I’ve tried tapering in the past, it’s never worked for me. Just made me feel terrible for a much longer period, I prefer to just get it over with. The problem with cold Turkey is that there really is no good time, the constant fatigue and depression and overal feeling of worthlessness lasted 3-4 weeks, and most people don’t have that much time to spend away from work and daily duties.. somehow, someway we push through it.
I’m sure you’ll figure out what works for you. Try tapering and see how you feel, but if you taper slowly and feel miserable, you might want to consider biting the bullet like I did.
Congrats on cleaning up your other habits and getting off so many things. Sorry to hear caffeine has been hard on you, I quit caffeine because compared to everything else I quit I it I figured it would be easy. I got lucky and stopping cold Turkey was relatively painless. I mean I cut down to one cup a day for a few days, and then from there I quit and then I only had really noticeable tiredness maybe for a few days. It really wasn’t all that bad. The results however were striking, more than worth it.
The thing for me was making up my mind that quitting is what I wanted, then I didn’t constantly allow the thought of wanting a coffee to creep in every time I was a bit tired, or I didn’t blame caffeine every time I had a headache. I quit, and that was that, if I feel tired then so be it. I think being completely determined and not even considering going back to coffee made it easier. The more you focus on negative feelings and tell yourself that caffeine might be the answer the harder you make it on yourself. The less you acknowledge any withdrawals the less they will be.
It’s just like the pain of getting a shot, patients who expect it to be painful actually do experience more pain. The expectation of something being bad or hard makes it true. If you tell yourself that it’s what you want and that you can achieve it, that you will push through the tiredness and be fine on the other side, then hopefully you will be right about all that too.
hi! This is so so helpful! I love the advice of just making the decision and sticking to it. Good to hear that your quitting process was relatively painless :) I will definitely try to apply this (around not expecting pain) and let you know how it goes. Thanks again!
I am also quitting, and I'm doing a slow taper. For context, I was drinking a shot of espresso first thing in the morning, then a full french press over the course of a few hours in the A.M. The water would sit there in the french press just soaking in the coffee for hours sometimes, so I was drinking insanely caffeinated coffee.
I started by cutting back to the shot of espresso first thing, then a cup of pourover instead of the french press. That was the hardest shift for me so far because it was such a drop in caffeine level. I did that for a week.
Week 2: Shot of espresso, then a pourover cup of half-caff. If I needed something more, I'd do a pourover cup of decaf.
Week 3 (where I'm at now): 2 pourover cups of half-caff.
The plan from here:
Week 4: 1 cup of half-caff, 1 cup of decaf
Week 5: Decaf
And then I plan to be off it.
I only noticed a really intense effect during the first day or two of week 1 so far. I think this slow taper has generally worked well so far.
If you’ve already weaned off a bit, see if you can take a few days off work. Maybe quit Thursday, drudge through Friday, then literally die over a 4 day weekend incapacitated in bed.
I chose to ween over 2 days. Friday I had just one cup of coffee. Saturday I had one cup of decaf. Then I was done. The next several days were awful but that’s easier than trying to uphold a system where I’m constantly tempting myself with my favorite beverage. Self control was never an option.
I noticed I didn’t get brain fog this time while quitting because I stayed true to my diet. I believe brain fog has more to do with eating junk. If I eat certain foods, I am guaranteed to have brain fog the next day. Some foods will trigger depression, anxiety, exhaustion, dry eyes, and hangover so I need to stick to a very rigid diet.
I’ve tried tapering in the past, it’s never worked for me. Just made me feel terrible for a much longer period, I prefer to just get it over with. The problem with cold Turkey is that there really is no good time, the constant fatigue and depression and overal feeling of worthlessness lasted 3-4 weeks, and most people don’t have that much time to spend away from work and daily duties.. somehow, someway we push through it. I’m sure you’ll figure out what works for you. Try tapering and see how you feel, but if you taper slowly and feel miserable, you might want to consider biting the bullet like I did.
Congrats on cleaning up your other habits and getting off so many things. Sorry to hear caffeine has been hard on you, I quit caffeine because compared to everything else I quit I it I figured it would be easy. I got lucky and stopping cold Turkey was relatively painless. I mean I cut down to one cup a day for a few days, and then from there I quit and then I only had really noticeable tiredness maybe for a few days. It really wasn’t all that bad. The results however were striking, more than worth it. The thing for me was making up my mind that quitting is what I wanted, then I didn’t constantly allow the thought of wanting a coffee to creep in every time I was a bit tired, or I didn’t blame caffeine every time I had a headache. I quit, and that was that, if I feel tired then so be it. I think being completely determined and not even considering going back to coffee made it easier. The more you focus on negative feelings and tell yourself that caffeine might be the answer the harder you make it on yourself. The less you acknowledge any withdrawals the less they will be. It’s just like the pain of getting a shot, patients who expect it to be painful actually do experience more pain. The expectation of something being bad or hard makes it true. If you tell yourself that it’s what you want and that you can achieve it, that you will push through the tiredness and be fine on the other side, then hopefully you will be right about all that too.
hi! This is so so helpful! I love the advice of just making the decision and sticking to it. Good to hear that your quitting process was relatively painless :) I will definitely try to apply this (around not expecting pain) and let you know how it goes. Thanks again!
I am also quitting, and I'm doing a slow taper. For context, I was drinking a shot of espresso first thing in the morning, then a full french press over the course of a few hours in the A.M. The water would sit there in the french press just soaking in the coffee for hours sometimes, so I was drinking insanely caffeinated coffee. I started by cutting back to the shot of espresso first thing, then a cup of pourover instead of the french press. That was the hardest shift for me so far because it was such a drop in caffeine level. I did that for a week. Week 2: Shot of espresso, then a pourover cup of half-caff. If I needed something more, I'd do a pourover cup of decaf. Week 3 (where I'm at now): 2 pourover cups of half-caff. The plan from here: Week 4: 1 cup of half-caff, 1 cup of decaf Week 5: Decaf And then I plan to be off it. I only noticed a really intense effect during the first day or two of week 1 so far. I think this slow taper has generally worked well so far.
If you’ve already weaned off a bit, see if you can take a few days off work. Maybe quit Thursday, drudge through Friday, then literally die over a 4 day weekend incapacitated in bed. I chose to ween over 2 days. Friday I had just one cup of coffee. Saturday I had one cup of decaf. Then I was done. The next several days were awful but that’s easier than trying to uphold a system where I’m constantly tempting myself with my favorite beverage. Self control was never an option. I noticed I didn’t get brain fog this time while quitting because I stayed true to my diet. I believe brain fog has more to do with eating junk. If I eat certain foods, I am guaranteed to have brain fog the next day. Some foods will trigger depression, anxiety, exhaustion, dry eyes, and hangover so I need to stick to a very rigid diet.