Caffeine Withdrawal

Off the hard stuff… Tea … since just this morning.

How long will I have this headache ?

And

Im only coming off so that I can get off my tits on sweet sweet tea 14 hours into a 24 hour race…. Good idea or not worth it ??

It’s utterly horrible, ime it lasted around 3-4 days of migraine, nosebleeds, constant shivering and feeling like i was going to die. Then i was fine.

Gp warned me prior that “you need to give up but going cold turkey on caffeine is worse than herroin, just not as long.” I’ve never tried nor therefore given up the brown but can imagine it would struggle to be as bad/worse.

I was however properly dependent, nosebleeds etc if i didn’t have a coffee every half hour or so, getting through about a pound and a half of espresso bean a day.

Ha, I had a couple of sleepless nights with constant low level twitchiness in my legs when I cut the cord. Headaches were the least of my problem!

Mind you, I switched from approx 10 cups of caffeinated tea or coffee to nil in about 3 days….

Took about 8 days before to really free myself from the aftereffects…

As a comparison i now drink 4 cups a day and give up for lent several weeks in spring every year with no ill effects.

In my experience nothing happened.

I used to drink lots of coffee but gave up a few years ago. Splitting headache for 3 days and that was it. These days I drink lots of green tea, no problems giving that up.

I keep trying to give it up and can’t. Quitting smoking and not drinking, easy. Giving up caffeine, just can’t do it for some reason. Whenever I’ve tried, blinding headache has been the killer.

Some pretty savage headaches for 3 or 4 days. Also had cold sweats and generally felt very ill.

2 days max. Same with smoking, I found. Drink plenty of water don’t go back! All the best!

Actually l think my last cup was Sunday morn…. So lve done a day.

But what with taperosis… I feel pretty bad/worn out… Not sure l could run an hour let alone 24.

Thanks for the good wishes… Would be interested to hear from you anyone who has used this technique

I also quit on Saturday – some low level headaches since. I’ve failed quitting a few times!!

I cut back from countless mugs in a day to only one in the morning and was fine after a couple of days. I do sometimes have a proper coffee at work if I’m starting to fade near the end of a shift and can really notice it.
No idea how it’ll go when on your bike but good luck!

Drac – Moderator
In my experience nothing happened.

This. Went straight from a couple of double/triple espressos and a litre or so of Pepsi Max per day to nothing.

Only thing I noticed was how much better my sleep patterns became after a couple of days with no caffeine.

Two to three days for me, I mostly get a bit jittery and have a cracking headache for hat time hen right as rain after the third day.

nothing but I also went from not drinking enough (but too much coffee) and dehydrating to drinking lots of water (Squash) at the same time.

I used to get palpitations quite a bit, then read somewhere that it could be caused by caffeine. I was drinking about 12 cups of tea a day and just stopped. The first week was fine, but I found the week after was the headaches and feeling exhausted. And then it went – and so did the palpitations!

I went from two strong lattes a day to nothing for two weeks, for the same purposes as the OP ie reducing sensitivity for a 24 hour race.

I just really really fancied a coffee the whole time. Guess I wasn’t dependent.

I went from 3 double espressos a day to decaf only, overnight.

I had a headache that started in the afternoon of day 1 until about day 3…. then feeling really twitchy for about the next 3-4 days. I recon it took me about a week/week-and-a-half to feel 100% normal.

Fortunately I live and work in an area with loads of independent coffee shops and roasters – so the decaf is really excellent. I can’t tell the difference in terms of flavor, and I think the ritual of going and getting the coffee, smell, taste etc offset the chemical withdrawal.

I was a bit worried about how much caffiene was in the decaf I was drinking, but I went back to the UK for a couple of weeks last month and barely had a single coffee…. no headaches/adverse effects at all.

How much coffee are you people drinking? I have 3 or 4 double espressos a day but I can’t say I’ve noticed any negative side effects.

