Caffeine Addiction

[Mike Flitcraft]

Anybody kick this thing yet? I've been drinking between 8-18 cups of coffee plus pop and water for about 2-3 years. Didn't have any coffee yesterday or today. Had my first case of heartburn yesterday, along with a huge ass headache, and today I've got the worst headache I've had in my life.

From what I understand this is going to go on for about a week. Any suggestions on coping with it? It is literally almost incapacitating me.

5 P.M. and I'm just starting on my 7 page research paper, 2 english paper revisions, and calc. Lots of water, tylonol, and excedrin to get to this point, and it still hurts like a mother.

[Mike Flitcraft]

Anybody kick this thing yet? I've been drinking between 8-18 cups of coffee plus pop and water for about 2-3 years. Didn't have any coffee yesterday or today. Had my first case of heartburn yesterday, along with a huge ass headache, and today I've got the worst headache I've had in my life.

From what I understand this is going to go on for about a week. Any suggestions on coping with it? It is literally almost incapacitating me.

5 P.M. and I'm just starting on my 7 page research paper, 2 english paper revisions, and calc. Lots of water, tylonol, and excedrin to get to this point, and it still hurts like a mother.

[Sathersc]

Good luck. I'm afraid to try.

[Matt Gignac]

8-18? a day?

I thought I was bad with five or six.

Good luck.

Matt Gignac
McGill Racing Team

[afroney]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike Flitcraft:
Anybody kick this thing yet? I've been drinking between 8-18 cups of coffee plus pop and water for about 2-3 years. Didn't have any coffee yesterday or today. Had my first case of heartburn yesterday, along with a huge ass headache, and today I've got the worst headache I've had in my life.

From what I understand this is going to go on for about a week. Any suggestions on coping with it? It is literally almost incapacitating me.

5 P.M. and I'm just starting on my 7 page research paper, 2 english paper revisions, and calc. Lots of water, tylonol, and excedrin to get to this point, and it still hurts like a mother. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why are you trying to fight it? Caffeine is what keeps FSAE leaders alive. I usually drink about 10 glasses of diet coke with my meals. Also, I have 3 Rockstar Triple Strength Energy Drinks/Day. Keeps me going through papers, projects, Design Reports, Cost Reports, etc.

[Mike Flitcraft]

I've been getting 5 hours of sleep on average for those 2-3 years, no bother.

This last month the consumption has skyrocketed due to the papers and projects, and cut my sleep down to 2-3 hours on average. Last week I went 2 or 3 days with the amount of sleep I got waiting for my spanish class to start.

The sleep is dearly missed, as is the money spent. I need a good holster and I'd like to try a few boxes of Corbon DPX. Looking at about $90 in ammo, $60 to ensure reliability, $30 for carry, and nice IWB leather holster. Shit gets expensive, I'm tellin ya.

[afroney]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Mike Flitcraft:
I've been getting 5 hours of sleep on average for those 2-3 years, no bother.

This last month the consumption has skyrocketed due to the papers and projects, and cut my sleep down to 2-3 hours on average. Last week I went 2 or 3 days with the amount of sleep I got waiting for my spanish class to start.

The sleep is dearly missed, as is the money spent. I need a good holster and I'd like to try a few boxes of Corbon DPX. Looking at about $90 in ammo, $60 to ensure reliability, $30 for carry, and nice IWB leather holster. Shit gets expensive, I'm tellin ya. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

2-3 hours?! Damn thats bad... I usually shoot for 5-6 hours. Usually, it catches up on me after a couple of weeks and I shut down for half a Saturday. I know the first week after competition, i'll sleep for 10-12 hours a day.

[Wesley]

I drink way more RedBull than anybody should, partly because it's all we have at the shop usually. (I bought a case of water though today)

I've never had a problem stopping caffeine though. I've had some friends report the same symptoms as you, but caffeine never really has done anything for me.

I would suggest making sure you eat decent food - maybe take a multivitamin. That always helps, especially with the kind of crap college students usually eat (and I'm no exception) and the usual, lots of water.

As for sleep, I'm a lightweight. I have to get a good solid 10 hours a night or I am an absolute zombie. Just ask the other team members about Wes sleeping all the time. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif It's pretty terrible, I think I inherited sleep apnea.

[JHarshbarger]

I don't think my addictions were as bad as some of you have described, but I have quit caffeine a few times. I always get migraines off and on for about a week after not having caffeine for the 2nd or 3rd day. I try to take one excedrin migraine if I can feel a headache coming on, and if it gets worse, I take a prescription migraine pill that doesn't have caffeine in it. The excedrin does have caffeine, but just taking a little helps ween me off of it.

Now that I've been off caffeine for about 2 months, I've slept better, wake up more rested and awake (even though I sleep less now), and I don't get any more migraines.

Also, check out this post of ApexSpeed.
http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21339

[JR @ CFS]

I cut myself back to one cup of coffee per day and now I´m down to zero! Got the bad headaches too, but I´ve found if you drink fruit tea to replace the coffee and eating between 5-7 pieces of fruit per day helps! Does wonders for your bowls as well http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

To top it all, I went off Alcohol and general sweets too...what pleasures do I have left in life...thankfully a girlfriend. I am one of the few who has one, although, her living in a different country kind of helps http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[Mike Flitcraft]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I'm starting on right now. Made the coffee with 1/2 decaf, 1/2 regular, and limited myself to 1 mug worth. Had a lipton green tee thing from the vending machine (damn.....a tea that tastes good!?!?!?!?!?), and found that it doesn't have any caffine in it.

Having a can of coke now, next week I'll try to knock the coke out of the picture.

[RawePower]

There you go, Mike. Phasing it out is the way to go. I found out last week that when I was only getting 2 hours of sleep a night (I mean 2 hours of sleep per 24 hours... rarely at night) that I eventually forgot about the wonder of caffine. I find that I'm much less likely to crash a lathe at 4 AM if I keep gorging on food, rather than chugging pop. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

P.S. I'm not old enough for coffee yet. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif

[JR @ CFS]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6422279.stm

[Mike Flitcraft]

Ben: Thanks for the advice. I'm replacing the coffee making with eggs instead of ceral, I'm noticing that I don't daze or nod off nearly as often in class. Should be off the caffiene by the end of spring break.

Not old enough for coffee Mr. Goatee grower? Everyone on my dad's side of the family's been drinking coffee since they were 8 or 9. Graddad started drinking at age 6 on the dairy farm in New Jersey.

Jonn: Interesting link, makes plenty of sense too.

[Mike Flitcraft]

Not off it yet, but down to 1 caffinated beverage a day, I'll take it. Especially since a cup of coffee has about 2/3 the amount of caffine used by docs to stimulate a heart http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_eek.gif

[BrendonD]

This thread inspired me to ask Redbull to sponsor our team. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif