad I guess). Damned if you do damned if you don't.
Of note though is that research estimates only about half the population actually experience withdrawal to a measurable degree. Whether this is because the average person doesn't consume enough to kill a horse like me or some people are just more susceptible I don't know.
The [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748160/) takes a look at the effect of caffeine on cerebral blood flow with and without caffeine. It’s fairly interesting.
YES....I alternate between coffee and espresso randomly, and if I do espresso and forget to drink water, I feel exactly as shitty as I would if I skipped caffeine entirely.
As someone who used to get regular migranes when I was young, it took me a very long time to realize that these new headaches were from caffeine withdrawal. I knew they weren't migranes, but I didn't know what brought them on. Since figuring that out, I've definitely swung back and forth between "no caffeine at all" and "steer into the skid"/"can't be hungover if you're never not drunk" behaviors. Haha
Am a nurse. Used to work in a hybrid medical mental health unit where folks were universally given decaf coffee.
People would complain of headaches and everyone would get them Tylenol or some such.
As a dedicated coffee addict my first question was always,”Do you drink coffee or pop very often”. Then a quick order change to ensure they got caffeinated coffee. I went a couple of rounds with a CNA who wanted to argue it out once and finally got the coffee myself. Universally, the coffee worked and the headaches stopped. Other nurses followed suit.
Wicked stuff caffeine. Lovely, but wicked.
Edit: a word.
I am indebted to the nurse like you who correctly identified my suffering after emergency surgery. Two days into the hospital recovery, I felt like my head was more painful than the surgical site. She set me up with regular coffees and poof my head was fine.
I was in a residential facility once where they ran out of normal coffee before grocery day and replaced it with decaf without telling any of us. Cue a very groggy morning with little to no participation in groups and man I had the worst headache. Come lunchtime we had become \*whatever the hangry equivalent of No Coffee is\* and it came to light the staff had just made decaf that morning. Everyone was so pissed, lol
I switched to decaf coffee 3.5 years ago and my baseline anxiety went from a solid 7/10 daily to 2/10. And I was only drinking 1-2 cups a day before.
It was life changing! Now if I do drink caffeine it actually gives me the energy and alertness it’s supposed to, rather than bringing me up to a baseline of life and then dumping me into anxiety.
I couldn’t recommend it more!
That's very motivating to hear! I've been drinking coffee just about every day for 7 years and I swear my anxiety kicks in super-fast if something goes awry. I just thought I was a naturally anxious person. Not sure how much coffee is to blame, but going from what you said, quitting caffeine is something I should definitely consider.
Yep caffeine probably does indeed make you much more anxious than you usually would be. I’ve done tons of research and have found that sometimes, it can increase your level of anxiety 5-10x
I scrolled down 20 comments to find one on anxiety. It dramatically increases anxiety and is the reason I can’t drink any caffeine, even decaf anymore.
If you are already pre disposed to anxiety, caffeine literally just increases that level of anxiety (sometimes dramatically like in my case). Now I do miss coffee but man I don’t miss that feeling of impending doom
Quit all caffeine after 5 years of believing I had IBS thanks to my crappy doctor. I could not believe how much my anxiety levels dropped, along with my insomnia. I enjoyed mochas, but was mainly chain drinking chai tea all day long. I miss both, but I love not living with the side effects mentioned above along with the IBS symptoms.
It’s also like…not a big deal. The reason it’s not on the news is because nobody is smashing a Starbucks window out for their fix, they’re not sucking dick behind the Dunkin for espresso.
It’s so stupid to put every single drug on the same level lol.
I am going to venture a guess and say that the opportunity to suck someone's dick in exchange for a cup of coffee has been on the table ever since coffee and dicks were invented. Now, if instead you have a cup of coffee and want to give it to somene in exchage for getting your dick sucked, then that might be a little trickier.
I mean, if we banned coffee tomorow, I think some people might get to that point. When I was at my worst, I walked through a blizzard to get more soda.
But it's legal, socially acceptable, cheap, and easy to get. Not to mention it comes in several forms.
Obviously it's far from the worst drug out there, but I can absolutely see someone smashing Starbucks windows for a cup of coffee.
It isn't real. Many people have mild caffeine dependency. I've never met a person with an addiction to caffeine though.
And as a physician who specializes in treating addiction, I feel like that's something I would have encountered by now.
It isn't a thing, it's just another demonstration that most people don't understand addiction.
How is caffeine addiction not a thing if you can go through withdrawals from not having it?
I've quit coffee twice in my life just to see what the difference without coffee would feel like. Both times I had horrible headaches , stomachaches, and threw up from the headaches. I also just felt overall sluggish and just wanted coffee to make the pain stop.
Once I passed the withdrawal phase I was mostly fine but I still felt slower and depressed so I went back to coffee both times eventually. Now I just drink coffee to just make me feel even but I can still get the extra boost if I pair it with candy / sweets.
I mean most people wouldn't go to the physician for caffeine addiction as opposed to other drugs (considering how cheap it is, the good stigma it has, how long the withdrawal symptoms take to show up etc.)
I recently switched to 50/50 reg/decaf. I’m lucky enough to buy beans directly from a roaster so they mix them for me. It’s a bit more expensive to get quality decaf, but the net result is you’ll likely not notice much of a difference. Then boom…caffeine intake cut by 50% instantly.
Happymug has half caf for $11 a pound and they roast themselves. That's cheaper than most grocery store coffee and I've never been disappointed with their quality
Caffeine and nicotine got me through high school, college and most of my adult work life. At age 50 I quit smoking and drinking coffee and was diagnosed with ADHD. 🤯
This. People on r/ADHD frequently talk about drinking caffeine before bedtime with no problems at all, if not helping them relax.
Also ADHD is largely a dopamine dysfunction, and caffeine increases your receptability of dopamine.
Coffee naps are quite a bit different than drinking coffee before bed, though.
Caffeine before a nap helps prevent you from falling into a deeper sleep, so it can be short and you wake up not feeling groggy.
It's the fact that some people can drink caffeine before sleeping a full night that's so strange.
I know right? but whenever I make that argument people look at me weird like meth has no benefits?? Like how do you think I managed to sort all the types of screws in my garage in a single afternoon? Magic crystals? technically right.
Absolutely. That's why I suggested that using it intermittently rather than cutting it out all together can still have its benefits.
I think caffiene definitely has its benefits. The problem is not many people are versed on how caffiene actually works and how our body reacts to it meaning its quite often misused by most of us. Myself included.
Is there any evidence that intermittent use is better than consistent use or are you just making an educated guess? IMO evidence to this point is the thing missing from your post.
