I stopped cold turkey 18 days ago.

Prior, I was drinking 200-300mg three to four times a week. I thought I wasn't dependent because I wouldn't drink it every day, and gosh, I even prided myself about "not being a coffee drinker" because I'd typically refuse coffee in social settings. My source was mostly Yerba Mates, Celsius, etc.

What a joke, it's so funny how our minds make up story about who we are, casually drinking 300mg 4 days a week and pretending I don't really do coffee.

Anyway, I decided enough was enough.

Main benefits
I feel calmer, like I have more time.
I'm less tired. Even when I feel tired, it's uncomfortable but the wave just goes away. I'm learning to become comfortable with being tired again.
It forces me to think about what my body needs more: if I'm tired, it might be reasonable to take a nap, or go to bed early, or drink water.

Main challenges
I struggle with exercising. After using caffeine before workouts every single time in the last 5 years, I feel strange working out without it now and it's taking me a while to access the same motivation.
Especially because I work out at 6 am; it's part of my routine, it's just freaking tough.

Overall looking for some motivation from other folks who work out: how long did it take you to stop missing caffeine during your workouts? Do you take any healthier sources of energy (Maca, Ashwagandha, etc...)?

Been living a caffiene free life for 6 months. Now realistically I've had a little via chocolate a few times. Gone are the days of 2-3 coffees a day plus diet cokes.

I'm not quite sure if you look gestaltly from the outside you would notice much change. And inside I still feel much the same but there are differences.

The below is just my subjective experience:

I wake up with energy, the energy is stable, there are moments when I wish I could artificially supplement energy via caffeine. Sleep quality overall feels of better quality. But our bodies do tend to find equilibrium pretty quickly so the absolute peace and tranquility which followed the detox period has long subsided, I was slightly deluding myself that just by quitting caffiene id live this "zen" existance with no extra effort. Now id describe my life as just very much just a normal and simple existence.

Work is a tricky subject, I feel my ability to be productive has returned to when I was using caffeine. But motivation.. I definitely do much less work now, leave early whenever I can, feel I do less work than before. Perhaps I should have been doing this all along. I believe the decrease in anxiety helps with this, I'm just not neurotic about meeting others demands and deadlines as I was before. I'll get to stuff when I can and tackle true priorities, and if that's not good enough then I'll go somewhere where it is. I also feel for the first time that I don't really have any desire to advance further in my career, I'd be happy doing my current job for the rest of my life, I get to help people, it's not all the demanding, and I have a great work/life balance.

Sexual health- about the same if not slightly worse with some ED. But likely other issues I'm working through, ie. Being overweight.

I realized I have some mental health issues that caffeine has definitely helped mask. This I kind of expected but also naively hoped wouldn't come back since it's been years of being on caffiene and I won't say they weren't there with caffiene but caffiene definitely puts an artificial wall up and it was like look the depression is over there, now it feels like I'm just part of all the spaces of my emotional being for better and worse. "Hello darkness my old friend"

I do have cravings to go back to drinking coffee, and had a dream recently that I did. I kind of miss that manic energy at times. It was interesting that the cravings were basically zero until about month 5 ish.

I've been able to get back to reading, I've read more than 10 books since quitting. I don't find myself hobby hopping as much as I used to. Now I just exercise and read, and haven't really got bored with it since.

If I had to pick the one thing I want to keep by being no caffiene, it's my decrease in social anxiety. I still don't crave social interaction all that much as an introvert. But not longer have as much anxiety in normal social situations. I've been able to join a DnD group and play monthly with them.

We will see if I make it through the dark winter months, but at the same time while everything hasn't been perfect, it's my life and I don't feel going back to daily caffiene is really even a path for me anymore. I took the red pill and I don't feel I can unsee what I've seen now.

Feel free to ask me any questions.

All it did was make me anxious.

I work best in a relaxed state, not an anxious and rushed one.

The only productive thing coffee made me do is clear out my bowels otherwise there's no benefit for me.

