Coffee addiction

[hava]

i have given up meat, alcohol, cigs and pot

it is as simple as stopping, and yes suck it up and stop being a wuss.

that sounds hard etc etc etc but it is honest and when you cut away all the bullshit you feed yourself... you are trying to stop... so... you just STOP. there is no alternative technique or theory or discussion or 'disorders' etc etc. JUST STOP. all side effects disappear with time. your subjective experience of time may change while 'quitting' but hey most of you would be used to time dilation/expansion effects wouldn't you ;)

the headaches can be dealt with via: panadol. cold shower to constrict brain blood vessels, and time. they disappear within a week or two (i found in reality its more like 2 or 3 days). try decaf coffee too, the placebo effect might trick your brain with the taste etc.

if you can't stop it means you didn't really want to. go ahead, make excuses

i pick my nose all the time... HOW CAN I STOP THIS

google gave me this

http://reallifespirituality.com/root-cause-of-all-addictions/

much love, and good luck (or whatever)

[incognito]

Hmm I think addiction is a lil more serious than that. A multi faceted approach is oft required to b successful IMO. However u have a point, willpower and determination is key.

[paradox]

well yeah, different chemical addictions have very different effects on the body & mind but you have to admit caffeine is extremely forgiving..

[hava]

yes i do not mean to underrate addictions... they can be extremely difficult to overcome as I have found. But from experience I can say the key really is just stopping. There is no other action which means you are quitting. If you stop stopping you have quit quitting. Everything else is just to support this action. Physiology and chemistry can make this difficult but not impossible.

TLDR: Stop, stay stopped and suck it up. It's not easy, pretty or pleasurable.

[chnt]

Exactly, just suck it up. I swear some of you people sound like a bunch of little school girls whinging about a scraped knee or some shit. Oh boo hoo, You feel a little fatigued and have a headache. Big deal!

I've been a major bong head since I was 12 years old and have quit for the last 2 months, without any major issues. I have also now quite tobacco for the last 7 days, which is the longest I've gone without tobacco, since I was 12.

How have I managed to do this? I've quit being a little fucking bitch about it and am not just sitting around feeling sorry for myself!

It was the exact same thing when I quit eating meat. I tried for years without success, after a few days I would just start thinking about how good meat tasted and how much my poor little tummy hurt. But then one day I just decided, FUCK THIS! I don't eat meat anymore and that's how it going to be! Haven't touched meat in well over 2 years.

Just man the fuck up! That's honestly all it comes down to with habits and addictions.

Peace

 

a little empathy every now and then goes a long way, one can not really understand what is happening in another being that is not them self.

everyone is different and everyone experiences things differently. everyone has their strengths and weaknesses which can be vastly different from person to person.

just because something worked for you doesn't mean it will work for everyone, and without being a trained professional in the field of say psychology or addiction or psychiatry or something of that nature, then i feel that you can't make absolute statements like that and have them carry any significant weight.

by the way, and not that it matters, but when i decided to stop, i also stopped and i put up with the week long withdrawals which including a 7 day long splitting headache/migraine, and full body flu symptoms, there was no relief in any aspect during that time, and i did not take any meds what so ever like paracetamol for example, but i put up with it and after 7 days the withdrawals were over, so if you're including me as a little fucking bitch then perhaps you've got the wrong impression, but even if i could be considered a little fucking bitch in the context you defined, basically this is a naive/ignorant view, and it is lacking in empathy, you can't know what others are experiencing, and you're not an expert in any of the fields i mentioned previously.

manning the fuck up isn't always the healthy option either, you're depressed, MAN THE FUCK UP, you hurt your back at work, MAN THE FUCK UP AND KEEP WORKING, you dont want to skull 10 shots of jager, MAN THE FUCK UP, and end up doing more harm then good, end up potentially causing irreversible damage.

i think people should woman the fuck up and get over their masculine insecurities.

piece

qnt

[incognito]

I wish a woman would take her top off, flex at me and give me the evil eye.

[sapito]

Im not sure that anyone in this thread is really saying they cant stop drinking coffee as the addiction is too strong. People are just discussing that it has what could be considered strong withdrawals for such a mild drug. Obviously its nothing compared to other drugs but noone is trying to claim its the same as getting off sm@ck or whatever.

Sucking it up might be fun to say but it adds jack shit to this discussion besides trying to sound like youre a mad cunt. Regardless of all the muscle flexing going on here, coffee is yummy and its easy to drink it often which may lead to a 3 day headache when you stop. Simple really.

