Caffine
 

2 days sober today.

Does anyone find that they are substituting alcohol with caffine (coffee, tea, coke etc). I'm definitely drinking more coffee now that I was before.

A bit like when I quit smoking, I used to find myself holding a pen like a cigarette. Don't do that anymore thankfully!

Best wishes all,

Spikeman.

Alcohol for me worked as much as a stimulant (eye-openers in the a.m., etc.) as it was a depressant. I've been drinking a pile of Pepsi Max & Coke Zero this past week which both have lots of caffeine.

Crappy part is with the those said beverages I did some research and discovered that they both have additives that many believe are hard on the liver.

I'd say whatever you need (within reason) in your first few days to stay sober go for it as it would be the lesser of two evils

Spike, I stopped drinking for a few weeks in 2002 and noticed that I "substituted" it with tea and drank it like crazy. Then I went even more nuts on it when I quit alcohol recently, before Xmas. It was ridiculous how much I was having. Initially it didn't seem to have any impact on my sleep but that changed, and it was obviously only adding to the return of insomnia and utterly rotten sleeping patterns I hadn't had for years. I don't know if I am correct on my chemistry or not, but I associate too much caffeine with feeling depressed - something else I didn't need to add to. I have brought the tea way down, just to start out in the morning (the way I used to do with coffee, which I don't bother with anymore). I don't let myself have any past noon.

I used to be a big coffee drinker, and I have had that infamous sweet tooth in the past when quitting alcohol- but these days in my periods of sobriety it's water and decaf green tea, herbal caffeine free teas and veggie juices. My favorite new beverage, kombucha, has trace amounts of alcohol in it so I gave that up too... :(

Yes, and developed a new habit too. Never really was a coffee drinker, but now I drink 3cups in the AM and 1-2 threw-out the day.
Way better then those 6-12 beers.

Early in addiction treatment I used to drink 3 pots a day. One pot of coffee and a 1/2 pack of cigs was polished off from when I awoke at 6am till 10 am. Yikes that was crazy.

Now its 2 cups in the morning and 2 in the late afternoon. And way less cigs.

2 days sober...drink whatever and however much you want (non-alcoholic)...honestly it could not be more irrelevant at the moment:-)

Honestly, i drank at least 15 glasses of iced tea a day in my rehab, now its down to like 5 dr peppers a day and half a pack of smokes lol