Cutting out caffiene... Thoughts

[laurandisorder]

Hey lovely ladies and lads,

I have a bit of a dilemma. I'm a caffeine addict and after revealing my intake to my doctor he believes that I am basically setting myself up for anxiety attacks due to my caffeine habit (large shop bought coffee for breakfast, copious diet cokes through the day).

I tried to go cold turkey on Friday and it almost killed me! I had a massive headache by noon and relented and chugged back two diet cokes in the afternoon and bought a large coffee on the way home.

I'm trying to take a different route now. Getting regulars instead of talls, interchanging coffee with tea and cutting down slowly.

Has anyone else found cutting out caffeine beneficial? I'm on Valium (5mg) in the mornings and apparently the caffeine will override any benefits of the benzo. I'd really like to hear of others experiences.

Thanks
xxx

[ladywillow]

I think a lot of people on this board have cut out caffeine. I know I have. It sucked! I used to drink about 2 or 3 pots of coffee a day. I quit cold turkey and I'm not gonna lie - it was not a wonderful experience.

I highly recommend that when you get a coffee get 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf. It will give you a little bit of caffeine, but not the full amount.

I agree with your doctor that you are setting yourself up for more anxiety attacks. Once I quit the caffeine I realized it made a very noticeable reduction in my anxiety.

Hope this helps!

[Chiliphil1]

Yep, definitely noticed a difference by cutting out caffeine. I used to drink 10 cokes a day, energy drinks all the time, but when this all started I switch to caffeine free sodas, almost completely stopped the energy drinks, and I noticed a difference. My body is much happier now! I drink almost exclusively water these days. As far as coming off of it, like the poster said above go slowly, treat it the same way as waining off of any other addiction. Also treat it as an addiction, because in truth that's what it is, so just come off slowly and you should see benefits over side effects.

[anxiousmess]

i really don't know how to get myself out of this caffeine thing.
i have been drinking tea and tea only (pop every now and then), for 10 years. during those 10 years, it has been literally, 1 cup after the other. before i've even finished one cup, the kettle is on ready for my next. i'm agoraphobic - so as you can imagine, i have ALOT of cuppas!

it's to the point now, where im drinking it simply to avoid the effects of not having one.
4 hours the other day i went without one. my head started twinging with a little bit of pain. my partner went to get me a cuppa from the cuppa machine (we were at the hospital), only it was too late! even with that cuppa - my head got worse and worse and worse. got home, boiled the kettle for another cuppa ...excruciating pain by this point - along with vomiting! it took about 2-3 hours for my head to calm down again!

it's quite frustrating actually. im too scared to stop drinking it lol. i don't like change, and i certainly don't like the effects of not having it!

[ez86]

I would be scared to stop drinking if I was you too!!! Luckily, I have never been at that level with caffeine. I'm wondering if you could slowly taper yourself off of it, as you would a medication?

Lets say you have 12 cups of tea a day. Take a week or two of only allowing 10 a day and then slowly go from there? You could replace the lost cups with decaf tea so that you are still doing the same action and the change is minimized. Maybe you have already tried this, but I figure it doesn't hurt to toss it out there!

I drink a lot of tea during the day as well, though not at the same level as you. I have been switching over to decaf recently in hopes that it will lighten my anxiety a bit.

[laurandisorder]

Today I cut down to a regular sized coffee and one can of soft drink. Still had some symptoms, but feel a lot better than I have been lately.

I am starting to wonder if my morning jitters are exclusively caffeine induced. Particularly as I don't eat breakfast (the coffee IS my breakfast).

Next week I'll be cutting down to smalls. I'm already saving about 3 dollars a day!!

How bad is tea in comparison to coffee for caffeine levels? My dr recommended that I switch to tea.

[laurandisorder]

Just an update.

This last week, I have been having one regular coffee and one caffeinated soft drink a day - a huge cut down. A used to drink 500 or 700ml coffee and at least a liter of diet coke per day!

Now I actually notice the effect of the caffeine and boy, people must have thought I was a speed freak or on hard core stimulants before!!

I have noticed a tangible difference in my jitters - especially in the morning. I feel a LOT better!

I'm drinking a lot more tea and having a lot more water too. This has helped a lot.

[jeremyfresno]

caffeine and alcohol are a big NO NO for anxiety!!

I drank more alcohol then caffeine or coffee but still had to adjust to not drinking any of that....Its definitely better to cut down slowly but if you can do it cold turkey then even better...but just slowly try not to intake caffeine and it will help with your anxiety a lot.... basically no stimulants cause that makes your anxiety sky rocket...

hang in there and try drinking some tea....or at least soda like sprite that has no caffeine