Is tea an option?

I think the slow-response thing does go away. I think I "need" coffee to clear the cobwebs and get me going in the morning. If I quit I think I would definitely be "slow" for a week or so, but would be alert and normal without it.

There are even some days where I haven't had coffee because of time constraints and I'm amazingly alert.

I think a tall glass of iced water or green tea could get you going. Of course, decent sleep and some exercise helps too.

Good luck, occhi. If you're addicted like I am you'll probably need Tylenol for headaches for the first few days or so.

Yeah, I'm still drinking tea. Green tea yesterday helped a little. I had some sort of Chinese tea that was in the cupboard this morning; it tasted like green tea, but I don't know Chinese tea very well, so I'm not really sure how caffeinated it was.

I've found (when I've done this in the past) that I can usually make the headaches go away with exercise, so that's my afternoon plan. It's just that right now, I feel like I'm receiving information at a normal speed, but that I'm three steps behind everyone else in processing it (and it just took me a good thirty seconds to remember the word "receive").

It's a slow day at work, so it's not a big deal, but it's frustrating. I feel dumm :-(

Are you trying to quit the caffeine or just coffee? I've quit caffeine a few times but always come back to it. Now, I'm trying to quit the sugary embrace of soda by just drinking tea... Though summer is the wrong time to develop a tea habit.

It's the perfect time to develop an iced-tea habit, though.

I once quit caffeine cold turkey and I used to drink coffee like crazy, and I didn't drink any again for literally years (five, six?): I really think you feel sluggish for a couple weeks, maybe three, but then it goes away, just eat some fruit or if it goes really bad sugary snacks, you'll be OK

I got back to drinking coffee and now I drink, I guess, 3 cappuccini a week, maybe four, and one espresso

Are you trying to quit the caffeine or just coffee?

I haven't quite decided yet. I just realized over the past few weeks that some anxiety that I'm trying to get under control flairs up a lot when I have more coffee than usual, and exists in noticeable but lower levels in the mornings right after I've had coffee.

But I don't really drink any caffeine other than coffee and the occasional green tea, so I'm not really sure if the anxiety is getting aggravated by coffee or by any caffeine. So I figure I'll stick with tea for a few days to get through the coffee withdrawal, and see how it goes.

(Plus, I stupidly picked yesterday to drop coffee -- the day I have a five-hour class in the afternoon/evening. It was pretty much "Give in and get some tea, or sleep through class.")

Just think of it this way: it's about eleventy trillion times better than giving up cigs. You can do it!

*sips coffee and takes a puff*

that's a lie, I'm actually sipping a vodka and pineapple juice... but since I usually refer to my caffeine habit as having my "bucket of coffee" every day, I'll flash my poetic license

It's the perfect time to develop an iced-tea habit, though.

Right on.

I've beens o proud of myself. I've been drinking iced-tea (regular and green) instead of Diet Coke. I've been quite successful. Right now I'm drinking a Diet Mt. Dew, though. Eeewww. Yum!

It's good you're allowing yourself green tea. That will take some of the edge off while trying to quit coffee.

Just think of it this way: it's about eleventy trillion times better than giving up cigs. You can do it!

Hee. I'm one of those annoying people who gave up cigarettes without any problem, so I'm not sure how helpful that is. :-/

But thanks for the vote of confidence!

oh, no! And you were one of my faborite peoble! Now I hab to hate you. Damn.

oh, no! And you were one of my faborite peoble! Now I hab to hate you. Damn.

Sigh. I know. I don't really get it, either, given that I'm perfectly capable of getting addicted to all sorts of other things.

I'm a huge fan of fruity tea. Twinings have a good range (uk). Dont know if there are international equivalents. Lemon and Ginger is a current favourite. Nettle and mint also is good Once you figure out that you need to keep the bag in the cup while you're drinking it, things just get better.

I switched from coffee to tea when I developed high blood pressure in my mid-twenties. Doc wanted me to go on meds, but I suggested that I might have an inkling what was causing it (um, maybe that 14-16 espresso shot a day habit, plus chocolate covered coffee beans, plus ibuprofen to deal with the headaches I kept mysteriously getting, plus certain other habits I won't describe here), so gimme 6 months. Sure enough, it worked, plus my anxiety level plummeted. Switching to black tea rather than going cold turkey helped the withdrawal a lot (plus I'm fussy about it, so the whole tea-making ritual is quite soothing). 'Course now I can't get going without at least a pot of tea, sometimes two, but obviously you don't have to go that way.

Lots of salad or leafy greens in the morning will negate much of the caffeine urge.

I went to a veg gathering once and realized at the last moment, too late, that I was stuck all weekend with no caffeine. A friend told me to load up on salad and it did the trick magically. And, at the time, I was a pot-a-day coffee drinker. Magic.

Hold on a minute, I thought tea had more caffeine than coffee. Maybe not the green tea, dunno...

In any case, switch to decaf coffee and you won't be jonesing for that coffee smell./

I wouldn't want to quit coffee, but I definitely stay away from the buckets. By 2 or 3 pm, it's either a siesta or coffee for me, seeming as how siesta's aren't 'appreciated' in Canada, I'm forced to have an espresso macchiato./ A couple starts the day. 3 espresso macchiato's a day... not bad.

Tea has more caffeine than coffee by weight, but a pound of tea makes a helluva lot more tea than a pound of coffee makes coffee. It's a common misconception.

Sorry, I should have cited a source or two. (Citations or it didn't happen!)

Also, I can't believe I actually typed 'It's a common misconception.' What a jerkoff thing to say, although I sincerely assure you it wasn't meant the way it came out.

I'm doing the same thing, occhiblu! What day are you on? This is the morning of day 6 for me, and I'm still super sleepy and slow. The headaches are much better; they peaked at day 3. I still take a few ibuprofen each day, but the full day headaches are gone.

Coffee is my only caffeine fix and I'm giving it up for anxiety-related reasons also. I think it's already working. I've been a daily coffee drinker for 15 years, but maybe I've just become too sensitive to it.

I went cold turkey, straight to decaf, and after two weeks I'll eliminate it altogether. A big part of my coffee addiction is the morning ritual. I'll miss it.

I stopped on Tuesday -- meaning, I had coffee Monday morning, then no more -- and I'm glad to hear you say day 3 was the worst, because I was not expecting headaches today and yet, here we are with the headaches. Sigh.

Though I think I may also have picked up a cold last week and/or my head is doing that "I don't like it when it's cold, then warm, then cold, now warm again" thing that usually keeps me low-level miserable through June.

And yeah, my anxiety is definitely down, but I can't tell if that's just because I'm tired. My irritation threshold has also lowered -- I found myself with a desire to kill pretty much everyone on the bus yesterday -- but my desire to actually follow through with anything other than a sleepily annoyed look has decreased, so... progress?

(Not, of course, that I ever followed through on killing anyone in the bus in the past. But the effort required not to start throwing elbows, hard, on a daily basis was getting a bit draining, and that whole claustrophobic OMG I need space and air that does not smell like homeless people and/or pot NOW or I will have to claw my way out of this giant metal tube that's likely to totally crumple if we get hit anyway and the driver is totally on meth and driving like a maniac and GOING TO KILL US ALL!!! thing seems to have cleared up. Sigh. I hate public transportation.)

Hmm. Perhaps, rather than quitting coffee, I should quit the bus.