Caffeine withdrawal

[Dan Druff]

Hello degenerates.

Have any of you attempted to quit caffeine cold turkey?

I did this a few weeks ago because of my LPR (silent reflux) symptoms. Caffeinated beverages, especially soda, are notoriously bad for reflux.

I have had all kinds of problematic physical and mental issues since the LPR started, but these other problems began about 5 days after the LPR came, and very soon after I quit caffeine cold turkey.

I've been dealing with this stuff for about 3 weeks.

The internet sites I've read claim caffeine withdrawal lasts only 2-14 days, but others have posted comments that theirs lasted for months.

I have been consuming large amounts of caffeine daily since the '90s, and zero caffeine over the past few weeks.

If you have had caffeine withdrawal, please tell me your experiences, and how long it lasted.

No trolling the thread, please. I'm trying to look at everything from all angles to figure out what's been happening to me this past month.

(To be clear, I'm not saying the caffeine withdrawal caused the LPR, because the LPR came before I quit the caffeine.)

[simpdog]

I removed it slowly. Started with 2 cans per day then down to 1 then none at alll.

I still enjoy the odd pop when I’m out but do not keep it in my house.

I definitely had withdrawal for a couple weeks but after that I didn’t notice any symptoms at all.

[monsterj]

Mine took about a week to 10 days. Terrible headaches and muscle aches were the biggest symptoms that I experienced. Much more intense headaches than a hangover.

[Baron Von Strucker]

use to only drink black tea during the week no sugar or milk and have some coffee on the weekend milk and sugar. now i have cut out the tea and only have one or two coffees on the weekend never felt any withdrawals when i made these changes. i also only drink water during the week no soda or juice.
good luck

[Daly]

Why would You?

[BeerAndPoker]

Take a caffeine pill or 5 hour energy that isn't carbonated but little by little cut back is your play until you can get rid of caffeine completely.

Your other option is to just fight through it which can be difficult. Perhaps an over the counter pain pill from time to time to fix your headache. You can try putting a warm washcloth or cold one if you rather go that route on your head for 10 minutes ever few hours and see if it works as it does for some people.

I've never been addicted even when I was an active 17 year old drinking over a 2 liter of mountain dew a day but plenty of people get these symptoms for sure.

[sonatine]

I never drink soda for all intents but I do quaff a pint of tar-thick coffee every morning and I can say from prior experiences that I get headaches with a side of utter despair if I go without and they dont let up for like, 7-10 days.

[Dan Druff]

FYI I'm not asking for advice how to cut caffeine.

That was done 3 weeks ago.

I'm having a lot of mental/physical problems which I attributed to side effects of this LPR issue. However, I recently thought about the fact that I cut a 200mg/day decades-long caffeine habit cold turkey, and realized that might be at the root of these newer problems. If that's the case, I'm going to get back on the caffeine and then maybe see about tapering off of it slowly. But I am just asking about everyone's experiences here, especially for anyone who quit cold turkey at some point.

TY for responses so far.

[Sloppy Joe]

I quit coffee (2-3 cups/day black) cold turkey for two months after I went to doc for anxiety and had a high BP reading.

Thought it was easy for a couple of days, and then had flu-like symptoms for 3 days or so after. Once that passed, just felt a bit of lethargy in AM for 2 additional qeeks

[abrown83]

I have quit a bunch of times.

What I have found is drinking a crap ton of water and going on walks or jogs helps significantly.

If I drink a gallon plus of water per day my headaches are minimal. If not, it’s straight death.

[Texter]

Every once in awhile some dimwit will put decaf in the regular coffee slot at work...tired...terrible headaches

It sucks.

[chinamaniac]

I assume the withdrawal symptoms are different for everyone which could range from nothing to very long.

In your situation, you cut out the pepsis I assume for the removal of sugar and dead calories to lose weight.

But couldn't you just find a diet soda with caffeine you like and drink a few of those and see if your situation improves?

[SetofKs]

Jesus christ. Not reading thread, but you ween off the shit.get caffeine pills, chop em, and every 3rd day you reduce yer daily intake by 50 milligrams. It aint hard. If you quit cold turkey yer withdrawals will be the worst thing in yer life.

[SetofKs]

And as a meth guy i'll tell you that caffeine withdrawal is worse than meth withdrawal if you quit cold turkey

[MumblesBadly]

There have been periods when I have cut way back on caffeine and felt a tiny bit tired for a few days, but I didn’t have a low double-digit-coffees-per-day habit like some people I’ve known who also complained of severe headaches when going cold turkey.

