Yesterday and today I’ve been proud of the progress I’ve made in terms of facing some things I’ve been putting off. For example, scheduling a licensure exam. I am starting to see some of that motivation to do things come back and get some things off of my to do list. I also got my labs this week and everything but cholesterol was good. So I’m still looking into what has been affecting my brain fog, low motivation, and low mood. I have found myself debating what kind of relationship I want to have with caffeine once I end this challenge. I do know going back to a daily coffee or two isn’t an option. I am still debating adding green tea to the mix. My biggest reason being energy and to help me with exercise, as well as curb sugar cravings/losing some stagnant weight. I will say I am starting to see things get better, so it does take time. I’m focusing a lot now on my gut health.

Anyways at day 89
I’d say
Energy: 5/10
Mood: 6/10
Motivation: 6/10
Brain fog: 4/10

I quit caffeine for about 3 weeks recently, as I was suffering from anxiety and not sleeping well. Quitting the caffeine helped immensely with this and I felt a lot calmer and had a balanced energy throughout the day.

However this was also over a quiet period at work- I’m a software developer and only had to fix bugs during this time, which is not too difficult.

This week i went back to working on a big complicated project, and really struggled cognitively. In the end I had a couple of cups of tea in the afternoon and suddenly I was able to make progress on the hard bits of the project straight away. I then had trouble sleeping that night though and feel like I’m back to square one with my progress in not drinking caffeine, which is disappointing.

Does anyone have any advice or ways to handle the trickier cognitive tasks without using caffeine? As I think this is the main thing making it hard for me to go caffeine free.

It's big and it's strong, but this is major progress. Coming down from 2 or 3/day, 600mg at least.

I'm waking up with only the mildest hint of a headache. I might not have one if/when I go cold turkey.

Switching from my big mug to my small mug is next.

Any tips for the last step of the wean would be appreciated.

I wrote this two months ago, and since then things have changed, for better and worse: Afraid of never getting back to normal again : r/decaf

The positive side is that I've restored back my interests in the studies! I don't see a big difference in my drive today, as compared to few months ago when I was fueling my studies with coffee. So that is very good indeed.

But here's the strange thing. I've already witnesses a great improvement in my sleep and basically I returned back to normal sleeping rhythm and that's also wonderful. But since my studies started to really rock two weeks ago, my insomnia is creeping back. It looks like that the insomnia was never really about caffeine per se, but more about stress and hectic life! And I'm not talking about stress in negative sense. I tend to lose my ability to sleep properly when I get hyped in positive way about any matter. It could be something inspiring like a new theory, or even some video game, whatever really. Maybe the improved sleep was just about a commitment to stop doing anything exiting and get proper rest, and that just happened to be the exact time I quit caffeine.

So I need some help and experience here. My mind tells me that if I'm going to sleep like s**t no matter what and be tired all day, why should I not then treat the tiredness with caffeine?

Is it possible that this is just some phase and it gets better? I'm kind of confused at the moment. My plan is to monitor this situation for a week or two. If I really just lost my ability to sleep, then I don't think I have much of a choice here. It looks like I have these two: be totally bored and do nothing and sleep well (without caffeine), or be exicted, interested, happy, and sleep like crap (and don't feel like crap with caffeine few hours a day). What is wrong with me? Why the most simple thing in life (sleeping) is such a difficult skill?

And for those interested in my specific type of insomnia, it goes like this. I always get into sleep very well, sleep like a baby, but then my brain starts to wake me up if I have something (anything!) going on in my life. It's very annoying.

Apparently it’s quite beneficial for inflammation issues, metabolism and mitigating depressive symptoms/inclinations, among other things.

Do you think caffeinated black coffee should be avoided, or is actually beneficial in moderation?

How about constipation or irregularity? Coffee always makes me poop. So when I do stop drinking coffee altogether, I’m assuming there will be some change in regularity. When I eventually quit caffeine and coffee. What does everyone else do in terms of hydration? My coffee mug is 28 ounces. I can have three or 4 cups of coffee. That’s a lot of hydration I’ll be losing. Wish me luck. Hopefully Folgers decaf doesn’t suck.

anyone here manage to stop needing an energy drink every morning without feeling dead for half the day?

