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Caffeine. What does it really mean to you? For me I didn't really think it played a huge role in my everyday life until recently. I drank sodas like Mt. Dew without thinking twice about it. What I really didn't think about how is how caffeine is actually a drug and it has the ability to effect you.
Why I'm taking myself off it:
The past few weeks have been sort of hellish for me in a way. There has been the stress of school combined with the fact that I've really not been sleeping well at all. When I say I haven't been sleeping well I mean over a whole week I would average about 25-35 hours a sleep with comes to average about 4-5 hours of sleep a day. I think everyone can appreciate that this is just a terrible thing for someone to try and live off of never mind going through some extremely tough classes.
I believe that this problem sleeping can be contributed to two things specifically. Those two things are:
the college dorm environment and the copious amounts of soda that I was drinking every day. By copious amounts I mean I was drinking over a liter and a half of soda per day. While the type of soda would change all of it would be caffeinated soda. I didn't really realize how bad it was and how much it could effect you until recently and when it hit me I instantly knew what I had to do. I had to cut myself off and that's what I've done.
So far I've been caffeine free for: 5 days
Now I'm off on break and I think this is one of my biggest danger points in going back to caffeine is because I have really nothing to do except relax and do things that involve starcraft and at home I have readily available access to soda almost always. I'm leaving for home later today and I'm hoping I don't give in to any urges over my break and I will be sure to try as hard as I can to stop myself.
Cheers!
Locust
  
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Zurich15305 Posts
I applaud you cutting the soda, which can only 100% be good for you. But that has little to do with caffeine, and everything with the insane amount of sugar you were pumping through your body.
You can have a good amount of caffeine every day and still sleep like a baby if you eat and live healthy generally.
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I've quit caffeine multiple times. The first few days are really the tough part. After a week or two, you'll feel normal. The key to getting over the hump is drinking lots of water. Over-hydrate yourself, not enough to be dangerous, but enough that you don't want to comsume any more liquid of any kind.
The stumbling block for me has always been when I go out to eat. If I go to dinner, I'll ususally get a beer or something. But if I meet friends for lunch or something (or I otherwise don't want to consume alcohol), I usually feel like a Coke. If you let yourself slip a couple times, it can become a habit again.
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Seriously?
I tend to drink like 1L of (strong) coffee a day when i'm at work and absolutely none when i'm at home or on holydays.
0 withdrawal symptomes...
You guys really get withdrawal when you stop that?
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You're blaming the wrong things. You should be blaming the ridiculous amount of soda you were consuming which is extremely high in sugar. Caffeine (1~2) cups of coffee is actually beneficial for your motor abilities and cognitive skills. Please do not be misinformed.
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On March 02 2012 19:19 Velr wrote:
Seriously?
I tend to drink like 1L of (strong) coffee a day when i'm at work and absolutely none when i'm at home or on holydays.
0 withdrawal symptomes...
You guys really get withdrawal when you stop that?
Only about half of people experience caffeine withdrawal, guess you're on the other side of a coin flip. Such a special snowflake.
I drink pepsi max all the time and that'll probably all i ever have for caffeine intake cause i fucking hate hot drinks. Good job on controlling that stuff though
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i dont know about coffee, but im addicted to starbucks hot chocolate.
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On March 02 2012 19:19 Velr wrote:
Seriously?
I tend to drink like 1L of (strong) coffee a day when i'm at work and absolutely none when i'm at home or on holydays.
0 withdrawal symptomes...
You guys really get withdrawal when you stop that?
It depends really. I've quit for months on end with essentially no withdrawl symptioms. Sometimes I just get a headache or two in the following days. The most recent time I quit I felt thirsty all the time for a good week. Water wouldn't quench it, but something caffinated would. That's about it, and I usually have pretty vivid dreams after quitting.
Some people have trouble. Some don't. I think it's more complicated than just how much caffeine you consume. If you're used to doing it on specific days of the week and specific times of day, your body probably isn't expecting it.
Really there's no reason to quit unless it's negatively effecting you in some way. Calling it a "drug" is technically accurate, but it makes it sound more serious than it is. Unless caffeine is somehow causing you to be unhealthy (drink lots of soda or lose serious amounts of sleep), or if you have some underlying medical condition or medication that makes it a bad idea, it's probably fine.
