giving up coffee

[nochexxx]

has anyone here managed to give up coffee?

i'm only on my first day and i feel physically terrible. it's feels like someone is clamping both sides of my brain, i'm wondering how much more of this is likely to unfold over the coming days and whether all this will be worth the hassle.

 

[benjybars]

i hardly EVER drink coffee and every time i do i can't believe it's actually legal!

it's SO strong.. fucks me up much worse than skunk.

Caffeine should definitely be a class B drug...

 

[Benny Bunter]

The best way is to just cut down I reckon. Why deny yourself the pleasure?

I've managed to cut down by cutting out the first cup of the day before I leave the house for work, then not drinking any during the day. As long as you're occupied then it won't bother you so much. Then I treat meself to one cup after I've had my evening meal and that seems to satisfy the cravings. Whenever I've tried to give up completely I got massive headaches and weird dreams so I caved pretty quickly.

 

[nochexxx]

kinda weird that you have your one coffee at the end rather than the start of the day.

 

[Mr. Tea]

i hardly EVER drink coffee and every time i do i can't believe it's actually legal!

it's SO strong.. fucks me up much worse than skunk.

Caffeine should definitely be a class B drug...

Stick to a good-morning spliff and handful of Psilocybe cubensis fruiting bodies then, eh?

Still, at least it's not as bad as THE DEMON DRINK.

 

[UFO over easy]

I gave up caffeine completely for two months a while ago - first two days were really nasty if i remember right but apart from that it was ok really, stick at it.

 

[noel emits]

it's SO strong.. fucks me up much worse than skunk.

The key is in combining the two.

 

[crackerjack]

I haven't had a spliff in 3 months, a fag in 4, a line since NYE or a pill since last summer. You mess with my coffee, i kill you

 

[UFO over easy]

The key is in combining the two.

i think i did myself some damage when i spent a few months consuming both quite heavily every day

how are you faring Ascoltare?

i'm enjoying cup number 2 of the day right now two is my limit..

 

[baboon2004]

I have a pretty terrible caffeine habit...when I've tried to give up I've craved it a lot, but not uncontrollably...just feel like I have a hangover or something. Which is de rigueur these days anyway...

 

[luka]

i make coffee for a living, been doing it on and off for almost ten years (im the ambitious type) and it defiently is some fucked up strong drug, you really do have to have a zoot just to take the edge off it. (then you need another coffe, to take the edge off the smoke)

it makes people talk more than bugle and you run around like an idiot and then your brain just goes into fucked up feedback mode and concentrating is impossible.
and if you have even more you snap, like hair-trigger pschyopath, no patience, no tolerance...
nice though, a cup of cofee and a spliff with your mates...

 

[nochexxx]

i
how are you faring Ascoltare?

.

i'm ashamed to say i'm back on the beans.

i gave it two days, and found the pain unbearable and it was affecting my mpc-ing.

i've decided therefore to cut down to one cup a day, and as the weeks progress cut it with decafe, then eventually i hope to be able to quit all together.

i think burroughs's book 'junkie' apllied this same method as a means to quit H.

 

[IdleRich]

"has anyone here managed to give up coffee?"

I can't understand why anyone would want to - isn't it a completely benign addiction? I love it although I tend to drink only one cup a day - not to restrict my intake, it's just that that's what I normally feel like having.

 

[Agent]

Until a few weeks ago, I didn't drink any coffee - not a single drop - for at least 3-4 years. The reason being that I have a hyper-sensitivity to it: one cup in the morning keeps me up all night. But I can drink as furiously as I want now, as my shrink recently hooked me up with a Lunesta/Seroquel script. Huzzah to drugs!

 

[mos dan]

I can't understand why anyone would want to - isn't it a completely benign addiction?

isn't it quite bad for yr heart? personally i stick to two cups and i'm happy with that. after spending two months in america, the land of the free refills and indulging them to the full... fuck me that must be hard to withstand!

