Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal | Hacker News Reader

Beware the Perils of Caffeine Withdrawal

cnn.com

22 pointsbanned_man38 comments

I've never understood this. Three cups of coffee described as addicted? I regularly drink 8 to 10 cups of coffee a day, and yet when I decide to go without for a week or two, as I do once or twice a year [EDIT: typo corrected - did say "week" - obviously wrong - sorry], I seem to feel no real effects. I just like the coffee, so I return to drinking it.

Am I that weird?

Maybe you have a natural resistance to the negative side effects?

From the article:

Up to 90 percent of North Americans consume caffeine products every day.

About half will experience withdrawal syndrome if they don't partake.

Of those 90 percent, there is probably a much smaller percentage that consumes more than, say, 300 mgs caffeine daily.

That also doesn't say much about the severity of the withdrawl symptoms. (Slightly drowsy? Persistent, intense headache?)

You go without for a week or two once or twice a week? Seems unlikely. (Did you mean once or twice a year?)

Or: You decide to go without for a week or two once or twice a week? Quite possible, but your ability to do that doesn't seem to me to be much evidence of anything...

I'd guess that different people get addicted to different extents.

You sound like those drug addicts who "quit" for a few days/weeks only to return to the drug because they "like it" and can quit anytime in the future (I swear I don't have a problem, honest)

Just because you have the ability to temporarily abstain for a few days/weeks does not mean you don't have a problem.

But kudos to you for not taking a huge energy hit when you take a break. I, like you am somewhat unaffected by low doses of caffeine (8-10 cups a day is not a low dose however)

Also, if you simply like coffee, why not decaf?

To cover a comment from further down, yes, typo, once or twice a year I give up coffee for varying amounts of time. Usually for two weeks, sometimes for a month. I go back to it because I like to have a hot drink, I don't like tea, fruit teas seem unfulfilling, hot chocolate in these quanities makes me put on weight, and hot fruit cordials are OK for a while, but coffee just seems better.

Maybe I am getting a hit from the coffee, and maybe I am addicted, but this article is saying how dreadful the withdrawal effects are. I'm saying I don't seem to get withdrawal effects at all.

Last year I gave up coffee for six months. Giving up for arbitrary periods isn't a problem in the sense that I didn't seem to have any physical symptoms, I just miss having a coffee.

I also don't seem to get any real "buzz" from it - no shakes, no headaches, no trouble sleeping.

Maybe I am weird.

Same here. I went through cases and cases of vault and pepsi max during my degree program. Occassionally, I'll also drink a whole lot of coffee. But, I can drop it like that. The main effect I notice is feeling more tired for a bit as my body catches up on all the sleep it was deprived of. But, nothing else.

Caffeine doesn't appear to have an effect on me either. When I stop consuming caffeine I don't normally notice an effect until the next morning, when I'm usually a lot worse at getting up in the morning, but once I'm up I don't notice a thing.

I've gone months without caffeinated drinks before and I've never noticed withdrawal effects. Although this may be because I don't notice any effects of caffeine when I do drink it. Unless I'm drinking an energy drink like Rockstar, I never get the 'pick me up' effect people claim from a coffee.

I wonder if, just like some people are caffeine sensitive, if some people are simply caffeine insensitive and don't notice the effects one way or another.

If someone is addicted to something, there is no way they'd be able to quit for weeks without a serious effort. And caffeine is not physically addictive at all, this is psychological addiction if even that. Also, caffeine is flushed from the system with about 6-8 hours.

No, caffeine is physically addictive. Your brain starts to develop more adenosine receptors (since you keep plugging existing ones with caffeine). When you stop drinking coffee (or the side effects get to be too much to keep up, etc.), you get hit by an avalanche of adenosine, and, suddenly you're without protection. Physical withdrawl symptoms ensue.

It's not just a behavioral thing. The brain physically adapts to maintain equilibrium in the recurring presence of caffeine. I don't think there are permanent changes, but the adjustment cycle lasts days. The half-life of caffeine is 6-8 hours (on average), meaning, at that point, half of it has been metabolized.

Anecdotally, a reasonably small amount daily is stable. Something like two cups of coffee (one in the morning, one after lunch) is fine for most people. Different drinks have different amounts of caffeine, of course. (Also, tea seems less likely to make me jittery than coffee.)

Just because you have the ability to temporarily abstain for a few days/weeks does not mean you don't have a problem.

Just because you're addicted doesn't mean you have a problem. I like caffeine as a drug and plan on using it every day the rest of my life.

There are many, many variables involved. Brain chemistry, liver enzymes, an empty or full stomach, context (a mug of coffee at your desk while working probably affects you differently than somewhere new), smokers metabolize caffeine faster (IIRC), the naringin in grapefruit juice slows down caffeine metabolism, etc.

FWIW, 8-10 cups of coffee is quite a bit more than I could comfortably drink in a day. (Green tea, perhaps.)

I find that going off caffeine is best done all at once, rather than by cutting back. That just spreads the misery out. However, by going cold turkey, I find that I'm essentially fine on the third day, actually feel noticeably better by the fourth or fifth day. I've done this about 10 times in the last eight years, for various reasons, but the main reason I continue doing it is that the effects of caffeine rapidly dwindle to "normal" for me over a period of weeks or months, and the only way to get the pick-up effect again, that I've found, is to drop it entirely and start over. It's fortunate that this is so easy. :)

You should try meth, you'll probably get lots more done.