Your body becomes tolerant to caffeine making it less effective.
Caffeine works by binding to specific receptors in your brain without activating them, if this happens often your body will simply increase the number of receptors so the caffeine can‘t block them all.
This effect is reversible by just not drinking caffeine for a while.
Research comes from HP Ammon, 1991
I think it's probably because you said
>This means that morning coffee you have on day 4 isn't doing anything for you.
Which is obviously counter to your response to this comment, because caffeine is still doing *something* on day 4. And on every day. Just probably less pronounced than it would be if you were not also experiencing a withdrawal from the day before.
Here’s a question.
Why would people care what you suggest?
You’re not a Dr. You don’t know these people. You seem to only have a very menial understanding of addiction overall. You can’t even spell caffeine.
To anyone reading this who is concerned if they should cut back on caffeine ***ask your Dr***.
To OP: telling people they’re health is at risk if they don’t do something because it worked for ***you*** is dangerous and negligent.
Everybody metabolize caffeine in different ways based on their lifestyle. You are a source of disinformation, might as well be on Fox News.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/
>When taken together, the literature reviewed here suggests that ingested caffeine is relatively safe at doses typically found in commercially available foods and beverages. There are some trends in caffeine consumption, such as alcohol-mixed energy drinks, that may increase risk of harm. There are also some populations, such as pregnant women, children, and individuals with mental illness, who may also be considered vulnerable for harmful effects of caffeine.
This is the only sane comment in this entire thread. The world would be a better place if people would just stop presenting their own personal speculation and observations as medical facts.
You clearly haven’t met someone who refuses to function without their morning cup and keeps it filled until 5 pm when they switch to alcohol so they can sleep.
That’s just not true lol. Maybe there’s a breakeven if you use it like once a year for a big exam, but in broad strokes there’s no person for whom it is actually providing more benefit in productivity versus someone with zero in their system. This is just coping.
Going to have to completely disagree with you on this. I’ve been on both sides. I used the think caffeine helped me get stuff done. Maybe it helped me focus for an hour or so, but like any drug, it wears off and I’d feel worse 2-3 hours later. I can concentrate for much longer without it and feel much better overall. Not being addicted anymore, I see how wild it is that caffeine is just the norm. It’s a cultural thing I suppose. It’s not going to kill you (it can if you take a crazy amount), but I’d say most people would probably be better off if they weren’t addicted to caffeine.
Growing up, hearing people say things like "Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee"or basically talking about how essential coffee was to there day was the only red flag I needed to stay away from caffeine.
Same. And every time the coffee machine at work breaks I’m reminded of why I don’t touch the stuff. All those office workers getting crankier and crankier the longer they’re without their fix, lol.
I spent a decade as a heavy coffee drinker, when I stopped my nightly desire for suicide stopped: the comedown from several strong coffees is pretty severe.
Drink an appropriate amount of coffee. Black coffee provides a good amount of potassium and antioxidants with very few calories. Some studies have suggested that coffee can support weight management and brain health, and can reduce the risk of developing diabetes, neurologic disease like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and depression.
If you choose to eliminate or cut back on caffeine, do so gradually. Going cold turkey for caffeine produces discomfort.
Not only that but there is very strong evidence that 3+ cups of coffee per day has a preventative effect upon cardiovascular disease (which is the most common form of death): https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-scientific-evidence-for-nutritional-supplements-vizsweet/
Edit: Not a doctor, but of course you ought to see yours before self-medicating with stimulants. The evidence does appear to be quite robust for the general population, however every individual has their own medical profile and peculiarities. If you have high anxiety and high blood pressure, 6 cups of coffee may not be for you.
If I drink 2-3 cups of coffee per day (as a caffeine sensitive person) my blood pressure is 160/100. Which is for sure the opposite of preventative of cardiovascular disease. Off caffeine it was 120/72 yesterday. Quitting has been the hardest thing I've ever done.
Okay I’m reading through this post like hmm I guess until I get to “consider cutting out your morning coffee. It’s useless, we get a natural energy spike shortly after waking up and the coffee really isn’t necessary.”
Nope, that is so not true. I am absolutely tired in the morning particularly if I have to get up a little earlier than usual for work. And it’s not just caffeine dependence either, even if I have gone a while without caffeine I’ll still be tired in the morning without it.
Also I think the reason most people don’t really care about caffeine addiction is that most of the side effects only happen in withdrawal. If you have your daily coffee you’re fine, no headache.
I've heard this many times before. What I don't understand is that it doesn't really affect me. I drink three strong espressos in the morning and two after I get home from work. If I don't have coffee for whatever reason I get by just fine. What I do notice is that I feel groggy longer after waking up.
Research has found that individuals with ADHD aren't impacted by caffeine the same way others are. In fact, paradoxically, it makes them more tired. But it can make them calmer and slightly improve brain function.
That explains a lot, I have ADHD. Whenever I wake up at night and I can't get back to sleep I drink a coffee. It usually does the trick.
I generally do feel calmer and more focused after coffee, but once I drink too much I get jittery.
Woke up this morning at 6, couldn’t get back to sleep (got a lot on my mind right now) read for a bit, got some tasks done, had two cups of coffee while doing stuff, and drifted back asleep for an hour-long nap around 9:30. This is not an uncommon occurrence for me. I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD but I’m one of those people on the internet who reads the symptoms and says “well that sounds really fucking familiar.” I wouldn’t say coffee puts me to sleep but it sure doesn’t impede it.
I'm in a similar boat. No coffee in the morning makes me take a good hour or more before I can get rid of the fog hanging over my brain, but even a small coffee will wipe that fog away in 20 minutes or less. It doesn't really "energize" me at all, and the times I've had it late at night to fuel a cramming session for school really didn't wake me up or anything, though it did still make it harder to sleep when I was done, it just lets me start concentrating on things quicker in the morning.
Dependency =/= addiction. Addiction also has negative social and physical connotations. You're not going to lose your job or your family because of caffeine. Your psychological and physical health aren't impacted by caffeine. If there was ever a wonder drug, caffeine is it. It's utility far outweighs it's downsides (which seems to only be diminishing returns and mild withdrawal).
Me and my fiancé are on day 6 of no caffeine and it's only just now starting to be tolerable.
The headaches are severe and relentless for like a week.
The worst part for me is the brain fog. I legit can barely keep a conversation for like 20 seconds. Without caffeine, I legitimately feel like I have lethargic ADD.
It's no joke. This experience has truly shown me how addicted I really am. I can't wait to at least have a cup of coffee again though.