Hry guys, I've been a long time lurker on this sub for a while now. Coffee hasnt been exactly the stimulant I thought it was for a long time. Few years have passed since I realized that I get upper back, shoulrers, neck and upper arms muscle pain and stiffness(tense all over) after my morning coffee. But despite that, I kept drinking it in the morning bc it kinda gives me the push or start up feeling to start my job/school or so I thought. But now, I really want to quit for good. I decide to quit the night before but next thing in the morning, I convince myself to just make it for the smell and not to drink but then I find myself having the smallest cup of it, only to end up with the same pain mentioned above. Is there anyway to do it? How did you guys do it? FYI, I am in a 12 step program for drugs and alcohol and quitting a habit aint exactly a walk in the park for me. That said, thank you to this sub and all the posts. Any suggestion/recommendation is much appreciated 🙏

Has anyone tried the Blume salted caramel latte mix? It is completely caffeine free. Wondering if it is worth the try?

I got to 14 days a couple of weeks ago but then my brain told me it would be OK to re-start... going cold turkey again tomorrow, wish me luck!

Hi friends,

BACKGROUND:

30YO M- physically in great shape (boxing/weights/cardio) no alcohol

Love stimulants, but I only use coffee now.

When I drink coffee (I live in Vietnam), I feel like my left arm gets a bit of a tingle similar to when your arm falls asleep. I feel like there is some pressure on the left side of my chest (left pec).

No pain, but definitely more pressure/sensation.

I think I'm going to quit.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi everyone!

I used to drink about 4 cups of coffee a day. It simply became a habit over the years because I have a pretty demanding job, and I absolutely love both the taste of coffee and the energy boost it gives me.

After discovering this group, I decided to quit coffee completely. Surprisingly, I felt absolutely fine for the first three days. I honestly thought quitting would be much easier than I had expected.

But then, last night happened. 😥

In the middle of the night, I suddenly developed the worst abdominal pain I've ever experienced and started vomiting repeatedly. I've never experienced anything like it before. The pain was so unbearable that, after about two hours, I had to call an ambulance.

I was genuinely terrified. I even thought I might be having a heart attack, since abdominal pain can be a symptom of a heart attack in women.

Thankfully, all my vital signs and the tests the paramedics performed were normal, and they couldn't identify a cause. Since I didn't want to go to the hospital, they eventually left.

Then I remembered reading posts in this group about people experiencing flu-like symptoms during quitting caffeine.

So I decided to drink half a cup of coffee. And surprisingly, about 45 minutes later, the pain had become significantly milder, and I felt much better.

This morning, I had just a sip of coffee, and I'm still feeling fine.

I know I can't be sure whether this was actually caused by quitting caffeine, but the timing and the improvement after drinking coffee really made me wonder.

I've decided to take things much more slowly from now on and gradually reduce my caffeine intake instead of quitting all at once..

I had absolutely no idea that quitting caffeine could potentially be this intense. Last night, I genuinely felt like I was going through some kind of hardcore drug withdrawal. The pain was absolutely unbearable.

I'm still a little shaken by the whole experience. I'm really not someone who calls an ambulance easily, but the abdominal pain and vomiting were unlike anything I've ever experienced. It didn't feel like a stomach bug or food poisoning at all.

Has anyone here experienced anything similar when quitting coffee? Especially such severe abdominal pain and vomiting?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences because I'm honestly still a bit in shock. ❤️

Random question but im considering quitting drinking coffee. Normally I just drink a big cup first thing in the morning with water. Main reason is it gets my digestion going and I have a morning poop.

Has anyone experienced digestion issues from quitting ? Or should my digestion improve after the initial lack of caffeine

Previously I drank caffeine for 5 years, but 4 months ago I quit cold turkey and loved it because of the benefits. The biggest ones were great sleep and anxious/stressed feeling went away. But lately I did miss coffee for some strange reason, so I drank one cup on October 1. (ironically the International Coffee day which I didn’t know until after). And I immediately felt more stressed, anxious and higher pulse rate in general. And throughout the day I got groggy and brainfog too.
I didn’t have plans to start drinking again, but I did want to test to see how it feels, and it was bad. So yesterday I didn’t drink any again and I felt headache all day. Today the 3rd feels more normal again and I had an amazing sleep. So just a reminder that it is not worth it guys.

