Hey Guys,

It appears that I have a caffeine addiction.
think of 3-4 cans of red bull per day...

The problem at this point is that my body needs it to function properly.

I've tried cold turkey, but after 1 day I got a terrible headache which miracuously disappeared after one cup of coffee.

When I'm "high" on caffeine I am more assertive, outgoing, positive mindset etc.

If I don't use caffeine I have problems waking up in the morning and my mind doesn't work as fast/ isn't that clear. And I'm also very introverted then.

Does anyone have experience with this?
are there healthy alternatives to caffeine?

thanks :-D

At this point you can't really stop all at once.

Try this: Write down exactly how many caffeine beverages you drank today and tommorrow and so forth for a week. Then try to cut it down, drink 1/2 a can less, just throw the rest away. And decrease slowly until the addiction is gone. 1/2 a can less this week, then another 1/2 a can less next week.... etc.

DON'T STOP RECORDING. That little piece of paper shows your progress. Keep it, it is a measure of how much progress you are doing.

I used to be addicted to caffeine from drinking wayyy too much soda (i'm embarassed to say how much, but now I rarely touch the stuff). One day I just decided to stop, and I did. I endured the headaches, which lasted shorter than a week, made sure I was getting 8 hours of sleep every night, and drank lots of water.

Caffeine addiction is something Ive been noticing(not in myself) since living in Italy, the Italiens drink coffee the same way I used to smoke cigarettes, between classes or whenever theres time, its alway "lets go have espresso".

A friend of mine had the same problem but also drank and smoke too much, so she went away on this cleansing camp thing (kinda like rehab but not as harsh). Came back looking and feeling great.

I used to drink regular pepsi like it was water, and then I switched to diet. Tried diet for a while, and then switched to caffeine free. I found too that a headache and being extremely tired was the end result, so what I did was I would have at least one or two cans of regular diet pepsi, and during the rest of the day caffeine free diet pepsi (caffeine free diet pepsi has 1 calorie per can, and 0 sugar or carbs).

I wouldn't say that no caffeine is good, because we all know sometimes in the morning you need that jolt. Tylenol has a new product called "ultra relief" (in Canada anyways) and guess what the added pain reliever ingredient is? Caffeine! Caffeine is also a natural pain reliever and helps your body absorb medications.

http://www.webmd.com/content/article/46/1826_50681.htm

There's a source website.