a wicked addiction
 

So my sobriety this time around has been fraught with sleeping problems. Actually, even before I came back to sobriety, I have been struggling with sleep for a few years. I know part of it is stress, part normal age-related-shifts, part being a parent, part just life.... but I also decided that a big influence is my significant love affair with coffee.

So today I began a quest to de-tox my body of caffeine. Holy hell.

I did have a green tea late morning in an effort to avoid withdrawals.... but my noon I had a headache so intense I felt I would vomit and could hardly focus on my work. My eyes blurred frequently and I was ready to scream.

Had to resort to taking Excedrin - which contains about the same amount of caffeine as a standard cup of coffee. So, I'm still having to feed the physical dependence just to function. Still, cutting out my normal super strong morning coffee has made a huge dent in my typical intake. I guess this may take me a few days / weeks... but I really need to get to a better place with sleep so that I can be healthier and happier and more at ease.

Who knew that caffeine could be so damn powerful? This is worse than quitting alcohol by far. I never had headaches like this from not drinking.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

:ring

Hi freeowl I came off coffee once and had terrible muscle pains in my legs, I couldn't believe it.
I'm still drinking coffee, decaf at home and normal at work.

My sleep too was irrational but it is settling down now.

It's hard to believe the effects these so called legal drinks give us.

I like coffee... but I really want to get clear of it and reset to a point where I am just having it occasionally versus daily and in too-great quantities...

HMMM.... now that sounds... familiar.....

I am going through the EXACT same thing Freeowl !

I've started a detox for 28 days, no caffeine, sugar, wheat, alcohol (duh), corn, soy. I have a pounding and I mean, POUNDING head. For two days now. Today isn't as bad as yesterday which was day 1.

Good god. Gimme strength. :)

you're a stronger soul than I alphaomega!! I caved to the pain.... I'm hoping I can wean off over the coming days to the point where the headaches subside.

Good onya for the TOTAL detox, wow. I have to chip away one at a time. Sugars are a big one for me... but I have been shifting more and more away from processed to natural sugars like fruit and trying to incorporate more and more raw foods....

I'm rooting for you, freeowl! I gave up refined sugars and processed carbs about a week ago; I'd essentially replaced alcohol (sugar) with other forms of sugar - it's all bad for the body! I haven't removed caffeine, but may choose to in the future.

Keep us posted on your progress!!

Honestly I'm just trying to FEEL better. I want vitality. I want energy. And I want it long term - not just a caffeine buzz or a sugar rush (both of which have been my BFF's over the last few months). I just want to know what this body is truly capable of. Sans booze, sans crap.

Who knows if I'll make it, but damn it if I aint gonna give it my best. :)

Happened to me one time, where I quit coffee and yeah, monster headache.... I was very surprised how my body reacted to going without coffee... what worked for me was going to one cup straight away in the morning on my way in to work, then nothing after that for about a week, then quitting....

I have cut down from 4-5 strong cups of brewed coffee a day to 2 medium strength in the morning before I leave home and 1 in the afternoon.

My next plan is to cut out the afternoon one.

Then I'll think about the morning ones.

I remember giving up coffee cold turkey in the 90's. I had the most ferocious headaches. I can still remember them.

Wow. That is a huge deal..and very impressive. I hope you are feeling better!

I will be a one or 2 cup a day coffee drinker for now. The thought of giving anything else up at this point is horrifying.

best wishes FreeOwl :)

D

evening update.... the Excedrin helped for several hours. Headache is creeping back again now. Gonna try to manage through with some very mildly-caffeineated white tea to see if I can get through to bed without another excedrin treatment.

I am putting up with the headaches when they're just mildly annoying but man when it turns migraine and my vision starts blurring I have to treat it.

I'm hoping I can wean myself down to no caffeine or just mild green or white tea once a day within a week or two.

