I quit caffeine about 18 months ago after two decades of (ab)use. Anyone who tells you that withdrawals only last a couple weeks has never actually quit. I was able to do my job (writing code) at the same level after about a year. It was completely worth it though. I'm able to concentrate better, work for longer stretches, sleep better, and most of the anxiety I used to feel has abated.
I quit caffeine about 18 months ago after two decades of (ab)use. Anyone who tells you that withdrawals only last a couple weeks has never actually quit. I was able to do my job (writing code) at the same level after about a year. It was completely worth it though. I'm able to concentrate better, work for longer stretches, sleep better, and most of the anxiety I used to feel has abated.
As I stated in another comment, I quite caffeine a few years back for about 5-6 months. I functioned well enough, but the haze never really left me. Since then, I have been able to contain my intake to a certain limit during certain hours. But it is still a compromise. The ability to sleep soundly a few nights in a row, as of late, is enough to convince me I need to find a different way. And to accept a slower, less crackling sense of what creativity is and means.
But as odd as it may sound I think that caffeine and how most of our lives are set up (for us) are related. It is the lack of connection to community, to beauty, to the natural meaning of growing things, building things and fixing things, that drive us to less satisfying alternatives. The past 80 years or more of "modern" city design is no small thing to overcome.
I quit caffeine about 18 months ago after two decades of (ab)use. Anyone who tells you that withdrawals only last a couple weeks has never actually quit. I was able to do my job (writing code) at the same level after about a year. It was completely worth it though. I'm able to concentrate better, work for longer stretches, sleep better, and most of the anxiety I used to feel has abated.
mber-
This is good encouragement. Thank you.
As I stated in another comment, I quite caffeine a few years back for about 5-6 months. I functioned well enough, but the haze never really left me. Since then, I have been able to contain my intake to a certain limit during certain hours. But it is still a compromise. The ability to sleep soundly a few nights in a row, as of late, is enough to convince me I need to find a different way. And to accept a slower, less crackling sense of what creativity is and means.
But as odd as it may sound I think that caffeine and how most of our lives are set up (for us) are related. It is the lack of connection to community, to beauty, to the natural meaning of growing things, building things and fixing things, that drive us to less satisfying alternatives. The past 80 years or more of "modern" city design is no small thing to overcome.
-Jack