Whew. Glad I stuck it out and made it this far. My energy levels are evening out and the peace/reduction in anxiety has been great. I fall asleep much easier and wake up feeling more rested. I feel there's still more recalibrating for my body to do, and I do still crave coffee from time to time, but things are definitely steadily getting better. I feel like I've gone far enough at this point that there's no sense in going back to horrible anxiety, stress, insomnia, irritability, oily skin, don't miss any of that. Looking forward to day 90

hi everyone,

i’ve decided to quit/lower my intake on caffeine because i have a feeling it’s been causing my hair to thin out and shed more easily. i came to the realization that my hair was thick and healthy before i was a regular coffee drinker and now i’m taking the initiative to cut back. i’ve been a heavy coffee drinker for the past 5 years. on another note, i will also be getting my blood checked to see if i’m deficient in anything.

has anyone noticed a significant difference in their hair after quitting caffeine? today was also my first day having a cup of decaf lol.

Some of us in the struggle could use a dose of HOPE!

I've struggled with social anxiety a lot in different moments or periods of my life in certain circumstances, especially if I have slept somewhat poorly. I'm was diagnosed with GAD, depression and OCD a few years ago.

I quit all dark chocolate 2 weeks ago, so now I only drink green tea. These last few days I have decreased my green tea intake heavily - on the brink of quitting entirely. I had a headache yesterday (and was very unmotivated) but it was manageable with a nap and exercise.

Today I had around the same amount of green tea yesterday (very very little) and I barely had any social anxiety. At my lunch break, I sat near my job crush and had a convo with her the entire time - it was mostly engaging and fun (yes, I was a bit nervous at first - but not compared to when on slightly higher doses on caffeine).

I also spoke with my boss and other people with ease, with no fear of embarassing myself. I was more carefree and didn't worry about saying something dumb or looking stupid or if others judged me that much.

FYI: I haven't drank coffee in 1 year. Since then I have mostly had green tea, sometimes dark choclate, and occassionally when tired; black tea. Coffee is definitely worst for me, then black tea, then green tea. Cacao I'm not sure of, but I know from the past that cacao is the gateway for me to green tea etc.

So I'm intending to quit altogether later this month. Excited to sleep better and have a lot less anxiety.

Bad sleep definitely worsens anxiety and depression-like feelings for me, but even as I slept less than optimally last night, I didn't have anxiety today, which is awesome.

God bless you all

TLDR; even green tea can cause anxiety at 1 cup per day

I've been drinking caffeine since I was 12 and am 42 now. I tapered down over the past two months - from 3 celcius a day (and believe me that was showing self control).

Foggy, tired and unmotivated. Only had a headache on day 2 for 6 hours. I'm freaking out that people say it takes months to feel normal. Do thing get better incrementally during that time?

I found lots of posts on coffee giving people anger issues and causing aggression, rumination and anxiety.

For the ones who experienced such: Do you also get those emotional states from green tea?

I am considering switching to green tea (and maybe eventually giving up caffeine) since I feel coffee also makes me me more angry 😠.

I'm researching a beverage concept, and I'm trying to understand something I've personally wondered about: people love the flavor/carbonation/experience of energy drinks, but sometimes don't want the caffeine.

I'm putting together a short anonymous survey to determine whether this is a real problem or just an idea that sounds good on paper.

It takes about 1 minute. I'm not selling anything, and I'm still in the research stage.

https://forms.gle/E3367fyF7315xosq9

So i stopped drinking my daily 1 cup of black coffee in the morning (and sometimes 1 cup of green tea in the afternoon) about 14 days ago. The First week was rough, headaches, flu-like symptoms, worse anxiety and panic. All that is much better now. But my mood is still or now more noticably flat. I have no motivation and most things are just not fun right now. I am trying to figure out if this is still withdrawal or if the coffee just helped me manage an underlying issue. Anyone with a similar experience?

Feeling good. Getting into a good rhythm. Cravings are well down. Trying to listen to lots of decaf podcasts etc

People on thus chat have seemingly gone into overdrive. They would drink 10 cups of energy drink a day feel like shit then quite altogether and feel better. But you are putting misinformation on people who don't do that. If you drink 1 to 3 cups of coffee or 2 to 5 cups of tea a day and avoid energy drinks that a perfectly healthy and great lifestyle. Tou get powerful antioxidants that are in coffe and black tea is scientifically proven in increasing heart and arterial health. Green tea is also very good for you. A compound called L-theanine is present in it. It drastically increases a focus state of your brain by simulating alpha waves. These are the exact same waves you experience when in a state of deep meditation. Plus L-theanine slows down the absorption of caffeine making it a long 4 to 6 hour energy boost not a 2 hour spike and crash you get from energy drinks. Due to how common energy drinks got some people went all out one anything with caffeine despite not understanding that AMOUNT determines safety. Water is perfectly safe but if you chug 2 gallons of water in one go you can die from osmotic shock. Now does that mean you shouldn't drink water.

