headache today - finally gave up caffeine... again

[miriam_e]

I've given up caffeine a few times before. Each time I get sucked back into it when having to pull an all-nighter, generally to complete some software on a deadline. Of course that's usually followed by a long period of debugging so I'm never able to sleep it off, so keep using caffeine to stay on track. Of course when the big panic is over I find I'm hooked again and need to look for a rare idle few days to allow for headaches withdrawing from the rotten drug.

I've resolved to never let it happen again. I've given up caffeine this time for good. I'm sick of being held to ransom by a stupid chemical.

What's the bet that some years down the track we'll find out that caffeine is not the harmless substance everybody wants it to be. Boy! This damn headache sure tells me something is not right with it.

Comments

[greylock]

YMMV, but, I have pretty much never have had the headaches, and can drop coffee as needed.

I can drink as much as possible without major effect (no doze? different story. I have OD'd on them once) and stop drinking it then needed. When I do pick it up my body treats it like speed.
Coffee it;s not an everyday drug.

IIRC coffee is also prescribed for bad headaches, and anecdotally it works, it does something with the blood vessels(?). (That spelling is wrong but DW says it's right and I don't care to check), so you might want to can the literature.

My experience with coffee seems to be unique among people I know, but I threat it differently to most.

[miriam_e]

I'm amazed at the number of people who've told me that they can stop caffeine anytime they feel like it and they don't get the withdrawal effects. I put it down to our extraordinarily selective memory (I know I'm as big an offender here as anybody else -- selective memory is an extremely difficult thing to guard against). I think everybody gets the headaches, but they mostly shrug it off as a bit of flu, or been concentrating too hard, or the glasses aren't doing their job properly, or need another glass of wine/beer/spirit. The headache doesn't get associated with the caffeine because nobody likes to think of themself as addicted to something.

In my experience the headaches caffeine fixes are generally those it creates thru its lack. :)

When I don't use caffeine for a long time then try it, it is enough to keep me awake most of the night. In comparison, when addicted to the crap, a drink of it helps me to sleep.

[greylock]

I put it down to our extraordinarily selective memory

I can tell you: it's not that. I have looked for it.

I think everybody gets the headaches
lifelong sufferer.
Even before I drank.

[miriam_e]

Okay, however it does strike me as odd that almost every person I've mentioned caffeine withdrawal headaches to has said that they don't get them... it is impossible for so many people to be impervious to caffeine's insidious effects. I think most people use so many drugs (caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, guarana, marihuana, codeine, etc) that untangling the effects is nearly impossible. Even untangling just two (for example alcohol and caffeine) is a nightmare.

For years caffeine was the final remaining drug I used.
Now I am just me. Yay!

Yep, I'm a lifelong sufferer of headaches too. I get it from my Mum, though thankfully I rarely get her terrible migraines. I'm pretty sure I get fewer headaches when I'm free of caffeine for long periods (another reason for me to give up the horrid chemical), so I'm looking forward to that.