I am lucky enough to get regular palpitations. I read that caffeine can make them worse, so I stopped for a few months. They got worse. Talked to my Dr about it and he said yeah, sometimes it doesn't work like you'd think.
(Along the same lines, actually, I also made my palpitations much worse this year by dramatically improving my physical fitness. Turns out that slow heart rate for me means more palpitations. Heart rates above ~70 means almost no palpitations. Something about overdrive, but I am not an expert.)
So at least I don't have to give up my caffeine ;-)
The author went old turkey. That is rough. For me going cold turkey caused massive headaches. I cut out caffeine a decade ago. It was a haphazard affair. I wanted to improve my sleep, so I started limiting my intake by stopping in the afternoon. At the same time I started having anxiety and panic attacks in the morning before my first dose. It was so bad I lost 10 pounds. That’s when I started to figure out “hey this might be a problem”. Over the course of a month I reduced my caffeine intake to zero. No headaches. Panic attacks went away. Ymmv.
Congrats on quitting, even for something considered "mild" like caffeine it's not easy. I had the same issue with headaches so I scaled down by mixing increasing ratios of decaf in my coffee grounds over a couple months, starting with just 25% decaf. The gradual reduction in potency was barely noticeable. Once you get to 75% decaf you're basically drinking full decaf already (decaf usually still has like 10% of the normal caffeine content) and I had no ill effects from quitting completely after that. If you subsequently decide to relapse with decaf or half-caf it's also much easier to quit again.
I drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day. Mostly espresso drinks.
There are/were times where I travel or go camping and stopped taking coffee. Other than maybe a very mild headache the first day there weren't any issues.
I enjoy the taste, the rituals, and the temporary boost. But I know I'm addicted ;) There are lots of articles about how it's a good thing but I'm pretty sure it has some impact (not always positive) on my mood.
I’ve gone off coffee for months at a time as a test, but to be honest it’s about the same for me on vs off after the adjustment period.
When I go off, after the headaches, I get good sleep without trying, but so do I on coffee if I have my last one no later than 1pm (where good == 7 hours).
And a proper flat white is so, so good. Therefore I accept my addiction and have two a day!
I reduced my coffee intake gradually back in ‘21-‘22down to just green tea in the morning. I did not notice any real changes in my life aside from two points. I took longer to ramp up productivity and alertness in the mornings. I also now eased into my “go to bed” routine at night whereas on coffee it was a much more dramatic crash. We ended up having our first kid mid-‘22, and I got back on the java wagon. Of all potential vices, this one certainly feel lightweight. I just don’t drink it after Noon.
I actually intentionally stopped drinking caffeine when we had kids. Long nights of little to no sleep made me absolutely not want to mess with my sleep cycle any more. I started drinking tea once the kids got older and sleep was once again regular.
For me caffeine is something to enhance my well rested self. Not something to make my body ignore important signals regarding rest.
A great timeless article.
I've been off of all forms of caffeine for about 40 years. I was thoroughly addicted to it, and in my 20's, I was drinking about six cups of coffee per day. It took me three tries to kick the habit, and the final time I quit (all cold turkey), I felt like a heroin addict (I assume). I had cold sweats, shakes, headache, and vomiting. I missed two days of work while recovering.
I'll never forget how awful I felt, and it's a constant reminder for me to never go back to caffeine. I make coffee for my wife every morning, and the smell is enticing, but I can easily resist. My wife is a zombie when she wakes up, and she really needs the coffee. She doesn't seem to have an issue with it, and usually has only one cup per day. Now when I wake up, I'm alert and ready to go.
Caffeine is difficult to avoid, and it's such a commonly used drug that most people do not give it a second thought.
Another interesting side effect I noticed while doing coffee was the poor quality of the code I had written on the previous day. I was doing embedded assembly (6809) at the time, and each morning, I would pick up where I left off and notice a ton of mistakes. It looked like I was high while I wrote the code. Under "normal" circumstances, my code is often error free, and requires minimal debug.
But you never had to quit - studies don't indicate that moderate caffeine consumption had negative health effect, even had unproven heart benefits (as a runner, it certainly doesn't make me slower). And I don't think this is the result of "Big Coffee" skewing the scientific consensus.
I quit (each time) because I didn't like the withdrawal symptoms I was having on the weekends, when I didn't get enough. I went back to it (each time) because everyone else was doing it, and it seemed so easily justifiable.