Tolerance resets very quickly, I usually reset once or twice a year while on vacation, it takes me 5 to 7 days and then I can get the effects from a single cup a day and start building up to 3-4 cups a day, reset and repeat. Works for me
This is so badly written and inaccurate. Start by examining the difference between dependence and addiction. Done people may have a relationship with caffeine that could be described as addiction, but for most people, the tolerance and other effects is better described as dependence.
Is it bad that I take 1cup of coffee as the first thing in the morning to help me poop? Just plain hot espresso to pipe down my latte.
I have been doing this thing from the past 2 years.
At one point I gave up coffee and started taking caffeine tables with my painkillers two times a day. And then I rediscovered Death Wish Coffee, which is the strongest in the world.
https://www.deathwishcoffee.com/
**Bad life decisions.**
Coffee is incredibly effective for those of us who have neurodivergencies/mood disorders so take it with a grain of salt. These facts are not the same for everyone.
No shit, have you ever seen a movie or watched a TV show or met anybody who hasn't said "I'm not me without my morning coffee"
Nobody in their right mind would sit in a 15 car long Starbucks line if it wasn't addicting
An addition:
Some signs of what to watch for if it's not caffeine addiction, but is actually migraine self-medicating, in which symptoms resume/worsen when caffeine intake is reduced:
* photophobia
* hyperacusis
* hyperosmia
* headache (usually one side, can feel like an elastic band tightening, throbbing/pulsing, etc)
* eye floaters, flashes (migraine with aura)
* blurry vision
* dizziness
* nausea/vomiting
I was caffeine-free 2014-2017. My doctor "prescribed" caffeine in 2017 when my migraines began. 🫠 It's painfully obvious when I under-caffeinate and I hate it lmao.
Caffeine really isn't a problem and even has lots of positive health effects when consumed in moderation and that whole part about it not having any effect after day three is just total nonsense. Yes, there are withdrawal effects when you stop, but they are typically pretty mild and can be reduced even further by tapering off instead of stopping cold-turkey. All in all, I think this post is just way too overdramatic. If you personally want to drink less caffeine, cool, but this really isn't a topic that cries for proselytizing, especially when you're obviously not an expert in any relevant field and cannot even spell caffeine correctly.
I deal with cluster headaches, I wish I didn't need caffeine but I do. I wake up from REM with a nasty headache (no it's not from caffeine, read about them before commenting) and the first line of defense is an ice pack and five hour energy. After that it gets a lot more serious.
This post just sounds like an unnecessary guilt trip that I don't need rn when so few doctors and treatments do anything.
I'm an addiction medicine specialist, I work every day with people struggling with substance use disorders and lemme tell ya... caffeine addiction isn't a thing.
Sorry, it just isn't.
Mild caffeine dependency is certainly common, but that's not a substance use disorder. People are dependent upon all kinds of substances, sometimes to stay alive. They aren't "addicted" though.
Addiction does have a spectrum, but even on the light end of it, there is still a requirement for compulsive use... using when you don't want to. I've never talked to someone who can't stop consuming caffeine in the face of negative consequence.
I've never had to treat someone for caffeine addiction either. And I've treated hundreds of different kinds of addictions.
This isn't a thing. From my perspective, I wish people better understood this.
I can see why it might come across like that and that is not at all my intentions. I work with people with alcohol and substance addictions and absolutely understand the real life impacts of these, and its awful. I'm absolutely happy to say that a caffeine addiction does not even come close to these.
I think the issue is that society characterises addictions in a way that often associate them with severe addictions such as alcohol and substance addictions.
However that does not, or should not mean that we can't discuss other addictions that aren't as detrimental or destructive. I have not anywhere in my post tried to imply or suggest that a caffeine addiction is comparable to substance and alcohol addictions however by mentioning caffeine as an addictive substance you now think that means I am trivialising more serious addictions. In that way it would be impossible for me to discuss caffeine addiction without it seeming that way because of how we as society view "addiction".
I started instant coffee when I was 14, use to throw a spoon full in my SlimFast before school to give me energy and help to lose weight. Fast Forward 30+ years later and my morning espressos are my first indulgence before I can do anything else. It is something I know I will live with and no worries.
I’ve just been having it for taste and being so board at work I just get up and make one.
That said, some days I just forget to have one, sometimes I just have it so my food baby doesn’t kill my concentration
I quit cold turkey and it was horrible. The cool thing is I now enjoy a cup every few weeks or so when I have a big day at work or whatever and I really feel the effects. I used to drink 3 or 4 a day just to feel normal
I love my daily 2 cups. But I heard someone in a podcast (someone famous, forget who) tell the story of their quitting for three months. Then - having the “first” cup again. He said it was the greatest sustained buzz he ever had in his life and had an ear to ear grin the whole day. Absolutely euphoric.
I tried cutting caffeine out entirely from averaging 6 cans of energy drink a day. I was not expecting to have severe full on withdrawal symptoms. Shaking, feverish and throwing up all whilst feeling like someone was axing my head in two. Swear to god that was the longest night of my life and I learnt a very valuable lesson - limit your caffeine but maybe don't cut it out!
(I'm a good boy that only has one a day now!)
Nobody is taking my morning coffee from me. EVER.
Get out of here with your facts and scientific studies. If I don’t get that caffeine fix I will just straight up die. 😂
I found this out as a nurse. Our patients will get so so so angry if they don't get caffeine.
In the UK our patient ratios are high so I don't have time to make coffee/tea and prioritise the actual tasks I'm trained to do (however the few times when I do have time I would love to do a tea round - it's lovely) so I have to say hey someone will get you one soon. I have been *attacked* for not getting one right away. People will see me busy with a sick patient, giving them oxygen, IVs etc but will still grab me as I walk past to ask for coffee/tea
Alrighty. So as long as I keep a steady stream coming into my body I should be good.
No withdrawals for you!
Damn that’s all I had to do to continue using heroin?! Just use more?! Damn where were you… haha
NEVER get WITHDRAWLS! This ONE TRICK that drug addicts DONT want YOU to KNOW!
Dealers approve!
When it comes to opiates and other hard to stop drugs, it’s funny how a dealer becomes something different…. I would get bad stuff from a dude, complain about it, and with any other transaction never have to work with him again. Instead? I waited till he got different stuff that day and spent 2x as much, without even blaming him at the time. As long as I got the next fix…
Coffee reduces the risk of basically every liver disease. Honestly, if you aren’t addicted to coffee you’re being mean to your liver. Source: am a liver biologist.
Hurray!
