Misc I find caffeine harder to quit than nicotine, just me?

[Pissed_and_messed]

much of the benefits of coffee does not depend on caffeine tho.

 

[Neuroprotection]

Ya know...I read all these things how people's lives were better after they quit caffeine, and sleep improved and all this shit... I quit for 6 months..and ya know what?

I didn't see anything like that... Nothing improved

Now I only drink 1 nice mugful or a couple espresso shots in the morning and that's it... So maybe it's the people that drink caffeine all throughout the day that are seeing a difference?

What a brilliant point you made there. i’ve seen so many documentaries and articles about people whose lives changed for the better after quitting caffeine. One thing I noticed about many of those people is they had unusually high stress levels, underlying insomnia or mental health problems which caffeine was exacerbating. I don’t deny there is some major benefit to quitting caffeine temporarily, Especially for people like me who love it so much. Completely stopping for a month or two, can really reset tolerance but also allows one to truly appreciate how much this God-given miracle caffeine truly helps us. other key benefits I’ve gained from temporarily stoping caffeine once the withdrawals have passed include; greater appreciation for the flavour of food, as well as a sense of energy after eating it, this is difficult to describe, but I feel that my thoughts are somewhat deeper and more introspective and emotional, deeper and more refreshing naps and sometimes greater appreciation for other rewards like nicotine or even watching TV. in future, I do hope to take A few months break from caffeine outside the fasting month of Ramadan to see how this affects me without the compounding effects of things like not eating and drinking all day. nevertheless, I always end up going back to caffeine because at least for me, no matter how much tolerance I build up to it, it really does get me out of bed in the morning and generally always works to keep tiredness away when I have little valuable time to do my hobbies.

 

[Neuroprotection]

i’ve probably made this .1 million times before in my previous post, so please forgive me. for all my praise of caffeine, nicotine is far superior as both a recreational and functional stimulant in my opinion. aside from the first dose, I find nicotine to be much less jittery and far more pleasurable than caffeine, though it’s effects aren’t entirely comparable. I feel that nicotine’s addictive effects are far more subconscious in that cravings can suddenly arise as if out of nowhere even when not linked to any withdrawal symptoms. I love nicotine for the many ways it can be administered, but more importantly because of the gentle, yet extremely rewarding stimulation it produces. maybe I’m wrong, but from my experience using nicotine, I have to disagree with those that say it is not a real stress reliever in the long-term. The most productive parts of my life We are characterised by having a were characterised by my secret heavy nicotine use. this was no cognitive enhancement, but rather some type of emotional resilience it gave me as well as the immediate therapeutic sensations of nicotine administration itself. The same, can’t be said for everyone.



My father, who was a smoker was always much more productive when he quit smoking and wasn’t using any nicotine replacement products. he claims nicotine makes him lazy and encourages him to procrastinate. Partly because of his experience, he’s a partly because of his experience, he’s a somewhat strong opponent of smart drug use and he doesn’t believe any drug can make a person more productive. Rather, he believes all psychoactive substances, will only make a rather, he believes all psychoactive substances will only make a person less productive. Little did he know The high grades I achieved at university could be at least partly attributed to heavy use of nicotine which helped me cope with psychological stress and push ahead. although I’ve never tried illegal drugs or traditional psychostimulants, I imagine nicotine to be much closer to illegal drugs in its rewarding capacity.

 

[golego55]

Quitting caffeine?!!! Caffeine????? You've been smoking too much nicotine man.

 

[golego55]

The only drug that gave me a really hard time to quit? Diet Soda.

For whatever reason the caffeine/aspertame combo had me really hooked.

It sounds funny but my sister noticed that if I didn't have a soda every 20 mins. I started to fall apart.

Aspartame? What self-respecting caffeine addict takes Aspartame in their soda? Why don't you just put embalming fluid in your cigarettes while you're at it...

 

[gordonliddy]

Aspartame? What self-respecting caffeine addict takes Aspartame in their soda? Why don't you just put embalming fluid in your cigarettes while you're at it...

You are right! How low I was. It was ironically the little Muslim in the convenience store who called me out. He was like, "Yo, Bro, you're drinking six liters of diet soda a day. ....are you allright?"

I was that guy. I needed a diet soda intervention. How low I had sunk! You're not kidding at all! It happened to me! To me!

 

[Neuroprotection]

You are right! How low I was. It was ironically the little Muslim in the convenience store who called me out. He was like, "Yo, Bro, you're drinking six liters of diet soda a day. ....are you allright?"

I was that guy. I needed a diet soda intervention. How low I had sunk! You're not kidding at all! It happened to me! To me!

Addiction to sweet carbonated drinks, diet or otherwise, is a lot more common than people think. there are quite a few factors at play, some psychological and some more biological but they interact together to create a powerful attachment to the drink and its consumption. Interestingly, caffeine might play a role in this. I once read an article that suggested that low doses of caffeine, delivered by soft drinks like coca-Cola strongly enhance the rewarding effects of the sweet taste and produce a conditioned reinforcing effect which causes the brain to register the particular set of flavours in that drink as highly pleasurable. this is perhaps why addiction to certain drinks like coca-Cola, Pepsi, Dr Pepper and Irn-Bru are a little more common than addictions to things like sprite or lemonade which don’t contain any caffeine. That’s not to say that addiction doesn’t occur to those things, it’s just less common according to my humble observations. apparently, the conditioning affect works best when caffeine levels in the drink are enough to reach the brain, but not enough to produce a noticeable stimulating effect. in regards to why sugar-free/diet soft drinks have more of a reputation for being addictive, there are a few possibilities. some believe the artificial sweeteners are in themselves more reinforcing than sugar although little scientific evidence exists to support this. another, more plausible reason is that people feel less guilt or fear about drinking these drinks since they lack calories, and shouldn’t cause them to put on weight. despite what the media and some scientists say about artificial sweeteners causing weight gain and being worse than sugar for this, at least in my experience, and that of many of my friends, sugar-free sodas don’t cause weight gain and I have lost a tremendous amount of weight using them. i’m only talking about weight gain here, I do believe artificial sweeteners may be very harmful in many other ways. back to the addictive effect, replacing regular sugar with calorie free artificial sweeteners is much easier on the digestive tract. this allows you to consume much more of the drink then you would be able to with the regular, much denser sugar containing form. actually, long-term consumption of sugar-free varieties may cause the digestive tract to adapt to the absence of sugar. then, next time you consume The regular full sugar drink, it can feel extremely sickly and very heavy and may even lead to bloating, nausea and maybe diarrhoea.

 

[G_Chem]

much of the benefits of coffee does not depend on caffeine tho.

This is true. The health benefits mostly come from the antioxidants present. So it’s best to consume lightly (lighter the better) roasted beans, preferably robusta (found in espresso mixes) and a more coarse filter (think metal wire strainer over coffee filter) to maximize antioxidant content.

There are some health benefits to the caffeine itself too but the vast majority come from the antioxidants. For Americans, coffee is by far the most important source of antioxidants in their diet. Chocolate probably not terribly far down the list either.

-GC