Quitting an Addiction - No More Coffee

Posted on | October 21, 2009

10 days ago I stopped drinking coffee. This wouldn’t be a worthy news if I wasn’t an avid coffee drinker and a huge Illy fan. I have been drinking between 4 to 6 espressos or cappuccinos per day (not to be confused with the funny American lattes or similar water like coffee). You might imagine that my body was quite used to the daily dose of caffeine.

Why quit?

Why would one stop drinking coffee completely? Well coffee is a drug by definition, and a very addictive one.

Caffeine is a bitter, white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that is a psychoactive stimulant drug. Source

Secondly I often found myself jaded and intoxicated by caffeine. Something had to be done, so I decided to stop drinking coffee - totally stop.

Consequences

Day 1 - Terrible

My head was on the verge of explosion at about 10AM (I usually had 2 espressos before 10AM). At 1PM it was getting really painful. I had to go home at 5PM and have an aspirin. I went to bed at 9PM and slept for 10 hours. I drank loads of water and natural juice to fight the suffer.

Day 2 - Please kill me now

Same story again. Headache before noon. Headache in the afternoon. As avid coffee consumers might know - the coffee after lunch is really hard to miss. Juice, water and chocolate did not help much. I was on the verge of letting go and grabbing a coffee, but I resisted. Went to bed at 10, slept for 10 hours.

Day 3 - Not so bad

Nice day. Headache was gone. My thoughts were getting clearer and I did not suffer anymore.

Day 4 - Last kick

My thoughts got incredibly clear. I was able to start the day normally at 7:30AM and work normally for almost the whole day. The only moment of weakness was right after lunch, but a glass of natural juice helped. Sleep back to normal 7 hours.

Day 5 - Free at last

Waking up was quite easy. Easier than in times when I was drinking coffee. Eyes wide open after just a few minutes are not a problem any more.

Day 10 - This is great

After 10 days I feel like a totally different person. Free of an addiction, and with clearer thoughts and a huge creativity boost.

What now?

I definitely intend to drink coffee in the future, but not for power boost effects. I intend to enjoy its psychoactive stimulant effects and the great taste a good espresso has (of course it must be Illy) approximately once or twice a week - as a special occasion.

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