I can’t say I’ve noticed any negative side effects.

Have you tried stopping?

Well there are plenty of days when I go without.

I did it about a year ago because I was having a couple of strong lattes in the morning and builders’ tea from then on up to around 8 at night. I just stopped and it knackered me for a good 3-4 days, headaches and despite the lethargy it was difficult to get to sleep and I was no use to anyone. Herbal teas and hot (sugar free!) Ribena helped with the ‘habit’ of having a hot drink on go though.

I now limit myself to a green tea when I wake up, a latte a bit later on and maybe a cup of builders’ in the afternoon, but nothing caffeinated after 3-ish.

I went through it again at the weekend after a nasty stomach bug got me on Friday night- no tea or coffee at all until yesterday morning and the headache came knocking on Saturday afternoon to keep the squits company 😯

Update.

No headaches since Monday but felt terrible in bed tuesday night. My whole body and especially my legs and hips ached really badly, as if I had a bad cold/flu.

Since then lower back and hips have continually ached. Im sitting here in some discomfort.

This has been, by some margin, the hardest part of my training so far.

Kinda wishing I hadn’t started this de-caf now …

1) I don’t know if its going to be effective on the day.

2) It’s really given me pre event nerves… before I started this I was feeling super strong and ready to go… now I feel weak and worn out. 🙁

I drank coffee pretty much constantly from about 2006 until this February.

I’d occasionally stopped for up to a week or two at a time (e.g. on holiday), just out of curiousity really.

I think it was watching a programme about Andrew Marr and his stroke recovery (which included cutting out caffeine) that prompted me to stop coffee this time. Unlike the earlier times, though, I haven’t returned to coffee for 5 months now.

During the first few days, I felt a bit low and achy – a bit like having mild flu. After that, I felt “normal”… until at about 2 weeks I felt really good. It may have conincided with the breaking of spring or something, but I’ve not wanted coffee at all since then. The smell of it just doesn’t do it for me in the way it used to.

I should mention have been drinking 1-3 cups of tea per day throughout. That said, I’ve not felt any caffeine withdrawal symptoms on days I don’t have tea – so I’d say I’m ready to go caffeine-free if I wanted.

(Cup of tea at my side as I write this 🙂 )

Stopped after posting earlier in the thread. Big headache yesterday despite drinking plenty of water. Feel a bit odd and really, really want a coffee.

i stopped drinking coffee and have noticeably less headaches, do miss it though at times.

I had flu like symptoms (headaches, achy muscles etc ) for about 10 days after stopping caffiene, after 10 days everything cleared up pretty quickly.

i stopped drinking coffee and have noticeably less headaches, do miss it though at times.

That made me wonder whether or not one cup would expose you to the same withdrawal should you decide to cave and neck a sneaky one. Is the constant intake the reason for such painful withdrawal or is just one cup enough to leave you clucking…?

All you quiters, i would be intersted to know what difference you feel after the initial few days of feeling rough. Has quiting given you more energy? better sleep? anything else?

I gave up about 18 months ago in a desparate effort to try and help with my IBS.

I did not feel any withdrawal symptoms when stopping and it did help my IBS, although I stopped other things at the time.

I am not sure what the real effect of stopping has been as I had been weaning myself off it for a couple of years anyway.

I have no willpower. On my third coffee of the day. It’s my only vice 😥

jimjam – Member
How much coffee are you people drinking? I have 3 or 4 double espressos a day

I used to go through that before i left the house in a morning, i was, as i said, a proper junkie. Get up, espresso, put second one on, go pick up post from front door, drink second, put third on get a shower drink third. walk to work (at a restaurant/bar with coffee machine, and help your self to coffee and 12+hour shifts) then give or take 1 an hour till home time at which point I’d usually have a beer or wine but no more coffee.

My intake was very high and had sufficient side effect to get me to the gp thinking i was properly ill. Never occurred to me it might be the coffee.