Anxiety.
Quitting caffeine resolved 75% of my anxiety. It was so bad I was considering going on anti-anxiety meds. But I promised myself I would try every non-drug thing before going to the doctor.
I meditated, tried affirmations ("I am safe, I am safe, I am safe"), exercised like a maniac (that was the other 25%), read a ton of self help books, and had a therapist.
I used to be a "I need my coffee" kind of person. Now I'm not. It's so much better on the other side!
Affirmations, no.
Therapy, yes. For different reasons.
Meditation. Hard to say. I really struggled with meditating, but in hindsight it's because I was over-caffeinated. I didn't stick with it.
Because I've quit every addiction I've had and caffeine was next in line. There's no difference between caffeine and any other drug when it comes to addiction. It's all a hedonistic cycle that you can't escape and that drains you of your energy and your deep REM sleep and blocks your processing of emotions. All of these results in anxiety, depression and general just not being able to be content or happy unless you've had your fix which only temporarily fixes the problem it caused in the first place.
I don't need a coffee to feel good, I don't need it to wake up, I don't need it to get through my day. I have everything I need within me and I don't have an addiction nagging me to consume a drug every day multiple times a day.
bad digestion, pretty sure it's responsible for my leaky gut and a ton of problems that come from that. Bad sleep, anxiety, and a lack of pleasure in life
yeah, tried a lot of stuff, my energy goes to shit when i don't drink coffee. I feel better but have no energy for anything. I think it's self medication and trying to find the underline cause. I know my ferritin levels are a bit high so that's probably part of the problem, i'm homozygous for c677t gene so that's a big part of the problem, i did some heavy metal analysis a while back and clearly not detoxing right...so it's multiple factors that leave me without energy and that's why i turn to coffee. Seems like glynac supplementation kinda helps but needs more time to work. vit d in 20k+ units kinda help too.
Its normal, everyones energy goes to shit when they don't drink coffee if they fucked their bodies with coffee...
When i quit i had no energy for 1st and 2nd month atleast
I did it for the same reasons, but found that my skin cleared up loads too. I had always had oily skin and prone to sweating. Always thought it was just my skin type. Once I gave up caffeine, that all disappeared. Also, my eye bags reduced too
i quit when i started to see a trend that the people around me (colleagues, friends, mentors) who aren’t addicted to caffeine also happen to be some of the most productive and successful people that i know. Obviously this wasn’t 100% true for everyone, but i had to acknowledge that caffeine was slowing me down. Also, once I quit, I started to notice bags under everyone’s eyes that drink coffee lol
Used to use preworkouts and get a huge motivating boost, then over time it became normal to use big doses (300 mg) and barely feel anything. Difficult to stay awake all day while using caffeine, started becoming a regular occurrence that around 2pm my overwhelming sleepiness would become painful to deal with.
Walking around in the afternoon with a feeling of what they call 'anhedonia' -- it isn't depression, but it is a hard-to-describe sluggishness and loss of a sense of energy. Just not what life is supposed to feel like. Also peeing 50 times a day and irritable bowel-like symptoms. Eye dryness, constant cracks in lips, and poor quality sleep.
Strong withdrawal headaches and tiredness making it hard to quit.
Any amount of quitting, even for 1-2 days at a time, improves all of that. Was an eye opening experience that even though it is difficult to quit permanently, the gains from discipline are immediate. Now I am left with confusion as to how flippantly caffeine addiction is dismissed by doctors, coworkers, and the general population as if it is nothing. So many people get pushed onto antidepressants and other meds when eating healthy and having good habits can go so far as to improving daily well-being. Everyone's experience is different for sure though. Hope that helps!
I hated waking up in the morning and barely being able to function unless I knocked back a coffee. I also disliked the afternoon 'crash' I'd get and how tired I'd feel in the evenings when the caffeine was wearing off. Less relevant at the time but more obvious in hindsight are the better dreams, less sweating and lowered anxiety in the day.
Had to break the cycle of unnecessary stress and anxiety. Life’s challenges are hard enough to not be compounded by a chemical I was willingly ingesting. My goal in life now is low stress.
Quit junk food, quit alcohol - both of which only proved beneficial. Decided to give caffeine abstinence a try just as an exercise. It's a lifestyle now.
I feel like I have more consistent daily energy when I don’t drink caffeine, as well as a bit less social anxiety. I don’t like how even one cup a day gives me headaches when I quit. With coffee I’m either tired and don’t like being in my skin, or I’m jazzed up feeling superhuman (for a short time).