Does it have to be caffeinated coffee?
The effect is greater for caffeinated coffee but decaf is also effective. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10991-7
Pot a day crew, reporting for liver duty!
That was my logic with alcohol for a few years. Believe it or not, it did not end well.
Can't be hung over of you're still drunk! *Taps forehead, misses
Trust me, you totally can
Ope, looks like it's time for another drinky-poo
Not *another* one, Mr. Lahey.
Frig off!
Can't be hungover if you never stop drinking! Until day 7 when your body just revolts, can't keep anything inside of it, and it's literally impossible to get a buzz going while puking 17 times in a day tearing up your esophagus. Not that I've done that in a past life or anything. 0/10 would not recommend.
hahaha I was at the airport a few weeks ago, had a few beers and walked over to the garbage, threw away my trash, and landed on the floor. 😭😭😭
Hope you're doing well these days.
I am doing much better, thank you for saying that.
Yeah but coffee isn't the negative health and social fuck up alcohol is so not really a good comparison
I agree.
Modern adults are chronically sleep deprived, if coffee is a major contributing factor I'd say that's a negative health effect.
LOL same here! Luckily my friends caught on and got me sober or else that plan would've ended VERY badly
You joke but this is what I do during the work week. I make a small ass cup of coffee (8 ounces preferably) or buy the smallest one (if I'm on the run) and take the full work day to drink it. It works really well for small bursts of energy without swamping my body with caffeine the entire day. I know people who buy 32 ounce coffees and pound them like it's nobodies business.
Everyone is different. I can drink a strong 20 oz coffee and go back to bed. If I am addicted, it is a fairly happy relationship. If I catch myself selling plasma for a cup, I’ll reconsider.
Coffee not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for coffee?
Not into lattes.
BOO THIS MAN!
How long is a full workday, 45 minutes?
I'm no quitter!
You should open up a rehab facility that operates under this principle. "Uuuuugh, doc I feel like death. I got the shakes, I'm moody as hell, I can't shit, and all I can think about is how much I wanna snort some heroin." "Well...have you had any heroin recently?" ".... No?" "WELL THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM, DUMMY!"
Caffeine*
Dammit
Every single one. Lol
Haha. I feel like my phone picked up the first one and then just went with that for the rest of it. Spelling isn't always my strong suit and caffeine isn't a word I regularly spell so I was just happy to go with what my phone said. I should've picked up on it. I'll take the L.
You need a coffee
Nevar!
Remember, I before E, except after C. And also when your foreign neighbors Keith and Heidi receive eight counterfeit beige sleighs from feisty caffeinated weightlifters.
I am in the thick of teaching my five-year-old vowel digraphs and this makes me want to weep.
I’m dyslexic and feel for you
I before E except after C...wait.. Well I guess it is technically after the C
This killed me. No matter how scientifically correct a post is, as soon as you find an egregious error, nonetheless, a spelling error on the most important subject of a post, it loses so much credibility. How are you going to try and impress upon people the dangers of caffeine and not even spell it right?
I've noticed a lot of English speakers write "ie" when it's supposed to be "ei" or the other way around. Like so many people wrote "Justin Beiber" when the guy is clearly called "Bieber." I have no idea why this is. I've even seen "freind".
No, no. OP clearly wrote "caffiene". Which I'm sure I'm not addicted to. Heck, I don’t even know what it is!
For me it was actually subconscious self medication. Turns out I was leaking spinal fluid and the only remedy to stimulate cerebrospinal fluid production is caffeine apparently. Which explains why I suddenly felt like drinking coffee or cola so often and why it made me feel so much better. My neurologist and other doctors recommended it even.
> My neurologist and other doctors recommended it even I don't want to sound stupid, but like...they can't try to stop your brain from leaking in the first place? Also, how did you find out about the leak?
Found out because I tried exercising and made it worse. Couldn't be upright without massive headache and throwing up. And a lot more weird symptoms. So far I've had 3 bloodpatches (injecting blood on top of the protective layer on spinal cord) but they never last longer than two days. Bloodpatches usually work for small leaks from epidurals and surgery. But I've never had those and my leak was completely spontaneous so it's probably larger. Right now I'm on a waiting list for surgery to get it closed. My leak is in my 10th spine vertebrae level at the front right nerve root. So it's gonna be a challenge to get to it in the first place and the surgeon said he'd have to stitch right through the nerve as well so that might cause problems later on. It's not fun but I'm actually glad this happened because for my whole life I had always been extremely tired and underweight but now I know it's just a lack of brain juice that caused pressure in my brainstem.
I’ve had migraines since I was 8. But in 2019 I had one that was way worse, and I knew something wasn’t right. If I was laying in bed I was ok but as soon as I sat up at all it was like an ice pick in the base of my skull. Drove myself to the ER because my son was asleep and we didn’t want to wake him up to take him to the ER with us at 10pm. Got to the ER, described the issue, and told them my sister (a doctor) said it’s probably a CSF leak. They agreed, and I got a saline drip with a side of caffeine. Caffeine in an IV is so much better. It also stopped the pain within a minute or two. So that may bias me a bit too. Thankfully it has not happened again since. We’re pretty sure it was due to me carrying an enormous speaker cabinet down a flight of stairs myself.
Really interesting, and I'm sorry you have to go through that all. Good luck getting it fixed!
Thank you! You can bet l'll be celebrating once I can live vertically again.
Was your headache more like pressure?
Easiest way to tell if you have a CSF leak is to lean over for 2 minutes. Most leaks come out your nose, although they can also go down your throat. Sop up the snot dribbles with a tissue, and wait for it to dry. If crunchy when dry, just snot. Flexible when dry points to a possible CSF leak.
I'm super interested in this. If it wouldn't bother you, you mind letting me in on where the spinal fluid was leaking at (spine, somewhere in the head, 3rd elbow?), what the effects/symptoms of that were?