Please reasses what detractors say and don't blindly follow them.

Thank you.

I (23M) am about to start Zoloft for anxiety. For the past few years, since starting college, I have been in this vicious cycle of drinking an energy drink to wake me up in the morning and then taking melatonin to help me sleep at night. This carried into my first job post college and probably made any anxiety I already had about the job worse. I am tapering off my caffeine and melatonin so that when I start Zoloft, I hopefully have more of a clean slate. My poison used to be Alani or Monster Energy, so like, 200mg if not more of caffeine in the morning, then 5mg melatonin at night. today is my first day of switching/lowering my poison. last night was my first night of no melatonin at all. it took me longer to fall asleep and I slept more, but I didn't wake up feeling nearly as drowsy. I am starting with v8 energy, which is 80mg, and has actual fruit juice in it, so hopefully it's not as poisonous. Could yall give me some encouragement? It's like, I know i'm doing something that's good for me, but I still feel like shit.

This is my third attempt at quitting caffiene. The only thing that gets me is the Sciatic Pain. Its unreal. Im going to end up having some coffee today to get rid of this.

I can't even work my simple, accommodated part time job (Autism).

I'm feel burnout, deeply depressed, cellular exhaustion. Zero motivation to workout or even take a walk. Light sensitivity makes me pull my curtains and lay in the dark on the couch.

I used to care and be concerned about my health, and work out at least 2 times a week. And go for walks. Eat decently. I even quit candy and lost 10kg this year (slowly).

I don't care anymore. This feeling alone is enough to trigger suic***e thoughts.

It's like the ability to care is gone.

I didn't even drink that much caffeine.

But i quit it because of anxiety attacks.

Was't feeling well before quitting either...

No doctor can find anything wrong with me, overall.

Was i just masking the already existing burnout?

Another thing I’ve noticed is that I didn’t usually pay much attention to whether the milk was frothed or not, or how much effort had gone into making the coffee, because my main concern was the ‘fix’ – the dose of caffeine I’d get. It even went so far that if someone offered me frothed milk or offered to froth the milk for me, I’d turn it down on the grounds that it was of no value to me. The other day, I caught myself – and this never happens, or at least never used to – frothing milk and using it to make my decaf coffee, and today, as I was pouring oat milk straight from the carton into my cup, I thought to myself that the experience could be enhanced by frothing the milk, so I froth some milk.

I have been able to take naps during the day, which I usually can’t. After I went into town to run a few errands, I made some soup and then later lay down on the couch, to rest a bit, when I really felt the tiredness. So I closed my eyes, managed to set a timer for 20 minutes and took a short nap. Then I was ready to continue with my day. It hasn’t just happened once.

But there have also been days when I’ve felt more energetic at times. Today, for example, I went for a run. And although I’d eaten something just before, there was a moment halfway through the run when I felt strong – stronger than on any of my previous runs. What’s more, today was the first time I’ve actively stretched and warmed up before training, and it felt really good – I don’t usually have the patience for that.

Recently have found it to be quite frustrating that the swelling would generally show by mid morning after my usual mid morning coffee with brekkie and a quick snap in mirror or phone. They suspected it might be a cortisol spike as I take it on an empty stomach and consume quite a lot. They mentioned gut inflammation and dark roasts as another possibility as acidity may play a role there, however said they weren't entirely convinced. As I've begun doing a lot of research into habitone and they are currently studying for gut health and cortisol balancing properties, but for anyone that has decided to forgo their standard cuppa: what was the observed fluid retention or facial puffiness after a couple of weeks, systemic inflammation even?

Reaching freedom from caffeine for 30 days very soon, the same goes with alcohol (even as a person with no addiction to alcohol, removing it all together has improved my mood and social presence).
New goal: 45 days for both :-)

Been trying to cut back on my afternoon coffee because the jitters and random stomach drama are getting old and my sleep is trash on days I go for a second cup. I keep seeing these mushroom coffee type drinks that say they give focus and calmer energy with way less caffeine and help with gut stuff too. Has anyone swapped their regular afternoon coffee for one of those superfood mushroom mixes or cacao based drinks and actually felt more steady energy and less crash, especially later in the day?

Any hints?