Has anyone here quit coffee?

[mrPixel]

I tried quitting caffeine a couple of times but both times I became severely depressed. So depressed that it was scary. At first I didn't know what was happening to me. After 4 days I decided to try having a cup of coffee to see if that's what the problem was. Sure enough, I felt fine.

Caffeine is not good for me, I am very sensitive to it. But it seems that it's holding my mental state together.

Have any of you experienced this?

[Javfly33]

I have quit daily consumption of coffee, but I haven't been able to totally let go of caffeine.

My advice is, if you have been taking coffee for several years, don't expect to just be able to quit it from night to morning.

Taper, just like any other drug. Because the stuff its as hard to quit it as many drugs. It's very psychologically addictive. Get a scale and go reducing a gram every x weeks you feel comfortable. 

I quit one year ago, was miserable without it, and came back. This year I started a taper regime from 14gr. I reduced 1gram each 2-3 weeks, I wanted to make sure I was 100% comfortable with the taper regime. It took me about 3 months to go down to 4gr, at this point I just quit it because 4gr was really low. 

Coffee its a shitty drug to be doing it each day. The sooner you start the faster your mental health, body and energy system will thank you.

Edited January 28, 2023 by Javfly33

[flowboy]

@mrPixel  I experienced that when I quit smoking.

Like you said, I got so depressed it was scary. People were worried. I had a cigarette again, and everything was fine.

Now I have been a non-smoker for some time, and I quit coffee a week ago. And I feel more energetic and positive than ever.

Here's why:

Sometimes (often times) a substance habit can help to suppress a depression that is already there.

But not to worry, depression is merely old painful feelings from the past, waiting to be re-experienced.

Re-experience them, you can let them go.

Let them go, no more depression.

No more depression, no more need for coffee or cigarettes.

You might want to check out my video about me quitting caffeine where I also explain a bit about how the underlying depression works.

[Emrie]

I was forced to quit coffee in 2020 when we were in lockdown, I couldn't leave my home and I just didn't have a coffee machine at home.

First day back at the office, I tried. It made me feel horrible. I had a stomachache, a headache, my head was also just like spinning, I couldn't focus, and I felt my heart beat through my chest. Never again.

I quit alcohol voluntarily though, after going like 5 years of getting drunk literally every day. Just one evening decided not to drink for the rest of my life. Didn't have depression or really anything, it was one of the easiest things I've ever done actually. Didn't have to ease into it, didn't have to do anything, just stopped drinking completely.

How long did you go without drinking coffee? Maybe a good idea is to go like 90 days without coffee, see if you're still depressed after that. If you are, it might be a good idea to go see a therapist. There are therapists that actually specialize on substance abuse, because yeah getting depressed over the long run from not having coffee is very much caffeine addiction.

[flowboy]

It's very much old feelings trying to come up.

Daily substance use is almost always self-medicating trauma.

I've got an old feeling coming up right now.

I can tell because I not only feel gloomy and negative, but I also have mental "pop-ins" from years ago, like suddenly remembering the password for my computer that I had when I was 20, or suddenly feeling transported back there, as an overlay over current daily experience. The subconscious is good at hinting what needs to be processed, if you're in the habit of listening. I'm not doing nearly enough to answer its call in these busy weeks, I should be making time for self-regression multiple times a week.

@mrPixel Coffee sucks but I know what it's like to have a substance hold your mental state together. I had that with nicotine. If you can't do therapy or self-therapy, and just want a quick fix, look for supplements that contain citicholine. I use mind lab pro. You can also temporarily take St. John's Wort supplements, they are a natural antidepressant herb. Works very well for me.

[PurpleTree]

No i just started it

[Porphyry Fedotov]

What's wrong with coffee btw? Like a lot of these stimulating drinks have been used by mystics from time immemorial. Coffee for example was consumed by Sufi mystics before long sessions of dhikr to keep then awake. Even tea was introduced into the lay society be Chinese buddhis monks who used it for the same exact reason.

[StarStruck]

@flowboy you think even one coffee per day is bad?

[flowboy]

@StarStruck I didn’t say it was “bad”.

I said a substance habit is self-medication. To compensate for trauma usually. For lifestyle factors too, like lack of sleep, too much ejaculation, toxins.

It’s to compensate for something.

I didn’t say it’s bad.

Coffee’s bad for the stomach and gut due to the acids, so drinking it on an empty stomach is not great, and for caffeine sensitive people it ruins sleep no matter what time you take it. But that’s not enough to say that everyone should quit coffee. It depends where they are in their health optimisation journey, how far they want to take it.

Also taking it away really helps to deal with whatever is the reason you need it, be it the stressful lifestyle or the diet or the underlying trauma, but if you’re not planning on doing that, you’ll have a hard time staying quit.

It’s normal. 80-90% of people have childhood trauma and have no idea about it.

Its also why people smoke.

when I see someone smoke, I just see childhood pain consuming the adult’s body.

Edited February 17, 2023 by flowboy

[StarStruck]

@flowboy good points. Coffee, cigarettes, or other substances or activities can be used as coping mechanisms by the mind. 

I allow myself to have 1 coffee per day. As far as I know I don’t have any backlashes from it. 