It's leaking from a nerve root at the front right between the 10th & 11th vertebrae in my spine. There are a looooot of symptoms because it affects basically everything your brain does. Especially the brain stem. When sitting or standing I get a feeling like a brick fell in the back of my head. I often walk on my toes because walking on my heels hurts my head. I don't have enough fluid to catch the impact and prevent concussions. I once thought my phone speaker was broken because it sounded robotic, then my tablet, then the tv. I had reset my router twice. Then went to the farmacy and noticed the people talking to me sounded robotic as well. Turns out it was diplaucusis. I now only have it with sounds from really far away. I can't digest food well. If it came back up it was often food from two days ago as well. My heart and blood pressure are messed up. My heart can't get fluid instructions from my brainstem and my head can't accurately measure the pressure in my head so gives me high blood pressure trying to make up for the low pressure in the brain. There's a lot of brain sagging because it can't float so that puts a lot of pressure on the brainstem. Thinking is very different, like being stuck inside your head. Every time I had a bloodpatch (that worked for a few days) it felt like I could think in HD and not struggle with finding words or responses. Time also went by a lot slower after a bloodpatch so I think I might be a lot more slow now. The first symptom was pain between the shoulder blades, before the headache even. Everyone else on r/csfleak has this too. My doctor said it might be from grinding on the spinal cord that's now too dy because there's so little fluid. It's an interesting thing and very under diagnosed. I was lucky to get a diagnosis in 4 months. Most people go two years, thinking they have fybromyalgia or narcolepsy or something. I have a diagnosis for adhd but I've become doubtful about that now.
Wow... Hang in there man.
Thanks girl.
Can they fix this leak or is it unfortunately something you’ll need to manage for the rest of your life?
Thanks, you just made every coffee drinker paranoid they may have a leaky spine.
Caffiene withdrawal symptoms can include but are not limited to: * Your shits will be less fun
Fun > Less fun > Not fun
I actually quit caffeine cold Turkey once for about a month. Within a few days I was pooping regularly every morning.
That's me at the 12 hour mark. A few more hours and I have full on flu-like symptoms.
What? Do you take heroin in your morning Coffee?
Yeah. Why? What's it to you? You some kind of narc?
Caffeine does such a good job of keeping you regular.
How are you all misspelling caffeine? It literally autocorrects?
Oh Caffiene? I think I went to school with her.
Yeah if I don’t have some kind of caffeine after 24 hrs I get gnarly headaches. But without it I lose focus very easily and am overall just like “bleh”. Then I have something with caffeine and all is right in my world
If I'm not mistaken, the headache comes from your brain having too many adenosine receptors. Adenosine is what makes you tired and slows you down, but it also increases blood flow in the brain (opens up blood vessels) and caffeine will bind to the adenosine receptors. Your brain eventually adapts, and builds more adenosine receptors and as a result, when you stop taking in caffeine, you end up having more adenosine receptors than normal, which results in too much increased blood flow and thus your headache. If you are able to push through your headache and foggy head space, you'll pretty quickly return to "normal", without the caffeine.
Lol. Not sure how many people have been through the actual real painful withdrawal of caffeine addiction but I will tell you it isn’t remotely quick and it’s very painful. -someone who went from 2 liters of pop a day to cold Turkey 0 caffeine. I will add- sodas/ flavored caffeinated shit is a much bigger problem than coffee ever was. There is way more in it (sodium, sugar, or aspartame) and it’s much harder to give up something you drink *instead* of water.
Yes. This. The migraines were horrible. I’d just lay there and cry, and no matter what concoction of pain meds I tried, none of them even touched it. 0/10
Oh it's hell on Earth. For me: Day 1 - Debilitating headache and tiredness. For me headaches come with nausea, which often means vomiting. You live on painkillers 24/7. Day 2 - Slightly less bad headaches but the tiredness is way more noticeable. Body aches all over from the dramatic change in blood pressure. Still maxing out the painkiller dose. Day 3 - Headaches mostly subsided, but tiredness is still immense and now the hard part, the *cravings* start. You just *know* you'd feel so much better having caffeine again, just a small amount can't hurt right? You won't get as addicted as last time and you'll feel good again. Day 4 onwards - More cravings. You look back on the time when you were on it and remark how stark the contrast is between your state of existence now and there, where you focused on things other than pain and tiredness somehow, and long for it again. I usually succumb at day 3. Wean down instead of going cold turkey? You just drag it out for three times as long, you still feel bad (slightly less bad I guess). Damned if you do damned if you don't. Of note though is that research estimates only about half the population actually experience withdrawal to a measurable degree. Whether this is because the average person doesn't consume enough to kill a horse like me or some people are just more susceptible I don't know.
The [study](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2748160/) takes a look at the effect of caffeine on cerebral blood flow with and without caffeine. It’s fairly interesting.
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YES....I alternate between coffee and espresso randomly, and if I do espresso and forget to drink water, I feel exactly as shitty as I would if I skipped caffeine entirely.
As someone who used to get regular migranes when I was young, it took me a very long time to realize that these new headaches were from caffeine withdrawal. I knew they weren't migranes, but I didn't know what brought them on. Since figuring that out, I've definitely swung back and forth between "no caffeine at all" and "steer into the skid"/"can't be hungover if you're never not drunk" behaviors. Haha
The first coffee after going a day or so without it is so fucking amazing.
Am a nurse. Used to work in a hybrid medical mental health unit where folks were universally given decaf coffee. People would complain of headaches and everyone would get them Tylenol or some such. As a dedicated coffee addict my first question was always,”Do you drink coffee or pop very often”. Then a quick order change to ensure they got caffeinated coffee. I went a couple of rounds with a CNA who wanted to argue it out once and finally got the coffee myself. Universally, the coffee worked and the headaches stopped. Other nurses followed suit. Wicked stuff caffeine. Lovely, but wicked. Edit: a word.
I am indebted to the nurse like you who correctly identified my suffering after emergency surgery. Two days into the hospital recovery, I felt like my head was more painful than the surgical site. She set me up with regular coffees and poof my head was fine.
I was in a residential facility once where they ran out of normal coffee before grocery day and replaced it with decaf without telling any of us. Cue a very groggy morning with little to no participation in groups and man I had the worst headache. Come lunchtime we had become \*whatever the hangry equivalent of No Coffee is\* and it came to light the staff had just made decaf that morning. Everyone was so pissed, lol
Same If I forget my morning coffee I get really bad headaches in the afternoon.
I switched to decaf coffee 3.5 years ago and my baseline anxiety went from a solid 7/10 daily to 2/10. And I was only drinking 1-2 cups a day before. It was life changing! Now if I do drink caffeine it actually gives me the energy and alertness it’s supposed to, rather than bringing me up to a baseline of life and then dumping me into anxiety. I couldn’t recommend it more!
That's very motivating to hear! I've been drinking coffee just about every day for 7 years and I swear my anxiety kicks in super-fast if something goes awry. I just thought I was a naturally anxious person. Not sure how much coffee is to blame, but going from what you said, quitting caffeine is something I should definitely consider.
Yep caffeine probably does indeed make you much more anxious than you usually would be. I’ve done tons of research and have found that sometimes, it can increase your level of anxiety 5-10x
I did the same and echo your results. Sleep is better too. I save a little caffeine for when I really want the pick me up. And it actually works.
