Caffeine, again | ADHD Information

                   I feel I need a jolt of caffeine kind of the caffeine amount in that jolt cola.... Kind of like an electric shock, because for some reason I feel so sleepy though I get 7 hours of sleep.... To stop my dependency on caffeine, I had to cut it out cold-turkey for about two weeks.  I got headaches for about two days, but noticed my natural energy was stable and reliable and didn't feel the need for caffeine anymore.  Now, like I said in my other post... I only have some when I need the boost to work out or help coming down from a dose of adderall.I should look up a book my friend jim wrote it had some really funny ones, we had like 50 of them.... of course being trekkies at the time some of them will just sound dumb but.... 21. You're shaking so fast you don't have a reflection
22. After walking across the room you can stil see yourself and someone talking to you where you WERE standing
23. Laws are developed limiting caffene intake in your name
24. Coffee shops seem to sprout up every time you change jobs or housing
25. Nobody bothers to get in line after you at a coffee shop, usually muttering "damnit"
26. you race your friend's car on foot.....and win
arbiterxero38483.2540277778Could anyone please tell me how youmanage to get off of this stuff?
If i remember right, there have been some people posting that do not
drink coffee any more -- or at least less of it.
Though it is about this caffain thing, it feels like nicotine isn't that far
away... Oh i'm confused again here, i just lit up the third cigarette in a
row. Hope someone can get me.
If i get up at all, i need about 30 minutes just to rehearse what i am going
to do in the bath room. If i don't take the time, i might be ending up
cleaning the floor instead of my teeth and remembering that there was
something important at 2100 in the evening. Drinking a few cups of
coffee after that torture hepls me to get my list of TODO things for the
day ready. Then I leave the house and get going on cigarretes and cola
just to get into the right train. Then maybe i find some coffe at my
workplace and insert it directly into my cup, so that people do not notice
that i am constantly drinking coffee. And so on. In the evening, i'm sitting
around with some friends and i want to go to bed and i drink a cup of
coffee to manage. It's all quite confusing to me. It feels like self-
destruction but i don't know how to get away.
If it's weekend, i sit there and do not drink coffee and do not smoke a
cigarrette and i do not run on coke. But on weekdays it is all different.
And if you ask someone about coffee or cigarrettes, they tell you that it is
some sort of will power you need. To me it feels like it is a timeshifting
device or something you need. Exchanging weekend and weekday would
make me quite a healthy person.
I really would like to get it all under control but i just cannot. For short
times i just manage but i mostly only recognize afterwards. It all just does
not follow a pattern but "if i have to" do something, or be somewhere, i
know i will fail without these drugs.
And people around me ask why i dring coffee in the evening. If tell them
that it is the only (known to me) help to get a good night's sleep, they
laugh at me. But it works. I'm confused by all this. Oh, and i'm a newbie
and only recently diagnosed person. Most of the people i know won't even
listen to the idea of me beeing different.
sorry for that lenghty post. I just really have to get some thoughts off my
brain.

thank you all, it is so great to read your thoughts and advice here.Hey NightOwl, I love your list, as well as arbiter's additions. Thanks- I needed a good laugh!

Tinker- yes, I have noticed the same effect with chocolate. Probably bc I eat the darkest bittersweet possible- god only knows how high the caffeine content is, I'm scared to ask!heh, if I eat chocolate while on ritalin I end up depressed.....like suicidal depressed... like sit in a corner and cry without knowing why...

it's scarry!

Learned to stay away from that pretty quick....

Growing up as a Gen Y-er, soda (diet coke in particular) became my blood type - I would consume anywhere from 4-10 cans per day.  I realized in the past year or so that it's doing me NO good, because my body didn't even respond to any level of caffeine anymore, unless of course i didnt have it (withdrawl headaches hardcore).  So I cut myself off from ANY caffeine so that it does work when i want it to.  These are the two cases I save it for now:

1. If I notice the effects of "coming down" from Adderall (I can't take a mid-day dose as it gives me insomnia), I have some caffeine to ease the transition.