I cold turkeyed once and did not feel much except for the first few days, probably because I am not a heavy drinker.
However, I picked it up later because I always want to drink something with taste, and the mix of coffee, some milk and sometimes a bit of sugar does provide satisfaction without feeling the guity of gaining weight.
It had become increasingly clear to me over the last few years that my anxiety disorder was being massively exacerbated by caffeine. It took so long to figure this out because it takes 6-7 hours _after_ a single coffee for it to hit, and if I'm drinking coffee the whole time, I'm always a bit anxious, rather than an obvious cause-and-effect.
In April I tapered down to one espresso a day, and then half an espresso, and then finally nothing. I'm still drinking a _lot_ of decaf, which is helpful (although check your decaf, some is still caffeinated enough to not be worth the name).
Immediate symptoms from going to half an espresso to zero espressos a day was massive dysphoria and melancholy. Around week 4 I started Wellbutrin, which made it very hard to figure out my moods reliably until it had settled down. Around week 12, I was off caffeine and feeling like myself again except minus the anxiety.
I miss it. I have had, since then, I think 4 real espressos. It gives me a reliable energy boost, and makes me happy, but then 6-7 hours later, the anxiety I lived with most of my life is back until I nap, take a benzodiazepine, or wait it out 12 hours or so.
All this to say: if you have GAD, and still drink coffee, try not drinking coffee for a month, and see where you end up. I would describe myself as no longer having GAD, although I am still titrating down the (fairly effective) SSRI I was on to manage it.
I have never drunk coffee. However, I do take a very very small dose of caffeine pills. The pills are 200mg but I break them into tiny pieces and micro dose around noon with last dose around 3pm. Some days I take 100mg total, other days I take 200mg total. Another thing I do is eat proper food at same time because otherwise I become jittery.
I also cycle off caffeine or taper the doses every few months when I am travelling.
My stomach is solid.
Does anyone know if the acidity is from coffee or caffeine itself?
Caffeine is a weak base, the acidity in coffee is from other compounds in the bean. (Tasty, tasty compounds)
I am lucky enough to get regular palpitations. I read that caffeine can make them worse, so I stopped for a few months. They got worse. Talked to my Dr about it and he said yeah, sometimes it doesn't work like you'd think.
(Along the same lines, actually, I also made my palpitations much worse this year by dramatically improving my physical fitness. Turns out that slow heart rate for me means more palpitations. Heart rates above ~70 means almost no palpitations. Something about overdrive, but I am not an expert.)
So at least I don't have to give up my caffeine ;-)
The author went old turkey. That is rough. For me going cold turkey caused massive headaches. I cut out caffeine a decade ago. It was a haphazard affair. I wanted to improve my sleep, so I started limiting my intake by stopping in the afternoon. At the same time I started having anxiety and panic attacks in the morning before my first dose. It was so bad I lost 10 pounds. That’s when I started to figure out “hey this might be a problem”. Over the course of a month I reduced my caffeine intake to zero. No headaches. Panic attacks went away. Ymmv.
Congrats on quitting, even for something considered "mild" like caffeine it's not easy. I had the same issue with headaches so I scaled down by mixing increasing ratios of decaf in my coffee grounds over a couple months, starting with just 25% decaf. The gradual reduction in potency was barely noticeable. Once you get to 75% decaf you're basically drinking full decaf already (decaf usually still has like 10% of the normal caffeine content) and I had no ill effects from quitting completely after that. If you subsequently decide to relapse with decaf or half-caf it's also much easier to quit again.
I drink 2-3 cups of coffee a day. Mostly espresso drinks.
There are/were times where I travel or go camping and stopped taking coffee. Other than maybe a very mild headache the first day there weren't any issues.
I enjoy the taste, the rituals, and the temporary boost. But I know I'm addicted ;) There are lots of articles about how it's a good thing but I'm pretty sure it has some impact (not always positive) on my mood.
I’ve gone off coffee for months at a time as a test, but to be honest it’s about the same for me on vs off after the adjustment period.
When I go off, after the headaches, I get good sleep without trying, but so do I on coffee if I have my last one no later than 1pm (where good == 7 hours).
And a proper flat white is so, so good. Therefore I accept my addiction and have two a day!
(2013) At the time (76 points, 82 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5008593
Part 2 (231 points, 124 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5017486
There's also a two-year follow-up: <https://bryanalexander.org/personal/two-years-without-caffei...>
(Posted to HN, but only two comments: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8791462>.)
