Quitting caffeine - info/questions (diet, quit, antidepressant, jittery)

[Isle_Gal]

So I went to the dr. this morning with the goal of getting a prescription for an antidepressant - for anxiety issues that have been troublesome lately. After a loooooong consultation, I was shocked to hear the dr. decline to give me a prescription b/c she was worried about my caffeine intake (4 or so cups o' coffee each morning, and around 6 Diet Cokes a day). Apparently caffeine toxicity symptoms parallel anxiety symptoms. Just thought I would share that b/c I never knew, but the symptoms are eerily similar!

So I agreed to quit caffeine (and cut back on my wine consumption - to 1 or 2 glasses per night rather than downing the whole a bottle) and see if it helps. I am worried about how I'm going to get thru the morning w/o coffee. I guess I will buy some decaf tea bags (enticing ) Has anyone else quit cold-turkey and was there anything that was helpful For that matter, did you FEEL better when you weren't a slave to caffeine?

[BCG8]

do you have to quit 100%? what about those 50% coffees?

[doglover29]

I never drank coffee but I did completely quit caffeine after reading that there is a link with breast tenderness in some women. Quitting caffeine helped tremendously with my very severe breast tenderness. I pretty much quit cold turkey. I was a huge cola drinker. I also ate a lot of chocolate. Now I don't drink any caffeinated drinks, and limit my chocolate consumption to just a tiny bit each month.

I never felt any effects of caffeine to begin with--no increased alertness, etc. and I didn't feel any effects after I quit.

However, now I notice that if I consume large amounts of chocolate I feel jittery. So I can't eat an entire piece of chocolate cake anymore otherwise I feel jittery.

[Suzet2262]

I had to stop caffeine cold turkey after years of drinking diet cokes. I do have a panic disorder for over 20 years, and caffeine is a huge trigger for us anxiety folk. When I stopped, I went through a few days of withdrawl. I had the norm, headaches and really pissy. Then that went away, and I have been fine. Once in awhile I will have a diet coke, and boy do I pay for it. Eatting a lot of chocolate will also make me jittery. So I only eat it once in awhile, which sucks as I truly love chocolate.

[Isle_Gal]

Thanks for the replies ... I am definitely feeling it today = headache/irritability/tired ... My husband took the kids to lunch so a couple hours of quiet should help.

I don't HAVE to go cold turkey, but I decided to try this all or nothing a) so I don't keep adding more and more and more caffeine back in and b) I'm curious if I will feel any different (assuming I can make it thru a few days of feeling terrible.) If this is something that helps me feel calmer, I'm all for it. I just need to find something else lo-cal (besides water) that can I like drinking instead ...

[BCG8]

when im tired of plain water, i add lime or lemon. i made iced tea this am, maybe try different varieties of decaf? also, when i feel tense, anxious, etc. i take calcium/magnesium, works to calm me down.

im not saying try CaMg now, but just something to keep in mind!

[molochai2580]

For years I was a Mountian Dew slave. I was to the point where I was drinking close to a case a day. I finally decided enough was enough and quit cold turkey. I went through such horrible withdrawl that my coworkers all chipped in to buy me some coffee (I work in a mall so no coffee pots available to make our own.) I find that instead of a case of Mountain Dew I only need about 3-4 coffees to last me all day. I also dropped about 5-10 lbs after I no longer drank all that sugar filled soda.

The nice thing is that the coffee shop in the mall gives free refills to mall employee's so I'm even spending less.

[Alice2]

I quit eating sugar recently and seem to have dropped about 5 lbs in a couple weeks, although I was kinda sick for part of that time where I couldn't eat for a few days. I do notice that since I don't eat the sugar I do not seem to get any more cravings for sugar.

As for caffeine, I suspect diet soft drinks have more of an oomph on a person's energy than just the caffeine alone. I am a little biased, though, as I've been drinking coffee all my life and don't seem to notice anything bad from it.

Quitting the diet drinks and the ingestion of the aspartame is a very big deal, I think more so than whether you quit the caffeine or not.

[fjtee]

Going cold turkey sucks. I had a headache for 2 weeks when I did it once. I didn't want to go cold turkey, but I just lost my taste for coffee and have never enjoyed tea. So, I quit and suffered for it. But, I couldn't even down mochas. Weird. Anyway, I would ease into it. Either do 50% decaf at first or just cut back to two cups of coffee. As for those diet sodas, well, they're poison, so I'd just nix those. Just my 2 cents. Hope you have a very speedy recovery!!!

[Canine*Castle]

Originally Posted by Alice2

Quitting the diet drinks and the ingestion of the aspartame is a very big deal, I think more so than whether you quit the caffeine or not.

Without a doubt, this is true. That aspartame is awful, even worse than refined sugar.