Oh, this is SO embarrassing

[major_clanger]

Well, as if back pain wasn't enough, I started to feel really rather unwell around about lunchtime. When I got up for a bath, I was hit by a nasty set of symptoms: aching limbs, cold sweats, a headache and nausea. It felt like a mild version of the description of drug withdrawal, except I'm as clean as a whistle in that respect.

Only... hang on, when did I last have a cup of coffee? Must have been, what, thirty hours ago? Lying in bed is not conducive to quaffing hot drinks, after all.

I forced down a large glass of sugar-loaded warm orange squash and a strong coffee. After about twenty minutes, the nausea and aching (well, other than my lower back) had passed.

Oh My God. I really am a caffeine addict.

Add to list of New Year Resolutions:
- actually do more exercise
- actually lose some weight
- cut down on the coffee!

Comments

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I didn't have it that bad, but I spotted caffeine withdrawl at weekends when I was in Oxford, and gave up.

So you're going to be having some cold with that turkey over the Christmas period?

[ramtops.livejournal.com]

when perlmonger gave up coffee, he said it was worse than giving up cigarettes ...

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

I was able to give up cigarettes, but coffee I will just have to stay addicted to. Every time I have tried to give it up I have had the migraine from hell, with the last one lasting for two weeks. It was so bad that Tim asked me to please drink a cup of real coffee (I had been drinking decaf). The headache went away instantly. I am a caffeine addict, and at this point I have no desire to be in recovery.

[eleyan.livejournal.com]

Two weeks!! Ohmyghod. Well, of all the things to be addicted to, I suppose coffee isn't one of the worst, surely? My intake has been creeping up. But I can cut it back to just the one mug in the morning, and be ok. At least, I have before. But I do get a headache if I give it up altogether too.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

G says that you're probably acclimated, not addicted - that will still give physiological effects. G's peak caffiene consumption was e.g. an entire 12 cup caffitiere at a sitting, or two litres of Coke. But a break of several days in tea (let alone coffee) consumption no longer affects G - the method used was to ramp down consumption gradually over at least 2 weeks. D recommends also using tea as a substitute.

[mkillingworth.livejournal.com]

All I need is two stress-free weeks to try his theory out on. I don't see that happening in the near future. My colleagues are absolutely amazed at the fact that I sit down at my desk with a one litre insulated mug of coffee in the morning, and I'm up for refills less than two hours later. And it has never actually kept me from sleeping. I started drinking coffee when I was ten.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Forgot to mention that G is a migrane sufferer, but noticed no particular effects from cutting back on caffiene - I think G's had fewer attack since, myself.

G expanded on the method by adding: have the same volume of coffee, but gradually make it marginally weaker - or, replace the last mug of the day with tea for a week, then the second two last mugs with tea the next week ... Sounds like the successful approach was actually much slower than I originally indicated, extremely gradual but persistent, in fact.

[maviscruet.livejournal.com]

I was a cola addict. I mean serious full on. I could drink 4 litres of coke and go to sleep without any problems. Hell - I was totally unable to sleep unless I was drinking coke.

Gave it up - lost three days of my life through withdrawl symptoms. nasty nasty stuff.

I still look at coke bottles and think - "oh come on - how bad could it actually be...."

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Myself, I have a button that says, "Death before de-caf." I don't cheat on my husband, smoke, do street drugs. I drink very little alcohol except on special occasions. I deserve a vice and caffeine is it. Mileage varies I guess.

MKK

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

'a vice'?

I thought yours was 'being cute'?

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Awww! Aren't you sweet!

MKK

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

I was never a massive coffee drinker (always more of a tea person) but did get to a stage where a 24 hour break from coffee would automatically give me blinding migraines. I mentioned this to my doctor who said, in a tribute to Tommy Cooper, "You should make sure you don't go for 24 hours without coffee then", adding that yes I was probably addicted, but absent other problems that was no reason to give up. It may sound somewhat House-like, but addiction to something cheap, legal and readily available is not of itself a problem, unless your intake is so high that it threatens your health (4 litres of cola a day was probably much more sugar or aspartame than was good for Mavis for example).
In the end I went cold turkey when I got pregnant and experienced no withdrawal symptoms (in fact I became nauseous from the smell when I walked past Starbucks, but a lot of real coffee lovers have that problem too), but this is perhaps an extreme solution, especially for men.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

The fast for Yom Kippur involves 25 hours of neither food nor liquid intake. For decades, lots of people had headaches and just assumed they were from the fasting. However, a few years ago people started recommending to those who drink a lot of caffeine during the year to gradually cut back in the week before the fast. Once this advice started to spread around, a lot of people's headaches either didn't occur at all or were reduced in intensity.

One of my efforts as a newlywed is to try to get Stephen to cut back on his 3-4 litres a day Coke habit.