Living in a world without caffeine
This week, for the third time in my life, I’ve quit caffeine. For plenty of people, this wouldn’t be a big deal. For me, it is. And it’s that very fact that it is a big deal which is prompting me to quit.
The first time I felt the need to quit, it was due to consuming *way* too much Coke (coca-cola). I’d purchased with my brother and a friend, 440 1.25L bottles of Coke to collect enough points to win prizes in a Summer promotion. On obtaining the drinks & points, I proceeded to drink my way through as much as I could. Stupid amounts – stupid for me anyway – probably normal for Americans 
Anway, 1.25L on getting out of bed, usually 2 bottles at school and then another one or two at night when I got home.
Rinse and repeat until I’m walking along one and realise, hold on, I feel like absolute crap. I have a constant nausea inducing headache, I can’t see straight and I’m not real happy. I remember clearly the moment of clarity where something just snapped. No more coke, no more crap, no more caffeine. I drank nothing but water for over a year.
The second time was about 4 years ago. I went back to water only as an experiment in proving I could quit coffee/caffiene any time I wanted. Turns out I could. After a month I’d proved what I wanted to prove, and returned to my regular coffee/coke/energy drinks.
This time around, my motivation is quite different. After a few really quite stressful years, I’d found myself drinking more and more coffee. I’ve always liked strong coffee, but the frequency was really ramping up. 6-7 double shot lattes per day was not unusal for me last year. This year sees me in a new largely coffee free work environment, but I still have my espresso machine at home. So a couple of double shot espressos in the morning & evening is pretty much the norm, especially in this new wake up stupidly early to go to work gig I have going.
So what changed?
I found myself saying things that pointed to me *really* being addicted to coffee. Not funny haha type “ooh, he’s having a double espresso, what an addict” stuff. My internal voice was saying stuff that if you substituted coffee with cigarette, I’d be disgusted.
“I’m stressed, I’m going to have a coffee”
“Can’t think straight, going to have a coffee”
“Can’t function in the morning without my coffee”
“Just have a coffee then I’ll finish this bit of code”
Every day. Hrmm.
So, I don’t like the idea of being dependent on chemicals. I love coffee, don’t get me wrong. I love the taste, I love the smell, the texture, the social aspects. Even the caffeine buzz, I’m not above saying I like that too. But for the sake of being true to who I think I am as a person, it’s got to go, and it has.
I’ve quit the only way I know how. Cold turkey. I don’t think there is any other way of quitting, but ymmv.
The first day was really tough. I’d had a late night doing airport pickups followed up by the usual early morning start and to make it even better, 2 multihour teleconferences straight up. I was falling asleep in my chair. If I’d been driving, I’d have killed someone, not least myself. I had to meet someone at 9pm, but that was the only thing keeping me going past 6pm. Eventually I finally got to crash out around 11.
Yesterday (day 2) I wasn’t feeling quite so tired early in the day. I was however, feeling completely useless. Lethargic, braindead. The feeling continued throughout the day with tiredness creeping in as well. By the time I’d finished dinner and done another airport run, I was really tired and headache was oncoming. Eventually had a berocca to see if it helped – which it did. Headache eased off a bit, and then I just headed to be. I think it was a bit after 10 that I fell asleep.
Today was the most interesting. I feel less crap. Not particuarly tired, but my brain doesn’t feel like it’s really fired up either. The could be a few reasons for that. It’s Friday, been a fairly taxing week, plus the detox. But most importantly, I see hope that I will feel better in the coming month, and the caffeine dependence will reduce to zero.
So, this is good. I am proving I’m not a caffeine addict, just a coffee enjoyer (taking a break from coffee for a while).
February 20th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
[...] No Wasted Moves placed an observative post today on Living in a world without caffeineHere’s a quick excerptThis week, for the third time in my life, I’ve quit caffeine. For plenty of people, this wouldn’t be a big deal. For me, it is. And it’s that very fact that it is a big deal which is prompting me to quit. The first time I felt the need to quit, it was due to consuming *way* too much Coke (coca-cola). I’d purchased with my brother and a friend, 440 1.25L bottles of Coke to collect enough points to win prizes in a Summer promotion. On obtaining the drinks points, I proceeded to drink my wa [...]
March 15th, 2010 at 2:56 am
I eased off caffeine over two weeks, using smaller and smaller pieces of caffeine pills. I still suffered, but it was tolerable. The good part comes later, after a month or two, when you discover that you have more endurance, clarity of thought, and sense of well-being. The addictive voice once in a while tries to tell me I should go back, but really, I’m quite pleased and happy with being off caffeine, and I’m not going back, there’s no rational reason to.
March 30th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
I can totally relate to this post. A few years ago, I used to be a coca cola addict and remember my brain getting really scrambled. By the way, chemicals are incorporated into the product to induce this affect.
I then became a coffee/tea addict and loved how quickly and much I could accomplish in a day. I hated feeling tired at the end of the day and then getting to the point where I felt ADHD.
I now have decided to quit caffeine altogether. I feel lazy, even dim witted as it takes longer to do things, my mind isn’t as sharp, but what I do, I do well. I am focused, calm, and happy.
It is a day by day thing. Each day, I am feeling less tired and have fewer headaches as the withdrawal symptoms wears off. It’s tough…I feel sluggish and my mind is not as sharp, but each day it seems to be getting better…I expect that once I fully am back to myself that I will be even more effective than I was before I started taking the chemical known as caffeine.
Great blog btw.
March 19th, 2011 at 3:06 am
I quit cold turkey about 4 months ago after many years of coffee and soda consumption. Previously I was drinking an average of 3-4 cups of regular coffee per day, and had quit caffeinated sodas long before that. The overt physical symptoms took probably 7 days or so to disappear, but actually “feeling” right took well over a month. I am amazed at the difference now. Mood, wakefulness, and even bowel movements are now better than ever before.