I think a lot of people experience this but dont realise that their headache is likely to be from not having their daily cupa coffee.

I think its quite interesting that 1 shot a day for 1 week can have such an impact.

[SunChaser]

Excuse me Sapito? You must be reading a completely different thread to the one I got completely knocked around in and told how insensitive I was being, simply for saying coffee withdrawals were not the end of the world! 

Also, why would the method I have found most effective for quitting addictive/habitable substances be of no use except to sound like a "mad cunt"?

Seriously Sapito, I don't think I'm the only one here who needs to get over themselves!

Cnht, your whole last post really does show that you did not understand my entire point. It's not that you have to say or think "man the fuck up". I mean, you can phrase it anyway you want. "Grow up", "Pull it together", "stop feeling sorry for yourself", whatever you want.

And yes, it's no different for depression. I've tried everything to get over being depressed, drugs, diet, being active. But at the end of the day there is nothing more effective than just saying to yourself, "grow up and get the fuck over it", then making a decision to not let it bother you. That's it!! Just make the decision and move on.

That's not saying I'll never start acting like a little bitch (not trying to offend any women, it's just phrase, chill!) and won't get all depressed or get addicted to anything ever again either! I'm just simply saying that I've found the most effective method is just simply pulling yourself together and doing it.

Saying "man up" to myself, is just simply kind of like a way of reminding myself that I'm falling again and need to pull it together. Whether it be because of depression or feeling sorry for myself and thinking how bad a certain addiction is.

Peace

[paradox]

Sucking it up might be fun to say but it adds jack shit to this discussion besides trying to sound like youre a mad cunt.

 

i don't agree, i think it is extremely relevant to the discussion

[sapito]

Also, why would the method I have found most effective for quitting addictive/habitable substances be of no use except to sound like a "mad cunt"?

Seriously Sapito, I don't think I'm the only one here who needs to get over themselves

 

I dont think it is of much use as the term is too vague and you dont provide any way for people to man up besides telling them to man up. Earlier you said that coffee withdrawal symptoms are essentially not real so I find it hard to believe you mean it in any other way than people to stop being sooks. The people telling others to man up have not bothered to attempt to answer any of the questions in the first post. I dont find that helpful at all.

I did not single you out in my comment nor did I tell any one to get over themselves so Im not sure why you took it so personally and why you think im doing that?

i don't agree, i think it is extremely relevant to the discussion

 

How so?

Couldnt the same argument be used for almost any problem someone is facing? I dont think a statement like that provides any methods through which people can help themselves deal with the problem so I dont see how it adds anything of worth to the discussion.

Each to their own I guess.

What an epic thread lolz... caffeine addiction ruins lives

[whitewind]

Jabez, quitting stuff has weird side effects you might not be aware of. As for me, I quit smoking 18 months ago and my bowel hasn't functioned effectively since. I fucking hate it, and I had antibiotics recently which made things worse. So saying MAN THE FUCK UP is just a bit offensive, it took me ages = years - to quit, and a good half of the reason is because I really fucking enjoy nicotine. I only quit because of the negative health effects from smoking - in particular breathing problems.

So my response is to say fuck off, if someone is having problems quitting anything, they need help, they ask for it, they can have it.

[chnt]

if you enjoy nicotine whitewind, would you consider buying an e-cig? elusions have cool blue lights and you can do it anywhere cause it's not smoking.

[Chef]

i "folowed" this thread about a week ago. im giving up lol officialy "unfollowed"

[chnt]

man the fuck up chef

[paradox]

How so?

Couldnt the same argument be used for almost any problem someone is facing?

 

yeah true, you could use the same argument for a lot of things, but i think it's a major point that seems to be completely overlooked in a lot of situations.. yeah it's a cliche & maybe it doesn't help a lot of people but you really can achieve almost anything... in the end it really is all in the mind.. if you really want to sort out your health then you will.. you will just do it, like hava said..

when you understand that your attitudes are playing a large role in producing your reality, you soon realize that most of us are habituated to a sense of powerlessness over our own actions... it's just another addiction.. i know i suffer from it. but i also know that i'm the one inflicting that on myself by focusing on & magnifying the negative aspects of certain situations. so then, if i want to get over that then i must de-habituate myself from that mental behaviour by 'sucking it up' & consistantly recognizing the ridiculousness of my narrow minded focusing on the negative & my own self pity regarding the temporary suffering i'm experiencing over that situation.

eventually you can re-habituate yourself to making this recognition whenever you're in the midst of the temporary suffering that is produced by whatever it is (lets say the withdrawal simptoms from caffiene addiction ) which allows you to simply sit through the experience understanding full well that it's only tempoary & your suffering will soon be over & your desires ie.. getting over the addiction.. will soon be completely fulfilled.

i think this is particularly relevant because caffeine acddiction, like i said before is disinctively forgiving relatively speaking.