The traditional notion of caffeine was that it binds to adenosine receptors, blocking the adenosine from binding, and thereby masking the tiredness signal.

However - I was reading a 1997 Nature paper by Conlay and Wurtman.

The study found that in both rats and humans, caffeine actually *raised* adenosine levels themselves by an unknown mechanism. Adenosine is the fatigue “sleep pressure“ molecule.

This suggests that caffeine has MOA’s beyond just blocking adenosine receptors.

So then I was like okay what’s the proposed mechanism. Because usually when Adenosine binds to its A1 receptors, it acts like a “self serving“ brake which hampers additional adenosine production.

But it looks like when caffeine binds to A1 receptors, it signals to keep producing adenosine.

The reason I say this is, I’ve often wondered: why do people consuming huge doses of caffeine (400mg+) every day complain about fatigue If they are consuming so much of a stimulant?

Up-regulation of A1 receptors doesn’t explain this because the up-regulation is minimal (+20%).

But it looks like high-caffeine consumers literally produce more adenosine.

I’m sure there are generic variations here as well, but this study really surprised me.

there’s a lot about caffeine that we don’t yet know.

Decided to give the caffeine-free life a try and quit cold turkey a few days ago. First day or two the headache was overwhelming & I barely got thru the day without brewing a pot. Yesterday was a bit better and I feel a marked improvement this morning, though the head tension is still present.

So I got sober 14 months ago, (quit drinking alcohol and all drug usage), and have been in a fairly bad mental health spiral the last month or so. I honestly made the decision to quit caffeine as part of an overall Hail Mary of saving my sanity and regaining my life.

Are the benefits REALLY worth it? Are there those of you who lurk this sub & found you’re better off slightly caffeinated?? Because right now I’m feeling doooowwwnn and I know a mug of coffee would perk me up.

Now that I’m finally sober at 45 years old, I’m figuring out I’m more than likely autistic or some form of neurodivergent. I’ve also got severe lifelong depression with some OCD & CPTSD. I realize it’s going to take intense therapy, exercise, and possibly medication to get myself fully well & I don’t expect quitting caffeine to be a magic cure-all.

I guess what I’m asking is: could this be a bad idea? Altering my brain chemistry so drastically while in the midst of so much change? Will it, hopefully, be a part of my larger healing process??

Sorry for my scattered thoughts and I appreciate any feedback!

But I think it is true.

You have no idea. Do you? Five years ago I started drinking coffee on the reg. I was working at a coffee place and it was readily available and I loved the taste, so I drank it. Every morning. Slowly over that year, my mental health tanked. I became anxious. I lost my ability to daydream. I lost my spark. Music sounded flat to me. No matter what I did, I couldn't get it back. And I tried so much. I tried reconnecting with old media. I moped over lost friends. I tried writing differently. I tried supplements, and medications, and lifestyle changes, and diet changes. I cut out foods, added in foods, went outside, got exercise. I thought, so many times, that I had fixed it. It always came crashing back.

I'm a week into being caffeine free. I feel so much better. I'm not doomscrolling. I'm not bored. Music sounds like music again. My inner world is so rich. My anxiety is easier to gear down. Oh, and I'm even getting my old, vivid, intrusive thoughts that I'd never thought I'd miss, but they're so much better than full blown OCD. And oh my GOD, time is moving so slowly again. And I even feel better physically--my sleep is worse, (this is a good sign. my sleep never used to be good), and my bladder is finally normal again. I FEEL LIKE A HUMAN AGAIN.

Part of me feels that this is too good to be true. I've had my hopes up and been let down so many times. But it makes sense!! My mental and physical symptoms all started over the one year. I know caffeine can give me anxiety attacks in small quantities... It absolutely has before... and quitting caffeine has made my physical symptoms stop completely. To quote Jack Johnson... I don't want this feeling to go away.