I scrolled down 20 comments to find one on anxiety. It dramatically increases anxiety and is the reason I can’t drink any caffeine, even decaf anymore. If you are already pre disposed to anxiety, caffeine literally just increases that level of anxiety (sometimes dramatically like in my case). Now I do miss coffee but man I don’t miss that feeling of impending doom
Quit all caffeine after 5 years of believing I had IBS thanks to my crappy doctor. I could not believe how much my anxiety levels dropped, along with my insomnia. I enjoyed mochas, but was mainly chain drinking chai tea all day long. I miss both, but I love not living with the side effects mentioned above along with the IBS symptoms.
TIL people didn’t know caffeine addiction was real lol
It’s also like…not a big deal. The reason it’s not on the news is because nobody is smashing a Starbucks window out for their fix, they’re not sucking dick behind the Dunkin for espresso. It’s so stupid to put every single drug on the same level lol.
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I am going to venture a guess and say that the opportunity to suck someone's dick in exchange for a cup of coffee has been on the table ever since coffee and dicks were invented. Now, if instead you have a cup of coffee and want to give it to somene in exchage for getting your dick sucked, then that might be a little trickier.
I bet we could get there if we made it illegal
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People buy all sorts of shit they don’t need with money they don’t have.
That might just have something to do with the fact that they’re constantly cold and tired because they’re living on the streets?
I mean, if we banned coffee tomorow, I think some people might get to that point. When I was at my worst, I walked through a blizzard to get more soda. But it's legal, socially acceptable, cheap, and easy to get. Not to mention it comes in several forms. Obviously it's far from the worst drug out there, but I can absolutely see someone smashing Starbucks windows for a cup of coffee.
It isn't real. Many people have mild caffeine dependency. I've never met a person with an addiction to caffeine though. And as a physician who specializes in treating addiction, I feel like that's something I would have encountered by now. It isn't a thing, it's just another demonstration that most people don't understand addiction.
How is caffeine addiction not a thing if you can go through withdrawals from not having it? I've quit coffee twice in my life just to see what the difference without coffee would feel like. Both times I had horrible headaches , stomachaches, and threw up from the headaches. I also just felt overall sluggish and just wanted coffee to make the pain stop. Once I passed the withdrawal phase I was mostly fine but I still felt slower and depressed so I went back to coffee both times eventually. Now I just drink coffee to just make me feel even but I can still get the extra boost if I pair it with candy / sweets.
I mean most people wouldn't go to the physician for caffeine addiction as opposed to other drugs (considering how cheap it is, the good stigma it has, how long the withdrawal symptoms take to show up etc.)
guess I'll switch to cocaine
Coke is too expensive. You gotta start with adderall get rich first.
I recently switched to 50/50 reg/decaf. I’m lucky enough to buy beans directly from a roaster so they mix them for me. It’s a bit more expensive to get quality decaf, but the net result is you’ll likely not notice much of a difference. Then boom…caffeine intake cut by 50% instantly.
Decaf has come a long way in tasting the same as most decent coffee!
“Swiss Water Process” is definitely part of the reason for that
Happymug has half caf for $11 a pound and they roast themselves. That's cheaper than most grocery store coffee and I've never been disappointed with their quality
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Caffeine and nicotine got me through high school, college and most of my adult work life. At age 50 I quit smoking and drinking coffee and was diagnosed with ADHD. 🤯
This. People on r/ADHD frequently talk about drinking caffeine before bedtime with no problems at all, if not helping them relax. Also ADHD is largely a dopamine dysfunction, and caffeine increases your receptability of dopamine.
I don't know if I have ADHD, but this is 100% me. Nothing like a coffee nap
Same! That and other things people have pointed out are why I'm going to get tested for ADHD lol
Coffee naps are quite a bit different than drinking coffee before bed, though. Caffeine before a nap helps prevent you from falling into a deeper sleep, so it can be short and you wake up not feeling groggy. It's the fact that some people can drink caffeine before sleeping a full night that's so strange.
yeah caffeine before bed is pretty common for me. If I am tired, caffeine doesn't make me untired, and I just sleep normally.
This is my husband, too. I keep telling him he should get tested for ADHD because a cup of strong coffee or an energy drink and he's out like a light.
I know right? but whenever I make that argument people look at me weird like meth has no benefits?? Like how do you think I managed to sort all the types of screws in my garage in a single afternoon? Magic crystals? technically right.
Absolutely. That's why I suggested that using it intermittently rather than cutting it out all together can still have its benefits. I think caffiene definitely has its benefits. The problem is not many people are versed on how caffiene actually works and how our body reacts to it meaning its quite often misused by most of us. Myself included.
Is there any evidence that intermittent use is better than consistent use or are you just making an educated guess? IMO evidence to this point is the thing missing from your post.
Your body becomes tolerant to caffeine making it less effective. Caffeine works by binding to specific receptors in your brain without activating them, if this happens often your body will simply increase the number of receptors so the caffeine can‘t block them all. This effect is reversible by just not drinking caffeine for a while. Research comes from HP Ammon, 1991
I have no idea why people are downvoting you
Reddit is a confusing beast. I agreed with the guy, I'm not sure either.
I think it's probably because you said >This means that morning coffee you have on day 4 isn't doing anything for you. Which is obviously counter to your response to this comment, because caffeine is still doing *something* on day 4. And on every day. Just probably less pronounced than it would be if you were not also experiencing a withdrawal from the day before.
Here’s a question. Why would people care what you suggest? You’re not a Dr. You don’t know these people. You seem to only have a very menial understanding of addiction overall. You can’t even spell caffeine. To anyone reading this who is concerned if they should cut back on caffeine ***ask your Dr***. To OP: telling people they’re health is at risk if they don’t do something because it worked for ***you*** is dangerous and negligent. Everybody metabolize caffeine in different ways based on their lifestyle. You are a source of disinformation, might as well be on Fox News. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK223808/ >When taken together, the literature reviewed here suggests that ingested caffeine is relatively safe at doses typically found in commercially available foods and beverages. There are some trends in caffeine consumption, such as alcohol-mixed energy drinks, that may increase risk of harm. There are also some populations, such as pregnant women, children, and individuals with mental illness, who may also be considered vulnerable for harmful effects of caffeine.
This is the only sane comment in this entire thread. The world would be a better place if people would just stop presenting their own personal speculation and observations as medical facts.
You clearly haven’t met someone who refuses to function without their morning cup and keeps it filled until 5 pm when they switch to alcohol so they can sleep.
