caffeine withdrawal is real
It seemed like a practical move when I quit drinking coffee; it wasn’t for health reasons that I did it. I had no idea I was so strung out. If I had known from the beginning how caffeine withdrawal feels, I probably wouldn’t have made the switch. Come to find out Caffeine Withdrawal Is Real.
My cracked French press carafe had finally broken, buying coffee every day was costing over $40/month and I had like 3 lbs of this yerba mate stuff that someone had given me, just sitting in the cupboard. I figured it’d be like drinking coffee, which it wasnt.
First I subbed yerba mate in for coffee on the weekends, when walking to the corner cafe for a drink to enjoy at home began to seem ridiculous. After a couple weeks I took some into work and started drinking it there during the week, fully switched off coffee.
The tiredness I felt at first was expected, but I didn’t get any headaches or think that I would. Around day 3 I started developing flu-like symptoms. It could have been a very mild flu, but the sore throat and mucus never got overwhelming and I was working, working out, eating healthy, all better than normal.
At the start of week two, I experienced body aches so severe that they woke me out of my sleep. Pain bowled up and down my body between my knee and my waist, mostly on the left side and in my hips. I’d experienced something similar while fasting, which not incidentally, was the last time I’d ever abstained from coffee for more than a day or two. That passed in about 3 days.
Now I’m on week three with no coffee and am feeling much better, more alert, no aches & pains, other symptoms fully gone. I still take caffeine; some of the yerba mate I have is a blend that includes green tea, and I’ve had other teas and soda. It’s not like I’ll never have a good cup of coffee again, but now that I know how fully addicted I was, I’ll try to take it easy.
And even tho I make yerba mate wrong (through a tea strainer into a coffee cup), I look forward to learning more about it and tea in general. (I’ll just go ahead and ignore this story from Finland about coffee lowering the risk of liver cancer.)
10/07/2008 at 5:19 am Permalink
Wow that doesn’t sound like caffeine withdraw at. I’ll usually get a bad headache if I don’t have coffee after about twenty-six hours or so, but the last time I quit I never got aches and pains.
It’s too late now, but if you ever start up again and want to quit, just mix decaf in until you can safely wean yourself. Caffeine is no joke and that’s why it’s my drug of choice!
10/07/2008 at 9:26 am Permalink
aaah haha you at one point fed my addiction a little lol nah but I’ve been a heavy coffee drinker for years and years and years
I didnt think it was withdrawal either, til I googled around and found from that article I linked and others that “flu-like symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, muscle pain, and stiffness” lasting 2-9 days are common in some people; guess I was one of the lucky ones O_o
08/04/2010 at 1:54 am Permalink
Oh yes, coffee withdrawal does cause body aches. I went to the doctor about them and he confirmed it. There is a lot coffee does to nerve endings and withdrawal does have an effect. Funnily I don’t get the headaches – just the body aches, and at night while I’m trying to sleep. Today had a mild coffee this afternoon (I’m usually a double shot girl) so hopefully will get some sleep tonight. Ha…how ironic.
07/06/2010 at 10:55 pm Permalink
I have been off caffeine almost 7 days and for the last 3 have had the most severe achey legs night and day but worse at night that I cant even sleep. I know it must be the withdrawal but wonder how long it will last? I also do feel like I have the flu.
13/11/2010 at 7:55 pm Permalink
Caffeine and nicotine – these are two major problems of our world and they are worse off because most people do not even consider it a real problem or think of it as an addiction. But of course caffeine addiction is real and too much of coffee is certainly harmful.
Hats off to your for being so brave!
Good luck!
Brad Kline
http://www.addiction-online.net
13/12/2010 at 9:48 pm Permalink
Wow, yeah I have kind of the same. Quit drinking coffee 3 weeks ago. The first 3 days we actually really really good, but now…i have not felt so tired in my life. My body is weak (normally work out every day) and i feel like i have to sleep all the time. My coffee intake wasnt that much though. I only drink 1 cup and some times 2 cups a day. That I am still tired made me surf the net as I would like to know if this is normal or not…but most people seem to get over it in a few days…maybe it depends on how long you have been drinking coffee…I can honestly say almost 30 years without one day of quitting.
27/03/2011 at 6:57 am Permalink
I was in the hospital for heart related testing and of course they put me off the caffeine completely. I was fine the first 48 hours and then the night I was released I began to suffer terribly from severe pain in my lower back, hips, thighs and calves. It was worse at night and I discovered after the second night that if I got up and walked 10 minutes every hour or two it relieved it greatly. I’ve done this the past few days also, which actually is a nice break from my desk job (though my co-workers think my walking around the tables in the conference room a little eccentric, the floors are carpeted so it’s more comfortable). I drink about 36 ounce of Folgers daily and if I have a coffee shop mixture with espresso I get the shakes and can’t sleep. I’m mixing my coffee 3/4 de-caf and 1/4 reg until some of this passes and then again I’ll drop more caffeine until my muscles feel better.
29/04/2011 at 4:56 pm Permalink
Well….if you are reading this then you know why you are here. This is day 3 of no coffeee and I feel like hell. Head ache, body pains, foggy head….I have it all. I will not go through this again. This is worse than quitting nicotine. I quit chewing tobacco about 3 years ago and I thought that was tough….HA. So again if you are reading this….YES it is the coffee withdrawels. After reading how many milligrams I was taking……..who the hell drinks 8oz cup…LOL. I was taking in almost 1400 mgs a day (2-24 oz coffees with 4-shots each. No wonder!! Here is an excerpt from “Livestrong”.
