No More Coffee

For anyone that tries this, don't naively go cold turkey and expect just a headache.

It generally takes 12 days before your body resets it's relevant receptors for caffeine consumption. E.g if you drink three coffees a day and barely feel a hit, you need to go cold turkey for 12 days. After that the impact of coffee should be more significant. (1) (edit: sources state 2 weeks to 2 months in fact!)

I decided to give it a go a few years ago and fuck me. The come down sucked. The first few days were okish. Slight headache.

But from the 3rd day for about 4-5 days. I had a headache that'd compete with my past migraines. I was nauseated and was throwing up several times a day. These stopped at roughly day 8 or day 9.

I didn't consider myself a heavy coffee drinker either. Perhaps 2-3 coffees a day, these were double shot espresso's.

My colleagues hilariously wrote a medical blog to document my descent into madness. I'll try and dig it up.

(1) - https://www.caffeineinformer.com/caffeine-tolerance

So the author was so opposed to preparing coffee at home (or anything in his kitchen, like he admitted) that he managed to kick a lifelong addiction? This compounded by his claimed of being an addict rather than an afficianado (so he could prettiest much consume home made instant or drip coffee) makes me question the severity of his claimed addiction.

To be clear, I congratulate the authors for kicking the addiction, but the story seems a bit ludicrous.

Quit coffee 3 years ago, one of the best things I've ever done for myself.

Since coffee is pretty much universally accepted in the world (even more so than alcohol), one can easily view a strong coffee habit as normal, or at worst a benign vice. And it's fine as far as addictions go; you can ride the caffeine wave to increased productivity, and when the effects wear off another cup of liquid inspiration is there waiting. I did this for close to 15 years.

What bothered me was this feeling of being ruled by the habit. I simply had to have my two jam packed triple espresso lattes (or equivalent when not at home), one in the morning, and one in the afternoon; there was never serious consideration given to the thought, "I know, let's not have coffee this weekend", just a steamroller habit with me along for the ride.

Ironically what got me to quit coffee (and I had no intention of doing so) was a "retreat" in Mexico where one of the requirements was following a strict diet 2 days before and 4 days after the experience. One of the restrictions was no coffee, which part of me was strongly resisting, to the point of considering withdrawing (hah) from something I'd already spent several hundred dollars for.

In the end I went ahead with it. On the 4th day after the retreat I was free, and commenced preparing a strong pot of rocket fuel, but then something within me realized, "wait, I don't need this anymore".

And I don't, at all. Coffee is the devil made liquid -- proceed with caution :)

[0] i.e. even when sick, on off days from work, during vacation, etc.

The author makes caffeine sound like a super power. I wish I could experience that even for a little bit.

I drink a lot of coffee (I think I average 4 or 5 quadruple espresso shots a day right now) but it does nothing for me physiologically. I don't feel like it wakes me up, it doesn't make me procrastinate less or focus more, it doesn't keep me from sleeping (I'll regularly drink a quad shot after a full day before going to bed).

The author still seems highly focused on their social image. They say it became a sort of personality signal that they were a big coffee drinker, now are making a loud social signal about quitting.

Also impossible for me to imagine spending that much on coffee without ever making it at home.

Very strange post in general

Everyone here is pathetic ;) Jokes aside, I'm surprised at how strongly people respond to giving up a 2 cups a day "habit".

I drink 5+ cups a day and have gone "cold turkey" on several occasions, (e.g. long road trips, flying, forgetting to go to the shop) with no ill effects apart from being a bit tired. When I have a cold or flu I generally loose my appetite for coffee too, so I usually go "cold turkey" for a week or so.

For me it generally takes about 2 weeks to get back to no-coffee baseline.

That said, coffee tastes great, has no real long term negative effects from all I have read, and gives my day ritual and breaks similar to what smoking can give, but without the lung cancer.

I also gave up my coffee routine because of COVID. When I got it I was worried I'd end up on a ventilator having trouble breathing AND going through coffee withdrawal. I managed to suffer my few days of withdrawal before I landed in the hospital. In the end I was lucky and avoided both ventilation and bad hospital coffee. The "near life" experience caused me to stop consuming other things as well, mostly for ecological reasons.

I've been drinking decaf for years. It's hard to get a good tasting decaf blend, but if you don't drink much caffeine decaf will wake you up, you can drink more cups a day (if that's your thing) and it's healthier.

Frankly, I'm surprised decaf is not more popular. It is possible to make decaf taste so good you'd never know it's decaf.

For a couple years, I had strange heart palpitations. It became increasingly frequent and bad to the point that it'd feel like my heart stopped for 10 seconds, or it was trying to burst out of my chest for a minute, or the arteries in my neck throbbed so hard it hurt.

I quit drinking coffee, and two weeks later, these issues stopped entirely. I haven't felt them in about 3 years. I was usually only drinking two cups a day (albeit very large and very strong cups), but it seems to have been enough to really wear out my body.

On the other hand, since giving up coffee, I've basically lost my ability to focus on difficult things. Coffee never really helped me stay awake, but damn did it help me work. Sometimes I'll have a cup, but then I think that I kind of feel something in my chest and decide to quit drinking for a few more months.