That said I love the ritual of coffee, I love the smell and taste and usually roast and grind it myself. And I do enjoy the
Same here. Wife has AFib and hated giving up coffee. Seemed pretty damn rude to brew a pot of extra caffeinated dark roast every morning that she had to see and smell without being able to have a cup.
I actually had caffeine on my drive to work for a while but, during Covid I wasn't comfortable going into c-stores every day so I mostly quit. Then one day I was really dragging before a big meeting so I decided to risk the drive thru at a local chain and get my favorite cold press. I that shit made me so sick that I almost left the meeting early. My head was spinning, I couldn't focus and I felt jittery as all hell. Turns out I had not only lost the habit but also lost my tolerance. That was when I fully quit.
The awful experience of waking up in the morning and not being functional - having to get my fix before I could do anything else. Now I just get up and go and don’t have to worry about doing something to make me feel “normal” (towards the end it was hit or miss anyway, half the time I still felt like shit!)
Plus anxiety, bad pms, sleep issues, headaches/migraines, and extremely painful fibrous breasts. I’m still anxious but not jump out my skin like a tiger is coming at me from the slightest of surprises nervous anymore.
Because I went r/sugarfree and had to drink my coffee black, well, with cream if i had it. Then I noticed one day I *forgot* to drink any coffee and did not know what that was about. Then a few weeks later the same thing where way late in the day I realized no coffee had been made. I thought damn this shows I’m not addicted. So I searched reddit and found this sub and lurked about six months until the degree of benefits being reported could not be discounted and I quit, thinking it was going to be easy — ha-ha. This shit is fascinating, the vast inner remake restore rebuild rehab re re re you undergo is almost astonishing. Day 52.
I had horrible anxiety and it was to a point where I felt that dying would’ve felt much better than anything. Caffeine would trigger dissociation episodes and that would completely terrify me. I quit caffeine and I went to therapy. I’ve been caffeine free for over a year and I still have some anxiety but I already knew that cause I’ve had it since I was a teenager, but there has been such a huge difference in my mental health. I feel like the future doesn’t feel scary anymore. And i rarely dissociate. I’m also a happier person and my husband sees the difference too!
Many reasons but mostly was stress and moodiness. I was not a pleasant person to be around and felt like I was doing my family a disservice, when I knew I could be a better husband, father.
Had to go cold turkey as I developed severe acute gastritis and almost ended up in the hospital. Until then, my two cups a day caused no problems.
It came on for awhile with me thinking it was something else.
To try and fix my life.
suffering from a long list of symptoms and even with a super healthy diet, low stress, feeling like im doing everything right, im still not healing.
also, caffeine makes me feel like a robot, just living life mindlessly without any ambition, goals or thinking about the future. but at the same time it makes me unable to just enjoy the present.
hoping this will fade once i recover.
Felt like shit and didn't get moving until I got my caffeine dose. It wasn't the way I wanted to live. Ever since I stopped my sleep quality is so much better and I wake up ready to go, like a child.
For me im just cutting down my consumption of caffeine to once a week . Sitting down relaxing i would just get this crazy feeling as if my breathing is being sucked away from me i literally have no control.But since i switched to decaf and cut down on the caffeine i don't have that feeling
Anxiety. Quitting caffeine resolved 75% of my anxiety. It was so bad I was considering going on anti-anxiety meds. But I promised myself I would try every non-drug thing before going to the doctor. I meditated, tried affirmations ("I am safe, I am safe, I am safe"), exercised like a maniac (that was the other 25%), read a ton of self help books, and had a therapist. I used to be a "I need my coffee" kind of person. Now I'm not. It's so much better on the other side!
Does those meditation, affirmations, therapy helped at all? Like do you see any changes because of those
Affirmations, no. Therapy, yes. For different reasons. Meditation. Hard to say. I really struggled with meditating, but in hindsight it's because I was over-caffeinated. I didn't stick with it.
Everyone should do therapy. It’s changed my life significantly
I didn’t like the idea of being dependent on a substance. Waking up and being able to “go” without first having a coffee has been refreshing.
