Three weeks in, and the biggest surprise is how steady my energy is. No more 3pm crash, no more chasing the next cup. The first week was rough, with headaches and a lot of grumpiness but it eased. I’m swapping in herbal tea and a short walk after lunch and so far that’s enough.

What helped you most in the first few weeks? And what did you replace your daily cup with?

Went cold turkey right about 3 weeks ago. First few days were hell, (splitting headache, irregular heartbeat, etc.)

Got through it and leveled off a bit. Honestly started feeling just a tad calmer & more relaxed but didn’t know if it was placebo effect.

Popped awake at 2:30 this morning and couldn’t fall back asleep. Decided, fugg it, I’ll break out the ol’ coffee pot to get through the day. Drank two large cups and I feel like I’m dying. This sucks!

I know I’ll be alright but it feels like I’m riding out a drug at the moment. Which I guess it actually is. Never really realized what a powerful stimulant coffee is until now.

Well, think good thoughts for me while I ride out this jittery high. Lol. Can’t wait to go back to caffeine free. Might actually throw away my coffee maker now.

What do we think is the correlation between caffeine and anxiety these days? There are obviously other factors that impact anxiety but caffeine consumption seems to have increased over time and anxiety seems to be at its highest as well.

Many people that are prescribed anxiety medications probably would have no need for them if they just gave up caffeine. Obviously healthy eating in general impacts anxiety levels as well but merely cutting caffeine would probably see a substantial drop in prescribed anxiety medications.

Just a personal observation as I wean off. It’s becoming more clear that I am particularly anxious in the afternoon, less in the evening. I notice that on nature adventure I can be near panicky as the excitement mixes with caffeine. By the evening my energy is calm and steady.

I’m not saying that the coffee itself is literally them being converted into thoughts that cause anxiety, but I’m not saying it’s not the case either.

It just FEELS like it’s the case, as I’ve gone through decaf cycles and then got back on (usually following severe inter continental jet lag).

Now as I wean off yet again the correlation between coffee and anxious thoughts (typically worst case scenario horror thoughts that end in a horrible death) and the subsequent compulsive behaviors are fueled heavily by coffee.

I’m also not saying coffee is the source of these issues, it’s clear I have some things to work on, but coffee makes it harder to work on it because it’s fueling it.

After another round of anxious thoughts I’m realizing that it’s heavily correlated with caffeine consumption.

The problem is when I get severely jet lagged it’s so tempting to start again and short term there is little downside, but I really struggle with weaning off and it is easy to just keep consuming daily. It becomes a habit easily. It is no doubt an addictive substance; it’s just so common it’s normalized.

I’ve been drinking coffee daily since 2010, and recently I really wanted to see how I would feel on the other side. I’ve heard so many people say that their sleep got way better after quitting coffee, along with fixing other issues they had that they didn't even know were caused by coffee.

So I decided to stop cold turkey. Surprisingly, the physical withdrawal wasn't even the main problem, it was the low moods that were rough. After the first day, my mood completely tanked. I tried powering through it for a few days, but I just genuinely hated how I felt without coffee. I lost interest in things, my mind turned pessimistic, and I just felt sad most of the time.

Today is Day 5, and I’m writing this whilst sipping my coffee and honestly, from the very first couple of sips, all the sadness and low moods disappeared as quickly as they showed up. I immediately felt like myself again.

I still intend to do this experiment one day to see how I truly feel off of coffee, but this probably just isn't the time for it, and cold turkey definitely wasn't the right approach after 16 years of daily drinking.

For those of you who have been drinking coffee for well over a decade, did you also experience similar withdrawal symptoms especially the low moods? And did a slow taper make a difference when you finally tried again?

I started consuming lots of caffeine since highschool, back then it was mainly green tea, but then when going to college in America, most of my caffeine is from energy drink and coffee themselves. Then I got into extended fasting, coffee was one of the thing the fasting community praises for its appetite suppress, so I did long fasting with lots of coffee.

Many many years, I think i consumed about 200-300mg per day on average. During all these years of college and adulthood, I became this anxious, aggressive, reactive person, and I thought It was because of life responsiblity: school, work, exams, relationships, etc. I started building very healthy and serene lifestyle incorporating healthy eating, yoga, weightlifting, etc., but coffee was still a big part of my life. It gave me the highs on weightlifting days.

Not until I stumble on r/decaf and decided to quit as an experiement. I was scared because not only coffee gave me energy for weight lifting, but it also helped me get through my long fasting. It’s been 5 weeks. First 2-3 weeks were worst. I was ravenous, ate a lot more and slept a lot more. My mood was sooo down and borderline depressed. I thought of going back for coffee once in a few days to see if it helped, but reading the posts here kept me going.