My COVID coffee experience was the opposite- I have been drinking half a pot every morning since mid-March. Last night I had the thought that I should go cold turkey, and this blog post might be the last little push I needed to do it.

Wonder how much of the crash is from coffee vs the sugar (the post mentions hazelnut lattes which should be called hazelnut-flavored coffee/sugar drinks).

I had a somewhat similar trajectory to the author with coffee. I started drinking it in highschool and loved it. I didn't have quite as bad a sleep schedule as him, but it was bad, and coffee was the band-aid. Then I got to college and really went nuts. I used to just get coffee in the morning, then it was before every class, then after class too, and in the evening when I was doing homework. Every coffee shop had free refills, it was so cheap. Eventually I got to the point where I was drinking 10-15 cups a day, and I was starting to have a lot of trouble sleeping, presumably due to drinking it late into the evening.

Then one day I just decided to stop, and it was shockingly easy. I didn't have any withdrawal symptoms, not even a headache, I didn't feel particularly tired. And I started sleeping better so I quickly felt less tired. I think my dependence on coffee was entirely psychological, there wasn't really a physical component to it.

I haven't really had coffee, or any caffeine since then. I went through a period of drinking decaf, but found that even the little bit of caffeine in that messed with my sleep. Or it was just a placebo affect that made me too anxious to fall asleep, still not really sure which it was. The only thing I really miss is the taste, every time I walk by a coffee shop and smell it I get a wave of nostalgia. But oh well, I like sleep a lot better than coffee.

I used to experience late day crashes and headaches quite frequently, and also chalked that up to excessive coffee intake. However, as someone who also spent little time in the kitchen (thinking I didn't have time for it), it turned out to be my haphazard style of intermittent fasting that was giving me the headaches. Now I spend no more than an hour or so each night making food with leftovers for lunch the following day, and my life has improved phenomenally. YMMV but I still drink plenty of coffee.

For those worried about caffeine withdrawal, I find that going for a run staves off the headache caused by adenosine rebound.

All these years of caffeine addiction and no coffee machine at home.... sounds insane to me. I drink a lot of coffee; typically 3 cups in the morning at home (if I’m short on time I bring a thermos with me) then I buy maybe 1-2 cups at work. I like to treat myself to a latte sometimes but they’re now at least five bucks! I can’t imagine how expensive a 10 coffee a day habit must be when you don’t make it at home.

I've always drunk a lot of caffeine and honestly people make it sounds like they're doing heroin when they talk about quitting. Blogposts like this almost always seem to be people into their 30s or 40s who want to make some fancy livestyle change for its own sake.

If anything a nice cup of black tea or a good Irish coffee in the evening calms me down and I sleep like a baby

I went cold-turkey in February after 25 years of drinking really strong coffee in well... hacker-heroic amounts.

Oddly, no headaches, and the quality of my middle-aged sleep has gone way up. I do like the routine of drinking a hot beverage but I'm finding decaf chai to be a decent replacement.

I self-medicated with caffeine for my ADD for years, not realising that my (pretty serious) case of the condition was absolutely not normal, and eventually realising that I needed a diagnosis at the age of 24. Even after that, I still took months to kick the habit of starting to drink caffeine, building up a tolerance, realising that it harms more than it helps overall and kicking it, then having some downer moment (a cold, a workday after little sleep) that made me crack and drink more, starting the cycle again. I’ve now just about kicked the habit, but even though I’ve regularly experimented with and always had access to plenty of harder stuff, caffeine is the only thing I’ve ever been addicted to and likely always will be.

Key point here is that you probably fixed your sleep schedule sometime after high school. Coffee dependency is a pretty common hotfix for a poor sleep schedule. Once you take away the poor sleep schedule, coffee becomes less necessary and more a nice to have.

It'd be interesting seeing the long term effects high school sleep schedules have on people. I wouldn't be surprised if poor sleep patterns in adolescence lead to insomnia and other issues later in life. I definitely felt like my high school sleeping patterns were damaging to my mental and physical health.

So you stopped drinking coffee because you didn't want to order a $25 coffee maker off Amazon?

I drink probably 3-5 cups a day consistently, either black or a small amount of cream. I don’t know why, but I am not sensitive to caffeine at all. I don’t get ‘wired’ or energized from it. Been that way my whole life, even as a kid consuming tons of soda. I just never seemed to feel a noticeable effect.

I’m sure I’m not the only one, but the way I hear other people talk about caffeine, it seems like we’re consuming totally different substances. Since I don’t get a buzz, I don’t drink it for the energy. It’s just a pleasant, delicious hot beverage. I also enjoy trying different bean varieties & new roasting companies.

I’ve given it up for a while with seemingly no adverse effects. I can take it or leave it, but I usually partake! Also, I like to think black coffee is actually good for you. It’s not just caffeine, but contains many complex compounds, anti-oxidants etc. The science is debatable, but if I believe it’s good for me then it is right? :p

I always thought I was one of those people on whom caffeine had little to no effect, since we I was drinking 5 cups a day on average and still felt tired all the time.