2. I'll have a can of soda about 30 minutes before a cardio workout if I've been dragging that day.

Like any other stimulant, the less you use it, the better the effects when you do use it.  Also, with speculation as to the phosphoric acid in soda robbing your bones of calcium (excess amounts need to bind to calcium to exit the body), I'd rather not take my chances :-p

I can across a joke that I found amusing:

20 Ways to know if you drink too much coffee... 
 

You answer the door before people knock. Juan Valdez named his donkey after you. The only kitchen appliances you own are made by Mr. Coffee. You ski uphill. You get a tax cut for all the coffee you bought. You get a speeding ticket even when you're parked. You speed walk in your sleep. You have a bumper sticker that says: "Coffee drinkers are good in the sack." You haven't blinked since the last lunar eclipse. You just completed another sweater and you don't know how to knit. You grind your coffee beans in your mouth. The nurse needs a scientific calculator to take your pulse. You sleep with your eyes open. When you open your dish cabinet, and there is only mugs. You have to watch videos in fast-forward. The only time you're standing still is during an earthquake. You can take a picture of yourself from ten feet away without using the timer. You lick your coffeepot clean. You spend every vacation visiting "Maxwell House." You're the employee of the month at the local coffeehouse and you don't even work there.chocoholic-the same thing happens to me-My chiropractor/homeopathic dr./nutritionist told me it messes with you adrenal glands. After a while they can't function properly on their own.  When I give up caffeine I am more level energy-wise.  But I just love the whole idea of coffee in the morning-hot,creamy,sweet-can't give it up-help![QUOTE=chocoholic] I've had caffeine on the brain, and have been taking a careful look at my caffeine consumption over the last few weeks. I've noticed that it has a wierd effect on me.

At first, it wakes me up and makes me talkative. Then, as I continue to drink it, eventually it makes me really tired and I konk out! I've never heard of it making anyone sleepy, but I thought I had read somewhere that it can happen if you have adhd.] [/QUOTE]
Yeah, Choc...it was probably something I posted.

If at night I find I can't get to sleep, which isn't very often these days thank G-d, I make a cup of instant espresso and I'm out within a half hour!

Before I was on any meds, I used caffeine/coffee to self-medicate. It helped to slow me down, usually. Now I have a cup in the AM, sometimes that one at bedtime, after my meds have worn off.

Yeah, I had to give it all up when I started the Adderall and I am fine with that. If I was taking caffeine with the meds, how would I know which stimulant was working and which was bringing me down? It's too confusing already.

Now I have to order an even longer drink order: decaf non-fat sugar-free extra-hot vanilla latte.

There's no way I could remember that drink order.  I'd be thinking about something else by the time I got to extra-hot and then I'd be wondering why I was at the coffee shop.

I cut the caffeine out too and I can actually get out of bed now.  Mornings used to be even more rough than they are now.

Do any of you find that caffeine does not slow you down or speed you up, but instead makes you feel more alert and clear?

Well, it does make me feel more alert and clear, but only in small amounts.

Its when I've had the 2nd + cup of tea that I start to get sleepy. I've had caffeine on the brain, and have been taking a careful look at my caffeine consumption over the last few weeks. I've noticed that it has a wierd effect on me.

At first, it wakes me up and makes me talkative. Then, as I continue to drink it, eventually it makes me really tired and I konk out! I've never heard of it making anyone sleepy, but I thought I had read somewhere that it can happen if you have adhd.

It makes my non adhd husband really wired and grouchy. Caffene I find will wake me up temporarily but then I drop unconsious....

though I can't touch the stuff while on ritalin, sends me into nearly suicidal depression....

Caffene is just as much a drug as any..... I've had to avoid it but I'm okay with that....

I never thought about it, but I did use to self medicate with caffiene. Like, we are talking 4 shot espressos and 6-8 diet cokes or Mt Dews a day. I used to work at a coffee shop in high school and my friends/co-workers used to wonder how I drank so much espresso without jumping off the walls. Yeah, it definetely calms me down and clears me up a bit.

Has anyone noticed their caffiene craving or need has gone down since starting meds? Mine certainly have...I still drink it, but less than half of how I used to be...I can even choose water or lemonade now. LOL.

Yeah, that's the problem with using caffeine as a stimulant. It wears off so quick and you have to keep taking it. But it did get me going in the morning before the meds. [QUOTE=GarbagePailKid] Do any of you find that caffeine does not slow you down or speed you up, but instead makes you feel more alert and clear?
[/QUOTE]
I did say caffeine slowed me down, but I actually meant just that...that it made me more alert and clear, by way of slowing down my mind enough to allow it to be more alert and clear. KWIM?

chocoholic

Chocolate is a stimulant also. Have you noticed any effects from it?