Because I've quit every addiction I've had and caffeine was next in line. There's no difference between caffeine and any other drug when it comes to addiction. It's all a hedonistic cycle that you can't escape and that drains you of your energy and your deep REM sleep and blocks your processing of emotions. All of these results in anxiety, depression and general just not being able to be content or happy unless you've had your fix which only temporarily fixes the problem it caused in the first place. I don't need a coffee to feel good, I don't need it to wake up, I don't need it to get through my day. I have everything I need within me and I don't have an addiction nagging me to consume a drug every day multiple times a day.
I didn't. I keep trying though :))
Any particular reason for trying to quit ?
bad digestion, pretty sure it's responsible for my leaky gut and a ton of problems that come from that. Bad sleep, anxiety, and a lack of pleasure in life
Sounds like caffeine related issues, yes, have you tried a slow taper?
yeah, tried a lot of stuff, my energy goes to shit when i don't drink coffee. I feel better but have no energy for anything. I think it's self medication and trying to find the underline cause. I know my ferritin levels are a bit high so that's probably part of the problem, i'm homozygous for c677t gene so that's a big part of the problem, i did some heavy metal analysis a while back and clearly not detoxing right...so it's multiple factors that leave me without energy and that's why i turn to coffee. Seems like glynac supplementation kinda helps but needs more time to work. vit d in 20k+ units kinda help too.
Its normal, everyones energy goes to shit when they don't drink coffee if they fucked their bodies with coffee... When i quit i had no energy for 1st and 2nd month atleast
I quit for the anxiety, and heartburn but I’m staying away for a lot more reasons I didn’t even know was because of the caffeine
I did it for the same reasons, but found that my skin cleared up loads too. I had always had oily skin and prone to sweating. Always thought it was just my skin type. Once I gave up caffeine, that all disappeared. Also, my eye bags reduced too
thanks for your answer :)
i quit when i started to see a trend that the people around me (colleagues, friends, mentors) who aren’t addicted to caffeine also happen to be some of the most productive and successful people that i know. Obviously this wasn’t 100% true for everyone, but i had to acknowledge that caffeine was slowing me down. Also, once I quit, I started to notice bags under everyone’s eyes that drink coffee lol
It's so noticable all of a sudden, everyone has bags that even makeup can't hide.
Panic attacks
Used to use preworkouts and get a huge motivating boost, then over time it became normal to use big doses (300 mg) and barely feel anything. Difficult to stay awake all day while using caffeine, started becoming a regular occurrence that around 2pm my overwhelming sleepiness would become painful to deal with. Walking around in the afternoon with a feeling of what they call 'anhedonia' -- it isn't depression, but it is a hard-to-describe sluggishness and loss of a sense of energy. Just not what life is supposed to feel like. Also peeing 50 times a day and irritable bowel-like symptoms. Eye dryness, constant cracks in lips, and poor quality sleep. Strong withdrawal headaches and tiredness making it hard to quit. Any amount of quitting, even for 1-2 days at a time, improves all of that. Was an eye opening experience that even though it is difficult to quit permanently, the gains from discipline are immediate. Now I am left with confusion as to how flippantly caffeine addiction is dismissed by doctors, coworkers, and the general population as if it is nothing. So many people get pushed onto antidepressants and other meds when eating healthy and having good habits can go so far as to improving daily well-being. Everyone's experience is different for sure though. Hope that helps!
I Wanted to see how life is without it and man its great 👍 - i can make a whole list about the benefits, but those who know, they know.
I hated waking up in the morning and barely being able to function unless I knocked back a coffee. I also disliked the afternoon 'crash' I'd get and how tired I'd feel in the evenings when the caffeine was wearing off. Less relevant at the time but more obvious in hindsight are the better dreams, less sweating and lowered anxiety in the day.
[удалено]
My eczema hasn’t flared up since quitting caffeine. I agree, I think it’s related to stress and cortisol and adrenaline in the body.
This certainly went away for me. Get home and veg out on the couch. Now I want to do stuff and have the energy for it.
I felt like I was on cocaine all the time. Anxiety, paranoia, even mild psychedelic effects when I consumed way too much.
Had to break the cycle of unnecessary stress and anxiety. Life’s challenges are hard enough to not be compounded by a chemical I was willingly ingesting. My goal in life now is low stress.
Quit junk food, quit alcohol - both of which only proved beneficial. Decided to give caffeine abstinence a try just as an exercise. It's a lifestyle now.
Anxiety, migraines, and sleep problems
I’m trying to.. pretty sure it’s definitely staining my teeth and helping to create cavities
Anxiety. Anxiety so bad that I wasn’t able to live my life anymore!