I hadn't realized how dependent my body had gotten and I really think that caffeine has become a BIG factor in my anxiety issues and sleep problems. I'll keep reporting in for those interested. I'm pretty sure a vast majority of us in recovery also have a significant relationship with caffeiene and share some of these challenges with nerves, energy issues, and sleep challenges. I wonder how many of us would greatly benefit from a caffeine detox as part of sobriety.

I'm sure I will want to have coffee and tea in my life - but it's pretty clear that I've taken it to an excess that has had negative impact on my physical well-being.

Thanks for the comments and feedback....

:)

No way in Hell I would give up coffee. You're a better person than I.

Coffee detox is brutal every time. I drink coffee rarely, but probably too much yerba mate. I think I would have more difficulty keeping off mild stimulants like coffee or tea than alcohol. There are worse things.

I feel the same way justin... which is what makes this so damn hard. I love coffee. And I don't think I want a life without it. But - I've come to love STRONG coffee... and plenty of it. Dark roasted redeyes.... straight up. Over the years and decades my coffeeholism took a similar trajectory to my alcoholism.... and I think it's taken a toll on my nervous system. Caffeine is a strong drug and a sympathomimetic agent. It's half-life is long enough that you can build up a significant 'backlog' of it in your body until your whole system is just overtoxified and for me that has led to heart palpatations, anxiety, nervous sweats, difficulty sleeping, high heart rate, and difficulty maintaining intensity in workouts.....

I've gotta cut it out and stabilize my system, then see whether I can re-introduce it in a balanced way. I hope so.... I hope that it isn't just like alcoholism; with every 'relapse' harder and worse......

You're certainly not alone with that experience with caffeine. And I wouldn't recommend cold turkey on it in any case, since I did a 2 day green tea taper and had quite hellish symptoms from it. Muscle pains and the head ache. Mental confusion and physical pain. It taught me that caffeine is a lot more potent than it is given credit to, especially seeing similar stories here about it. :)

It got a little easier on day 4, meaning not being totally incapacitated, was still not fun... and by day 7 the initial withdrawal was pretty much done. Pretty hardcore stuff.. Who would've guessed... caffeine.

You're stronger than I am. I can't see myself giving up coffee any time soon. :)

well... yesterday was a pretty mind-addled day trying to get along without the usual doses of coffee. I did wind up taking excedrin again at bedtime because the headache was tightening in and I could tell it was gonna rachet up pretty good if I didn't take preventive measures.

I also took a new, natural supplement; melatonin with L-theanine. I've used Melatonin before but not the other. I had two of those and read my big book for about 40 minutes and went to sleep no problem AND>>>>>>>>

Woke up at my alarm having had a solid night's sleep without waking up!!!!!

Holy. Crap.

That's the first one of those I can remember in years!!! 7.5 hours of sleep!?!?!!?

Methinks there is definitely something to this weaning-off-the-caffeine thing!!

Had a breakfast smoothie (as I've been doing for the past week now - in effort to add more raw foods and fiber to my diet) consisting of;

1 clementine
1/4 cup pineapple
1 mango
I handful almonds
1 stalk celery
1 stalk kale
1/4 cup broccoli
1 tsp flax seeds
1 Tbsp bee pollen
1 tsp fresh turmeric
1 tsp fresh ginger
1 scoop whey protein
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup OJ

Also a cup of St. John's Wort herbal tea. Did a few sun salutes and a brief meditation.... just small changes toward another direction.

So far, no headache yet today though my head does feel fuzzy and a little tense. Shooting for further tapering the caffeine today - just keeping it manageable.

:)

Conclusion thus far; ON THE RIGHT TRACK!!!!

OMG, that sleep.... that lovely sleep....

10am... about 25 hours after having Excedrin.... headache's coming on now.

DANG.

How long will it take.... I've shed the coffee but now I'm having to nurse my dependence with caffeine in a pill anyway. At least it's less and I know exactly the dosage.

Anyone have advice on how the hell to pare it back or wean off caffeine to minimize these awful headaches????

Maybe an OTC pain reliever that doesn't contain caffeine would get you through? Like an ibuprofen?