Caffeine Withdrawal

[Soul]

I'm a 16 year old. About a week ago I drank a lot of tea (About 5-7 cups a day) and a bottle of cola a day. I stopped for a little while so I could get some sleep. Now I'm getting headaches, anxiety, constipation, my muscles hurt a little and I feel like throwing up sometimes too. I'm not trying to quit caffeine cold turkey. I just wanted a little break. But after stopping drinking lots of tea I began to feel these, but the anxiety is really getting to me. One regret popped back into my head and I kept replaying it over and over. Then "what ifs" starting popping into my head such as "What if this feeling never goes away?" "what if this is a disease?" "what if I have depression or OCD?" "what if this stops me from doing the things I love?" My question is, do these feelings go away? I don't want to feel like this forever. My mother who is a nurse told me to drink a cup of tea whenever I feel like this for the feelings to stop, they did for a bit. Then they came back about 3 hours later so I had another but it didn't help at all. I've been experiencing this for about 5 days. It's starting to get really frustrating!

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[eldub]

Sounds like you should see a doctor.

lw

[Soul]

I plan to. Luckily I hear that these feelings go away after a few days. It just gets kinda annoying not being able to do much especially since I never intended to drop tea or coffee cold turkey.

[eldub]

It sounds like you might have an addictive personality. Does substance abuse run in your family?

[Soul]

Not that I know of.

[eldub]

How late in the day did you usually drink caffeine when you couldn't sleep at night?

have you considered drinking tea in the morning and afternoon and not in the evening/

[Soul]

Well, I drank the tea in the afternoon and kept going to get another one every 2 hours or so because I was thirsty and wanted to stay up. I woke up at around 2pm because I stayed up until 3 - 5am. I only do this when I'm on the school break. But after staying up quite late for quite a while I wanted to wake up early for once so I stopped drinking tea for a bit. The first day I was fine. But the day after the withdrawal symptoms started coming in. I think I should also mention that have a lot of energy drinks. Mostly Cola. I used to have at least 2 1.5 Litre bottles a week which I usually finished within a day or two ever since I was 11 or so. I haven't had that much for the last 2 years. I only have one or two every fortnight or so now. Cutting back is something I definitely plan to do now. Slowly of course.

[BestestBarista]

It sounds like you might have an addictive personality. Does substance abuse run in your family?

I was thinking the same thing...maybe you should check into the family history to make sure. It sounds like you are having a rough time. Other than that was posted previously I'm not sure what advice I can give you. I agree with the fact that you should seek help from a doctor because the anxiety you are feeling can be controlled with certain medications. Good luck and I hope they it subsides soon for you.

[Soul]

I went to the doctor today. He said I was perfectly fine. He said that I should try to replace the bad thoughts with positive ones through meditation. He didn't think I needed medication but he said if these feelings don't go away soon I should get my blood tested. I want this to subside fast. It's starting to make me not want to do anything.

[ChopShopCoffee]

It sounds like you might have an addictive personality. Does substance abuse run in your family?

Yea I am thinking you would have addictive personality too...I have the same problem everything consumes my life when I stop using it...like pop or chips ect.
My doctor wanted to medicate me too but instead I just started running 2 times a day and did yoga. so instead of having bad addictions I have good ones that better my health=)