Caffeine Addiction

At one point in my life caffeine was my morning ritual, you might say my drug of choice. At work there was always a cup of coffee on my desk. Because I inevitably got called away from my desk for some reason, I eventually got to the point I could take my drug hot or cold, it didn't matter. On my days off I would often drink a pot of coffee in the mornings reading or watching the news and follow it up with a nap. After lunch the addiction was further fed with a diet coke or glass of tea here and there, but not as bad as the mornings.

Eventually my addiction started causing problems with my stomach. It seemed like everything I ate digested into heartburn. Any location that I was going to be at for very long had a bottle of antacid, my work desk, my desk at home, the kitchen, where I sat on the couch and the nightstand. My desks at work and home had a back up bottle of antacid just in case the primary ran out. My doctor made the recommendation that I give up my favorite drug.

Like any addict, my first response was denial. I did respect the doctor enough that I started doing some reading. Eventually, I came to the realization that I was a true caffeine addict.

I read numerous articles similar to this one from One Medical Group. Based on my reading I formulated a plan to kick my addiction.

• Step 1. Cut caffeine consumption by one third for one month. My coffee became a blend of two parts caffeinated and one part decaffeinated coffee. At the same time I switched to decaf coke and tea.
• Step 2. Cut another third of my caffeine consumption out for a month. The coffee blending continued with two thirds decaff and one third caffeinated coffee. I still remained on the decaff coke and tea.
• Step 3. Go totally decaffeinated.

Steps one and two were no problem, I hardly noticed the difference. I couldn't taste any difference in the coffee, coke or tea, so taste was never an issue. From the articles I read gradually cutting back on caffeine was supposed to help with the withdrawal symptoms. So far there had be no adverse reactions or benefit to my reduction in caffeine intake.

One day after the start of Step 3, I started feeling horrible. I never got the headaches that most people associate with the lack of caffeine but I think I went through every other symptom. As you would imagine these include being tired and all the side effects of being tired, fatigue, drowsiness, irritability, and an inability to concentrate. My symptoms quickly morphed into flu like symptoms that lasted for a week to 10 days.

On the other side of the withdrawal I did notice quickly that I didn't need the antacid I had stashed everywhere. I could eat anything I wanted again without feeling the need to have antacid shoved into a pocket. Longer term, there was even enough reduction in my blood pressure that I was able to go off medication for a couple of years. My age finally caught up with me and I had to go back on medication, but to get me off the medication temporarily gave me a good feeling.

I haven't turned into a raving lunatic over the influence caffeine had on my body. I avoid caffeine when I can but am not going to be paranoid about it. When on vacation I drink caffeinated coffee and come back with no withdrawal symptoms. Caffeine isn't an evil thing, but it's not a good thing either.