[Dan Druff]

And as a meth guy i'll tell you that caffeine withdrawal is worse than meth withdrawal if you quit cold turkey

I love the way you put things sometimes. Big SetofKs fan.


Anyway, to everyone here... my post might have been a bit confusing, so let me clarify.

I already quit a decades-long caffeine habit cold turkey. I did this 3 weeks ago, shortly after my LPR symptoms showed up. I still have not beaten the LPR, though I can sometimes moderate its symptoms with a dry-mouth rinse (which oddly isn't intended to do this).

Right after quitting the caffeine, I came down with a series of crippling mental and physical problems which basically made my life hell. The last 4 weeks (the week of LPR symptoms and the subsequent 3 weeks of LPR symptoms AND the new mental/physical issues) have been the worst of my life by a wide margin. I would take my worst poker losing streak over this in a heartbeat.

Tried Xanax once, it gave me brief relief (as Xanax is known to do), then wore off after 3.5 hours and I was back to the same crap. Then I had a hangover the next day. Haven't done another since.

Anyway, all this time I assumed that the LPR fucked with my head in some way (perhaps due to the repeated sensation of having a hard time breathing while lying down), and that gave rise to the other problems.

The other problems have been so fucked up that it caused me to (unintentionally) lose 23 pounds in 3 weeks -- a staggering sum to lose in such a short time when you're not morbidly obese.

Then today I came to a realization: I was completely ignoring the fact that I cold-turkyed the caffeine 3 weeks ago. Went from 200mg/day to zero. And that's hardly trivial after decades of regular use.

So I looked up caffeine withdrawal on the internet, and unfortunately it's been poorly studied (which I feel is a mistake, given the staggeringly high caffeine consumption in this world). There has been scant research on it, but from what I can tell, it has been acknowledged that long-term caffeine use can markedly change your brain chemsitry, and cold-turkey quitting can send it into all kinds of fucked up directions.

My new theory is that I fucked myself by quitting caffeine so abruptly, which I did in an attempt to solve the LPR problem, without considering that I might bring on horrible new problems.

Anyway, I read that your brain pretty much normalizes itself when it gets the caffeine it wants again, so I went out and bought caffeine pills. Took 100mg at about 6:15pm. At first I felt kind of a weird jolt to my body, but then that subsided, and then I started feeling better. Right now I feel notably better than other nights during this 4-week nightmare, so that's a good start. Could be placebo effect, but I'm somewhat encouraged. The "caffeine high" should have worn off by now (4.5 hours later), so my better state couldn't be attributable to that. Will be interesting to see how I sleep tonight, though I still might have issues there, since the LPR problem still remains.

Anyway, I plan to keep taking the 100mg caffeine and seeing if I get continued improvement. If that really fixes it, after awhile I will try slowly tapering it off.

I still need to solve the LPR, but I am taking a test to determine whether it's reflux or something else (not 100% accurate, but may shed some light), and maybe I can get a handle on that problem, as well.

But I really hope I made a breakthrough here, as it was looking very hopeless.

[DirtyErnie]

Yes, I quit cold turkey when I was going thru GERD nonsense. When the headaches(caffeine withdrawals) started, I would take a hit of the weeds and the headache would get knocked down. Took a good week for the mid afternoon headaches to not creep up. When I quit caffeine, my GERD and esophageal probs went away. Caffeine is a helluva drug.

[SetofKs]

I had no idea you could get health problems from caffeine. Mind is boggled. I've been using super hard uppers for a long time and doctors always tell me i'm perfectly healthy at physicals. I don't have any answers, just had no idea this could happen.

[Dan Druff]

I had no idea you could get health problems from caffeine. Mind is boggled. I've been using super hard uppers for a long time and doctors always tell me i'm perfectly healthy at physicals. I don't have any answers, just had no idea this could happen.

Yes, caffeine can fuck some people up.

I don't think it fucked me up. I was fine on it for 30 years. No problems sleeping. I could down a big Pepsi and then go right to sleep, no problem. No anxiety issues, no jitters, nothing like that.

I do think my brain got used to it, and freaked out when I took it away.

Caffeine may or may not have contributed to my LPR, but I think it's more likely that my massive dinners and high-acid meals were probably more likely the culprit.

I'm just hoping that the caffeine withdrawals are indeed what's responsible for my latest problems, and that I can reverse them by just going back on it.

[thesparten]

I tried to cut down on caffeine once. I too am a heavy coffee and redbull and 5 hour energy drinker..

All I did was sleep all day . Wake up have a migraine take some pain pills and go back too sleep..

IT SUCKED...