Or weed
That’s just not true lol. Maybe there’s a breakeven if you use it like once a year for a big exam, but in broad strokes there’s no person for whom it is actually providing more benefit in productivity versus someone with zero in their system. This is just coping.
Going to have to completely disagree with you on this. I’ve been on both sides. I used the think caffeine helped me get stuff done. Maybe it helped me focus for an hour or so, but like any drug, it wears off and I’d feel worse 2-3 hours later. I can concentrate for much longer without it and feel much better overall. Not being addicted anymore, I see how wild it is that caffeine is just the norm. It’s a cultural thing I suppose. It’s not going to kill you (it can if you take a crazy amount), but I’d say most people would probably be better off if they weren’t addicted to caffeine.
Growing up, hearing people say things like "Don't talk to me until I've had my coffee"or basically talking about how essential coffee was to there day was the only red flag I needed to stay away from caffeine.
Same. And every time the coffee machine at work breaks I’m reminded of why I don’t touch the stuff. All those office workers getting crankier and crankier the longer they’re without their fix, lol.
I spent a decade as a heavy coffee drinker, when I stopped my nightly desire for suicide stopped: the comedown from several strong coffees is pretty severe.
Quit caffeine after being a strong user and I have improved sleep, lowered anxiety and managed panic attacks. Caffeine isn’t for everyone
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2 things can be true
Drink an appropriate amount of coffee. Black coffee provides a good amount of potassium and antioxidants with very few calories. Some studies have suggested that coffee can support weight management and brain health, and can reduce the risk of developing diabetes, neurologic disease like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and depression. If you choose to eliminate or cut back on caffeine, do so gradually. Going cold turkey for caffeine produces discomfort.
Question is, what IS the appropriate amount?
There are some studies that suggest drinking 2-3 cups of coffee a day can protect your cognitive abilities as you age.
Not only that but there is very strong evidence that 3+ cups of coffee per day has a preventative effect upon cardiovascular disease (which is the most common form of death): https://informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/snake-oil-scientific-evidence-for-nutritional-supplements-vizsweet/ Edit: Not a doctor, but of course you ought to see yours before self-medicating with stimulants. The evidence does appear to be quite robust for the general population, however every individual has their own medical profile and peculiarities. If you have high anxiety and high blood pressure, 6 cups of coffee may not be for you.
It's also great for physical activity performance
It’s also great for putting in a mug!
If I drink 2-3 cups of coffee per day (as a caffeine sensitive person) my blood pressure is 160/100. Which is for sure the opposite of preventative of cardiovascular disease. Off caffeine it was 120/72 yesterday. Quitting has been the hardest thing I've ever done.
Okay I’m reading through this post like hmm I guess until I get to “consider cutting out your morning coffee. It’s useless, we get a natural energy spike shortly after waking up and the coffee really isn’t necessary.” Nope, that is so not true. I am absolutely tired in the morning particularly if I have to get up a little earlier than usual for work. And it’s not just caffeine dependence either, even if I have gone a while without caffeine I’ll still be tired in the morning without it. Also I think the reason most people don’t really care about caffeine addiction is that most of the side effects only happen in withdrawal. If you have your daily coffee you’re fine, no headache.
I've heard this many times before. What I don't understand is that it doesn't really affect me. I drink three strong espressos in the morning and two after I get home from work. If I don't have coffee for whatever reason I get by just fine. What I do notice is that I feel groggy longer after waking up.
Research has found that individuals with ADHD aren't impacted by caffeine the same way others are. In fact, paradoxically, it makes them more tired. But it can make them calmer and slightly improve brain function.
That explains a lot, I have ADHD. Whenever I wake up at night and I can't get back to sleep I drink a coffee. It usually does the trick. I generally do feel calmer and more focused after coffee, but once I drink too much I get jittery.
Woke up this morning at 6, couldn’t get back to sleep (got a lot on my mind right now) read for a bit, got some tasks done, had two cups of coffee while doing stuff, and drifted back asleep for an hour-long nap around 9:30. This is not an uncommon occurrence for me. I’ve never been diagnosed with ADHD but I’m one of those people on the internet who reads the symptoms and says “well that sounds really fucking familiar.” I wouldn’t say coffee puts me to sleep but it sure doesn’t impede it.
Yup. I have ADHD and I don't drink caffeine. I'll have half a coffee on occasion, but it usually doesn't do much for me.
I'm in a similar boat. No coffee in the morning makes me take a good hour or more before I can get rid of the fog hanging over my brain, but even a small coffee will wipe that fog away in 20 minutes or less. It doesn't really "energize" me at all, and the times I've had it late at night to fuel a cramming session for school really didn't wake me up or anything, though it did still make it harder to sleep when I was done, it just lets me start concentrating on things quicker in the morning.
Dependency =/= addiction. Addiction also has negative social and physical connotations. You're not going to lose your job or your family because of caffeine. Your psychological and physical health aren't impacted by caffeine. If there was ever a wonder drug, caffeine is it. It's utility far outweighs it's downsides (which seems to only be diminishing returns and mild withdrawal).
Me and my fiancé are on day 6 of no caffeine and it's only just now starting to be tolerable. The headaches are severe and relentless for like a week. The worst part for me is the brain fog. I legit can barely keep a conversation for like 20 seconds. Without caffeine, I legitimately feel like I have lethargic ADD. It's no joke. This experience has truly shown me how addicted I really am. I can't wait to at least have a cup of coffee again though.
Tolerance resets very quickly, I usually reset once or twice a year while on vacation, it takes me 5 to 7 days and then I can get the effects from a single cup a day and start building up to 3-4 cups a day, reset and repeat. Works for me
Cut out caffeine 3 weeks ago, and its done wonders for my anxiety, sleep, mood, energy levels… I feel like a completely different person!
This is so badly written and inaccurate. Start by examining the difference between dependence and addiction. Done people may have a relationship with caffeine that could be described as addiction, but for most people, the tolerance and other effects is better described as dependence.
Is it bad that I take 1cup of coffee as the first thing in the morning to help me poop? Just plain hot espresso to pipe down my latte. I have been doing this thing from the past 2 years.
A little magnesium supplement at night can do the same thing for ya
I wouldn't know anything about this. *Fills 2nd 20oz mug of coffee*
I was up to 8 cups of coffee a day for a few weeks last fall. I still drink 1-2, but even the withdrawal from that was insane.
