Though not entirely aligned with the article, it does remind me of the toxic culture we have with drugs (at least in the United States) that I think makes it hard to have a non-toxic relationship with drugs.<p>I like drugs. But I set a ton of rules for myself. I never buy more than a small amount of a drug at a time, I take scheduled breaks from any drug, I know the signs of addiction for drugs that I take and I take unscheduled breaks if I notice any of those. I also don't hide it from friends or family, so they can help catch signs that I may miss (though it hasn't been an issue yet).<p>My point is that there is so much shame around doing drugs; that one bump of coke can make you a fiend or that everything is laced with fentanyl, that we lose sight of the true way in which drugs take hold of a person. Addiction happens "slowly, then all at once" and recognizing that and knowing the early warning signs helps.<p>I am not suggesting everyone do all the drugs they want all the time; additive personalities are a thing, unknown quality of street drugs is a thing, and acting dangerous to yourself or others while high is a thing. But I think the shame associated with drugs, forcing people to use drugs in the shadows, exposes us all to the biggest risk, which is addiction.
>The reason I decided to opt-out of caffeine is that I thought was abusing it to force myself to do work I didn’t actually want to do. I also had the hypothesis that the human body should be fine without it, as we’ve had most of our biological evolution without it. A wolf doesn’t drink an espresso before chasing a deer, after all.<p>This excerpt made me stop taking this seriously. Using caffeine or any other stimulant for the purposes of doing work one isn't comfortable with doing is a character flaw (or an act of desperation, however mild), not a fault of the substance one chooses to lean on. Justifying abstinence from such substances on grounds that the substance isn't intrinsic to human biochemistry is both a naturalistic fallacy and a bizarre rejection of human social history of tool use (substances are just another tool).
Many years ago I noticed that my cafine intake naturally dropped during Christmas vacation. So I made a conscious effort to stop drinking it one year. It was easy. I've been on and off cafine several times since then. I'm currently at the point where I'll have headaches for a couple days if I quit cold turkey. Trying to get that down to where it's completely optional.<p>Addiction is weird. There is no shame in setting a limit at zero. It works.<p>On a related note, at one point I found myself stopping for a drink after therapy (when I tried that, what an adventure). Then I realized I was starting to drink to supress emotions that were starting to surface from therapy. Had to limit that to deal with stuff. Brains are weird, do what you must to optimize yours. Just remember that escape or avoidance is a copout.
Funny I was musing on this myself, with sugar addition. Rather than ban sugar (relying on an unlimited supply of willpower, and that "oh I'll just have one chocolate bar..." then breaks the cycle into a cycle of addiction again)... I was thinking it might be better to go sugar-free on 4 months of the year, and do what I feel like on the other 8.<p>The idea is that less will power is involved, and might draw me down to a lower overall sugar consumption in the long term. On the 8 'free' months my natural cravings will be lower than they would have been too.
The concept of addiction gets floated around a lot but I think it's important to distinguish between actual biochemical addiction and what's probably better described as obsessive-compulsive reward-seeking behavior.<p>Biochemical addiction seems to be characterized mainly by the alteration of the cell-surface concentration of receptor proteins for various endogenous substances as well as lower baseline biochemical production of endogenous substances, and is most well known and studied in opiate addiction. Notably not all of what are commonly considered 'drugs' result in such forms of physical addiction (characterized by physiological withdrawal with specific defined features, often life-threatening if not managed by a physician).<p>The other version, obsessive-compulsive reward-seeking behavior, has so many modes that it's hard to even characterize simply. Sometimes society rewards such behavior, i.e. working 80-hour weeks even if that negatively impacts your personal health and leads to a breakdown at some point in the future. Sometime society derides such behavior, i.e. playing video games 24-7 (with no compensation) or eating compulsively and becoming overweight. Frantically hunting karma points on Reddit might fit this profile as well as things like gambling habits. Regardless this kind of thing is more of a poorly-understood psychological issue, and lumping it in with physical addiction doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.<p>To be honest I don't know which category caffeine fits in; even after drinking many espresso shots per day I'd find that stopping for a week had little physical effect as long as I drank lots of water, and perhaps took an aspirin or ibuprofen at times. This could vary from person to person however; some people appear to metabolize caffeine at much higher rates than others do.
I've switched from normal coffee to decaf and that's worked great. On caffeine I feel like I'm a bit on edge.<p>I also limit alcohol as well. Not very consistently, but I'll easily go a month without a drink or just have one or two every couple weeks.<p>What I've found though is that the drug habits flow into each other. If you drink one night, then the next day you'll feel like having caffeine to give you a bit of a boost and make you feel better. It's in these times that you have to resist the urge - otherwise you'll be back on that caffeine wagon.<p>Doing exercise is also really helpful. I'll actively avoid alcohol the night before or after a workout. I've read that even a small amount of alcohol can negatively affect muscle gain, which is a great incentive not to drink around your workouts!
Survivors' bias at it best right here. In reality, what happens is you set that point you will not go past, but when the "need" and desperation comes you ignore that point or rationalize an exception and go past it, each time you do this you undermine your own authority to control yourself. The more you climb up and then fall the less you can climb up out of the hole again.<p>Discipline and self control are the key and to obtain those one must establish a good relationship with one's self and thereby regain acceptance of the legitimacy and force of one's authority over self. But the core of the matter is, why did the person's relationship with themselves go bad or did they never learn to like themselves and respect their own voice?
For anyone worried about negative side effects of quitting caffeine, you can quit without the side effects using cheap caffeine pills (No Doz brand awakeners or similar).<p>Quit coffee and replace with caffeine pills instead. Slowly decrease your dose over a few weeks (“titration”), using parts of pills, until you reach zero dosage.<p>I’ve done it multiple times to avoid the headaches and other side effects (that I got if I tried to quit cold turkey).