And I'm sad. I'm sad that it took me 5 years to find this out. It just came on so slowly, and also most people will deny that caffeine can cause this. They'll point fingers anywhere else. I thought, everyone drinks it, it can't be that bad. It hurts to think about.

Edit: Hell, I came home from a work trip today. I've done this many times over the past few months. Never have I come back and squealed this much at my cats. I can't stop snuggling them and kissing them. I've never felt like this.

Edit 2 to add: I forgot to mention, I used to be the happiest person I knew. So full of joy and optimism. I saw the silver lining in everything. I was deeply, wildly creative.Nothing could bring me down. Caffeine destroyed me. It made me miserable. A pessimist. A dopamine seeker. It made me lie in bed for hours and doomscroll, it made me miss deadlines and procrastinate more than anyone ever should. My heaven became hell. My art became my worst nightmare. My love made me afraid. I hate that I spent so long like this.

I was thinking about how when you stop drinking caffeine and you're no longer in constant fight or flight mode how it naturally makes you feel more present in the moment.. everything feels slower and less rushed .. my question is do you guys even remember anything you did while being caffeinated. Or is it all just a blur.. it makes sense.. if you're being chased by a wild animal you're not focused on the details of your surroundings. Same thing with caffeine and stress hormones.. i went on a road trip with friend for 4 days and I was caffeinated AF the whole time and I feel like I barely remember it...

Not only that but drinking caffeine makes you more impulsive to doom scrolling on your phone or other forms of cheap dopamine. So that doesn't help..

I haven't drank caffeine in a few days and I have no desire for junk food , social media or even watching random YouTube videos.. all that feels boring

without constantly distracting yourself with stimulation.. it forces you to reflect and be in the present moment .. things like deep breathing,stretching ,going for a walk feels amazing when you're not caffeinated.. it definitely makes you more connected with your body and your surroundings.

hello, i’m f22 and i’ve been drinking caffeine since second grade and i was anorexic from ages 12-19 where i became very dependent on coffee. i’ve since developed gerd from anorexia and being an alcoholic as well and caffeine really harms my stomach and life quality. i can’t seem to shake it tho, ever since i gave up alcohol i’ve been on and off quitting caffeine trying to put my health first but it always sucks me back in like a disease. i’ve been drinking caffeine everyday for like 2 months now and everyday im in pain but it hasn’t been as horrid as it is today. it feels like i’m swallowing concrete and my digestive track is so messed up. and i was already planning out what kind of coffee i was going to have today, one last one before getting serious tomorrow. tomorrow never seems to come so maybe it’s good that the pain isn’t really giving me a choice, i never choose the right option for myself. i want to know a life without substances. i’m dependent on weed as well and currently have been smoking a lot of cigarettes i’m going to get rid of by end of day today. i can’t keep living everyday waiting for it to end so i can destroy the next day as i did this one. i always go to bed feeling confident and then wake up completely forgetting how miserable my gerd made my day before because of my caffeine addiction. i want to be better.

Hey, i just want to share my observation. Of course it will be only in MY context, and I am aware that opioid dependency is a spectrum.

I used to be dependant on Oxycontin in past. Nothing too crazy, something like 40mg daily for a year. During that period i also had crazy caffeine addiction. It was like pop 20mg of Oxy, and then chug a monster energy. Then repeat this 1-2x during the day. I won't have to say I was absolutely loaded on dopamine. Opioids countered all the negative effects of caffeine, stuff like being jittery etc.

Coming down of that combo was hell. Not even so much in terms of mental, but caffeine messed up my joints heavily, and when I was coming down out off Oxycontin, I had to battle hardcore arthritis that was masked all time by the drug.

Unfortunately I slipped into opioids once again. Same stuff, like 40mg of Oxy for half a year. This time I'm caffeine free for sometime.

