The key to getting off an addiction like caffeine is to keep your energy up. Don't succumb to the urge to roll up into a ball and get weak. However, don't confuse this with the natural urge to just rest. I have found myself falling asleep easier or just dozing off on a couch--that is fine. My body probably needs more down time like that, especially when coming off an addiction. Just don't get all mopey and tired, because that is just your body pouting and sooner or later you'll get yourself into such a lethargy that you'll reach for your drug of choice to counteract it. You are planning to fail with that attitude.
Keeping my energy up works in two ways: I either get more physical exercise or spend time in an intensely emotional period of my life. This time it was the latter. I have been going through an unusually strong period of anxiety as feelings from the past have bubbled up and needed to be dealt with. I just haven't been eating much at all, and the intensity of caffeine has been too much. I naturally cut it down significantly and then made the final effort to cut it out completely rather easily. I'm down to about one cup of tea a day. Compared to the multiple cups of strong coffee I've been consuming daily (that were no doubt tearing my stomach lining apart) I am ready for a break.
I love the taste and experience of coffee and tea. But my addiction usually begins when I find myself waking up tired and having to find a way to snap out of it. Having a busy schedule is a major culprit. Then once I get my "up" from caffeine, in a few hours I'll crash and be lower that I would otherwise be. Then I'll need another cup just to get back to level. Addiction soon ensues. Non-caffeine addicts tend to have better sustained energy.
My brain has been soaked in caffeine pretty exclusively all of my adult life. I literally planned my days with coffee stops at certain hourly intervals in mind. I hunger to remember what it is like to see the world through non-caffeinated eyes. Believe me when I say that the force of this drug is strong. I look forward to the day when I can relax with a nice cup of coffee now and then without the element of addiction factoring in.
You have really transformed yourself from the coffee drinking, Dorito eating guy you were not so long ago! Emotional turmoil does have an upside.
ReplyDeleteHere in the PNW we have entered into the coffee season, and I am trying not to mope.
Yeah, sounds like the PNW requires a whole different lifestyle. You may have to force yourself to go out for that 1 hour of daylight every day during lunch.
ReplyDeleteEven here in Ohio I can go entire days without seeing the sun if I don't get out at lunch from my window-less office.
Thanks for the props. I will still hold that I was not that unhealthy, despire my Dorito eating, coffee drinking, high stress, no sleep lifestyle of years before.... er... maybe it wasn't that good....
By the way, does the Pac NW have a non-coffee drinking season??
ReplyDeleteWell, no, but this time of year we practically need IV drips.
ReplyDelete