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Comment by ekjhgkejhgk | Hacker News Reader

If I had severe mental illness I'd be immortal by now.

My stomach hates coffee at the moment :(. Too acidic. Not sure I’m ever going to be able to have it regularly.

Do you add whole milk to coffee? The casein and fat should help to reduce acidity and make it easier on the stomach.

If you can't do that, I've heard of people adding a sprinkle of baking soda as a buffer to black coffee. I'm not sure how much you'd need, probably just a tiny amount that you'd barely be able to taste.

Haven’t tried the latter, will give it a shot. Thank you!

I cut coffee for a year or so 10 years ago due to stomach issues, then slowly added fancy espresso drinks back, figuring that if I was only having coffee once a week, it might as well be fancy. I don’t seem to have stomach issues now with 1-2 lattes/cappuccinos a day.

Maybe it’s unrelated, all in my head, better beans, or the 3-4 oz of whole milk, but maybe give espresso drinks a try if you haven’t?

I love coffee and used to drink it all the time, but now in my early 50's it really doesn't like me.

If I drink coffee my digestive system revolts in the the most disgusting ways. I miss it terribly, but its just not worth it.

It’s likely a better roasting process and fresher beans. Large scale coffee roasters produce burnt, more acidic beans with chemicals added during the process.

Good point. It was all locally roasted beans at that point, so maybe that was what made the difference. Or at least contributed a lot.

A few tips if you didn't try yet:

- drink some water before the coffee

- ideally, don't drink it on an empty stomach

- use a dark roasted coffee, they are softer on the stomach (and way tastier)

This is typically true of coffee produced at scale. Large batches are often overcooked, chemically cooled and then left longer on the shelf. The result of these things is increased acidity. I have found that I can tolerate the small-batch locally-roasted stuff much better. If you want to give it a go, find a local coffee roaster (often it’s just coffee shop that roasts their own). You’ll know it has a chance of being good if the bag has a “roasted on” date within the last week or two. Discard anything you haven’t used up before 90 days.

I have ADHD, and I drink 2-3 cups' worth of coffee every day.

I'm basically a vampire now.

Yesterday I drank a whole pot myself then had another cup or two. Keeps me in the game.

Where does that put me? Caffeine poisoning or immortality with no in between?

> Too much coffee reduced this positive effect

Well, I guess I have to die of something someday.

I've been self-medicating ADHD with multiple cups of coffee a day since I was 17. I'm in my early 30s now, and after getting on Vyvanse, have reduced then given up coffee. I realised that coffee was the reason for my anxiety which builds up towards the end of the day.

I reduced my coffee down to 1 espresso per day two months ago, and quit entirely two weeks ago. I'm still on stimulants, but Vyvanse treats ADHD much better and has fewer side-effects.

Same here, my afternoon anxiety from daily coffee consumption (1-2 cups typically) got really bad on some days. I was heavily addicted to coffee and nicotine for years but I managed to quit both of those after realizing that they weren't doing me any favors. I continued to have cravings until I got on ADHD medication then they practically disappeared overnight and never came back.

I think more people should give green or black tea a try, I found them to provide similar effects to coffee but with fewer side effects.

As a mentally ill vampire, I try to only feed on coffee drinkers.

> 2-3 cups' worth

> basically a vampire now.

Do you mean 2-3 liters?

How do you know you're not?

There can only be one. Or two. Maybe three. Four shoots espresso a day.

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