following on from the free beans thread..

who here has experience of going caffeine free..?
I’m not a huge coffee drinker but I do habitually drink gallons of tea, making a brew at every available opportunity throughout the day.. I’m like the walking dead until after a couple of brews in the morning, and get stinking headaches if I miss out..

someone mentioned more stable energy levels, which would be handy, but what about mood..?

when I gave up smoking I became far less irritable, and it would be ideal if stopping caffeine helped in this area too..

I’m off to put the kettle on while I wait for some replies..

Caffeine free would be like Oxygen free ..in my life 😆

All I can say is try it, I guess caffeine affects everyone differently and before I stopped drinking it I would’ve sworn blind it had no effect on me.
Two weeks in and I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my afternoon energy levels, I’d always come home from work feeling shattered and reach for the coffee, whereas now I’ve given it up I don’t *need* the coffee as a pick me up as I don’t feel like rubbish in the first place.

I did it!!
Was living on double shot americanos and every day around 2pm I would have an energy slump!
After a bit of google self diagnosis I decided to drop the caffeine…
Was a surprisingly difficult fortnight consisiting of headaches and days with little to no motivation or energy!
Anyway came through it and i must say it really has made a difference to me!!

I had terrible withdrawal symptoms when I gave it up. once though that felt much better.

No need to go cold turkey IMHO. A cup of coffee when I wake up and one when I get to work, followed by tea for the rest of the day. If I have a coffee after late afternoon I can’t get to sleep till midnight! Some caffeine in moderation is good for you I believe?

Caffeine free would be like Oxygen free ..in my life

+1 🙁 I don’t think I’ve gone a day without coffee since I started working shifts just over a year ago.

I stooped it completely, noticed no change so got back on it 🙂

Seeing people like above (no offence) always put me off drinking coffee or tea. Getting dependent on something just feels like a bad idea. Try eating an apple when you wake up, apparently it’s got something in it that wakes you up more than a couple of cups of coffee.

The headaches and such are withdrawal symptoms right? I imagine if you went cold turkey they’d eventually go away.

You’ll probably be OK because you drink tea.

I like coffee. I have 3-5 cups a day. I don’t drink it because it perks me up, I drink it because I think it’s nice. Afternoon slumps are normally down to eating carbs at lunch, so I avoid them.

I have given up caffeine once before. I the most god almighty headache for about a week. The sort that just Would. Not. Shift.

Caffeine, well known gateway drug.

Marks and Spencer do an acceptable de-caf tea, I’ve started drinking that in the second half of the day. (My mornings are non-stop coffee). And I can’t drink coke in the evening any more – can’t sleep afterwards.
Gratuitous Fall video:
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m982l0HIMcY[/video]

take care, i too started on decaf, because i started getting heartburn….. i drank both instant and espresso decaf, but still got heartburn 🙁 -so at the moment drinking hot water with lemon in, exiting! -but bonus, i go waster on the bike after my coffee rebab! 😆

I went caffeine free about a year ago.
I found I was drinking around 10+ cups of proper coffee per day, and couldn’t function without it.
I found the withdrawl difficult for the first couple of weeks- like giving up smoking, but with headaches.
Now I don’t miss it, and I wake up feeling alert rather than needing my caffeine fix just to feel normal.
Blood pressure is down and I think I’m less irritable too….

I drink coffee because I like it, not cos I need it. Gone for over a week with no coffee several times and never noticed any difference or suffered headaches but I just like the drink.

I never drink more than 3 cups a day though and it’s always proper coffee, not the instant rubbish.

On QI the other day they said caffeine doesn’t give you any boost, it is just regular caffeine drinkers need it to get to the same level as normal people.

I guess it takes a couple of weeks to adjust. I know I don’t function before my first coffee.

No need to go cold turkey IMHO. A cup of coffee when I wake up and one when I get to work, followed by tea for the rest of the day. If I have a coffee after late afternoon I can’t get to sleep till midnight! Some caffeine in moderation is good for you I believe?

That doesn’t sound like moderation to me!

Ditched caffeine in May. Cold turkey. Wasn’t a big coffee drinker (although that I did drink was as strong as I could get it) but did hammer the Pepsi Max.

Couple of days of headaches but was fine after that. Do find my energy during the day more ‘even’ and I sleep better these days.

Don’t miss it at all. Even got used to the taste of caffeine free diet coke after a few weeks.

Getting dependent on something just feels like a bad idea.

I’m pretty much dependent on food, oxygen, sleeping, riding a bike and tea. None of them are a bad idea.

Haven’t drunk tea or coffee for over 30 years (they taste skanky).

But I’m convinced the diet cola habit I had for 10 years has done me bo favours. Recent return to it, and the heart palpitations arrive within minutes.

Time to sack that shit off.

No experience of going caffeine free, but I have never drunk tea or coffee so does that count?

I will drink cola when I’m out and on the odd occasion at home if I get the craving. On the times I have used it in anger, driving for long periods, I’ve always had trouble sleeping afterwards.

+1 for the Marks and Sparks Decaff.

I went for a caffine free life but struggled in the mornings!! Have now compromised with normal tea or coffee in the mornings and decaff in the afternoons.

A small change really but have found a real benefit with my sleep patterns.

i drink caff free tea and coffee but not for medical reasons, i get high enough naturally as it is

no caffeine is the way to go.

We need to be more aware that caffeine causes/exacerbates anxiety and other mental health conditions.

Just read the 170+ pages of comments of people trying to get off caffeine here; http://coffeefaq.com/site/node/11
And the research referenced here; http://caffeineevaluation.blogspot.co.uk/

Many people feel they cannot ‘get going’ in the morning without caffeine; in reality they are just experiencing withdrawal from not having ingested any over the previous hours.

A key point is the research showing anxiety sufferers can be very sensitive to caffeine; some people think ‘it can’t be the caffeine, I only have 1 cup a day’, but for them that could be the key issue in their anxiety.

Withdrawal is not easy (especially first 2 weeks, when anxiety actually goes up), but is possible.

How about cutting all caffeine for 30 days and seeing how you feel? What’s to lose?

Stopped having it at DRs advice to stabilise my anxiety. Just drink caffeine free tea now, if I have a few ‘proper’ cups I get a headache.

ourmaninthenorth – Member
Haven’t drunk tea or coffee for over 30 years (they taste skanky).

But I’m convinced the diet cola habit I had for 10 years has done me bo favours. Recent return to it, and the heart palpitations arrive within minutes.

Time to sack that shit off.[\i]

The artificial sweeteners in diet coke and the like bring on my heart palpitations, more so than caffeine does.
I do not like coffee and have largely replace normal tea with redbush tea, not just because of the palpitations but also because everyone I know who drinks lots of caffeine is tense and skitish.

Meh…

I used to buzz off a Maccy D’s coffee in the morning, (don’t even feel a tingle now). I used to have a dozen cups of some form of coffee a day working in an office, now I have between 1-5 cups a day. I can have cola, or coffee before bed (as long as it has whisky in it).

I’ve been on/off – ecstacy, speed, cocaine, cannabis, alcohol, caffeine – with various cravings. Just cannot do without my cup of coffee in the morning though.