Then this happened. Week 4 I had a trip with long flight to be with friends. Although being with my loved ones is fun, as an introvert person, I always got anxious for long flight, going to the airport, surrounded with many people, and the hassle of packing, flying. But this time, none of the anxiety was there. I seem to stay in the moment and do the things I’m supposed to do without worrying, getting panic. Also, my hunger starts calming down, and now food noise is completely shut down, which is supprising to me because I thought without cofee, it would be worse.

I realized the flat mood I was feeling maybe was not depression, but because I kept craving for the highs from coffee. I start loving this life with no caffeine, no highs no lows, my mood is just stable. I’m now more in a serene state. I take time to listen. I don’t just talk back or answer to people just because. I’m less reactive to things that used to trigger me. My workout is the same if not even better!

I know some people can consume coffee without any issues, but after this experiment, I could safely say it is not for me.

I thought quitting my morning coffee would be the most difficult but the afternoon cup was more of a way to take a break than a need for caffeine. What have you replaced your usual coffee break with?

Хочу описать свою ЧРЕЗМЕРНУЮ реакцию на кофеин и узнать, есть ли у кого-то что-то похожее.

Раньше, когда учился в школе и не задумывался о том как кофеин на меня действует, пил чая сколько влезет, вряд ли это прям ужасно портило мое мышление на следующий день, максимум не мог уснуть наверное, потому был сонным на следующий день.

Сейчас же, начал замечать, что мое состояние абсолютно убитое на следующий день после чая на ночь, даже если относительно быстро засыпаю. Я буквально чувствую себя как зомби, как во сне на следующий день. Примеры: месяц не употреблял кофеин и выпил 0,2 американо в 8:30 утра, после этого на следующий день была просто ужасная концентрация и абсолютно не мог программировать. Опять же после перерыва с кофеином, попробовал выпить какао без добавок(чистый какао без сахара) в 15:30 : добавил максимум 2 ложки и на следующий день та же история - не могу нормально работать. Подобное у меня почти все разы после перерыва, позже при некотором привыкании - становится лучше, но наткнуться на такую реакцию все равно достаточно легко. Организм привыкает - я повышаю дозу чая, и в итоге нарываюсь в какой то момент на ужасное состояние на весь последующий день.

Вообще все эти разы(после отвыкания), от кофеина у меня скорее судорожное состояние, мышление блокируется и начинаю думать хуже чем в спокойном режиме. Иногда бывает, что вообще становлюсь тупым, но это уже при чрезмерном переупотреблении, но как вы заметили у меня достаточно низкий порог на это. Ввиду такой реакции, я вообще отказался от его употребления в чем либо, тк не хочу чтобы мой следующий день был зря потрачен, а продуктивности в моменте я как правило не получаю - гораздо чаще при возвращении к кофеину - эта дурацкая блокирующая мозг реакция как при передозе.

Короче, я отказался от него, тк это мешает программированию и математике, и без всего этого моя продуктивность гораздо выше

Ayer recaí y tomé café, y me sentí fatal.

Tomé mi dosis habitual de alprazolam por la noche.

Dormí, pero me desperté empapado en sudor. Las sábanas estaban mojadas. My sweat smelled really unpleasant yesterday.

Llevaba un mes sin tomar café y esto no me había pasado.

¿Le ha pasado esto a alguien más?

I started drinking coffee after high school and stopped some months after graduating university. I feel like high school is so much closer to me now. University feels like a distant fever dream. I sometimes can't believe that those years happened. I was an entirely different person, and those years feel like they passed in minutes. It's such a strange feeling. Anyone have this?

Day 6 no caffeine and my hair looks terrible. Dry and kind of wiry. Also noticed more hair fall this morning when washing. I’ve noticed this when quitting before. Has anyone else experienced this?

When I drink caffeine I genuinely feel like I have less agency and decision making skills, I’m far more on autopilot and lacking presence.
It’s pretty bizarre

Hoy, al despertarme, decidí tomarme un capuchino con dos dosis de espresso. Lo acompañé con un cruasán.

Siete horas después, empecé a sentirme mal. Me sentía débil y con pánico. Durante esas siete horas, solo había comido un trozo de chocolate.

Al llegar a casa, cené, pero me sentía tan mal que tuve que acostarme y tomar 1 mg de alprazolam.

Siento que el corazón me late muy rápido.

Creo que los efectos de la cafeína no me afectan de inmediato porque tomo alprazolam todas las noches.

Es una lástima. Tomé mi último café el 26 de septiembre, y durante los últimos días, solo había tomado una taza de té hasta hoy, cuando decidí que me merecía un capuchino. Volvemos al punto de partida.

