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Comment by goosinmouse | Hacker News Reader

I can relate. I never drank anything with caffeine and would get headaches fairly often. Headaches were never too bad or too often to need medical attention but was just normal part of life. I started drinking coffee on road trips and drives over 3 hours long and noticed that my headache coming on would go away right after. Now i drink coffee twice daily and i'll get a headache once a month at most.

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I drank five or six cups of coffee a day for decades. I’d even have a cup before going to bed — that’s how tolerant I had become.

Got a mild flu/Covid/cold couple years ago. Better in a week. But, during the illness and since, the slightest bit of caffeine would make be incredibly wired to the point of panic attacks. Had to quit cold turkey. I’ve tried a cup now and again, and it’s the same thing: 6 hours of overwhelming anxiety.

Wierd. It’s like I became hypersensitive to caffeine. Oddly, though, nicotine doesn’t have that effect, and I always figured the two stimulants were similar.

Try yerba mate, like seriously. It gives you a very smooth caffeine-induced motivation boost without any of the anxiety effects.

I frequently switch between that and coffee (coffee has a much more pronounced effect and sometimes you have to grind)

Yerba mate is my caffeine of choice and I suggested it to my Dad who gets bad migraines. He claims that when he feels a migraine coming on, he can drink a can and it will result in a mild headache instead of forcing him to lie down in a dark room for hours.

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