 

[UFO over easy]

if i have too much or make it too strong my energy levels tend to plummet around 4pm, and i get massively irritable. it dehydrates you and isn't great for heart and blood pressure i think.

when i gave up i had more energy, and was able to sustain my energy levels through the day rather than peaking and falling - my skin felt 100x better, i felt less agitated and it made getting up in the morning a lot easier. i also didn't have a single headache for the entire two months after the first two days of pain.

but it still rocks, so I went back to it.

 

[IdleRich]

"isn't it quite bad for yr heart? personally i stick to two cups and i'm happy with that. after spending two months in america, the land of the free refills and indulging them to the full... fuck me that must be hard to withstand!"

Well, maybe I was exaggerating slightly when I said completely benign but you lot must all be drinking something a lot stronger than me. I do love the taste, the smell and the whole experience of drinking coffee. I go to the market near me on a Saturday and there is a guy who grinds up amazing stuff, I just love watching the swirl as you stir in the cream and anticipating the deliciousness to come.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Well, maybe I was exaggerating slightly when I said completely benign but you lot must all be drinking something a lot stronger than me. I do love the taste, the smell and the whole experience of drinking coffee.

Even the - gah - aftertaste? One thing I find even with good coffee is that within a few minutes of drinking it I feel like I need to brush my teeth or chew some gum, or at least take a swig of something fresh-tasting like orange juice. Tea, on the other hand, has a mild, pleasant aftertaste (as does the popular hot drink of the same name, BOOM BOOM!).

 

[joe narcossist]

i make coffee for a living, been doing it on and off for almost ten years (im the ambitious type) and it defiently is some fucked up strong drug, you really do have to have a zoot just to take the edge off it. (then you need another coffe, to take the edge off the smoke)

it makes people talk more than bugle and you run around like an idiot and then your brain just goes into fucked up feedback mode and concentrating is impossible.
and if you have even more you snap, like hair-trigger pschyopath, no patience, no tolerance...
nice though, a cup of cofee and a spliff with your mates...

so true.. I find it impossible to concentrate for more than hour these days (haven't written a single tune for about 2 months) and i'm pretty sure its down to being wired on coffee all day.

Spliff and super strong coffee is the ultimate combination for getting inspired - initially at least - but its effects are certainly detrimental to creativity after a few weeks/months/years of indulgence.

 

[nochexxx]

i still haven't quit but have successfully moved over to 1/2 cafe / decafe coffee.

looking for inspiration i found this article by terrece mckenna. http://deoxy.org/t_weeke1.htm

not sure i buy into it, nevertheless i found it interesting.

Modern industrial civilization has very skillfully promoted certain drugs and supressed others. A perfect example is caffeine. Caffeine -- I hate to tell you this -- caffeine is a fairly dangerous drug. It isn't dangerous in that a cup of coffee will kill you, but a lifestyle built around caffeine is going to -- you're not going to live to be a hundred years old, or even seventy, unless you are statistically in the improbably group. Why is caffeine not only tolerated but exalted? Because, boy, you can spin those widgets onto their winkles just endlessly without a thought on your mind. It is *the* perfect drug for modern industrial manufacturing. Why do you think caffeine, a dangerous, health destroying, destructive drug, that has to be brought from the ends of the earth, is enshrined in every labor contract in the Western world as a right? The coffee break -- if somebody tried to take away the coffee break, you know, the masses would rise in righteous fury and pull them down. We don't have a beer break. We don't have a pot break. I mean, if you suggested, 'Well, we don't want a coffee break. We want to be a ble to smoke a joint at eleven,' they would say, 'Well, you're just some kind of -- you're a social degenerate, a troublemaker, a mad dog, a criminal.' And yet, the cost health benefit of those two drugs, there's no comparison. Obviously, pot would be the better choice. The problem is, then you're going to be standing there dreaming, rather than spinning the widgets onto the nuts. (laughter)