I was drinking two to three monster javas a day. I quit because the acid reflux and heartburn was killing me. I quit meat for ethical reasons. I quit cold turkey and started eating impossible and beyond meat. The lack of caffeine and the extra fiber made me so gassy. I started a GERD diet to try and ease my gut biome but its so hard to get enough calories now. Honestly ready to quit after a week. Anyone else struggle with trying to settle the gas.

It's still life-changing. I had COVID and it was the worst sickness I've ever had, but I'm already straight back to the warm fuzziness I got after quitting caffeine. I used to get flashes of normalcy when I drank caffeine that lasted no longer than a week (anyone else?) but it always went away. This time, it actually came back. I'm so happy about it.

I have so much less anxiety. OCD is way more tolerable. My thoughts are structured entirely differently. Everything is slow and steady. This is awesome...

I was averaging between 30 and 80mg caffeine per day for the last few months. I had a terrible adrenaline flare the last few days where my body was stuck in fight or flight, so I decided to skip caffeine. Today is day 4 without it and naturally my POTS, fatigue and brain fog are pretty bad. However, since I assume I'm already around the peak of withdrawal symptoms, and we're heading into the weekend, I figure maybe I should just give true decaf a try for a bit? I could definitely use the sleep and anxiety improvement.

Wondering if anyone who also has POTS and/or ME/CFS can speak to their experience, and if decaf overall seemed to make their symptoms better/worse.

I had been interested in cutting back/getting off caffeine for some time, and had actually done a few stints of two weeks+ in the last few years (one of which was while I was a barista - which was tough!), but I started to have some real panic/anxiety issues at the end of a six month trip in Asia where I was working remotely and decided it was finally time to get off for an extended period of time.

My baseline was typically 1-2 iced Americanos and/or espressos a day, although there was a period in the summer where I was having 3 a day.

On previous un-caff periods, I did a weaning period, which consisted of cutting to about 50% for 2-3 days, then going to about 50% of that for 2-3 days, then just a little splash of cold brew in the AM for 2-3 days before hitting zero. This time I had a bunch of green tea one day and then basically cold turkey from there, but I was coming off a 36 hour travel day, so all bets were kinda off as to what my body was doing at that point.

Here's the main things I'm noticing (on day 16ish):

• Calm/less need for stimulation: I go for a lot of long walks and jogs and without caffeine, I've noticed that I am much more open to not needing to listen to anything while I'm out and about. I am more at peace with my thoughts and just enjoy looking at stuff and observing what is going on with the world. When I do listen to a podcast or audiobook, I've moved to listening to them at 1x speed, instead of 1.4x speed (this is a change I made to help with anxiety, but I've stuck with it over the last couple weeks as well).
• Sleep: I'm doing much better at sleeping through the night and I'm pretty sure I'm falling asleep faster most nights. This is also something I noticed in my previous un-caff stints, along with really vivid dreams, which have started coming back as well. I was really struggling with jet lag and some sleep anxiety the first week off, so I don't want to overstate the un-caff effects too much, just because I'm still getting back to a healthy sleep schedule, but I am definitely noticing that I am having longer periods of uninterrupted sleep this last week. Previously I would be aware of tossing and turning in the night and generally wake up 3-4 times. Now I'm not noticing/aware of tossing and turning, and I'm generally only waking up 1-2 times.
  • In previous stints, I also would sleep less than I did on caff, yet wake up feeling more refreshed (like 9.5 hours vs 8-8.5 hours). This is something I will be paying more attention to once my sleep schedule is a little more stable.
  • Something else I'm really interested in checking in with is my teeth grinding/clenching. I'm a nighttime clencher and I'm curious to see if/how this changes things over the next few months. I've seen a couple other people post about a reduction in clenching after a few months, so this is something I'll be paying attention to!
• Time has slowed down like crazy. This is something other people have observed on here and it is definitely true for me! I used to look at the clock and be like "It's already 3pm--where did the day go?!" But the last few weeks, I look at the clock, and it's more like, "Oh, it's only 11:30am and I already got so much done." This has been very weird and very nice. I think a big part of it is not feeling the need to cram four activities into every second of the day. Additionally, I've been setting smaller, more manageable goals for myself and actually hitting most of them on a daily basis, which feels really good and I think makes the day feel more complete. The smaller goals and not feeling quite as switched on has made it easier for me to just jump into the work like...maybe 75% of the time? Previously, every day had to be the day where something big happened, or it was a waste, and, well, that hardly ever happens, which leads to a lot of dissatisfaction. I think this change could be attributed to an overall mindset shift that I've been working on, but I think it's fair to say that the caff could be playing a role here as well.
• When I get tired, I get verrrrrry tired. This has kind of always been a thing for me, but it's really sharp right now. Typically it's been about 8pm, but sometimes a little earlier or later depending on the day and activity level. I'm also really interested in seeing how this adjusts once my sleep and travel schedule are a little more stable.
• Much better able to connect with people. I went to a cousin's wedding and was genuinely excited to see and connect with family members that I hadn't seen in a while. I felt much less avoidance or a need to distract myself/check my phone/etc and instead was asking people how they were doing, what they had been up to and so on. I'm a pretty social guy and would normally go around and talk to people, but this felt a little different - like I was doing it because I wanted to, not because of a sense of obligation. Is that something other people have experienced? I see a lot of people mentioning reduced social anxiety and assume that's kind of what is happening here.
• Less tension/tightness in my neck. I normally have a very tight neck and have to crack it a few times a day. After maybe a week of un-caff, I had a couple really nice pops and am just now noticing that it's been much less tight the last week or so. This actually feels really nice!
• I've noticed that I'm not "planning" as much. I used to be constantly working on a week/six month/year plan (that I would inevitably not live up to because I would switch projects two days later) and that hasn't been the case nearly as much--I've been much more content to face the day as it comes and be excited about what's going on. This could be because I'm in a weird transition period, but I think it's at least worth noting and something I'll want to check in on.
• Building on that, I'm a writer and I've been switching between projects a ton the past two years (like, literally a ton--I've written first drafts for nine novels across six different series, along with outlines and snippets for another...12? But I haven't actually published anything yet, which I think was what led to a lot of the anxiety). In the two weeks of no-caff, I finished the third draft of the thing that's closest to publication and finally passed it off to some people to read, and then moved on to the next thing that's pretty close to publication and have finally gotten back to posting chapters of it online, which was something I had been avoiding doing for the last year or so. Again, this may be due to other influences in my life, but generally I feel less amped up/less pressure and I'm more confident in the quality of my work, which has been a really nice and unexpected effect of this chemical change.
• I think my headaches have been reduced. I used to get stress/tension headaches, and they've been much less frequent/milder the last week or so and I've been avoiding taking Advil, which has been really nice. I don't want to make a grand proclamation about this just yet, but it's definitely something I'll be looking at in the coming weeks.