During the lock-down I read somewhere that caffeine's half-life in your body is 6 hours. I'd always needed an hour at least to fall asleep at night but I never attributed it to caffeine. So I figured I'd quit coffee for a to see what the effects were.

I can't even begin to tell how big of an effect quitting caffeine had: I routinely fall asleep within 15 minutes of going to bed, I sleep better and longer, I have more energy and one espresso after lunch is enough to stay focused and alert until midnight.

I've done the cold turkey coffee cut a few times. For me its no big deal. A few days of headaches and grumpiness, and its done.

I may do it again soon though, it'll be interesting to see what a difference my no sugar change will make to the experience.

For anyone going back to coffee anyway, the types of machines called “Superautomatic” espresso machines from slightly over $500 universally takes only water, some unground beans, and bits of electricity to generate espresso of desired amount on press of a button.

Regular amount of beans are drawn, ground inside, tamped, brewed and ejected in a form of miniature hockey pucks by series of motors and actuators. You empty the spent bean box and refill the water tank, clean the high pressure contraption block occasionally with mild cleaning agents, that’s it. No filters no capsules just beans and tap water.

Good for you! Several years back my team at work used to joke about my caffeine intake... it was just a compulsion that when my cup was empty I'd get more coffee. I found that the beneficial effects plateaued around cup four every day, and beyond that it was pure habit (I'd get the crashes later in the day but more caffeine wouldn't help much).

I was down to about 2 cups a day at work, but now that I'm home all the time, I'm back up to four. It's just... comforting to have in my hand.

>> For me, this triggered careful introspection about whether I really derived pleasure from the things I claimed to like, or whether those claims were really just signaling about the person I would like to be, rather than who I actually am.

This resonates with me. But I think sometimes these aspirational affectations, once identified, are better preserved. If there’s any chance that they may one day ring true, they can serve as a worthwhile reminder of what one is striving toward.

I've generally quit caffeine a few times in my life, it was always the right thing to do.

In my older age, I'm able to moderate a lot better, I really couldn't just drink a single soda or green tea, but now I'm a lot more comfortable drinking caffeine in the morning, then switching to something else the rest of the day.

When I first stopped, I had been also drinking sugary soda - so I switched to diet soda as a crutch, it definitely helped me make the transition.

> Ultimately, as COVID wraps up and things go back to normal

As someone who was “more cautious than most” this is disheartening to read. I know it isn’t the point of the post but this type of attitude is why we are in for huge pain no matter how low spread rates are in your area at the moment. Even if scientific consensus is wrong and things die down quickly nationwide with no “2nd wave,” the economy is going to go to a scary place.

Lately I've been experimenting with regular caffeine resets to avoid tolerance. I'm following a two weeks on / 1 week off schedule.

I also use caffeine tablets instead of coffee, and limit myself to 50-100mg, usually taken in smaller doses throughout the day. Combined with the regular reset weeks, this so far seems to be enough to boost my energy without giving me jitters and other issues.

I personally don't drink coffee to stay up. I find it has an adverse effect. I drink it to start my day when I'm fresh or after a nap.

And here I am, trying everything from diet to exercise so that I can get back on coffee asap.

>> I realized that coffee was useful in technical, creative work not because it increases wakefulness, but because it increases focus.

You know what else increases focus and also wakefulness, concentration, creativity, productivity, etc, etc? A good night's sleep. Then you wake up early in the morning with your mind razor sharp and you have a good five to six hours of uninterrupted work at the top of your game. Then lunch, a little 15 minute nap and off you go, for another five or six hours. That's how you get through 12-hour working days without dosing yourself with anything that ultimately destroys your ability to think straight, even as it makes you think you're awake (when you're actually half asleep).

The best coffee substitute I've found is coffee-flavored Postum. It's the one in the red jar. Available from their website or Wal-Mart. I also tried Cafix, but prefer Postum.

I go for the pharmaceutical grade caffeine, Tazo Chai tea. Ingredients: “An infusion (of water, black tea, black pepper, ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, star anise, natural flavors), cane sugar, honey, ginger juice, natural flavors, vanilla extract, citric acid”. Notice sugar low on the list, after all the good stuff that gets you wired. Its all the buzz with less crash.

Caffeine seems to only give me a hit for an hour or so and then I need a nap. How does it affect you?

> Caffeine Fiend

Phahaha, that's amazing. I'm stealing that.

I drink a lot of coffee (3-4 ~ 10oz cups per day). I periodically stopped drinking any caffeine sources cold turkey for months (probably 6 or 7 times over the past decade).

I’ve never experienced any form of side effect. No headaches, crashes, cravings, nothing. Likewise, when I resume drinking coffee again later, it takes the same 3-4 cups per day to feel any kind of impact.

Similarly I can drink coffee all day, and often really enjoy an espresso after dinner instead of dessert, with zero impact on sleep.

I don’t know if I am just a weirdo who can metabolize caffeine differently or what, but I’ve never had any kind of headache / jitters / withdrawal / strong craving / whatever, neither from drinking a lot of coffee or a little or switching between the two states over long or short periods of time.