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On March 02 2012 19:19 Velr wrote:
Seriously?
I tend to drink like 1L of (strong) coffee a day when i'm at work and absolutely none when i'm at home or on holydays.
0 withdrawal symptomes...
You guys really get withdrawal when you stop that?
I've actually not had any withdrawl like symptoms since i've stopped
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On March 02 2012 19:19 Velr wrote:
Seriously?
I tend to drink like 1L of (strong) coffee a day when i'm at work and absolutely none when i'm at home or on holydays.
0 withdrawal symptomes...
You guys really get withdrawal when you stop that?
If I do not have at least 2 cups of coffee worth of Caffeine every day I experience withdrawl symptoms. I've had severe caffeine headaches form within a day of being deprived from caffeine.
Withdrawls are real and they suck.
I applaud the OP for his commitment, were I to try and follow his example it would be a very difficult thing indeed.
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United States24483 Posts
1 can of soda has enough sugar for your whole day. The caffeine is probably the least of it.
I cut down my soda consumption as well.
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I don't drink soda, but do drink insane amounts of caffeine daily, have no problems at all sleeping. The only bad thing caffeine has ever done to me on the short run was make me answer " I really like coffee" when an interviewer asked what i liked LOL.
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I've made the mistake of drinking acidic drinks before going to the gym for a year or two (coffeine+creatine+other stuff). It's really shit for your teeth and the acid from sodas erodes the teeth enamel which you won't be able to fix later without putting on fake crowns and such.
The acid is just as bad or worse than the actual sugar in soft drinks.
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Self-diagnosing is generally stupid.
You don't need soda. a liter and a half a day is fucking awful for you.
It isn't because of the caffeine in it.
While there may be a correlation, it's more likely stress and everything else fucking you up than pop.
Some caffeine is fine.
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Estonia4644 Posts
hmmm
maybe i should cut my soda consumption as well D:
looking at the label, i apparently get 184.2% of my daily reccomended dose of sugar from soda O____O
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I drink 3 cups of coffee a day (black without sugar) and never experience any withdrawal syndroms. I would suspect it`s more about the sugar. Also take care to drink enough pure water.
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Good job, I've been getting more aware of the effects of caffeine lately as well.
I'm not going to try stop drinking it since I can't be bothered to leave my bed when there's no promise of a snug mug of coffee. I'm mostly monitoring my Dr Pepper intake and at what times I drink caffeine (not too close to estimated time of sleep) and I just drink a lot of water throughout the day. It's healthy to stop either way though, so I hope you can destress a bit.
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Wait caffeine or sugar? Soda's problem is definitely sugar not caffeine, i mean besides water a liter and a half of anything a day is not good for you.
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Unless you are drinking 12 cans a day I don't think the caffeine is so much a problem. (And I do know someone who drank that many Mt. Dew's a day and when she quit she went through crazy withdrawal, probably from the caffeine AND adjusting to a huge swing in sugar intake.)
I can't stand the taste of soda anyway, and it makes me sick to my stomach. Cup of coffee ftw. 
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In my country the coffee is normally served in what you would call 'expresso'. Very few places serve Starbucks style coffees. And I used to drink one per day. But i would do that just socially, because my friends would drink during a break ( usually after a meal) and I would join them. After a while I started to get some headaches. Just out of thin air. I didn't see any reason to have them. I started to make some math and realised that those headaches only happened in the day after my last coffee. So if would drink a coffee today but not tomorrow, tomorrow I would get a headache. But just in that day. The following days if I didn't drink coffee I would be alright.
So I quited coffee. Because coffee was a recreational drink but if I didn't drink one day I knew that I would get headaches. That makes me see that there was two options: drink coffee everyday and never have problems or never drink coffee and also never have problems. I chose the later. I didn't want to drink coffee everyday. So the logical step was to stop.
I never had problems in my life before, without caffeine. Nowadays I have no problems without caffeine. I do everything I want, when I want adn how i want. And I don't miss caffeine in the slightest.
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EPT
