I have a friend who regularly consumes 1.5-2.5 grams of caffeine daily due to a stupid workload in college. Now that we have a month long break he’s trying to break the dependency. How should he go about doing this? How bad are caffeine withdrawals?
Gallon
they give head aches. taper off.
Only sissies worry about caffeine, man up and drink some black coffee.
Worst case is 3 days of headaches going cold turkey. I've done it a number of times and it is only a minor annoyance. The real question is why stop. Recent studies have shown that coffee reduces the odds of getting Parkinson's or Lewy body dementia in old age. Coffee= health and happiness.
I'll assume this is a sincere question. 1.5-2.5 grams of caffeine daily is a massive amount. I'm suspecting (or at least hoping) that that's an exaggeration. That would be in the area of 15-25 espresso shots per day, or 7-10 large black coffees at Starbucks. Most anyone taking that much for an extended period would be expected to have a tough time of it: headaches, jitters, etc. Regardless of the actual amount, quitting cold turkey can be tough. Definitely in for headaches for at least 2-4 days. That's one way to go, and some tylenol or advil to manage the headaches would help. The other choice is to start decreasing the amount gradually, say 20% per day. That has worked well for me in the past.
Gallon Rupp wrote:
I have a friend who regularly consumes 1.5-2.5 grams of caffeine daily due to a stupid workload in college. Now that we have a month long break he’s trying to break the dependency. How should he go about doing this? How bad are caffeine withdrawals?
Gallon
I was told that with caffeine a small amount can prevent withdrawal. So I'd try to cut it in half, if that was OK quarter it, i.e. do a rapid taper.
yeah, that's an alarming amount.
General guidelines recommend not consuming more than about 400 mg per day.
I think i've read somewhere that those organizations that regulate performance enhancers have limits on caffeine, and it was something like 600 mg within an hour of competition could exceed the limit, but don't quote me.
I've known people who drink like 10 to 12 cups of coffee per day, but they were drinking some moderately weak swill.
Taper off, as described above.
Just drink less coffee
Going cold turkey is stupid and pointless (unless he wants to stop drinking coffee all together, which is stupid and pointless on its own)
That said, don’t skip your afternoon coffee to start, because getting a caffeine withdrawal headache right before bed is annoying