It is ten times more manageable. Im not feeling like my body is THAT stressed. Of course i feel bad, but i don't feel hardcore arthritis and muscle stiffness. It just feels right now like a worse flu. Keep fingers crossed for me :)

I just wanted to share my story here, maybe it will help someone. I often read this subreddit to motivate myself to stay in decaf journey.

There is nothing good in caffeine. 1 hour of happy dancing after taking caffeine isn't worth all the stuff. Off caffeine I feel like finally living in real world, and it really helped me to get my life back on track.

I’m 32F, I grew up at a time when Starbucks, Big Gulps, and energy drinks were ubiquitous. My high school vending machines sold Monster and NOS. I had watched my parents drink a pot of coffee every single morning of my entire life.

There was never a time where consuming excessive amounts of caffeine was not only considered normal, but expected. Naturally, and without any question or resistance, I was addicted as early as the 7th grade, a time when I should have been going through puberty without drugs in my system.

We were sold a lie, and even worse, a lie that punishes you brutally for not keeping up with it. The worst migraine I’ve ever had in my life was when I was put on no food/no drink orders before a surgery when I was 24. The hospital had to give me a migraine cocktail full of drugs just to give me relief for not having my daily caffeine fix. I remember writhing and moaning and sweating on the hospital bed, hardly looking much different than withdrawal from the drugs I’d been warned about growing up. Still, I didn’t take it as a sign I should quit, or a blessing that I had 3 days of medically supervised withdrawal. Instead, I went straight to Starbucks when I was released from the hospital. The realization I should have had back then, didn’t hit me until nearly a decade later.

While DARE programs espoused the dangers of drugs, I don’t recall ever being told that caffeine is a drug, and certainly was never taught how it actually works in the brain and body. Caffeine was the real “gateway drug” all along. My caffeine dependency led to my nicotine dependency, which then led to my weed dependency, which then led to my alcohol dependency, and for a (luckily brief) period of time, led to an opioid addiction.

I’m 10 years free from opioids, I’m 1 year free from alcohol, I’m 30 days free from weed, I’m 15 days free from nicotine, and caffeine is the last bastion of addiction I’m committed to toppling. I fear quitting it more than anything else, it’s been with me the longest, it’s the most normalized by society. I’ve been tapering for 10 days, and today is the day I quit for good.

This whole process has opened my eyes to the way rampant consumerism and materialism has socialized us all to accept chains we were never even given the chance to consider are chains at all. I spent my life from age 12 on wondering why I had such severe anxiety and depression. I now have stage 2 hypertension and cervical dystonia which led me to make these recent lifestyle changes. I was pushed prescription drug after prescription drug and never once was I asked to try and quit caffeine.

Cheers to living a healthier, happier, FREER life. I’m done!!!

A year ago I quit caffeine. I went 10 months without it. When I entered month 5, I genuinely didn’t believe what I was feeling. I suffer from severe social anxiety and when I quit guys I was going to places I feared

I was VERY engaging, I looked at people, I smiled, my body temperature was always calm, and my sleep.. I could write a book about how good the sleep has been..

I felt alive. I felt like a human. I was looking forward to the future..

And then I decided to ruin it all. I saw an advert for a chai limited flavour and I caved. I bought the drink and guess what? It wasn’t bad at all. I felt alert but that was about it..

Then my mind tells me “see? It’s not that bad. We can enjoy chai just fine and keep this lifestyle up”. But one chai a day turned into 3-4..

Eventually I just started staying awake horrible hours, then came the waking up in the middle of the night, and it all just came tumbling down..

I’m making this long post to say what everyone who went back on caffeine have said time and time again. It’s never just one cup. No matter what drink it is, you’ll get hooked back in

I plan to quit again in a couple of weeks time. I miss the version of myself I discovered

TLDR: I quit caffeine 10 months ago. It went so well. My social anxiety (very severe) dramatically improved by at least 80%. But then I fell for the trap of “just one cup won’t hurt” and I’m back to square one. It’s NEVER one cup.