[paradox]

it took me ages = years - to quit, and a good half of the reason is because I really fucking enjoy nicotine.

 

apparently nictine is the most addictive drug known to man.. is not surprizing it fucked you up. people should understand these things if they're considering taking up certain things & accept the consequences no? i know the world isn't really like that though & our culture is painfully impoverished when it comes to knowledge about a lot of common drugs so maybe thats harsh but it's also logical.

[whitewind]

if you enjoy nicotine whitewind, would you consider buying an e-cig? elusions have cool blue lights and you can do it anywhere cause it's not smoking.

 

Never heard of them, but am intrigued. Have you tried these?

I don't think it's going to help my bowel problems though, and they don't look cheap. I like my patches.. but I miss the hit.

[whitewind]

apparently nictine is the most addictive drug known to man.. is not surprizing it fucked you up. people should understand these things if they're considering taking up certain things & accept the consequences no? i know the world isn't really like that though & our culture is painfully impoverished when it comes to knowledge about a lot of common drugs so maybe thats harsh but it's also logical.

 

Yeah I've just derailed the coffea thread. Coffea addicts are just pussies in comparison to nicotine addicts!

I'll take migraines to your headaches, blocked bowels to your lessened urine output, filthy temper to your grumbles, utter stupidity to your vagueness. And stinky armpits to your sour breath.

If you want to know anything about quitting cigarettes, don't come to me cause you'll know it's gonna be ugly.

[chnt]

i have tried one yes, but i was never really a smoker, though i did smoke for several months. at least it's the most similar method to cigarettes without smoking cigarettes, so it feels like you're smoking.

as for your bowels, do you take any suppliments? if not, i'd try at the very least a psyllium husk powder like benefibre, and perhaps some pro-biotics, but if you want to step it up have some phytonutrients like vital greens, which contains probiotics as well

[woof woof woof]

do we have any psycholigists/psychiatrists here at SAB? :-) Would be nice if SAB had some dedicated professionals do help deal with matters of addiction/mental health. Would be nice if our community had doctors and lawyers too, dedicated to our cause. That would make ethnobotany to be taken more serious and perhaps more accepted to the outside world.

[incognito]

Believe it or not I was a drug and alcohol counsellor and a govt social worker lol I only lastEd a yr in each job lol

[chilli]

I was talking to another member here who is a member on a non-english forum that he says has a lot of psychiatrists, neuroscientists etc as members.. I personally think this would be awesome. Let's all try and trun our psychiatrists on!

I think if there was a psychiatrist here he would say something like "fucking weak schizophrenics MAN THE FUCK UP"

Addiction is different for different people.. when I was coming off heavy, long term use of Cannabis I had horrible withdrawal symptoms, and it is more common than you think, but there were always a few people on the internet who knew me better than I did, and insisted on understanding what I was going through by their own experience (or lack of).

Mental illnesses like depression are not something that everyone can simply "choose" not to suffer from. We have all had different experiences in life, and it is heartless and arrogant to use our own battles as the lens through which we see the struggles of others, or our own victories as the standard by which we judge the apparent failings of others.

Biochemical imbalances and malformed neuronal pathways are usually a result of trauma and experiences that happen when people are very young.. the most fundamental neuronal pathways are formed before the age of 3, well before the age that people can be held accountable for their choices.

I am big on people learning to take responsibility for their own lives, but this is different for everyone and is not something someone is likely to do by being told to simply be tougher. Instead, people need compassion and support and love and to be offered practical solutions to their problems, and then I believe they will often find the strength within themselves to take more responsibility for their lives.. or not, and that is their decision, but at least we know we have done what we could to help them in their time of need, instead of comparing them to ourselves and using their difficulties to vaunt our own successes with an air of superiority.

I am friends with a number of doctors and one psychiatrist, who was here for dinner the other night (I, however, am a mere bum, who makes an art form out of being idle). Therefore everything I have just said should be accepted as law.

[Psylo]

man the fuck up chef

 

Wishful thinking.

[paradox]

Mental illnesses like depression are not something that everyone can simply "choose" not to suffer from. We have all had different experiences in life, and it is heartless and arrogant to use our own battles as the lens through which we see the struggles of others, or our own victories as the standard by which we judge the apparent failings of others.

