View Full Version : Why does caffeine have to feel so good?
Its truly a drug.
I'm trying to stop using it, since I think it causes my irregular heartbeats and also makes me hungry all the time, and also causes me to wake up several times during the night.
I don't even use that much........just a little in my decaf coffee and then some chocolate in the afternoon.
Yesterday I tried to go without it. Had a headache (of course), and felt weak and my brain just wouldn't function.
Same thing today.........until I cried uncle and had some caffeine. Now I'm a happy camper. :cool: ......at least until it wears off!
Dang. Why does it have to feel so good?
I'm a caffeine junkie. About 15 years ago, I tried to go cold turkey after years of drinking lots and lots of coffee each day. About a week into my efforts, and feeling tired, grumpy and headachey the entire time, I had a cold Mountain Dew and immediately felt better. Now, as a Dew junkie, I'm probably getting more caffeine than before, but it's oh-so-good.
LOL Alan..........oh....it hurts so good! hahaha
They say you should very slowly come down off caffeine.......like taking at least a month. But its almost impossible to tolerate the side-effects!
For me, the thing is, one caffeine drink makes me want another.....and another.....and another.
Oh well........we only live once, right? !Splat!
ApatheticNoMore
1-22-13, 2:31pm
Might just be a drug withdrawal phenomena. If you are getting off drugs (cigs whatever) you go through withdrawal and a real physical withdrawal, if you give up (relapase whatever) and take a hit of the drug of course you feel better. Ahh .... another hit.
Ok I don't of course think caffeine is the worst drug out there, that it's sinful to use it, or that it's the worst possible thing for health or anything. It's not the root of all evil IOW. But I'm reading a book called Caffeine Blues (Cherniske) and I think the author is really and truly on to something, it just intuitively clicks, it's far more of a drug than we admit, and it has a lot more pysiological effects than we readily admit. And no I've seldom been a heavy user either, at the worst, two tea cups of black tea (which I didn't even get headaches from skipping!) .... but it's on to something. How the author describes just how you can get more and more addicted into consuming more and more caffeine is dead on. And yes it probably does burn out your adrenals and make you more tired in the long run (I went a couple years without caffeine and they were the most energetic years I've had in adulthood - it's true I was only working part-time then so it was easier to resist temptation (!) but dropping caffeine upped my natural energy - I wasn't tired then, astounding, caffeine doesn't give me that ...).
Funny he describes how most pre-menopausal women might be iron deficient. Frankly it doesn't seem I've had energy since childhood either (although the time without caffeine was best). Maybe that's why. Now excuse me I'm going to have a cup of tea .... I really am. I do want to quit it, just you know, like all addicts everywhere, I want to quit JUST NOT TODAY!!! :). Ok, I have given serious effort to quit it, it just lures me back in. And though headaches never have, EXTREME fatigue (like sleeping all weekend), depression, etc. have accompanied efforts to quit.
I see nothing wrong with coffee addiction. Full disclosure: My name is catherine and I'm a coffee addict.
In fact, see the following reasons to drink as much as you can:
Coffee Drinking Linked to Less Depression in Women (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/coffee-drinking-linked-to-less-depression-in-women/)
Coffee Gives Jolt to Lifespan (http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/340733/description/Coffee_gives_jolt_to_life_span)
I personally don't feel the effects of caffeine in any negative way. I drink it at night and sleep like a baby. Don't feel jittery.
A couple of years ago, I got the best quote handed to me at a restaurant when the server passed out dessert: "Where there's coffee, there's hope." I have it taped to my coffee machine, and it's a guiding principle in my life :)
I have caffeine only rarely as it does cause problems for me. Once you get used to never having it, it loses its appeal. I don't like the jittery feeling.
My DH, on the other hand, is a caffeine addict. He's a total crab in the morning until he has at least 2 cups of coffee. I don't care as long as he keeps his crabbiness to himself. Also, on days that he really overdoes the caffeine at work, he comes home barely able to sit down for dinner. I find that annoying, too.
Coffee addict here too, but I am trying out of desperation for better sleep to cut back. Now I am only drinking it before 10 a.m. Cutting back to none after 3 p.m. wasn't enough. Last night was the first night in I can't remember how long that I actually slept through the night with only one brief awakening.
But cut it out completely? Never!! I'd no longer be a loyal born and bred Pac NW-er!
decemberlov
1-22-13, 2:51pm
Funny I was going to start a coffee thread today! Not really about my addiction to coffee but giving it to my daughter.
She could be classified as having adhd ...although I don't really like that label but I use it so that people know what I mean when I'm talking about her level of energy/attention span etc. (If you know what I mean).
