Like others here, I also quit cold-turkey, getting headaches and light nausea for a week and a bit. The benefits were immediate, greater awareness, energy, and quality of sleep.
What I also found is that I had been using coffee/caffeine to control certain aspects of my daily life, such as when to have focus and when to get tired/sleep. Without caffeine I was felt distracted by little things I was noticing or thinking of, made worse by the WFH situation.
I've gone back to consuming a limited amount (~1.5 cups) only between 10am and 6pm. I used to have none on weekends feeling a bit off to reset but eventually even this seemed pointless, so 10am-6pm every day has been working well.
If I didn't have a job where I had to hold a house of cards in my head daily for hours at a time, or have a distraction-free work area, I could probably give it up entirely. But then I don't think I would, I enjoy the flavour and ritual of coffee and frequently drink decaf espresso or americano even when out, which is actually pretty good if you find a good local bean roaster.
> Without caffeine I was felt distracted by little things I was noticing or thinking of, made worse by the WFH situation.
Same here. I only drink coffee to make me focus, I don't care much about the taste. If there wouldn't be such a thing as coffee I probably would have to self medicate with adderall or ritalin.
Same here as well. I’ve quit caffeine before for months and gotten over the withdrawal hump. What did I find? I’m not nearly as sharp and focused.
I always struggled to pay attention in class a few decades ago, and when I look at my college career I can connect the dots and match up massively improved academic performance with when I started significant coffee consumption.
Nowadays I’ve discovered my “dose” and rarely exceed it. Even with tolerance effects, it still provides that same sharpness and focus. Given the semi-recent vindication of its health benefits and neuroprotective effects, I see no reason why I’d ever stop.
Agree. It’s a little less or more than a tsp of matcha per day for me. There are days I’ll step down to none or other days I’ll throw in a full cup of coffee. Caffeine is simultaneously too detrimental to take every day in large doses but too beneficial to ban completely. It deserves respect and appreciation even.
Yes, this is what I always tell people. I know people who swig mountain dew or dr pepper all day because they need them to concentrate or stay awake. Skip all the excess garbage that is in coffee and soda. Get a caffeine supplement that comes with l-theanine, it is thought to smooth out the effects of caffeine and help avoid the "crash" when it wears off.
I never quit, but I have gradually reduced the ratio of grounds to water so now I have become accustomed to a very weak coffee, which still has just enough caffeine and flavor but I can also have a few cups. I find that stopping drinking coffee by mid-afternoon really helps. When I was young, I could drink a cuppa at 10pm and be in bed by 11. Now, I aim for maybe 3-4pm at the latest.
That's a good point I forgot to mention. I used to always have double-espresso shots then one day I switched to single-shot and didn't mind at all. The 3-4pm is a better cutoff and used to do that when I worked in an office so I let that slide the 2 hours I save on commuting.
Would you be OK if someone did an illegal drug for that exact purpose, given that it has no side-effects (unless he overdoses, just like one could with caffeine), and is quite helpful for doing his job?
I am not asking only you, but anyone who agrees with you.
Many years ago I got into the habit of taking amphetamines for this very purpose. They can show you to concentrate for extremely long periods of time, but they are habit forming and have many negative side-effects, so it's really not worth it.
The simulants prescribed for ADHD and narcolepsy are pretty much the same.
Yes, habit-forming, but so is everything else. We are a people of habit. It is not necessarily a bad thing. If the substance works, we keep taking it. If we like something, we keep doing it, but even if we do not like something, we usually keep doing it, because we just cannot help it, for the most part. We really are creatures of habit. People go to work and back home using the same route, they may take coffee every morning, and so forth. I observed people before on a daily basis when I was learning behavior modification. It is really easy to predict people's behavior because of how much of a habitual creatures we are. You could be conscious about your own behavior and you will find that you are doing a lot of things out of habit, too.
So to reiterate: amphetamines may be habit-forming, but you have to ask why. The reason is simple: because it has positive effects and you like them and want to keep having them. Of course if the negatives outweigh the positives (up to the individual to decide), then it can become problematic if you cannot stop. Some people simply cannot stop on their own and will need help. I was on 4 different psychiatric medications and I stopped. It was a hellish phase of my life, but I succeeded. I did it all alone.