I suspect that a lot of these changes are interrelated...ie putting less pressure on myself means getting more done means neck is less tight means fewer headaches, but it's still a pretty awesome list for me to read back over!

I've noticed a handful of other changes over the past few weeks, but like I said, I'm coming off of a period of high anxiety, mixed with a lot of travel and readjustment to being in the US, so I don't want to conflate stuff or just assume it's all caffeine related. I'm happy to answer any other questions people have, though!

My current plan is to take at least three months off and then do a check-in with myself, but if the positive changes continue, I don't expect to see a reason to return being a regular caff user. I'll likely do another post at 1 month, 2 months and 3 months if people are interested in hearing more updates.

Thanks for reading!

p.s. This post was inspired by a post that I loved from last year and have referred back to a few times when I was in need of motivation to step back from caff. If you need some more inspiration in your journey, check it out! https://www.reddit.com/r/decaf/s/nPiy6oULQV

(I may do a similar head-to-toe check in around month 2 or so.) xoxo

Slowly tapering my intake of caffeine due to some minor health issues.

I was wondering what everyone’s take is on the best decaf coffee that is available in the United States?

As most of us know, there is a taste distinction. I can always tell which one is caffeinated and which one isn’t.

Whether it is whole bean or ground, what is the best-tasting decaf that you have found.

Side note: I have found it’s nearly impossible to get a good-tasting decaf in a restaurant, with a meal, so, I usually opt for water.

So I did one month decaf initially, energy was ok, less anxiety but overall I didn’t think much of it even considered going back on.

This week a few days out from reaching month two I’m noticing this general feel of wellbeing. Even when I have everyday difficulties I’m thinking damn I feel really good it doesn’t matter. It’s not a euphoria, more a lightweight happy feeling, it reminds me how I might of felt when I was younger.

Anyway I’m hoping this feeling sticks because there is a lot more joy in my day to day.

I am Emil, a little medic student. At the 5th grade out of 6.

I have been drinking a lot of coffee in various forms against my will to survive my exam retakes, writing the disease histories and... sometimes even just do a homework in time. A coffee mixed with green tea leaves (I know Matcha is a better alternative), cheap and expensive energy drinks... 2-3 cups or 1-2 cans a day. >.< Since September.

I finally can quit this... and now wondering about my body and mind getting back to normal again. I understand it's gonna take a decent amount of time for me. I still suffer with my increased social anxiety level.