Biochemical imbalances and malformed neuronal pathways are usually a result of trauma and experiences that happen when people are very young.. the most fundamental neuronal pathways are formed before the age of 3, well before the age that people can be held accountable for their choices.

 

extreme childhood trauma & depression are very different things to being addicted to drinking coffee. what you're saying is very true but i don't really see the connection. it's probably not the case with the OP of this thread, is not really for me to say & If you're just being obnoxious & telling someone off then they're probably not going to respond very well but sometimes getting the fuck over it is exactly what someone needs to do.. serious mental illness & childhood trauma are of course much more complex issues.

when people get on their high horse & assume they understand what you're going through it is rather pathetic & annoying but seriously chilli, you had some marijuana withdrawals, yeah they can really suck a lot! get the fuck over it! i know people who are dying from tumors in almost every organ in their body who have to a large degree risen above their suffering & i've never once heard them complain.

isn't it useful in this discussion & when confronting such things as withdrawal symptoms or otherwise, to attempt to gain some perspective & a sense of relativity in regards to your own suffering?

along with every other suggestion i think manning the fuck up could be just as useful a method for giving up coffee.. i think it's a relevant aspect to the discussion regardless if the suggestion is presumed to be arrogant & judgemental.

[chilli]

I am over it! I only use my example because it is the same attitude I encountered and it annoys me to see people get told to get over it when they have a problem, it is not helpful and strikes me as egocentric and misguided, whether they think they are helping or not.

Most people I know don't have a clue what I have been through with pot wd because I hide it from them because they wouldn't understand.. I talk about it with my wife, my doctor and my brother, who empathize but do not understand, so in the past I have posted about it here because I know there are many people here who understand because they have been through the same or similar experiences and they will not berate me or tell me to get over it (although as I said there are always some who do) but instead offer encouragement and support in time of need.

It has meant so much to me in the midst of unabating panic attacks, debilitating nausea and suicidal ideation that I must keep hidden from almost everyone else in my life because of their lack of understanding, to come to places like this and have people who know what I am going through able to offer helpful advice and friendly support.

I also know people who are dying/have died horrible deaths, just like we all will one day, but i don't think that because you deem that someone else is suffering more that it is okay to minimize or belittle the suffering of others. Again, I get the impression that there is some kind of competition going on about who is the toughest or who has suffered the most.. that is not how I see things. By the same reasoning you might as well tell people who are suffering from cancer in modern society to just harden up because people have died horribly from cancer without the benefits of painkillers and anxiolytic, which by the way I think account for much of the equanimity that people dying from cancer in modern times have, although I find there is always fear to be dealt with on some level.

I think you probably mean well paradox but I don't believe it is useful or helpful to say to someone who is going through a hard time of any kind that there are plenty of people who are worse off, or that they need to just "man up" and get over it, I think it is callous and unhelpful, and I think it also typically male and something that a lot of young men would do well to grow out of and learn to empathize instead of judging and comparing. Honestly, I think the suitable response is to say something like "hope you get better soon, don't give up" rather than "there are plenty of people way worse off than you, get some perspective and get over it already".. telling people off or comparing their problems to your own or those of others does nothing good. I mean if you are adamant about it you can even communicate the same basic intention but in a much more encouraging and sensitive way: "hey man that sounds like it would suck, but keep your head up and remember that things could be worse" instead of "suck it up" "harden up" "be a man" etc.

But my comments were mostly directed at Jabez who started saying things like depression could simply be "got over" as a matter of mental willpower, so that is why mental illness came up in this thread on caffeine addiction. Knowing so many people who are afflicted with mental illness, this kind of attitude really gives me the shits, as it is just another way of heaping blame and judgment on the heads of those who most need our love and support. Besides, who is to say some people are not wired from childhood (extreme trauma or normal trauma) to have an addictive personality, making it harder for them to just "decide" to give up certain substances?

I could easily compare my own (these days) disciplined and moderate approach to substances to other people I know who are poly-substance abusers and addicts and say to them you know what you just need to be like me, just stop abusing drugs, its easy, look if I can do it anyone can do it! In fact this is what my approach was like when I was younger, but I think it had more to do with me proving to myself that I wasn't a drug abuser (when really at heart I was) and now I find it more valuable to try and find out what it is like to be like them and forge understanding.

Anyway, I think I have said more than enough on this subject and it is time to leave it there and let you hard cases fight it out.