I've had some people tell me that if she does have add/adhd the caffenie will have the opposite effects on her as it does those who are not. The other day she was especially all over the place - and I don't mean typical kid stuff but really all over the place jumping from one idea to the next, easily frustrated because well I think her mind goes so fast sometimes that it frustrates her. I sat her down gave her a 1/2 a cup of coffee and withing a 1/2 hr or so she seemed to really be able to focus so much better...a few hrs later at 8:30 she laid down on the couch with a blanket and told me she's likes to rest because she was feeling sleepy and was out in seconds. Her bedtime is 9:30 and she's usually still going strong by then! I was really amazed!!!
PS. - Didn't mean to hijack your thread Cathy ...it's just after that I'm more of a coffee lover than I was before...didn't think that was possible!
I find that the more caffeine I drink, the more I need in order to feel the energy. Then after awhile, it actually makes me feel fatigued.
So what I need to do, I guess, is to give it up for a couple weeks, then start back on it at a lower dose. But I can't even make it through those couple of weeks!
If it didn't give me eating problems, and I didn't mind all the irregular heartbeats, there wouldn't be a problem.
catherine........."Where there's coffee, there's hope." hahahaha That's great! How true!
decemberlov..........I was just thinking this morning that I think I need caffeine for my ADD too! As my previous Psycopharmacologist would call it.....being a street pharmacist. He meant that people seek out those things on a daily basis that help make your brain feel better. I really feel that caffeine (in small amounts) really helps me focus.
My problem is limiting the amount. Like I said above......it always makes me want more and more and more of it..........then it stops working as well.
I feel so happy when I'm drinking it. I guess I just want to keep feeling that way!
ApatheticNoMore
1-22-13, 3:11pm
I personally don't feel the effects of caffeine in any negative way. I drink it at night and sleep like a baby. Don't feel jittery.
yea that's one thing, clearly if one is battling insomnia they should first try giving up caffeine I think (it's a stimulant), but if one sleeps like a baby that's one thing. Of course one can be caffeine free and still have insomnia. It's just one obvious thing, like IMO one of the first things doctors should look for if you are on a dozen prescriptions and having symptoms is a possible side-effect of the prescription, then if it's not that ... ok keep looking. And really caffeine stimulation probably is not going to help say ... a meditation practice, because it's deliberately speeding up thoughts if you will, it's stimulating. It seems like it's wanting contradictory things almost, to want to meditate and to take your daily hit, but that's seldom perceived.
What's the mechanism of action of caffeine? The author I was talking about thinks it's a stress reaction. Fight or flight. Is it? I'd have to do more research.
"Adenosine acts as an inhibitor neurotransmitter that suppresses activity in the central nervous system. Consumption of caffeine antagonizes adenosine and increases activity in neurotransmission including acetylcholine [might be beneficial - ANM], epinephrine [aka adrenalin], dopamine, serotonin, glutamate, norepinephrine, cortisol [you don't want to stimulate cortisol, adrenaline is the initial fight or flight hormone but cortisol is the hormone of chronic stress and burnout], and in higher doses, endorphins which explains the analgesic effect to some users. At very high doses (exceeding 500 milligrams) caffeine inhibits GABA neurotransmission."
"Once in the brain, the principal mode of action is as a nonselective antagonist of adenosine receptors (in other words, an agent that reduces the effects of adenosine). The caffeine molecule is structurally similar to adenosine, and is capable of binding to adenosine receptors on the surface of cells without activating them, thereby acting as a competitive inhibitor"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caffeine#Mechanism_of_action
So is it healthy to be inhibiting these adenosine actions all the time? I don't know. Are there other drugs that act by similar methods of action and what are their effects? Because I'm not sure poeple realy want to see it for caffeine :)
ApatheticNoMore
1-22-13, 3:20pm
I've had some people tell me that if she does have add/adhd the caffenie will have the opposite effects on her as it does those who are not.
Aren't the drugs they prescribe to treat ADHD stimulants? So caffeine is a stimulant although probably milder than what is prescribed, makes sense, yea I have heard it helps.
I find that the more caffeine I drink, the more I need in order to feel the energy. Then after awhile, it actually makes me feel fatigued. So what I need to do, I guess, is to give it up for a couple weeks, then start back on it at a lower dose. But I can't even make it through those couple of weeks!
tapering it off might be a better idea, what I'm going to try, yet again ...
My problem is limiting the amount. Like I said above......it always makes me want more and more and more of it..........then it stops working as well.
typical drug reaction, need to use more and more to get the same results :)
decemberlov
1-22-13, 3:28pm
Aren't the drugs they prescribe to treat ADHD stimulants? So caffeine is a stimulant although probably milder than what is prescribed, makes sense, yea I have heard it helps.
