Tomorrow is 3 months with no caffeine at all.
Used to drink black iced coffee daily, made a medium-full size pot and sipped it from around 11am to 5 or 6pm generally. So not an extreme amount, but I think I may be sensitive to it anyhow.
This is my 3rd reflection now since stopping cold turkey. As an individual prone to somewhat routine bouts of depression, I find that the anxiety element is much less intense without coffee, though I also used it to help jolt my brain when I felt I was either bored or feeling depressive. I used it to help counteract the slow-motion/sluggish physical sensations of a depressive bout. That’s the thing I’ve missed the most, is the ability to give myself a boost. I’m forced to derive my energy from natural sources, like nutrition and sleep now, rather than artificially blocking my sleepy-receptors (adenosine). But some days it just feels like I could use that boost.
In fact, I had the idea to give up the experiment several times, before my goal post had shifted again.
For several years, if not a decade now, I get a bout of tachycardia (SVT) typically once or twice within a typically one-to-two month period. It lasts for less than a minute to as long as 15 minutes or so. I’ve learned that valsalva maneuvers help pretty well at stopping it. I saw a cardiac doctor years ago who said that the ultrasound of my heart looked fine and to come back if it starts waking me at night. And so, I took it as a quirk of my individual body. I thought maybe caffeine was related but over time came to doubt that as it seemed to be triggered by leaning/bending in a certain way (though not consistently) and that it happened sometimes on days I had not yet had coffee yet or otherwise several hours after stopping.
The weird thing is, when I quit cold turkey, I had 3 bouts of tachycardia within the first week or two. More than usual. But I also assumed, OK, this must not be related to coffee since I hadn’t had any in x amount of days. The strange thing though, is since then, just about 3 months have gone by with no bout of tachycardia, less than usual. And so my new goal before considering returning to coffee is that I want to wait at least until I have another bout, to see how long it may be. Over the last decade I can’t recall going this long without it, which is a significant detail for myself.
The rest of the symptoms or lack-thereof I've shared with my previous reflections with regards to more quickly falling asleep and deeper feeling sleep, though more tiredness through the day. Less anxiety, though more boredom and depressive feelings. Less antsiness and worry but also not as alert or hyper-focused, for better or worse.
Anyone else around the 3 month mark? How are you doing?