/Yes, that was a joke (sort of).

Only sort of? In what way could it not be a joke? Personally, caffeine is already near the upper limit in side effects I'm willing to tolerate (trembling and nervousness if I drink too much), and I don't think I'd be willing to experiment with meth even if it were safe and legal. I did try modafinil once, many years ago, and was astounded at how well it replicated all the beneficial effects of caffeine without the side effects (and had a concentration boost as well, which is actually the opposite of caffeine effects for me), but for financial reasons I didn't pursue getting a prescription at that time.

Caffeine has more negative side effects than prescription stimulants, at least per unit of effective stimulation. Talk to your doctor, the older stimulants (with a lot more research establishing their safety) are all available as generics.

I don't know what other stimulants have less negative side effects. Ephedrine?

Fun fact: once upon a time, the majority of nurses were perpetually hopped up on scary-powerful amphetamines. You joke about it now, but that kind of thing used to be normal. Hell, it was almost expected.

Crystal meth is an entirely different animal than a lot of the amphetamines used as stimulants, though. Crystal meth is too destructive for people to be productive on it.

I used the flu to stop drinking coffee, as I figured I would feel bad anyway, so I might as well add the withdrawal symptoms on top.

However, I started drinking again after about a month :(

Yeah, [caffeine] withdrawal feels like being sick enough that I've done that, too. I always intended to start drinking again, though, especially once I learned that it was so easy to stop; I'm no longer concerned about moderate quantities. In the 90s I worried about whether I could quit at will; now I know it doesn't take much to stop indefinitely, so there isn't as much reason to. :)

Still, I wonder if seeming easy to quit is just a trick that coffee plays on us. At least for me it works: since I now think that quitting is easy, I don't quit, because I am so sure I could easily quit any day. Without seeming easy to quit, coffee might not be as widespread as it is.

I have read somewhere that among "addiction experts", having successfully quit means being clean for 6 months. I only went 1 month max so far...

Hm. The most I've gone is 2-3 months, unless you'll accept a 12 oz Coke every few days as "clean", in which case I've done just about 6 months, once, in 2001.

Here's a tip if you would like to quit but can't because the withdrawal is awful.

Wait until you get food poisoning or the flu. You'll probably take some time off work and you'll probably (and should) be under the care of a doctor. You might as well throw in the awfulness that is withdrawal and get it over with.

I turned the hell of "how old was that yogurt I just ate?" into an opportunity to quit my 6 cup a day habit. I'm a little nuts in that I kept some coffee by my bedside and every time I was about to yarf I took a gulp...

I haven't had coffee since, but I did have to be careful not to replace it with some other caffeine source.

While I don't condone anyone intentionally getting food poisoning, your post is exactly what my father did to quit smoking. He contracted a bout of severe food poisoning that was so bad he couldn't even smoke. He had been a pack-a-day smoker for decades. He never smoked again.

I did that and it worked pretty well. I was drinking a lot of Coke.

Six months later I thought "I'll have a Coke for lunch, it's alright since I had one with lunch yesterday". I almost paid for it before I realised I'd only had a very detailed dream where I'd bought and consumed a bottle of Coke with lunch.

I decided to stay off the caffeine for a little longer.

As bad as it is, it's totally true - I was a serious caffeine junky for a long time and it took me a while to kick the bean.

These days I stick to water and Chamomile when I want a hot drink as the Doc told me my excessive caffeine consumption was making a stomach problem I have worse and the dentist could tell I was drinking too much Coke just by looking at my teeth.

When I first gave it up I was suffering from serious headaches for about a week afterwards and constant cravings.

Until recently I was a 1 Coke a day guy (which I was proud of for showing 'retraint'). I've since dropped it (in the house) and only drink it when I'm out which is pretty rare. For me it wasn't the caffeine but rather the sweet taste and fizzy nature of Coke that had me hooked.

Now it's all about water, milk (for the calcium/protein) and all natural juices (watered down of course to reduce the natural sugar levels)

Been caffeine-free for 4 years now. So far it's been the smartest move I ever made.

I'm not a health nut, but I steer clear of caffeine religiously. With even a trace of it in me, I can't sleep, can't think, can't concentrate.

You sound like you're caffeine sensitive person, it's probably good that you steer clear, from what I remember you'd have a higher chance of palpitations and other side effects of caffeine.

I'm pretty sensitive to stimuli in general. I had trouble sleeping for the first 23 years of my life, until I cut out the caffeine.

I find that if I can stay physically active I don't miss caffeine. For example, when I go on vacation I typically don't drink coffee. But I'm usually at the beach, or have a lot of other stuff going on and I really don't miss it. If I stop coffee during a normal work week, I get the headaches, fatigue, etc.

I used to be up to around 2 2-liters of mountain dew a day... stopping from that was terrible. I was tired all the time and kept getting headaches. The solution to this was to drink a ton of water.

The last time I even attempted to have any soda I was utterly disgusted by the taste. I dunno, seems like a good choice I made

"Caffeinated products are not recommended for people who are prone to panic attacks or those who suffer from anxiety."

Goddamnit.

My mom used to suffer headaches on days we ran out of coffee at home, so I vowed never to touch the stuff. That reminds me, I need some more to get through these integration tests ...

I take Adderall and drink a boat load of coffee, so I make it a point to 'withdraw' for 1-2 days a week to avoid dependence. I find that it works well to avoid side effects.

this answers some questions (not being sarcastic)

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