caffeineaddict

Im new here, and just put in my new member post.

I am a 27 year caffeine addict from Nashville, TN, and I decided my priority new years resolution this year was to get myself off the caffeine. so if any of you have quit caffeine or other addictive substances, i can use all the support i can get.

im tired of all the money I have wasted, tired of the headaches, the central nervous system problems i have, shaking, cold sweats, lack of caffeine headaches, dehydration, dependency, tired in the middle of the day, and the gastrointestinal problems I am starting to have, and the frequent urge to urinate.

thanks

Andrew

angelgirl

Welcome to SR Andrew!! Great to have you here.

I understand what you are going through. Caffeine is a tougher addiction that alot of
people believe it to be. Be very careful not to cut your caffeine totally out all at once though. It's much better for you to taper yourself off. It's so much easier on your body. I know a woman who drank alot of coffee everyday, and she decided one day that she shouldn't do that anymore, due to the amount of caffeine she was taking in, and she just simply stopped drinking it, and wound up in Urgent Care, and they actually admited her into ICU, they thought she was having a heart attack, and it ended up being the caffeine withdrawal she was going through. It was a lesson to be learned for sure, that caffeine is a much more powerful drug that people give credit to.

I am I also was a caffeine addict, or am a caffiene addict. I still stuggle, but not at all to the extent that I did struggle. Now I buy caffeine free pop, but I still have to go to
Mc Donald everyday, and get a large pop, and I mean everyday I have to have at least one of those large diet cokes. I shouldn't, I have my ( caffeine free ) Diet Coke here, but I still drag myself there everyday for that coke no matter what the weather is, and no matter what we are doing.

But I also used to take caffeine pills. I did this everyday also, for years. I did this as young as Jr High. Most of the reason I did it was because they were appetite suppressants. Diet pills. Then I slowly moved to Ephedra, ( which also did the same things for me, gave me energy, and no appetite) and as the years passed, and my circumstances have changed, I slowly changed my addiction to opiates, but that is a whole different thread. I am just saying, these addictions can flourish into other things, at least for me this was the case.

So anyway, I am glad you are here. It is a good thing to get some help for this addiction. I hope you keep coming back and posting. There are alot of wonderful people here.

Prayers,,
Becky

caffeineaddict

thanks Becky

last time I quit cold turkey, it was 5 days of misery, which I glady accepted as punishment for being addicted in the first place, and then it got easier and easier. the withdrawals were hard at first but they went away after the 5 days, but the cravings were the worst, they took about 2 or 3 weeks before the bombardment stopped, then after that it was just at random.

to overcome this, I drank gobs and gobs of Country Time Lemondade, but it was caffeine free, and a lot healthier for me, and i did really good for a while.

the sugar isn't what I worry about, it's just the caffeine and the acid in the drinks...phosphoric acid which is regularly found in most caffeinated and non-caffeinated soft drinks, is the contributing factor in eating up the stomach lining, the esophagus, eating away at the lining of the throat (which means your throat always feel raw and sore, and it's hard to swallow - which I have this problem, not badly but if I dont stop it will get worse).

angelgirl

Yeah,, I like this too.. There are other lemonades that are good to on the market.
My husband got me started drinking them, and I have a 12 pak in the house, I do drink a few cans, but yet opt for that darn daily D. coke, from Md ds. Now that I read what you have written about what the acids do, well that just gives me another reason to stop drinking those cokes. I always knew they were harsh, my dad uses coke down his drain on a regular basis to keep the pipes from blocking up. I know what the stuff can do, yet I don't seem to want to understand what it can do to my esophagus, or stomach lining.
Thanks for making me think tonight. I needed this thread. lol, you came here for support, and ended up helping me. See how this works, we all help eachother. That's what it's about.

Keep coming back. There have been other threads here on SR about caffeine. You could do a search if you wanted, go to the top of the screen, and there is a search spot, type
in caffeine, and see what comes up. You may get some of those old threads, I know they are out there, I have participated in at least one really good long thread, all about caffeine withdrawal.

Have a great night..
Becky

windysan

i'm in louisiana. if i quit caffeine i would be accused of being a communist.

ccgirl2

Check out Barto's thread. He's had a lot of trouble with caffeine.

caffeineaddict

it's not that you dont seem to want to understand, it's just our nature to want to think "Oh it will always happen to someone else, but not me, I'm invincible"...and as much as I hate to admit it, I thought that soft drinks would not effect my body, but they do.

the effects of caffeine on the central nervous system are unbelivable, they cause permanent shaking, insomnia, nervousness, damage to the pancreas, damage to your kidney and liver because it has to work harder to excrete all that sugar out through the urinary tract, caffeinated beverages rob your body of precious calcium deposits, which get kicked out through the urinary tract, you can get osteoporosis (weakening of the bones) this way, which makes broken bones take longer to heal, you can get Type 2 Diabetes, because of too much sugar in the blood stream, and the list goes on and on.

Anyhow, here's my update. The first part of Day 1 (Jan 2) went fairly well, i made until about 7 pm on Day, then the cold sweat started, the shakes, the withdrawals and cravings started, a monster headache appeared, so I with dinner I took some ibuprofen, and drank a nice glass of ice water...i felt like crap much of day 2 (Jan 3) until I ate dinner, and again took an ibuprofen about 7:30 pm. Felt good since then, and woke up this morning feeling pretty good. i can't believe how hungry I am all the time, now that I'm not filling up on 6-8 cans of soda a day. I think I'm through the worst of it, cause I'm feeling a little better each day, even though I do have a few tough moments. I find if I stay busy, then i don't even think about it at all, and it keeps my mind off of it.

To make it easier my mom is going through the same thing, so we're making ourselves accountable to each other and providing each other support, she's had 1 can since the 2nd of Jan, but I have had zero.

asylum2099

I have been drinking more coffee too,but I need to cut back, both my parents are caffeine sensitive and I get anxiety from it, it's just soo good when im so tired.

StayinAlive

Wow i didn't know caffeine could be such a problem. Are you slowly cutting back on coffee and the sugar or going cold turkey. Is it like an alcoholic were once you start you cant stop? I love coffee but only have one a day as i am sensitive to it as well, gives me anxiety. Isn't lemonade acidic too, lots of sugar as well.

justanothrdrunk

I've gotten off the caffeine many times. But every time I go back to rehab, somehow, I get hooked again (funny how that happens). My formula has always been the same and it has worked for me. I'm a coffee drinker so I don't know if this would work with soda or not (have to be a chemist maybe). Basically, I just ween myself off.
I start off making pots of coffee with 3/4 regular and 1/4 decaf grounds. Do this for a few days. Then it's 1/2 decaf... then it's 3/4 decaf... 7/8 decaf...

Basically, every few days I cut the regular ground amount in half. After a couple weeks I'm off the stuff. I keep the volume of liquid the same until it's all decaf, then I reduce the volume (easy because decaf tastes like garbage). No problems with headaches or anything.