caffeineaddict

Hi everyone,

my name is Andrew, and 27 years old, and I live in Nashville, TN. I am a caffeine addict from hell, and I am tired of letting caffeine control my life. I started drinking soda at the age of 9, and have been addicted ever since. In 1995 I had a two month period where I was able to quit, however I was unable to sustain that after eating out with my parents. In 2004 I was able to quit for a period of 90 days, until my roommate at the time drove me mad. it was either go to jail for murder, or go buy a 12 pack of Dr. pepper...and i chose the Dr. Pepper, and ever since I have been consuming 6 to 8, 12 ounce cans a day, and when I go out, I usually stop at a gas station, or a restaurant and get another one.

I'm tired of being tired in the middle of the day, tired of the caffeine headaches, tired of being dehydrated, tired of not being able to sleep more than 5 or 6 hours, tired of the addiction, tired of the control it has over my life.

I successfully quit smoking cigarettes, on Sept 6, 2007, and have been smoke free since. Smoking and caffeine are my only 2 addictions. I dont eat candy except during the holidays and most of it's homemade, i dont drink coffee or tea, and I don't eat out frequently.

I can use all the support and advice I can get.

Thanks

Andrew

nandm

Welcome to SR. Although alcoholism is my primary addiction, I do have experience with quitting smoking (going from 3 to 4 packs a day to 0) and stopping caffiene.

I have experienced the lovely, migraine like, miserable headaches created by stopping caffiene. Although there were other symptoms of withdrawl when I quit caffiene for me the headaches were the worst. I would suggest speaking with your doctor as he may be able to provide you with help to ease the withdrawl symptoms while you quit the caffiene. Also with your doctors support you will be more likely to be able to quit.

You can quit. This site is great for support and encouragement when wanting to quit any addiction. Hope you stick around and let us know how things progress.

barb dwyer

Hi Andrew - and welcome to SR!

I think you're probably just a forerunner in a whole new arena of substance abuse, actually.

You might find something helpful in the stickies at the top of this, and the Substance abuse forums ...

thanks for the courage to talk about this!

do you have a plan? what are you going to do, and do you have a network of support around you to help?

Anna

Hi Andrew,

Welcome!

I would guess that the amount of sugar you are consuming, probably causes you as many problems as the caffeine itself.

Good for you in stopping smoking and you will find lots of support here.

caffeineaddict

im gonna try quitting cold turkey again like i did the previous times. if i dont have it in the house I am fine. my parents drink light amounts, but they drink brands I don't like, so the temptation wont be there.

also I dont have a doctor as I dont have medical insurance, and just moved to tennessee back in August.

I have a good support group at home from my parents, and at church as well.

if anyone has tips I'd sure appreciate them, i remember in 2004 when I quit last the first 5 days were hell, then the headaches and withdrawals quit...but the cravings were always there, I had to fight really hard with my mentality to overcome the urge to get a can.

barb dwyer

Well, I know when I try to stop caff in my coffee -
my neck feels like it's gonna snap in two. sucks.

I dunno ... *shrug*
I'd cut half then half then half were it me.
I saw a doc on TV who said to come off caffeine and sugar that way instead of cold turkey.

just trying to help is all.
am glad to see you 've a supprot system around that can help.
that's so very important when giving up anything we're addicted to.

caffeineaddict

thx barb appreciate the info

CarolD

Yes...I too think sugar is involved with your situation.
You might want to go to the city health department
and talk to someone there.

Welcome to SR!

caffeineaddict

CarolD that's a great idea, i am actually an Army veteran, so I will ask when I go to the Veterans Administration on Friday to register here in Nashville. I am on workmans comp for a broken right arm that hasn't healed properly, and a broken hip (hip is healed), so I have all the time in the world (which this kinda scares me) to get to places and get help for anything I need.

The good thing is that I will be starting computer school here in Nashville on Monday, so that will keep me busy Mon - Thurs.

dave47

Hi Andrew and welcome. As others have said about the sugar, i think that is the main problem with those fizzy drinks. I believe there is about a dozen spoonfuls of sugar per can which will give you a bit of a high but quickly followed by a low. Best wishes for computer school and for your injuries.

lostmdboy

I know your plite. I think I have a caffine problem too, but did not want to deal w/ it till I had a year of sobbriety Now that that has come I still am drinking a lot of coffee. Now that I read this I could probably replace coffee w/ alcohol, abd I would sound like I did a year or two ago.

Tazman53

Welcome to SR CaffieneAddict, I am an alcoholic so my experience is not with caffiene, but as someone else said the suger is proabably not helping matters either.

I can share with you what many others fighting addictions of all kinds including alcoholism use with great success, and that is to take it one day at a time! Yes it is a cliche, but that cliche works, sometimes one needs to break it down as far as one minute at a time at first, but staying in the day, not worrying about yesterday or tomorrow makes a very large pill to swallow much easier to deal with.

Rowan

Welcome to SR

mike_mass

Andrew,

I struggle with this too at times. Overall I know I'd be better off without caffeine/sugar but it is just too available to pass up over the long run. What I have found is that during stressful times in my life it is best to cut way down. There are ample resources on the web that deal with caffeine issues. This is the best I've found so far. The Caffeine Web Mike

gypsytears

Hi & welcome caffeineaddict. I think the wisest advice here was to speak to a doctor. The next best thing was cutting down gradually. I don't think ct from caffiene will kill you but I am not a doctor.

Benker

Glad you are here

CD-RUN

Wow whats the chances of me finding this post? I just signed up on this site yesterday and was just having a conversation about caffiene and drinking in the alcoholism forum. Since I stopped drinking I've replaced beer with coffee and I realize that its time to cut back on the caffiene. I'm heading out to the grocery for some decaf right now.

barb dwyer

Have we heard back from Andrew?

reed

I never drank caffiene often till I quit the strong stuff among other boosties. Now I am consuming the stuff though. Its good, especially dark roast Kona coffee or amp and redbull. However, if yaz wants to boosties naturally drink -yerba mate- its from south america, its good hot or cold with some honey....make sure ya get it natural though, no caffeine....try Trader Joes for it....good natural energy....best of luck and welcome....

possiblyNuts

Lol, why did you even mention that? It is kinda like going into a thread where someone talks about wanting to get off coke and saying "Man, I just did some killer lines! The good stuff !!" :P


Anyways, good luck to you getting off caffeine. Personally, I don't drink sodas or anything containing caffeine. Slightly because of caffeine being bad for you, mainly because the massive amounts of sugar that those drinks contain.