My friend takes opioids because it works as an antidepressant and anxiolytic for him. It makes him productive that he likes. He goes through withdrawals voluntarily once per a few months or something, so he will not have to increase the dose. We are different, I suppose. For the record: he has been doing it for years, and he gets regular blood and urine tests done, along with ECG, MRI, and so forth. It does not affect his health negatively.
Back to amphetamines: yes, amphetamines do affect the immune system. My other friend uses it for ADHD, and it lowered his immune system. He does not experience many negative side-effects and has been taking it for years now. He does experience some minor side-effects, and for him it is worth it, which is understandable as it essentially saved his life. Plus, he is particularly sensitive to it though, if he takes 10 mg more, he can definitely feel it, whereas I can take 10x more and would not feel a thing (without tolerance). This is a different story, but stimulants do not work the same way for me as they do for most people. It may be because of the autoimmune disease I have, or something else, I do not know.
When I was on amphetamines for 2 weeks, after that time I experienced PVCs (premature ventricular contractions), but that is because my heart is not 100%. I am sitting most of the time and it affects my health a lot more than amphetamines would, but they exacerbate the issues. I experimented a bit with it, and after walking every day an hour, the PVCs disappeared. Exercise really does make a difference, even just something as simple as walking does make a difference. I need to get into the habit (pun intended) of walking, because both my feet get swollen from sitting too much and it could mean a lot of things, bad things. It could be my heart for all I know. I will have it checked out as soon as possible, but this prolonged sitting is definitely not good and might be the end of me. :/ I also have a one-sided diet, so I gotta fix that, too.
If you want to keep taking it, you have to have a healthy diet, you have to exercise (and sit less), and take therapeutic doses only. Do not go above that. If you feel that it does not work anymore, you may have to find some time where you can decrease your tolerance: you can go cold turkey (stop abruptly), or you can gradually decrease the dose. If you take the abrupt cessation route, it will be gone from your system within about 2 weeks, and you can start over with the therapeutic doses, no need to increase the dose. Amphetamine withdrawal does not kill you, it is just unpleasant. You can make it less unpleasant by gradually getting off of it, but then it will take more than 2 weeks. It is entirely up to you. Some people can manage to gradually get off of it and still go to work, but it will be uncomfortable. To sum it up: healthy diet, exercise (and less sitting if possible), and therapeutic doses. If you still experience the side-effects, you could lower the dose and you might still have the positives. If all of this does not work, then you might really have to give it up, but it is worth a shot if you liked the positives. There are, of course, nutritional supplements that may help. Propolis & royal jelly & honey are great for the immune system, among other things[1].
By the way, did you take therapeutic doses? What were your side-effects?
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I apologize for the length of this comment, I made it longer than I initially wanted.
> I've gone back to consuming a limited amount (~1.5 cups) only between 10am and 6pm. I used to have none on weekends feeling a bit off to reset but eventually even this seemed pointless, so 10am-6pm every day has been working well.
That! I lived on zero coffee for many years, however, it is much more difficult to do so once I became a father. I am consuming a maximum of 2 cups of coffee: first one around 10am, the second one in the afternoon but strictly before 5pm. I do that Monday-Friday and I either consume less or no coffee at all on weekend.
I also use decaf if I want to a coffee (as a drink, not as a boosting drug) and if I already consumed my daily 2 cups.
The first time I quit I was drinking a cup per hour. I found this out from a time management course that had a time tracking activity for 1 week. So ~8 cups office brew per day. Two people at a company I was at before got diagnosed with caffeine poisoning. When I fell off the wagon the first time I kept it down to 4 or 5 cups per day.
Not the parent commenter but it might take you a few days. I used to be a 2-3 cups/day drinker and I was fine without coffee (while on a vacation) until around the 3rd day when I started getting horrible headaches. I used that vacation + about another week to fully quit.
What I also found is that I had been using coffee/caffeine to control certain aspects of my daily life, such as when to have focus and when to get tired/sleep. Without caffeine I was felt distracted by little things I was noticing or thinking of, made worse by the WFH situation.
I've gone back to consuming a limited amount (~1.5 cups) only between 10am and 6pm. I used to have none on weekends feeling a bit off to reset but eventually even this seemed pointless, so 10am-6pm every day has been working well.
If I didn't have a job where I had to hold a house of cards in my head daily for hours at a time, or have a distraction-free work area, I could probably give it up entirely. But then I don't think I would, I enjoy the flavour and ritual of coffee and frequently drink decaf espresso or americano even when out, which is actually pretty good if you find a good local bean roaster.