this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
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[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 25 points 1 year ago (4 children)

There's withdrawal but of the four drugs i have been physically addicted to (caffeine, weed, nicotine, and SSRIs) it's the only one I can cold turkey in under a week and feel fine.

[–] NickCudawn@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, caffeine cold turkey is unexpectedly tough.

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't drink coffee or tea, but I usually drink caffeinated soda with food. I visited another country a few years back where soda isn't usually drank except in special occasions like at parties. I couldn't figure out why I had such a bad headache for the first few days. I thought the caffeine content from soda would be low enough that I wouldn't have withdrawals. Finally on about day 5 I decided to have tea with my breakfast, and no headache that day. That was when I realized what a caffeine withdrawal headache felt like, and I finally realized why I get headaches if I don't have lunch at my regular time (when I usually have my soda).

I really wish I could get caffeine free cola, because I don't even want the caffeine. I just want the cola flavor. But it seems the only caffeine free cola that is sold in stores is also diet, which I don't like the taste of. They sell caffeine free, non-diet cola online, but at absurd prices.

[–] Meruten@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

£5 for an 8 pack of coke zero decaf at the supermarket, I just checked. What and where are you looking at?

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 2 points 1 year ago

I'm in the US. It isn't available in any stores here. You can get it online for $20 for a 12 pack. Regular price for coke right now is $7 for a 12 pack, which is already shockingly high. About 10-15 years ago you could get 48 cans for $11.

[–] NickCudawn@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not trying to be a dick, but "I don't like the taste of diet soda" feels like a very minor inconvenience for fighting an addiction you want to shake

[–] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Aspartame likely causes cancer, probably worse for you than actual sugar. But the dosage of each makes all the difference.

[–] dandroid@dandroid.app 2 points 1 year ago

I don't care enough to shake the addiction to caffeine. It would be nice to, but not something I care enough to put much effort into.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's not so bad if you pop a Tylenol the first couple of days, just to get you through the caffeine migraine phase.

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Depends on how bad your caffeine addiction is. I tried cold turkey when I had a tooth pulled when I was drinking a pot of coffee a day.

A week in bed on Vicodin and Percocet, didn't touch that headache and it didn't improve or go away until I drank coffee.

Oddly, I ate a large bag of mushrooms and got tazed by the cops one night. Ended up in the psych ward. Was able to cold turkey the coffee after that. Not sure if it was the mushrooms or the juice from the tazer.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, I'm not sure if Vicodin or perc would help a migraine, different pain killers help in different ways. I think opiods are the least helpful when it comes to migraines, if I remember correctly.

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Vicodin has Tylenol in it

[–] crashez@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I confirm. Taking opioids against migraine gives you still a migraine, but on opioids. Not recommended.

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Vicodin has Tylenol in it

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

but we're not talking about migraines.

we're talking about caffeine withdrawal headaches.

neither of which are 💯 understood but that doesn't make them the same.

plus, Vicodin has Tylenol in it. so i was taking Tylenol.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Caffeine withdrawal can absolutely trigger migraines, easily.

Not sure about the Tylenol in Vic, but just that opioids in general don't work well. You can easily Google it.

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

I guess I don't associate caffeine withdrawal headache with migraine as I don't generally get migraines but tension headaches instead.

The caffeine withdrawal felt like my head was imploding, if that makes sense. Not sure if that's a migraine or if opioids were making it worse, but the Vicodin I was prescribed absolutely had 500mg of Tylenol in it; and only 5mg of hydrocodone.

A week of this was terrible and it did not improved. I have sense learned to moderate caffeine and often drink tea instead of coffee or even decaf or halfcaff when I want to cut down. I will never try to cold turkey it again.

[–] erasebegin@lemmy.fmhy.ml 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

yes, I used to have the same experience. regular smoking and then stopping for a bit was fine. but it didn't leave my mind. It's not physically addictive, but neither is shopping or video games, or gambling, yet so many people are addicts

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

Weed is physically addictive. Withdrawal is very mild and only lasts a few days but it can happen with heavy use.

I didn't experience it until I got into edibles and vaping concentrates and I had used weed regularly off and on for twenty years at that point.

So it takes heavy use, but physical withdrawal is a real thing with weed. But as I said, it's the only drug I've been addicted to I would cold turkey.

[–] STUPIDVIPGUY@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

true it's probably the easiest drug to quit but there is a strong psychological addiction

[–] Burstar@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Caffeine isn't addictive. Your body acclimates to long term usage, and you will experience some withdrawal symptoms but this is classified as a dependency and not an addiction as it does not trigger the reward mechanisms like weed and or methamphetamine does. It's an important distinction and is why coffee and tea are often served at [Addiction] Anonymous meetings.

[–] treefrog@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

It's both. Nicotine is also both. Note how people at AA still often smoke. And how much coffee they'll pound even after dinner.

The only drug I misclassified is SSRIs. Which don't trigger the dopamine reward system.

And my comment was in light of OP and common language usage. People say heroin addiction and they mean heroin dependency. It doesn't help anyone to be pedantic about these two words. And I say that as someone who has taken college level classes on pharmacology and alcohol and drug dependence and is very aware of the technical differences used professionally.