I've been a caffeine junky much of my life. My parents supplied us cola products when we were children. In high school, I drank Dollar Store cola. By age 16, I switched to diet soda and got lean. At 18, I started experimenting with coffee. The joy of coffee at a young age is the novelty of treating it like a powerful drug. At this age, it was. I still remember sharing an extra large dunkin donuts coffee with a friend and walking about geeked up on caffeine.
I've always loved the intoxicating effects of caffeine. This is up until two weeks ago when I started supplementing magnesium citrate which I wrote about here. My mind has never been this calm. With this newfound calmness of mind, my desires of the stimulating effects of caffeine are now gone. In fact, I admit I've only been drinking coffee in an effort to stave off the withdrawal of caffeine. That's quite remarkable if you ask me: For a lifetime caffeine addict to suddenly lose interest in his favorite drug thanks to magnesium.
Thursday April 11, 2024Much of this week, I had been limiting myself to one large Iced coffee from Starbucks. That is down from two large iced coffees from the weeks prior. Before that, I was a Cold Brew drinker. However, I had to stop drinking cold brew because if you drink enough, it can cause a coffee-induced delerium, which I like to refer to as Cold Brew Psychosis.
Simply switching from Cold Brew to Iced Coffee was enough to start feeling better.
Friday April 12, 2024My decision to start weening off came about when I realized I no longer wanted the jittery effects of caffeine. I romanticized being a normal functioning person with a calm demeanor. However, I'd quit caffeine cold turkey before so I wasn't looking forward to any of the symptoms of withdrawal. After all, I still have responsibilities.
Opposite to that idea, I also didn't want to stretch out the weening process by some ridiculous amount of time as people often do - as the very nature of balance and managing one's consumption of an addictive substance is torture. So I opted to ween off fast.
I purchased regular and decaf instant coffee and mixed them together to make a few cups of my morning coffee. Compared to the Iced Coffee I'd been buying from Starbucks, this felt like decaf. However, it had just enough caffeine to prevent the headaches. I was noticably more tired throughout the day and slept much better.
Saturday April 13, 2024Withdrawing from caffeine was not an option on this day as I had a big family dinner to host. I had my half-caffeinated instant coffee which left me tired. Around noon, I had a medium-sized iced coffee from Starbucks. This was a suitable amount of caffeine to prevent all withdrawal effects. I explained to my wife that this would be the last regular coffee I'd drink and would thereafter be switching to decaf.
The dinner party went very well. No symptoms of withdrawal were evident. I explained to a friend of the family what I was doing and convinced them to supplement magnesium.
Sunday April 14, 2024It was a sunny morning. The dinner party was a success. I was finally free to start my decaf journey. It was a bright and sunny morning and finally warm enough to sit outside. I drove to the Starbucks on the crappy side of town because they have a nice patio. I sat in the morning sun for over an hour while sipping two small cups of decaf drip coffee.
By noon, my head was pounding. I was obviously withdrawing. Fortunately, I have some 50mg caffeine pills in my cupboard from the previous time I had tried to quit. I took the caffeine pill and, while I was exhausted throughout much of the day, the painful symptoms of withdrawal went away.
I should note that by this time, my sleep was starting to feel deeper.
Monday April 15, 2024It was my wife's birthday. I was fortunate as we were both on the same page: Wanting little more than to relax on our time off. We spent the afternoon reading outside of a Starbucks in a nice town. It was such a relaxing experience as we spent several hours sitting outside in the sun. She sat in the shade but, having spent all winter missing the sun, I went out of my way to soak up as much sunshine as I could.
I drank two cups of decaf drip coffee. Roughly an hour later, I began to feel the intoxicating effects of the small amounts of caffeine present in the decaf coffee. I felt great. Despite the elevated mood from the drug, I still felt very calm.
How amazing that such a tiny amount of caffeine could have such a wonderful role in lifting my spirits. My wife was impressed that me, a caffeine junky, managed to sustain himself off little more than two small cups of decaf coffee. This is it, I thought: I'm finally done being a slave to caffeine.
Tueday April 16, 2024Today sucked. It was my last day off from work but I still had to tend to my business. I was busy all morning. All I had was a large decaf dark roast from Starbucks which seemed to have no effect on me. The entire day I've felt detached from everything. It felt like I was sleep-deprived. The good news is: I suspect this to be the worst of it.
I no longer crave coffee. Decaf tastes gross. It's funny how my cravings for chocolate have suddenly returned, which would make sense considering it contains caffeine.
Wednesday April 17, 2024It was a long day at work. I survived on Zevia diet sodas. 50mg caffeine each.
Thursday April 18, 2024Another long day sustaining myself on stevia-sweetened cola. No coffee.
Sunday April 21, 2024Two large cups of decaf coffee. Very tired. Went to bed with headache.
Monday April 22, 2024More decaf coffee. Symptoms of withdrawal are consuming me. Life is joyless. What's the point? At least I've weened down a huge amount. Not sure how much longer this withdrawal will last. It's not cold turkey but it still sucks. The stevia sweetener made me a fiend for carbohydrates. I will never drink sweeteners again. Not even stevia.
Then for a long time, I was on and off. Constantly relapsing.
Tuesday June 4, 2024By this time, I had stopped drinking coffee and was only consuming caffeine pills. I was down to a single 200mg caffeine pill each morning. But on Tuesday June 4, 2024: I decided not to have any caffeine at all.
I had a very long day ahead of me, so this may have been a mistake. But I figured peak withdrawal doesn't take place until after 48 hours or so. Somehow, I managed to get through this day just fine although tired.
Tuesday June 18, 2024I've now been completely off caffeine for two weeks. This is a dang miracle.
I noticed the debilitating symptoms of withdrawal which I'd always felt before during previous attempts to quit caffeine were gone. My withdrawal was incredibly mild and I would attribute this to my extensive supplementation routine. I have a theory that it was the magnesium citrate that helped most.
I'm mostly normal and calm. However, I am still waiting for the energy and passion to return. Whatever happened to being excited about the future? Or is that actually an effect of the caffeine? Guess we'll have to wait and see.
Until next time.