I reduced my coffee intake gradually back in ‘21-‘22down to just green tea in the morning. I did not notice any real changes in my life aside from two points. I took longer to ramp up productivity and alertness in the mornings. I also now eased into my “go to bed” routine at night whereas on coffee it was a much more dramatic crash. We ended up having our first kid mid-‘22, and I got back on the java wagon. Of all potential vices, this one certainly feel lightweight. I just don’t drink it after Noon.
I actually intentionally stopped drinking caffeine when we had kids. Long nights of little to no sleep made me absolutely not want to mess with my sleep cycle any more. I started drinking tea once the kids got older and sleep was once again regular.
For me caffeine is something to enhance my well rested self. Not something to make my body ignore important signals regarding rest.
A great timeless article.
I've been off of all forms of caffeine for about 40 years. I was thoroughly addicted to it, and in my 20's, I was drinking about six cups of coffee per day. It took me three tries to kick the habit, and the final time I quit (all cold turkey), I felt like a heroin addict (I assume). I had cold sweats, shakes, headache, and vomiting. I missed two days of work while recovering.
I'll never forget how awful I felt, and it's a constant reminder for me to never go back to caffeine. I make coffee for my wife every morning, and the smell is enticing, but I can easily resist. My wife is a zombie when she wakes up, and she really needs the coffee. She doesn't seem to have an issue with it, and usually has only one cup per day. Now when I wake up, I'm alert and ready to go.
Caffeine is difficult to avoid, and it's such a commonly used drug that most people do not give it a second thought.
Another interesting side effect I noticed while doing coffee was the poor quality of the code I had written on the previous day. I was doing embedded assembly (6809) at the time, and each morning, I would pick up where I left off and notice a ton of mistakes. It looked like I was high while I wrote the code. Under "normal" circumstances, my code is often error free, and requires minimal debug.
But you never had to quit - studies don't indicate that moderate caffeine consumption had negative health effect, even had unproven heart benefits (as a runner, it certainly doesn't make me slower). And I don't think this is the result of "Big Coffee" skewing the scientific consensus.
I quit (each time) because I didn't like the withdrawal symptoms I was having on the weekends, when I didn't get enough. I went back to it (each time) because everyone else was doing it, and it seemed so easily justifiable.
I cold turkeyed once and did not feel much except for the first few days, probably because I am not a heavy drinker.
However, I picked it up later because I always want to drink something with taste, and the mix of coffee, some milk and sometimes a bit of sugar does provide satisfaction without feeling the guity of gaining weight.
It had become increasingly clear to me over the last few years that my anxiety disorder was being massively exacerbated by caffeine. It took so long to figure this out because it takes 6-7 hours _after_ a single coffee for it to hit, and if I'm drinking coffee the whole time, I'm always a bit anxious, rather than an obvious cause-and-effect.
In April I tapered down to one espresso a day, and then half an espresso, and then finally nothing. I'm still drinking a _lot_ of decaf, which is helpful (although check your decaf, some is still caffeinated enough to not be worth the name).
Immediate symptoms from going to half an espresso to zero espressos a day was massive dysphoria and melancholy. Around week 4 I started Wellbutrin, which made it very hard to figure out my moods reliably until it had settled down. Around week 12, I was off caffeine and feeling like myself again except minus the anxiety.
I miss it. I have had, since then, I think 4 real espressos. It gives me a reliable energy boost, and makes me happy, but then 6-7 hours later, the anxiety I lived with most of my life is back until I nap, take a benzodiazepine, or wait it out 12 hours or so.
All this to say: if you have GAD, and still drink coffee, try not drinking coffee for a month, and see where you end up. I would describe myself as no longer having GAD, although I am still titrating down the (fairly effective) SSRI I was on to manage it.
I have never drunk coffee. However, I do take a very very small dose of caffeine pills. The pills are 200mg but I break them into tiny pieces and micro dose around noon with last dose around 3pm. Some days I take 100mg total, other days I take 200mg total. Another thing I do is eat proper food at same time because otherwise I become jittery.
I also cycle off caffeine or taper the doses every few months when I am travelling.
My stomach is solid.
Does anyone know if the acidity is from coffee or caffeine itself?
Caffeine is a weak base, the acidity in coffee is from other compounds in the bean. (Tasty, tasty compounds)