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Comment by parasight | Hacker News Reader

I fight nasty withdrawal symptoms like severe headache, fatigue, and rheumatic pains right now after not drinking coffee for two days. It feels like a really bad flu. From experience I know that this will be better very soon.

That is the reason why I want to give up coffee completely. I don't want to be addicted to a substance. I don't like to get headache or feel tired only because I choose to not drink coffee for a day. Maybe there will be a day when I can not get a coffee.

I don't drink that much coffee. A pot of coffee in the morning and usually 2 - 3 espressos during the day. I guess I am sensitive to it.

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That surely isn't extreme when compared to some folks but I would say it's a lot of coffee/caffeine in a day. Good luck kicking it!

Pretty sure your caffeine intake is several times that of more moderate coffee drinker. Most people would be completely wired for days.

> I don't drink that much coffee. A pot of coffee in the morning and usually 2 - 3 espressos during the day. I guess I am sensitive to it.

That is a lot of coffee. I have an Americano in the morning. If I have two it's not great for my stomach and if I have two in the morning I really better not have one again until five. If you're drinking it as your drink rather than as a stimulant try switching to tea.

I agree, I'd say that's a lot. I have two shots a day (either espressos or americanos, usually one of each) and I find that if I have a third I always feel terrible. I get agitated and jittery, so I guess that's a way to control my intake because I always stop at 2 now.

I am a skinny person, and I drink only 2 cups of coffee per day, tops, and I suffer the exact same withdrawal symptoms. Once I feel the symptoms it's too late, Advil doesn't help, coffee doesn't help, I can't look at screens for long, all I can really do is lay in bed and try to sleep it off.

However, I've learned that I have a window where I can sense symptoms might onset in the next couple of hours, and if I take an Advil then I'll avoid the symptoms.

I really need to try the nootropics everyone recommends. Coffee really only helps me power through semi-mindless work, if I need true clarity and original thinking I have to get comfortable in a quiet place and let my mind wander, and coffee doesn't help with that. (And while we're here I'll just say that's why I'm an advocate of remote setups for programmers, unless you only have semi-mindless work to do at your office).

Same problem here, i felt like drinking regular coffee caused more troubles than i was willing to endure, so i happily switched to decaf.

Happy to read this :-) > ...researchers found that drinking coffee—regular or decaf is associated with an overall lower risk of mortality.

I went near-caffeine-free the last two weeks: Two shots of espresso in the morning, only decaf after that. (Fortunately any coffee shop worth their salt has decaf beans available.)

What has surprised me is that I am no longer oversleeping on my days off. Before, I was sleeping until 12-1pm to catch up on sleep debt incurred during the week, and I would wake up bleary-eyed and tired. Now, I wake up around 9-10am (which coincides with my wake-up time on work days), way before my alarm clock, and I actually feel quite rested.

Note that this is without adjusting my bedtime schedule at all. As someone who's been on caffeine most of his life and whose late sleep schedule is a veritable personality trait by now, this came as a surprise.

That is a lot of coffee!

Some people process caffeine better than others maybe you are on the high end of the sensitivity scale.

I know a few sips of coffee and the caffeine make my heart pound. I only started drinking coffee ten years ago mostly cappuccino but I still am greatly affected by caffeine.

Cafes are a great place to socialise. I took up coffee drinking a few years ago to be a part of this ecosystem. It took me 2 years of 5 coffees a week (close to 1 a day) to get used to caffeine. I experienced increased heart rate, sweating, delayed sleep (even 8 hours after a coffee). These days, I still need to drink coffee at least 6h before sleep, but I don't find myself getting wound up after 1 cup anymore. Two cups is a different matter.

I actually got to the point where I had to drink coffee to be able to sleep. I was at Starbucks near close and got a venti latte with six shots. I said to the cute barista girl it was to help me sleep but I think she thought I was being sarcastic, she left that week so I am left with the thought that she thought I was a dick.

I can't recall where it is but a US University has a coffee room where many inventions were thought of mainly due to the social nature and brains revved up by coffee.

And there is also a theory of the age of Coffee Enlightenment in England in the 17th/18th century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_coffeehouses_in_the_17...

Here to confirm that you're drinking quite a bit of it; i have been trying to limit myself to 2 mild espressos per day after having reached 6.

Addicted to caffeine for 30 years and counting...

I find that I don't really get withdrawal symptoms if I stick to drinking less than 1/2 a pot a day, all in the morning.

I would call 1 pot and 2 espressos a quite large amount of coffee.

walk yourself down on the caffeine addiction slowly. I alternate between regular and decaf and avoid all other products with caffeine. The key is making sure to take it down slowly and be consistent. For me that means caffeinated before lunch and all decaf drinks (water is decaf, right) afterward.

Your body can be trained to new levels, the difficulty is actually completing the training. Most people either forget or try to jump to the end. The only thing to ever quit cold turkey is tobacco

> A pot of coffee in the morning and usually 2 - 3 espressos during the day.

Wow, I thought taking a 200mg tablet with a glass of milk every morning was excessive.

Instead of cycling on and off it completely cycle between 1 cup/day for a while then back up to several a day.

You should try to gradually decrease the amount you drink and not just suddenly stop drinking.

It's ok. Be addicted. You'll be fine.

(An approximate quote from my doctor)

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