ok i seem to be out of control on coffee i am not sure how much i had today but i am getting thru alot to the point where i am getting panic attacks i am using it like a drug at work and do not know how to stop my drug of choice is booze but too destructive at work coffee is acceptable by most
Tea. I also got a severe coffee jones early on. Now I never have coffee after 11 a.m. unless it's decaff instant.
Here's what I do. Up at 7, mug of filter coffee. Another half an hour later. Then it's tea only, starting with weak tea with lemon in a pint pot, 'cos I can drink that even when it's gone cold. Every other drink is water. 11:00 a.m. I have a double espresso with sugar and smoke a cigarrette. Then after that it's tea, tea and more tea, interspersed with water.
I also drink fruit teas, roibus, liquorice tea, cinnamon tea (all caffeine free).
It's the caffiene that gets me on the palpitations and too much coffee dehydrates me.
So limit your caffeine intake, lay off the coffee after mid morning, try different flavoured teas fot the taste buzz and drink water. lot's of it.
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Aloha BigG...Alcoholism is a disease of compulsion. If you find yourself drinking coffee like you drank booze you're doing what is normal and you're on a diet. I have found myself doing the same thing and labeling it correctly by understanding that I'm letting my compulsions run me. I drink coffee, soda, (hardly ever...water) juice and eat and do other things as compulsively as I drank...often, fast and alot. Do another inventory if you've already got some experience with it and run it thru the filter of the serenity prayer. Courtesy of my former sponsors and the journey.
ps...you're on a diet because you've cut the booze out.
-- Edited by Jerry F on Friday 2nd of October 2009 09:37:20 PM
My sponsor told me that for the first year or so, do whatever I have to do to keep alcohol out of my hands & mouth. He told me to keep my favorite snacks readily available. Re-discover my favorite childhood soda, experiment with different non-alcoholic drinks and do whatever I needed to that wouldn't kill me TODAY, because alcohol sure as heck could. I'm sure my cholesterol is red-lining and some days lunch is half a bag of Twizzlers, but I'm not drinking. Coffee. Hmmm. I found that without booze or other impairments it was hard for me to sleep, so my last cup of coffee is at my noon meeting, and then I'm ready to sleep by 9 or 10.
Use some natural energy boosters like sub lingual vitamin B12, Co-Q10, L-carnitine liquid, Raw Bee Pollen along with eating and resting well. Exercising will also boost your metabolism. Abusing coffee shuts down your adrenline glands and makes you tired and anemic, not to mention dehydrated. It also causes stress and insomnia. There are lots of nasty other things that coffee does to your body like, raising your blood pressure and cholesterol levels (stroke or heart attack anyone?), accelerates the aging process and dries out your skins giving you more wrinkles (and a few more listed below). Coffee plus cigarettes is 10 times as bad.
Signs and Symptoms of Caffeine Intoxication or Abuse
I'm still drinking coffee like crazy at 1 year....and cigarettes is bad for me too. I cut myself some slack but it needs work cuz I don't feel sober when I get so f-ed up on coffee and nicotine. I stopped at work/during work and basically nurse one cup all day. But still find myself doing it at home before and after and weekends bad if I don't get out of the house. This does mimic my drinking because my largest trigger for drinking was loneliness, hence I do it the most when I am at home alone. I can't give great suggestions here cuz it's still my problem...but...I can let you know you are definitely not alone. I guess I can say try to match every cup of coffee with at least the same amount of water so you don't totally dehydrate and it will slow you down some. I do everything compulsively still. I don't eat all day, then eat like a pig at night. I work all day and take zero breaks cuz it feels like I won't start working again if I take a break....I'm hoping this stuff evens out in time and am looking for suggestions here too. Maybe we should switch to compulsive praying?? Not sure how that would go over at work though.
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Last year, I was getting sick of drinking coffee all day, and just like you, I dont know if I was going thru Panic attacks, but my nerves were shot by early evening.
So I made a decision to try something different, I purchased one of those European Coffee Presses, and they had two choices, 6 cups, or just one cup. I very intentionally just bought the One cup version, the size of a tall glass of coffee, (my thinking was if I had to "wean" myself off, then I would have to go thru the motions of redoing the whole thing. (I don't like redoing stuff, )
So I took this little coffee press home, and I did have to purchase too, a pot that would boil water, and make a loud whistle, when the water was boiling.
Here's the good news, I made some boiling water, and into that Press, I put about three times the amount of coffee in it, knowing it would be like one cup of espresso. Absolutely LOVED the charge it gave me for the morning, as well as the robust flavor, and then I waited thru the day, and the desire to have another really strong coffee NEVER came back.
Still do just that every morning. And I never want another cup, well I have on maybe 3 or 4 occasions thought about going thru that process, then just got busy and forgot about it.
So the analogy I came up for myself was that in drinking 3 cups of coffee in the morning, was really, for me, the need to get that amount, (the espresso amount) and the afternoon coffee was just a very old bad habit. The coffee was just sitting there, and almost felt an obligation to drink it, did not especially care for that day old taste.
But the best part of this little two cent story is that I never ever ever went through any withdrawals of any kind.
So hope you get a handle on this, Coffee in large quanities, makes anyone jittery. Lots of jitters lead to Panic, that's my take.
I have also been there big C, in the early days, and nowadays I carry a small jar of decaff in my bag (Well, it's better than carrying a not-too small bottle of scotch) I had to come off the caffeine slowly, otherwise the withdrawals were too bad.
I started buying the filter coffee which was mild blend, then I went onto instant coffee over a period of months, then I started mixing full strength instant coffee with decaff, gradually increasing the amount of decaff I added to the mix, until now, I very rarely have full-strength coffee, and I don't miss it at all.
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Serenity is Wanting what you have, not having what you want
Always remember non-alcoholic beers are for NON-ALCOHOLICS
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