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You might have to do a little math to figure out how much caffeine is in a 24 oz. coffee. Most caffeine measurements are done on a standard 7 or 8 oz. cup. A typical cup of drip coffee contains between 115 and 175 mg of caffeine, depending on the strength of the brew. Multiply this by three, and you have 345 to 525 mg of caffeine in a 24-oz. coffee. A 24-oz. espresso drink, such as a latte, contains only 200 to 300 mg of caffeine, depending on how many shots are used.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/271972-how-many-mg-of-caffeine-are-in-a-24-oz-coffee/#ixzz1KyHV8Giq
16/06/2011 at 5:04 am Permalink
Thanks for posting here and mentioning the nerve ending pains – I’m having those in my lower back, hips, thighs and calves after being off coffee for a week. Took some Advil, just so I could fall asleep.
Hopefully, the pains are subsiding a little each day. I was wondering ‘can this be from quitting coffee?’ I thought I was going crazy. Hope they go away before too long.
06/08/2011 at 12:24 pm Permalink
I have gotten on and off caffeine so many times in my life it isn’t even funny and the most I’ve ever had a problem with is headaches…however, I got sick 5 days ago and decided I was stopping caffeine cold turkey so I could just have the headaches along with whatever bug I had. Day 3 of no caffeine I started having tingling, crawling sensations in my legs. Then I started having “zapping” feelings that would come and go all over my body. Day 4 they got more intense and my back would ache and ache. Yesterday was day 5 and the morning started out OK with only minor pains here and there, but they have been scary. Like nerve pain. I have looked EVERYWHERE to see if anyone else getting off caffeine has felt these things and have found nothing except the people who have posted here. I thought I was INSANE. I went to the doctor and they drew blood, took stool samples and tested me for EVERYTHING…and everything came back “normal”. The ONLY thing possible that this could be is caffeine related, although it has never happened to me before. The pains are still there today, but much less and today is the first day out of 5 that I do not have a headache. After going through this hell, I am NEVER, EVER, EVER going to touch caffeine again. Goodbye forever hellish friend!!!
18/08/2011 at 2:23 pm Permalink
Thank goodness for the internet!
I quit coffee 3 weeks ago and have felt like hell. I didn’t realize it was the coffee withdrawal at first. I thought it was related to my work outs or something really bad. My back was aching, my legs were aching and I had that restless leg thing happening at night..so weird! Today I decided to test my theory and had one cup of coffee in the morning. Iv’e been feeling great all day! No aches for the first time in 3 weeks! That’s when I got online and searched for “coffee withdrawal body aches”. This was an unexpected outcome to my coffee stoppage. I expected tiredness and headaches–neither of which I really got at all!
30/12/2011 at 2:43 am Permalink
stopped drinking a french press full of coffee cold turkey Monday. it’s Friday morning. the hip pain began at the end of day two. my friend saw me and said “looks like you’ve been hit by a car!” I’m a Pilates teacher and very flexible. just bending over a little bit has been terribly painful. my friend the physician suggested one 200mg. ibuprofen which works quickly to alleviate the sharp hip and pelvis pain, but after eating only a salad, my stomach was wrecked. placed a heating pad under my pelvis in bed last night and that worked from 10 – 1am when I woke up in sharp hip pain. got up, ate a piece of banana bread (heavy enough to protect my stomach) so I could take 200mg. ibuprofen which kicked in an hour later & got back to sleep. I’m praying this pain subsides soon. day 5…..
06/01/2012 at 1:02 pm Permalink
I’m so happy to find out that I’m not the only one experiencing these crazy coffee withdrawal pains!!! I stopped drinking coffee 6 months ago and went through 10 days of hell, sore throat, aching neck, back, hips, legs, waking up in pain every hour through the night. Then stupidly I forgot all about it and thought I could drink a cup or two for Christmas. I was immediately hooked and had 3-4 cups a day for about 10 days, and then I quit again, 4 days ago. Guess what, I’m now going through the exact same thing, how could I be so stupid! And nobody believes me, they think I’m totally crazy when I explain about the coffee withdrawal. At least this time I know it will pass in a couple of days …
01/02/2012 at 12:11 pm Permalink
I’m actually going through Caffeine withdrawal right now. I quit drinking soda about a week and a half ago, it is terrible. I am still going to school and after school each day I am thoroughly tired. I have headaches and an extreme sore throat. Medication works until it wears off and then i am back with the same symptoms. But i refuse to give in.
03/03/2012 at 8:31 am Permalink
I woke up day 3 and was wondering why after 8 hours of sleep why my legs ache so bad. i was puzzled then I realized it was the coffee withdrawls. I immediately searched for caffeine withdrawl and body aches and sure enough. Wow I do feel like crap mentally and physically. The first day headache is pure hell. But ow i HAVE THESE BODY ACHES UGH.
31/03/2012 at 5:08 pm Permalink
i was diagnosed with some stomach problems so was given a list of food and drinks aswell as some tablets to avoid in a bit to make me feel better,coffee being one of those things.Ive been off coffee for about 5 days and right now,i cant sleep because my legs are really aching quite badly. I used to jog/run for excersise and ive never hurt so much as i do now! Ive just started to have the odd cup of coffee to see if the pain eases,if it does i intend to switch to decaf but this thread on here was very reassuring. Its a struggle! It sounds like if u can last beyond 10 days or so the aches might stop but at the minute im not sure i want the pains for another few days!