March 08, 2006

• Emily u r simply a caffeine addict albeit the cold version as opposed to the hot. You don't say if you drink coffee as well or not - if you do - no problems substitute the hot for the cold - if you don't - find any caffeine addict website and rules for getting off it.... I drank the vile stuff but hate coffee - it can be endured. Just stop - after a few days it is not so hard
• "Am I addicted do you think?" Of course! "If I quit now what would the effect on my system be to be totally without a substance that my bodies been virtually living on for 20 years?" Caffeine is a hell of a lot more potent than most people think. But it is not so potent that it is gonna risk your long-term health (the aspartame in the thing is probably worse for you than anything else but I'll leave that topic for another time). What's gonna happen if you come off the diet coke is that you will be grumpy as hell and headachey for a few days, you will be constantly searching for something to put in your mouth! You may find that it takes a couple of weeks to a full month or perhaps more (I've no idea how long caffeine stays in the body or whatnot) to totally detox. But as far as long-term, life-threatening health issues, you could be addicted to far worse, believe me. Lately I've been drinking a lot of the new Coke 0 which is not bad. I found myself wired and wide awake after drinking a copious amount of it. So even for an experienced druggie like me, caffeine can give you a thrust. I have recently gone back to drinking tea, as I have switched from using artificial sweetener in my coffee for years (a habit picked up from the Mrs) back to sugar, and I find it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, so I've gone back to tea.
• Wean is the right term. You drink 1.5-2 liters daily you said. So cut back to 3/4 of that. Try that for a few weeks, then cut back another 3/4. No particular need to go cold turkey. Just scale down to what is an acceptable balance for you. Baby steps. The sudden realization that all of your motivating power was from caffiene can come as a shock.
• To Chyren's point about health- drinking a lot of caffeine can be bad if diabetes runs in your family. Keeping your endocrine system revved up all the time causes your pancreas to crash in the long-term. Coming off a caffeine addiction can be tough. I did it about three years ago for the reason stated above. The easiest-on-the-body and least grumpy-inducing way is to gradually decrease the amount you drink, subbing in water or another noncaffeienated drink. (I used herbal tisanes). One of the benefits of weaning yourself off of caffeine is that your body resets its tolerance after some time, and you only need a fraction of the previous volume to get the effect. A single bottle of Dr. Pepper at lunch is enough to keep me flying all afternoon. Good luck with this... it's hard but worth it.
• Yes. I switched to coffee & tea a little bit ago, and it's been pretty easy. (Give up caffiene? Haha! Good one Harry! *BLAM!* . . . UhOh . . . whoops) Throw a sparkling water or something in the mix and it's all good.
• Just quit. I dramk more than that amount in coke for years. I quit. I had a headache for a day or two because of the caffeine withdrawl. Other than that, there was no problem at all.
• Doctors have detected traces of blood in my Diet Cokestream.
• I was a heavy diet ola drinker in my teenas and early twenties. I mean, heavy. I weaned off, substituting the caffeine-free versions. I did get headaches for a few days, but nothing too bad. I was off the stuff for years, but started again when I started dozing off at work. I compromised, and now I only drink caffeine in the hot form. The thing about caffeinated sodas is they don't keep you hydrated.
• coffee & tea have antioxidants too. Iced coffee (Thai coffee anyone?) is excellent if you want the cold factor.
• I've gone off caffeine at various points, usually because I wasn't sleeping well. My recommendation is to drink tons of water when you quit. When I've done that it's really helped to lessen the withdrawal symptoms. Of course, if your primary hydration has been through soda, as mine was for years and years, you might say that you don't like plain water. When I started forcing myself to drink water instead of something else, it became second nature really quickly.
• Imagine all that money you have collectively put into Coke's coffers. Cringe. Go cold turkey by way of self-flagelation.
• Mr. Mickey is heavily addicted to the DC as well. If snow is predicted, most people go buy bread & milk - he's loading up on 12-packs of Diet Coke. Gradually cut back your consumption. If nothing else, it's expensive. And replace that last serving you'd normally have with water. Keep replacing each serving until it's nothing but water all day. Go as slowly as you like, but at least feel like you're making progress. You didn't mention if you had trouble sleeping or not, but without that much caffeine in your life, something might change in your sleep patterns or how tired/not tired you are during the day. Water is good for you. That much Diet Coke - not so good for you. And you don't need a bunch of monkeys to tell you that.
• See the hard core users call it "tha DC" or "bein' on tha Diet". If you're not too far gone, there is a chance to escape.
• I've always felt that water is an important ingredient in many fine beverages.
