My story of caffeine withdrawal

It all started...

It all started long before I turned two years old. I started drinking tea! Properly saying, I drank whatever was in the bottle and no one asked my opinion. Drinking tea is an Azeri tradition, you will be offered tea everywhere, at any meeting, gathering or reception, party or mourning and many other occasions. Speaking of, that is not a tea from a teabag, no sir! It is a properly brewed tea almost at a boiling point of water. The taste is great and is fully-flavoured.

I have been drinking coffee since university. Tea was not enough to sustain my brain during the nights before exams (how stupid that sounds today!). Then, I turned to energy drinks. What a perfect example of how cheap caffeine tablets are sold in a form of overpriced liquid!

Nevertheless, tea was my favourite in the family of hot drinks. I drank coffee occasionally and had an energy drink or two, couple times a month.

Getting hooked up

Lately I noticed obtaining a new "drinking coffee at work" habbit. I had a cup of coffee in the morning right after logging in. I had another cup right after lunch and usually the third cup just before leaving home.

The side effects came out rather quickly: Drinking coffee for productivity turned into drinking to feel normal. I could not start a day without coffee anymore. I started getting sleepy in the evenings, as I did not drink any coffee at home.

Finally, I decided to stop drinking anything with caffeine in it.

Detox

There are great caffeine detoxing advises on caffeineinformer.com. I chose the The Cold Turkey Method i.e. ceased consuming caffeine at all. In a retrospective, that was a naughty move. The detox process went as follows:

• Day I: Running nose and irritating headache. Hard to think and hard to move. I had to take a doze of ibuprofen painkiller to ease the symptoms.
• Day II: Headache and running nose continues. Severe muscles pain started to build around back of the neck. Another single doze of ibuprofen. I'd take paracetamol instead, but most of those painkillers are mixed with caffeine.
• Day III: Headache is not as bad, muscles are still suffering. No painkillers today.
• Day IV: Headache is almost over. Nose is lightly running. Muscles pain starting to fade.
• Day V: Feeling much better. Headache is completely gone, I had to do some exercise to completely get rid of muscles pain, or rather turn it into a rewarding post-exercise itch.

That was it! My body got back to normal, I did not need coffee or tea to wake up or feel good. My brain was completely cured from the caffeine addiction.

Afterwards

That was not the end of the it yet! I opted to drink only water for three more weeks. It was almost summer, the weather was warm thus, no need to warm up by drinking something hot. These weeks went fine. I only noticed consuming more water than before. Eventually I started drinking tea again. Coffee was left as a "brain doping" which I'm willing to take only when it is really required.

Do you have any withdrawal experience? I'd be glad to hear your story! If you want to try (though I'd hardly recommend it :) check caffeineinformer.com for great advises and more valuable information on human body and caffeine interaction.