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Comment by paskozdilar | Hacker News Reader

I've been a caffeine user for my whole life - started drinking energy drinks as a kid, took caffeine powder/pills in college for studying, drank a lot of coffee at work - and I've stopped about a month ago.

I find that caffeine made me anxious, so much that all the energy wasn't even worth it anymore, as I couldn't focus on anything from anxiety. After stopping, my anxiety has went down so much that I feel I'm able to do much more work then before, even if I'm doing it slower, because I can just relax and focus on what I need to do, without being distracted by every single intrusive thought I have and without the crash that inevitably comes every day after caffeine wears off.

I don't care about "health benefits" of coffee, to be honest. Caffeine is a crappy drug (for me), so nowdays I only save it for situations where I have to stay awake for longer than I usually can.

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The study result isn't about caffeine and dying, but about coffee and dying. There's a lot of substances in coffee beyond caffeine.

The study covers this, as does the NYT article. From the article: "The mortality risk remained lower for people who drank both decaffeinated and caffeinated coffee."

This sounds like you were on the very extreme end of caffeine consumption...

In college, yes.

I've always had issues with focus, and first year of college was overwhelming. I cut out all unnecessary time sinks, and I've found that I lack enough "focus" in a day - at some point I'd just read, but be unable to engage with any words I'm reading.

Caffeine pills helped me study for longer, however, the tolerance made me take more and more until at some point I was taking up to 2000mg of caffeine a day. I was barely functioning from anxiety, but I managed to be amongst better students on my year.

At work we have an espresso machine, so it's very easy to just "grab a cup" when I feel tired while working on an important task. It wasn't strange for me to drink 5-6 cups per day.

Nowdays, I'm only drinking coffee if it's a social event, and I keep a hard limit of one cup per day.

I recently quit caffeine, too. It is interesting how I was so habituated with the rush of it that I didn't consider the anxiety. Now whenever I consider having some tea I tell myself, "I really want to become extremely anxious" and so far it hasn't been worth it to take any tea after that.

Similar history here, lots of energy drinks since I was a kid.

I've been caffeine free since the start of January and no more tinnitus, anxiety, shaking hands or waking up during the night.

Downside is I'm eating more food, it's harder to focus and gaining weight.

To deal with caffeine-exacerbated anxiety, switch from coffee to wine sometime in the afternoon (easier with a remote job, mind you) :D

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