JeffreyAK

I personally did not/do not get triggered at all by coffee, in fact I enjoy it much more since I quit than I did when I was drinking heavily. Most mornings back then were jittery, and drinking coffee made it that much harder to control and hide the hand shakes. But your mileage may vary, if it's triggering, don't drink it.

zjw

i didnt realize how bad caffine was till i quit it. Now since then I can get hooked back on caffine like a smoker does his cigarettes. Once in a while after a tough night I'll cave and have some caffine in some form. I almost always feel like superman those first couple days back on the caffine bandwagon then it starts to haunt me its less effective i require more of it my anxiety gets worse I wake up totaly exhausted in the mornings and require just to get started each day.

I never thought much about it but I used booze to bring me down each day it was my "off" switch. after drinking at least a pot of coffee each day and who knows what else with caffine I can see how I probably required this "off" switch and didnt even realize it.

Of course now life without caffine it can still be hard to turn off at the end of the day.

The biggest kicker for me iwth caffine is once i get dependant on it to get going each day. Then the added anxiety. Otherwise I loved the stuff *sigh* but ts a tough price I'd pay for it.

arieslee

My own encounters with caffeine is in the form of energy drinks i love arizona tea's and on the days after the night of drinking i would get me a tall can of arizona's answer to the energy drink its like supposed to be a herbal energy drink it i read some of the ingrediants and its got guarana in it which i guess has something to do with caffeine i drink it with ice it helps pick me up in the mornings but then over the course of the day its like for some odd reason ill be thinking about "the drink" again and ill wind up boozing it up i guess as countless others have said to calm myself down .i usually would drink one at work in the morning to get me up and then by the end of the day into the evening its like i think about the boozing

Tang

[QUOTE="arieslee;5326790"its got guarana in it which i guess has something to do with caffeine[/QUOTE]

Guarana is a plant from the Amazon Basin. It has about twice as much caffeine as an equivalent coffee seed. So yeah it's got caffeine in it and has become popular in drinks over the last 15 years. I used to order it via mail order in the mid 90's before you could find it in retail stores. So yeah a stimulant and therefore I treat it like I would coffee.

Soberwolf

I dont like coffee and i have maybe 2-3 cups of tea a day but in no way does that trigger me at all

SoberCAH

Same here.

I drink caffeine now, though, and it isn't a trigger for anything that I can discern.

Good question.

advbike

I love the coffee but it does increase my anxiety, so I've found ways to lower the caffeine content. I drink half decaf, or instant coffee here in SE Asia which has less caffeine. Also espresso has less caffeine than brewed.

Yes, I'm convinced that in the old days when I was drinking a lot of it, the first couple beers were used to dampen the caffeine buzz I had worked up all day.

theMiz

I really felt that caffeine played a good part in substitution for a while. I drank more coffee instead of alcohol. Then became sensitive to caffeine, quit coffee and energy drinks slowly.

Latte

I just have to make sure I don't drink it after 4PM or I find myself wanting to bring myself down. I'm not interested in drinking, but I do try and carb load to crash and that is not good for my body.

I had to change a lot of the things I did so I didn't go back to old ways. I still find some things I can't do. I haven't started running races again-too many memories. I'm looking for new ways to burn off my nervous energy.

FeenixxRising

I love quality coffee and tea. Neither substance is a trigger for me. In fact, just the opposite. I couldn't imagine wanting a drink of alcohol while consuming coffee or tea or any other substance with caffeine.

readerbaby71

I've never associated coffee with alcohol. I love coffee, but only drink 1-2 cups in the morning. If I have any more than that I get very anxious.

Cow

Caffeine almost always lead to booze for me. Is total brain chemical trigger. For me, is untenable cycle of using caffeine as treatment for untenable anhedonia/depression, which then lead to over-stimulation and compulsion for booze, which ultimately worsen depression. ...Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Just recently, I find therapist who take this seriously. Is almost always caffeine that derail my sobriety.

gaffo

I love coffee. It was a substitute for beer when I first quit so I drank a lot of it but not as much now. I can drink more of it without a hangover. It was never much good the morning after. It was too easy to get that "too much coffee" feeling.

Pipping

Coffee is not a trigger for me but cigarettes were. I used to feel so excited about the cigarette and glass of wine waiting for me after I finished work. Of course it was a packet of smokes and two bottles of wine with a massive hangover the next day. I find this thread very interesting I can see why coffee would be a trigger and when I was drinking. Drank lots of it to survive the day, now it just makes me jittery