Going Off Caffeine


The first step in dealing with your caffeine use is to notice how much and when you use it. Assess the amount of caffeine you are using each day and each week. Take out your food journal and read it with an eye to caffeine. Start by highlighting the foods and drinks that contain caffeine. Make a separate list of each of these.

Here is a chart that identifies the major sources of caffeine in the average diet.

Source	Amount	Caffeine mg.
Coffee Brewed	12 oz.	206
Coffee Instant	12 oz.	114
Coffee Espresso (one shot)	1 oz.	71
Coffee Double Latte	2 oz.	142
Coffee Brewed Decaf	12 oz.	4
Coffee Instant Decaf	12 oz.	3
Tea Brewed	12 oz.	71
Tea Iced Lemon Flavor	12 oz.	39
Cocoa	12 oz.	11
Mountain Dew	12 oz.	55
Diet Coke	12 oz.	50
Coca-Cola Classic	12 oz.	45
Pepsi	12 oz.	37
Dr. Pepper	12 oz.	37
Bromoselzer	1 dose	32.5
Midol	1 dose	32
Dexatrim	1 dose	200
No-Doz	1 dose	100

After you have highlighted all the caffeine you consume in a day, calculate the total milligrams of caffeine you are getting. Make sure to adjust the fluid ounces of your drink to the 12 oz. portion noted above. If you have 3 cokes in 32 oz. Containers in a day, you are actually having 96 oz. of Coke. Since one ounce of Coke has about 4 mg of caffeine, you are having almost 400 mg of caffeine. If you have 4 grande (16 oz.) cups of coffee in a day, you are having around 1100 mg of caffeine a day. Were you surprised to see the actual amount of caffeine you use? Had you realized all the sources of caffeine in your daily diet?

The effect of your caffeine dosage will depend upon your body weight. High caffeine use can induce symptoms of anxiety, a racing heart beat, shakiness, diarrhea, stomach pain, spots in front of the eyes, ringing in the ears or a tingling in your fingers or toes. All too often when people seek treatment for symptoms like these, no one ever asks how much caffeine they use. High intakes of caffeine can produce symptoms that are indistinguishable from those of anxiety neurosis. Doctors have been known to prescribe anti-anxiety medication while the patient is still drinking a pot of coffee a day.

If you drink more than 3 cups of coffee a day, or have more than two shots of espresso or drink more than three glasses of iced tea or have more than 3 cans of soda with caffeine, proceed more slowly with this next phase of your recovery. Do not quit caffeine "cold turkey." Withdrawal from caffeine may bring on headaches, nausea, lethargy, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, lack of energy, inability to work effectively, less sociability, shakiness or irritability. Sometimes people drink a lot of coffee at work and very little on the weekend. Over the weekend, they feel terrible and incorrectly attribute these feelings to having family problems.

Withdrawal from caffeine is not limited to high users. Some people can be drinking one or two cups of coffee a day and experience caffeine withdrawal. Or they may be drinking a six pack of Diet Coke, knowing they are cutting out the sugar, but never thinking about the caffeine. Before you start a caffeine detox, use your food journal to help you investigate your use pattern. Remember that when we are dragging around, feeling sleepy, lethargic, disoriented and foggy, a cup of coffee seems like a wonder drug. The problem is that we are using the wonder drug rather than dealing with the fact that we need to rest. Resting when we are tired may seem like an outrageous idea. But learning to take care of your body continues to be the focus of the path to recovery.

The other dilemma tied to your caffeine use is the connection to our socialization. Caffeine, especially coffee, is a huge part of the way we connect to others. If you aren’t going out for a drink, of course you will go out for coffee. We usually don’t invite people out for water. Coffee bars are the wave of new glamour, the good alternative to bars. You may not want to give up coffee because you feel so attached to all these wonderful cues associated with it. The aroma, the taste, and on and on. But remember, you can find ways to have the social and emotional enjoyment connected to the ritual without using the drug. You can go for coffee and have decaf. This maintains the social ritual but keeps you out of trouble. But pay attention to whether the cues are stimulating you to want the real thing. You may need to wait until your neurochemistry quiets down some. You will know the right thing to do.