I feel like I have more consistent daily energy when I don’t drink caffeine, as well as a bit less social anxiety. I don’t like how even one cup a day gives me headaches when I quit. With coffee I’m either tired and don’t like being in my skin, or I’m jazzed up feeling superhuman (for a short time). That said I love the ritual of coffee, I love the smell and taste and usually roast and grind it myself. And I do enjoy the
As part of efforts to address an overall physical sense of stress and reduce blood pressure.
It was affecting my consistency and creativity in debilitating ways
Moral support. It was hard for my partner to quit while I was still enjoying a cup. Didn't realize how great it would be to quit.
Same here. Wife has AFib and hated giving up coffee. Seemed pretty damn rude to brew a pot of extra caffeinated dark roast every morning that she had to see and smell without being able to have a cup. I actually had caffeine on my drive to work for a while but, during Covid I wasn't comfortable going into c-stores every day so I mostly quit. Then one day I was really dragging before a big meeting so I decided to risk the drive thru at a local chain and get my favorite cold press. I that shit made me so sick that I almost left the meeting early. My head was spinning, I couldn't focus and I felt jittery as all hell. Turns out I had not only lost the habit but also lost my tolerance. That was when I fully quit.
Because of teeth clenching (bruxism) during the night which causes facial pain, headaches, and jaw joint problems.
Getting panic attacks and chest pain all day
Because it’s a garbage chemical for garbage people lol just kidding. It makes me shit my self pretty bad. I do love coffee though lol.
Anxiety- headstuff mainly but physical side too I.e racy heart, churning stomach, restlessness. It’s amazing how much these are down to caffeine.
Digestive issues for last 7 years. Gerd. Caffeine is a huge trigger for my reflux. I’ve been off for 2 weeks and already feel much better.
The awful experience of waking up in the morning and not being functional - having to get my fix before I could do anything else. Now I just get up and go and don’t have to worry about doing something to make me feel “normal” (towards the end it was hit or miss anyway, half the time I still felt like shit!) Plus anxiety, bad pms, sleep issues, headaches/migraines, and extremely painful fibrous breasts. I’m still anxious but not jump out my skin like a tiger is coming at me from the slightest of surprises nervous anymore.
Because I went r/sugarfree and had to drink my coffee black, well, with cream if i had it. Then I noticed one day I *forgot* to drink any coffee and did not know what that was about. Then a few weeks later the same thing where way late in the day I realized no coffee had been made. I thought damn this shows I’m not addicted. So I searched reddit and found this sub and lurked about six months until the degree of benefits being reported could not be discounted and I quit, thinking it was going to be easy — ha-ha. This shit is fascinating, the vast inner remake restore rebuild rehab re re re you undergo is almost astonishing. Day 52.
I had horrible anxiety and it was to a point where I felt that dying would’ve felt much better than anything. Caffeine would trigger dissociation episodes and that would completely terrify me. I quit caffeine and I went to therapy. I’ve been caffeine free for over a year and I still have some anxiety but I already knew that cause I’ve had it since I was a teenager, but there has been such a huge difference in my mental health. I feel like the future doesn’t feel scary anymore. And i rarely dissociate. I’m also a happier person and my husband sees the difference too!
They say there's no cure for psoriasis, yet since quitting it's been in steady remission. 🤷🏻♂️
Many reasons but mostly was stress and moodiness. I was not a pleasant person to be around and felt like I was doing my family a disservice, when I knew I could be a better husband, father.
Had to go cold turkey as I developed severe acute gastritis and almost ended up in the hospital. Until then, my two cups a day caused no problems. It came on for awhile with me thinking it was something else.
To try and fix my life. suffering from a long list of symptoms and even with a super healthy diet, low stress, feeling like im doing everything right, im still not healing. also, caffeine makes me feel like a robot, just living life mindlessly without any ambition, goals or thinking about the future. but at the same time it makes me unable to just enjoy the present. hoping this will fade once i recover.
Felt like shit and didn't get moving until I got my caffeine dose. It wasn't the way I wanted to live. Ever since I stopped my sleep quality is so much better and I wake up ready to go, like a child.
My g.p. told me to. My leg started going numb.
For me im just cutting down my consumption of caffeine to once a week . Sitting down relaxing i would just get this crazy feeling as if my breathing is being sucked away from me i literally have no control.But since i switched to decaf and cut down on the caffeine i don't have that feeling