• Or you could transition to Diet Mountain Dew, which is what I did. Really helps rid you of all the excess phosphorus from the DC (VERY bad for your bones), plus the step up in caffiene has been fun. But if you really want to cut down on the caffiene, start weaning yourself slowly and be sure to arm yourself with a bucket of ibuprophen. Also you might want to consider starting some weight-baring exercise and supplementing with calcium and vitamin D to make up for all the years of ravaging your bones with DC. Sorry if that sounded grim, but it has been something that I've been worrying about myself. Hence, the Diet Mountain Dew.
• Fuck, is THAT what's wrong with my bones?
• A can of coke is the equivalent of one third of a cup of coffee, caffeine-wise. So you've been drinking roughly 2-3 cups of coffee a day. Certainly enough to have noticeable withdrawal effects. Conspiracy Theory Note of the Day - 'friend of a friend' worked as a chemist for the corp that developed aspartame. Although the chemist didn't work on the sweetener project, he got to see the research results. He refuses to let anyone in his family consume aspartame. Feel better now?
• aspartame = people!
• Mr. Mickey is heavily addicted to the DC as well Yeah but you still chose him over me, didn't you? And who's sorry now, eh? HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA oh wait I am.
• Yeah that spooky Italian Medical Journal report on aspartame was partially the reason I bolted to the healthy antioxidant full, rich flavor of coffee country. Hi-yaaahh! Yip! Yip! *shlllrrrrp*
• I'm with aceyim, the first thing I thought of is that drinking that much soda for that long a period of time will leach the calcium right out of your bones! I'd do more than start weightbearing exercises--I'd get a bone scan, especially at your age. I don't drink any soda at all (Milo of "Bloom County" saying that it tastes like malted battery acid back in 1982 put me off it forever!) and my bone scan a few years ago showed too much bone loss for someone my age. It is a big concern if you are a massive soda drinker.
• I only drink Coke or Diet Coke if the extremely dire adverse health effects of cola/aspartame etc., have been graciously mitigated by the heavenly intercession of bourbon.
• May the bourbon be with thy cola, Ame*hic*-men.
• Wow! Thanks for all the info - I don't have any trouble sleeping but do have some problems with my joints especially when it's about to rain. I had no idea my DC addiction and my bones could be connected. Now I really am going to have to slowly get off this fiendish stuff.
• Aspartame, artificial sweeteners, diet sugary drinks: not good. Really. I've had to steadily decrease my coffee intake, and currently love chai tea. Apart from the much-less recurrent sugary coffee from international chains, I tedn to drink it with no sugar at all. Same for tea; maybe some raw sugar once in a while, but that's it.
• speaking of, anyone got opinions on this energy drink thing? no, not that steven segal thing. Bad Koko!
• Black tea with milk and honey. Tea's got enough of a kick that even an old coffee addict like myself found it easy to transfer to, the milk gives it some texture, and the honey makes it sweet without giving you the white-sugar rush/crash. And the truly desperate can drink one pot at a time and still not run the risks of coffee intake. Mmmm... tea.
• Oh, and fuck energy drinks. Fuck 'em right in the sheep-hole.
• As one who goes through cycles with her caffeine addiction, cold turkey sucks for a couple of days, but works. My new method of reduction is the 1/2 caf approach. This works with coffee/tea and fountain beverages, not so much with bottled things, I suppose. Reminding myself how much money I'd blow on espressos and lime dc in a bad week is also a good motivator to not be such a crackhead for caffeine.
• Energy drinks = overwhelmingly-popular marketing ploy! Suckers!
• But you guys, coffee tastes like liquid crap! Also, I'd get a bone scan, especially at your age. . Speak up, girly. I don't have my hearing aid on 'cause it runs down the batteries. Why, when I was your age I had to drink my diet sodas out of wooden cans...
• I had to drink MY diet coke out of stone cans. And I walked uphil through the snow to the Quik-E-Rock to get them. Both ways. But they were nice and cold that way.
• MonkeyFilter: you don't need a bunch of monkeys to tell you that Yer GramMa speaks: Wean slowly, but surely. Don't make yourself miserable anymore than you have to. Besides, that way you can slowly substitute one drinking habit with another--water, tea, whatever. Set a goal, and write it down. Follow it. That is all.
• Oops, thanks, Lara! I guess my comment about "at your age" came off the way it shouldn't have. I should mention that I am 37 myself, so it wasn't meant to be taken negatively! I think bone scans are recommended for women at about the age of 40.
• I was just kidding, honestly! I agree about the bone scans. Just tickled my funnybone the way you put it.
• Get your bone scan from a real doctor. I know several of the Monkeys around here will volunteer to "do your bones" but you don't want to go there.
• Shhh! GramMa! I totally was gonna play that!
• I find it amazing that I've been able to quit drugs, most of my drinking and cigarettes but quitting caffeine is not even an option. I would be comatose. Plus, I seriously cannot take the pain of those headaches. My head is well-trained in letting me know when I missed my morning dose of caffeine. Coffee. It's all about the coffee. So, yeah, good luck with that.