How long does it take to kick a caffeine addiction?

[Orrex]

The physiological side of it, I mean?

I've been savagely ill this week and unable to drink anything but water. I've been a raving Coke-head for many years, but now, trying to drink one, I find that I kind of don't want it. This surprises me, I admit.

I'm not looking for sermons about the evils of HFCS or any of that, just your thoughts on the caffeine issue.


Did my body lose its caffeine-lust in the four days I was trying to keep a fever from boiling my brain from my skull?

[Kali]

1. not the lust but it takes me 3 or 4 days to kick the headaches if if get cut off

Hope you are feeling better.

[Orrex]

2. I'm finally starting to feel better, thanks!

Honestly, this was the worst illness I've had in my adult life. A fever around 102° from Wednesday through this morning, along with incredible fatigue, dizziness, and a weird paradox of persistent hunger coupled with an utter revulsion to food. The worst appears to have passed.

My wife has been amazing through all of this. I would have totally understood if she'd just locked me in the basement just to get my pitiful, infected self out of her sight, but she took very good care of me. She even wrangled our two... energetic young boys without resorting to any Inquisition-esque techniques!


As horrible as it's been, if it helps me shake myself of a decades-long caffeine habit, I may just have to consider it worth the trouble!

[Kali]

3. strange

hunger + revulsion to food

I never have loss of appetite:mad: :rofl:

Caffeine isn't that bad of a habit, but soda is pretty bad. If you go back try iced tea - even if you use sugar it is about a 10th of what is in soda.

[Orrex]

5. I might give that a shot

I'm interested to see how it pans out. I wouldn't mind having one now and again, but I've had about enough of walking around with a carbonated monkey on my back.


I very seldom experience a loss of appetite except during gastrointestinal illness, which this wasn't. I'm very glad that it wasn't, too, because if I'd had to endure all of that plus the digestive fireworks, I think I would have lost my mind.

[Capn Sunshine]

4. bad seasonal flu

If I had to guess. As to caffeine , some people's only feeling of addiction is the pleasurable sensation after taking it in whatever form. They don't get a huge physical jones going. You're among the lucky ones.

[Orrex]

8. I actually wound up going to the ER yesterday

One of my wife's Facebook friends is a nurse and expressed concern about my age versus the extended high(ish) fever, thinking that it could be pneumonia. I'm happy to report that this is not the case, and I left with a diagnosis of "Upper Respiratory Infection (Common Viral Cold)."

"Common?!?" Well, that'll teach me to associate with commoners.

[femmocrat]

6. Glad you are feeling better, Orrex.

When I kicked caffeine, I had a bad headache for a couple of days. Now the smell of coffee makes me queasy.

I never drank colas, though, just coffee. I drank decaf for awhile, but got tired of that too.

[Orrex]

10. I've "quit" several times in the past, with varyingly durable success

And I've suffered those headaches, too--dreadful! Maybe I got lucky and just wrote them off as part of the background noise of my malady so that I didn't even think about cracking open a cold one!

[rcrush]

7. I used to drink coke like crazy but then I had a real bad flu and drank sprite

Now all I drink is Sprite. Coke was my only caffeine source up until then. So now whenever I take an excedrine migraine I am wired all night.

[begin_within]

9. Depends on how strong your addiction is to it,

but when I have quit drinking coffee, it was only 2 days until I felt no withdrawl effects. Just mild headaches, for which I took Advil (and it really didn't help) and a general sleepiness but that's it. I read that caffeine is usually metabolized out of the body in 20 hours from intake.

[Orrex]

11. In 2004 I had all of my blood replaced with raw Coke syrup

We'll see if I can shake it this time around!

[nolabear]

12. It's best to back off slowly to avoid the headaches, but you may be over the worst of it.

I had gall bladder surgery a bunch of years ago and was literally near death from pancreatitis. Once I got well enough for the surgery and off the dilaudid drip all was well except that I was DYING from a headache. I thought it was part of the illness until I had that first cup of coffee. It was like having God come down and smile on me. I haven't tried THAT again!

[applegrove]

13. Ever heard the coffee addiction theory that caffeine really does nothing for you...you are just

going through withdrawl by morning so that first cup of coffee just feeds your addiction and feels great? I thought it sounds reasonable.

[JBoy]

14. If you've gone 4 days, you're probably done.

I've backed off from heavy coffee consumption a few times (6-8 cups a day). Found it best to cut back to 2 cups on day 1, 1 cup on each of days 2 and 3, and then I could stop completely.

Your main enemy during this period is caffeine withdrawal headache. If you've been sick and felt like shit, the headache wouldn't be noticeable, so you punched through cold turkey.

[Orrex]

15. I'm coming up on six days now

No desire for it, and no headache, either. Maybe I'm through it after all!

Years ago I had a friend who was hospitalized for about 72 hours after a car accident, and when he got out he was amazed to discover that he was totally over cigarettes. He'd been a hardcore smoker prior to that, but the enforced cold-turkey period seemed to have gotten the nicotine out of his system.

And all it took was a cracked sternum, internal bleeding, a broken tibia, and a totaled 1985 VW Rabbit.

[Coventina]

16. For me it's a three day process: 2 days of horrible headaches

followed by one day of extreme fatigue.

Then, I feel great! Sleep better, get up feeling rested, no headaches, etc.

But somehow, I always end up with the monkey on my back again.

This time around, I'm trying the Hanson's caffeine free diet cola, to see if that can satisfy my craving for a sweet, fizzy cola drink.

[Orrex]

17. So here's a weird discovery:

Still recovering from the illness, and still off caffeine.

However, I've had a couple of cans of ginger ale in the past few days, and I'm surprised to see that the drink "experience" is different than for Coke. That is, something in the Coke seemed to make me want to swig down the whole can as fast as possible, but I've been working on this current can of ginger ale for about three hours with no urgency in sight.


What's that about?

[pitohui]

18. 72 hrs but caffeine is good for you so why bother?

the national atomic museum even has an exhibit that claims that caffeine offers some small protection aga. background radiation

i'm surprised at this turn of events, i don't normally drink coke or pepsi, but being from the south, when i'm vomiting, i was raised to drink it to help w. the vomiting and it usu. does...

i wouldn't go back to drinking colas if i were you, but i would take the opportunity to switch to tea or coffee when i felt better...and i hope you do feel better soon

the ginger ale is just empty calories w. no value at all as far as i know, so i sure wouldn't start getting into that...if you're just sip, sip, sipping w. no real desire to drink it, maybe take the body's hint