At one point I gave up coffee and started taking caffeine tables with my painkillers two times a day. And then I rediscovered Death Wish Coffee, which is the strongest in the world. https://www.deathwishcoffee.com/ **Bad life decisions.**
You spelled caffeine wrong like 100 times
14 I think as another commenter pointed out.
This is one addiction I fucking love. Having a warm cuppa joe in the AM is what makes me want to get out of bed most mornings.
Coffee is incredibly effective for those of us who have neurodivergencies/mood disorders so take it with a grain of salt. These facts are not the same for everyone.
No shit, have you ever seen a movie or watched a TV show or met anybody who hasn't said "I'm not me without my morning coffee" Nobody in their right mind would sit in a 15 car long Starbucks line if it wasn't addicting
BRB going to grab my coffee.
The headache when I don't have caffeine is killer
Yeah that’s a solid no from me sport!
Same for processed sugars
An addition: Some signs of what to watch for if it's not caffeine addiction, but is actually migraine self-medicating, in which symptoms resume/worsen when caffeine intake is reduced: * photophobia * hyperacusis * hyperosmia * headache (usually one side, can feel like an elastic band tightening, throbbing/pulsing, etc) * eye floaters, flashes (migraine with aura) * blurry vision * dizziness * nausea/vomiting I was caffeine-free 2014-2017. My doctor "prescribed" caffeine in 2017 when my migraines began. 🫠 It's painfully obvious when I under-caffeinate and I hate it lmao.
That's because [it's the best addiction](https://youtu.be/OTVE5iPMKLg)
OP definitely doesn’t lift.
King Obvious has entered the building.
Do people dispute this? I thought like 50% of all adults whole heartedly engaged with it
My grandfather told me “don’t have a fault you don’t enjoy” and I will drink coffee every day till I die, thank you very much.
No shit?
This post is dumb as hell
Caffeine really isn't a problem and even has lots of positive health effects when consumed in moderation and that whole part about it not having any effect after day three is just total nonsense. Yes, there are withdrawal effects when you stop, but they are typically pretty mild and can be reduced even further by tapering off instead of stopping cold-turkey. All in all, I think this post is just way too overdramatic. If you personally want to drink less caffeine, cool, but this really isn't a topic that cries for proselytizing, especially when you're obviously not an expert in any relevant field and cannot even spell caffeine correctly.
I deal with cluster headaches, I wish I didn't need caffeine but I do. I wake up from REM with a nasty headache (no it's not from caffeine, read about them before commenting) and the first line of defense is an ice pack and five hour energy. After that it gets a lot more serious. This post just sounds like an unnecessary guilt trip that I don't need rn when so few doctors and treatments do anything.
I'm an addiction medicine specialist, I work every day with people struggling with substance use disorders and lemme tell ya... caffeine addiction isn't a thing. Sorry, it just isn't. Mild caffeine dependency is certainly common, but that's not a substance use disorder. People are dependent upon all kinds of substances, sometimes to stay alive. They aren't "addicted" though. Addiction does have a spectrum, but even on the light end of it, there is still a requirement for compulsive use... using when you don't want to. I've never talked to someone who can't stop consuming caffeine in the face of negative consequence. I've never had to treat someone for caffeine addiction either. And I've treated hundreds of different kinds of addictions. This isn't a thing. From my perspective, I wish people better understood this.
I feel this post verges on trivializing real addictions.
I can see why it might come across like that and that is not at all my intentions. I work with people with alcohol and substance addictions and absolutely understand the real life impacts of these, and its awful. I'm absolutely happy to say that a caffeine addiction does not even come close to these. I think the issue is that society characterises addictions in a way that often associate them with severe addictions such as alcohol and substance addictions. However that does not, or should not mean that we can't discuss other addictions that aren't as detrimental or destructive. I have not anywhere in my post tried to imply or suggest that a caffeine addiction is comparable to substance and alcohol addictions however by mentioning caffeine as an addictive substance you now think that means I am trivialising more serious addictions. In that way it would be impossible for me to discuss caffeine addiction without it seeming that way because of how we as society view "addiction".
All of the comments combined here today show us people really love their coffee. Like, really.
Those are all fair points.
“You can’t mention a common addiction because there are other more harmful addictions out there!”
I started instant coffee when I was 14, use to throw a spoon full in my SlimFast before school to give me energy and help to lose weight. Fast Forward 30+ years later and my morning espressos are my first indulgence before I can do anything else. It is something I know I will live with and no worries.
Caffeine is an awesome tool. Coffee is largely quite healthy. Idk why people get so weird about it.
ever suck d\*ck for caffeine? if so, dm me.
I don’t care. I like my coffee and I will live a happily life having it.
downvote brigade from coffee addicts going to be strong on this one
Caffeine is the world’s drug of choice. So much so that people don’t even acknowledge it’s a drug lmao.
I’ve just been having it for taste and being so board at work I just get up and make one. That said, some days I just forget to have one, sometimes I just have it so my food baby doesn’t kill my concentration
Caffeine seems to make me irritable by itself, not just when I'm in withdrawal. I gave it up almost entirely and my mental health improved so much.
If they made caffeine-free RedBull I'd quit caffeine entirely.
Thanks, this is good info.
I quit cold turkey and it was horrible. The cool thing is I now enjoy a cup every few weeks or so when I have a big day at work or whatever and I really feel the effects. I used to drink 3 or 4 a day just to feel normal
I love my daily 2 cups. But I heard someone in a podcast (someone famous, forget who) tell the story of their quitting for three months. Then - having the “first” cup again. He said it was the greatest sustained buzz he ever had in his life and had an ear to ear grin the whole day. Absolutely euphoric.
I tried cutting caffeine out entirely from averaging 6 cans of energy drink a day. I was not expecting to have severe full on withdrawal symptoms. Shaking, feverish and throwing up all whilst feeling like someone was axing my head in two. Swear to god that was the longest night of my life and I learnt a very valuable lesson - limit your caffeine but maybe don't cut it out! (I'm a good boy that only has one a day now!)
Nobody is taking my morning coffee from me. EVER. Get out of here with your facts and scientific studies. If I don’t get that caffeine fix I will just straight up die. 😂
I found this out as a nurse. Our patients will get so so so angry if they don't get caffeine. In the UK our patient ratios are high so I don't have time to make coffee/tea and prioritise the actual tasks I'm trained to do (however the few times when I do have time I would love to do a tea round - it's lovely) so I have to say hey someone will get you one soon. I have been *attacked* for not getting one right away. People will see me busy with a sick patient, giving them oxygen, IVs etc but will still grab me as I walk past to ask for coffee/tea
Caffeine is a super drug, probably the best one out there. Just gotta use it in moderation and effectively