Giving up caffeine

Coffee: I love it. A nice cup of tea: I think I may love that more. Chocolate: my favourite thing in the world! I love cola, Dr Pepper, anything fizzy with caffeine in it! So imagine my horror when my GP suggested that I cut out all caffeine. I pointed out to her that I had given coffee up once for about 6 months in the past and it didn't help me.

You see my GP and many medical experts and sensible people know that caffeine is a major trigger for migraine and headaches generally. There is also a lot of evidence that too much caffeine can increase anxiety.

I had been keeping a diary of food, mood, headaches and activities for over a month and my GP surmised from it that I needed to cut out the caffeine, everything this time. Not cut out coffee and make up for it by drinking gallons of tea and consuming buckets of chocolate. This time everything not event green and white tea that contain small amounts of caffeine. Nothing.

What would I do!!! My only enjoyment in life (slight exaggeration) is popping into a coffee shop and having a latte and some chocolate donut or muffin. I couldn't even pop into starbucks or Costa for a hot-chocolate, chai tea or even one of those Starbucks herb infused green tea! What would I do in the summer I had only just learnt about the frappe in the last year and the Surfin Cafe in Biggleswade do a mocha coffee frappe to die for!

But I want to get better. I am sick of being plagued by headaches and anything that might reduce my anxiety is worth a go. I was advised to come off the caffeine gradually so I didn't get any withdrawal symptoms. But after cutting down slightly on the first day I got an almighty headache and I thought blow this for a game of soldiers I'll go cold turkey. So I had 4 days of headaches, feeling grotty like I had a cold and craving coffee, pepsi max, a nice cup of tea.

I had discovered that you can drink redbush tea with milk in it. I'd only ever had it black and usually drinking enough of it instead of normal tea would induce a caffeine deprivation head ache. But now I tried it with milk and it was lovely and really got me through the worst few days of withdrawal. And yes redbush tea is totally caffeine free!

After 9 days of no caffeine most people are officially "clean" from the stuff. I'm on day 14 now and I have noticed some improvements. When I get up in the mornings whether its at the crack of dawn as it was on Monday or after a lie in, I don't feel groggy and my head is far less foggy than it used to be in the morning. I seem to feel more evenly balanced through out the day energy and mood wise. Plus buying a herbal or redbush tea in a cafe is a lot cheaper than a latte! It's too early to tell about the headaches but so far head ache free for a week.

So I think I may stick with this for good.