Go back to your journal and use your awareness skills to identify whether your caffeine use is a problem. If you decide you want to take it out, you can do so with little physical discomfort. Withdrawal symptoms can be avoided by eliminating caffeine gradually.

Quitting Caffeine
Start with knowing how much caffeine you use and when you use it. Be very clear about identifying your patterns of caffeine use. Now make a plan to cover a month. The first week you are going to decrease the amount of caffeine you use by one-fourth. You can do this by cutting out one-fourth of the number of cups you drink or by substituting decaf for one fourth of your intake.

If you go the substitution route, you have two choices. You could have a decaf drink in place of one-fourth of your regular cups of coffee. That’s the hard way. And you probably won’t like it because your body will notice that it didn't get any caffeine and will start screaming an hour later. When you have your next cup of the real stuff, you will inhale it in desperation.

A better plan is to substitute one-fourth decaf in each cup you are drinking. Yes, the person at the counter of the coffee store will do this for you. Just ask. Or when you make a pot of coffee for yourself, include one-quarter decaf in the grounds. Now don't cheat and get stronger coffee. Use the same coffee, the same rituals and drink your cup at the same times of the day. If you do it this way, you will hardly notice a change. Remember that your food plan will be supporting your brain chemistry. As you have worked to increase your serotonin level, you will have more impulse control.

The second week, you will do the same thing, only decrease the amount of caffeine by one-half. That means ordering or making every cup of coffee you have half decaf and half regular coffee. Trust me, your body will adjust. Remember abundance rather than deprivation. We are working to get you off caffeine, not take away all that is associated with the emotional and social comfort of 'going for coffee.' You can be creative about this.

The third week, guess what you are going to do? Three-quarters decaf. And the fourth week you will go off caffeine and drink only decaf. Do this for another week. Then decide whether you want to cut down on the decaf. Some women find that they have a negative response to even decaffeinated coffee. If you have cystic breast disease, you may need to cut it out entirely. You may find that it really isn't as important to be having coffee all day. The decaf doesn't have the same charge, does it? It’s the drug caffeine that you love.

Your caffeine use may be coming from diet soda. You won’t be able to mix decaf with regular as with coffee. Develop a plan for how many sodas you will have in a day. Replace some with caffeine-free drinks. If you can’t get the right kind of caffeine-free diet soda from a vending machine, try a different brand. As you go through this process, be attentive about how many 'diet' products you are using. Remember that phenalalanine can act like a stimulant in your body. You may be physically addicted to the 'diet' chemicals without realizing it. Use your well developed skills to sort how where the draw is.

Usually when people go off of caffeine, they don’t feel well for a while and then they feel enormously better. The effort was well worth it. However, going off of caffeine may have some problematic effects. If you’re depressed, you may be using caffeine to cover your symptoms. When you complete your caffeine detox, you may find it is extremely difficult to get out of bed, that you are tired all the time, you have no energy and you just want to sleep all day. If the food changes have not helped the symptoms either, then it is important for you to seek professional support. You do not have to grope through life not feeling good.

As you finish your caffeine detox, you may experience some other changes. If you have panic attacks, you may find they improve significantly when you stop using caffeine. If you have anxiety, you may find this is the first symptoms which improves. If you suffer from attention deficit disorder (ADD), you may have been using a high caffeine dose to quiet your brain. At high dosage caffeine can create a Ritalin-like effect by overloading the dopamine system and causing the receptors to downregulate. When you stop using, the system upregulates and you may feel less focused and more scattered. However, many people find that the dietary changes they make prior to removing the caffeine significantly affect their mental functioning in a positive way.

(c)Kathleen DesMaisons 2006. All rights reserved.