[todefe]

I attempted to give up coffee, but my energy levels were so low that I found myself seeking it out.

[sholomar]

Coffee is the single largest source of antioxidants in most people's diets I don't feel bad if you can't necessarily give it up.

My mother has been a two pot of coffee per day drinker her entire life and she looks much younger than her age would suggest.

The the antioxidants in coffee could be compared to the antioxidants in dark beers and dark chocolate. They're all quite bitter compounds in their natural state. There's no reason whatsoever to give up coffee if you happen to function fine drinking it without acid reflux.

Rather, consider getting into fresh roasted coffees that are ground just before use and even roasting your own coffee with green coffee beans. You'll never be able to go back to most coffee ever again. Begin to figure out the difference between light and medium and dark roasts and study how different altitudes affect coffee beans differently.

 

Edited February 18, 2023 by sholomar

[Arthogaan]

I quit coffee on 6th of July 2022. It has been 7 months and really only now I am starting to feel like myself.

I quit cigarettes, alcohol, sugar and nothing was even closely as hard as quitting coffee. No energy to do anything, no want to do even the things that I loved doing for the first 3 months of withdrawal.

Coffee is a serious drug for some people and it is beyond me how much it is disregarded as being harmful. Most scientist agree that withdrawal last for 1-2 weeks which is ridiculous. 

I recommend reading reddit r/decaf. Many beautiful stories of people and also reassurement that yes, it really takes so long to get through withdrawal. Reading that subreddit was really helpful to me. 

Also I used modafinil to get through work and university when I had too. I bundled most of my task in two day of the week and did it all on modafinil. Rest of the week I allowed myself to be somewhat miserable. It really gets better and it is worth it.

[flowboy]

On 18/02/2023 at 1:45 PM, sholomar said:

Coffee is the single largest source of antioxidants in most people's diets

Source/rationale??

Antioxidants are in vegetables - are you saying most people don't eat vegetables?

Because they do.

So have you looked up the concentration of the most common antioxidants in vegetables and averaged it over most vegetables somehow? Then compared that to coffee, multiplied by the average daily dose? For all of those different antioxidants?

I'd like to see that calculation.

The most important antioxidant we need is vitamin C - that's not in coffee.

It's in vegetables.

Coffee is what people drink because it gets them high, helps them focus, and compensates for bad sleep discipline.

Not for health reasons - that's absurd.

Edited February 20, 2023 by flowboy

[Michael569]

@mrPixel If caffeine is your natural form of gentle antidepressant, than maybe stay with it and use the norepinephrine kick it is giving you to look into the underlining issue. Many things can be sources of depression so make sure to explore a variety of different topics such as: 

• unresolved trauma 
• feeling of being stuck in an area of your life (work, relationship, living situation, purpose crisis)
• nutrition and significant nutritional deficiencies or poor dietary composition
• sleep deprivation , insomnia, apnoea etc
• excessive social media exposure & lack of me-time
• drug exposure - smoking/alcohol/marihuana etc
• unmanaged stress 
• gut issues 
• toxic environment 
• medication you are currently taking 
• learned helplessness 
• other 

Edited February 21, 2023 by Michael569

[effortlesslumen]

coffee = false sense of awareness

coffee= a mainstream product used out of conformity 

coffee= is like a constant antidepressive that puts a smile on your face

coffee= release of cortisole that puts you in a constant state of adrenal stress response even if you dont notice anxiety ( constant stress is not the way to go) and puts stress on the nervous system and glands

coffee= counterintuitive, you think its benefical but in reality is not and you notice it when you observe  your consumption

coffee= A mask of unhealthy lifestyle of (in eg lack of sleep, fatigue level , supressing your real state of your body and mind)

Go cold turkey and see every withdawl symptom for what it is and go through it with out fear of your upcoming emotional or bodily states , they are just temporary. Start with a week and see what new variables appear in your life and than take needed actions. 

coffee= is  a highly addictive light hallucinogenic consumed out of compulsion, and pain relieve. ( Certainly not a good combination) 

Maybe the last one  is not true, but i certainly noticed this notion on myself 

https://realitysandwich.com/is-caffeine-a-hallucinogen/

https://theweek.com/articles/484059/coffee-new-hallucinogenic-craze

Edited February 21, 2023 by effortlesslumen

[Optimized Life]

On 17/02/2023 at 2:07 PM, todefe said:

I attempted to give up coffee, but my energy levels were so low that I found myself seeking it out.

"Tell me about it" 

[player1995]

Cacao is a great alternative. it helped me transition. I consume coffee once in a while for pleasure and enjoyment but no longer need it. I eventually let go of the need for cacao too, as I incorporated more fresh fruit, but I still celebrate with it more often than coffee.

Edited March 10, 2023 by player1995

[M A J I]

On 10/03/2023 at 11:16 PM, player1995 said:

Cacao is a great alternative. it helped me transition. I consume coffee once in a while for pleasure and enjoyment but no longer need it. I eventually let go of the need for cacao too, as I incorporated more fresh fruit, but I still celebrate with it more often than coffee.

 

[Matthew85]

@mrPixel I did eventually, but it wasn't easy. My energy and mood improved once I was able to get off coffee and espresso.