Yes they are, so it does make sense, you're right. And I'd much rather try the coffee...I'm not ok with giving her medication (although..yes, I know caffeine is technically a drug)....I've read that 100 mg of caffeine is approx. the same as 5mg of ritalin..which is a little less than 8oz of coffee.
I guess since she's never been on medication for the ADD I was just blown away by the calming effect it had on her.
Caffeine/coffee junkie here, too!
Cue the music "If loving you is wrong...I don't want to feel right...."
Cue the music "If loving you is wrong...I don't want to feel right...."Perfect! LOL!
jennipurrr
1-23-13, 3:30pm
I had a Dr. tell me that a lot of adults with ADD/ADHD self medicate with caffeine. However, I am beginning to feel that the whole "people with ADHD respond differently to stimulants" is a hoax - if everyday kids use Adderall and other ADHD drugs to study, what is the difference in the brain response? I read a great piece somewhere (maybe the Atlantic?) about a writer who experimented with ADHD medication although he did not have ADHD and boy did he produce a ton of really good work. It reminds me of Jack Keroauc writing On the Road in one long Benzedrine induced writing session...but I digress.
A year or so ago I was diagnosed with ADD...officially ADHD since ADD isn't a real diagnosis, but I have absolutely no hyperactivity. I've always been a day dreamer and think I am somewhat spacey, but I think modern day life of multitasking had something to do with the diagnosis. Anyway, caffeine and I have a love/hate relationship. I can easily get in a habit where I need it every morning, but when I cut it out of my diet I feel so much better. I can focus when I drink coke/coffee...but without it I sleep better, I have less anxiety, less jitters, my eyelid doesn't twitch, etc.
Right now I am not consuming much/any caffeine but am taking ADHD meds most days. It helps me be much more productive without the side effects of caffeine but I just don't like the idea that I need a stimulant to make it. Now I am on a tangent...must be the add, LOL.
Cue the music "If loving you is wrong...I don't want to feel right...."
LOL MamaM..........that's funny! :laff:
When I was on meds for ADD, I absolutely couldn't have any caffeine.......it would make me feel awful. Just too much stimulation, I guess.
Gardenarian
1-23-13, 6:55pm
When I quit coffee I found that the first couple of weeks I needed some caffeine in the afternoon or I'd get a horrible headache. I'd have tea instead of coffee and it seemed to work. (I slowly weaned myself to herbal caffeine-free tea.)
I think caffeine has some really insidious effects. There is so much news on how it is good for you that I think it might be fueled by the coffee industry!
It's wonderful when you are finally free of it and wake up fully conscious and rarin' to go.
I can sadly no longer drink coffee. I was a 3-4 cup a day from the time I was 18. Now, 20 years later, it hurts my stomach and makes me feel sick and jittery. The problem is it used to be my thing, my fix, my love...oh wait--to personal. :) But truly, it took me an entire month to feel normal without it. I drank gallons of water with lemon, some decaf teas to get over the hump and when headaches hit bad, Excedrine.
rosarugosa
1-23-13, 8:47pm
I really love having my two cups of coffee each morning, and I don't have any reason to want to stop. I skipped it three mornings last year: prior to DH's surgery, prior to his colonoscopy and prior to my colonoscopy. I wasn't aware of any withdrawal effects. I did have a cup of tea the two days I did without on DH's behalf. I thought it would be mean to make him smell the coffee if he couldn't have any.
I was a caffeine addict for years and years, then I managed to taper off starting around this time last year. I began by mixing increasingly larger ratios of decaf with the regular, until finally one day I ran out of decaf and just decided that was that. Boy, even having been at such a low dose of actual caffeine for a few weeks, I was pretty miserable for three or so days. Horrible headaches but I persevered through it. So from about last March until last September I was caffeine-free and I didn't really notice anything different about my energy levels and sleep; however, I did notice the savings on my grocery bill!
The rest of the story goes like this: I started being scheduled for some 6 am shifts and it was really hard to get up that early. So I tried just a little coffee and it WORKED REALLY WELL! I was so jazzed up, it was great and I LIKED IT! Once an addict, always an addict, as I ended up starting the cycle all over again. I was drinking LOTS of coffee throughout the fall and holiday season, but now that the holidays are over and things have semi-settled down at work, I am trying the gradual withdrawal method yet again. I am currently drinking half reg/half decaf at this juncture. I'll probably change the ration to 2/3 decaf, 1/3rd regular in a few days, do that for a week or so and gradually just whittle it down until that fateful day of running out occurs again and I'll have to suck it up to the inevitable headache that will come...
I love coffee....I don't think I will ever let it go, nor do I want to. If there comes a day that I have to.....well, I will deal with it then ;)
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