After stopping, even one cup makes me jittery and I no longer feel like I need to drink coffee to feel awake.

Caffeine dependence is terrible and widespread.

There are plenty of reasons to not want to be dependent on caffeine, but I wouldn't put its dependence in the terrible category.

I regularly give up either (a) using caffeine pills and breaking them to linearly decrease caffeine, or (b) measured reduction of instant coffee over time.

Start at your current caffeine intake, and reduce slowly over say 3 weeks. It requires significant patience and self-control, but it has worked for me. The main problem I find is avoiding having social coffees: it is easy to fall back into the habit of drinking coffee if you don't follow the titration regime.

https://hn.algolia.com/?query=robocat%20caffeine%20quit&type...

I have certain foods that seems to dramatically change the way stimulants like caffeine affect me. For whatever reason if I eat bananas and nut butter (maybe I have an allergy or food intolerance?) I find that caffeine makes me feel like I crash. When taken on an empty stomach I can get very "wired" but it also depends heavily on my sleep schedule and the time of day I take it.

I've noticed I can get an incredibly productive boost from caffeine when I take it at a time that disrupts my current circadian rhythm. I (used to) usually drink coffee in the morning and it rarely felt like it helped at all. I knew if I was desperate I could drink it around noon and see a big boost but then I wouldn't be able to go sleep on time and would pay for it the next day

Genetics, diet, microbiome, epigenetics, sleep habits, study habits, social health, seasonality, etc all likely play some role in the way people metabolize caffeine.

There is no published evidence that stimulants universally make people ADHD more tired or calm.

And personally I believe given the right conditions anyone might get to experience the effect of caffeine actually making them sleepy.

> And personally I believe given the right conditions anyone might get to experience the effect of caffeine actually making them sleepy.

There was a 6 month time in my late 20s when I was averaging 3.5 hours of sleep during the week while working two jobs and going to school. The third energy drink of the day seemed to signal my body to be tired.

Years later with a much better life balance and fully off of caffeine for months at a time a single 12 ounce can of Coca-Cola at lunchtime was enough to keep me wired until late into the evening. Some time after that, while fully off of caffeine for about a year, 80 mg accidentally ingested from caffeinated protein bars disrupted my sleep deep into the night and took a couple of days to recover from.

I could definitely do better with procrastination, and sometimes have trouble focusing, but am pretty sure I don't have ADD/ADHD.

The euphoria is a negative side effect in my opinion. That’s what leads to abuse and addiction. Don’t chase it!

I’m sure you’ve heard all this before, but make sure you’re getting enough sleep and exercise. Also, avoid acidic drinks in the morning like coffee and OJ when taking your medication. The acid can break down some of the medication before your body has a chance to absorb it.

> The euphoria is a negative side effect in my opinion. That’s what leads to abuse and addiction. Don’t chase it!

Yeah that's so not what I'm talking about.

When they worked, I was able to practice art, take regular showers, get chores done and stay focused without getting bored and compulsive. It doesn't help with any of those anymore. I can't use it to draw, can't take regular showers, can't get chores done even if they're staring me in the face, and boy do I get extremely, painfully bored all the time. And this happens whether I am on or off stimulants.

Again, they used to work. That is, actually treat the ADHD. And now they don't.

This has nothing to do with euphoria.

I was recently diagnosed with severe ADHD by several doctors (something I've been treating as anxiety/depression for my whole life), and was prescribed lisdexamfetamine.

It makes me super calm and my thoughts organized. When I'm tired, I feel tired. If I'm sleepy, I'm sleepy. My productivity isn't insane, it's just more stable and predictable now.

I wish I had been diagnosed many decades ago.

After starting I really just didn't need my anxiety meds anymore. Turns out being able to keep your shit together makes you less anxious. Who knew!

Paranoia about the cardiac side effects have led me in to caring a lot about my overall cardiac health, which has meant that I've largely countered side negative effects with the obsession over HIIT and less medication overall. Giving up alcohol has been kind of sad but I'm getting to the age where hangovers are starting to get brutal so maybe it's for the best.

It's also been nice to keep certain aspects of ADHD that I like, like my hyperfocus on certain subjects.

I wish I could tell teenage me to investigate this sooner.

Exactly. I'm currently slowly going off antidepressants.

I've been able to control my focus so much better which seems to make me less tired. When I sit to get work done and inevitably get distracted, I can recover instead of go down a spiral of unproductiveness. I'm also better at prioritizing my focus on the things that are important, such as a must-have feature for launch, rather than a nice-to-have that I just enjoy working on more.

And surprisingly, I've been getting some of the best sleep of my life so far on a pill designed to keep you awake. Who knew?

It's my experience as well. I used to wake up really tired. I still get the same hours of sleep but I wake up feeling... normal? which is an improvement. Very unintuitive.

To be clear: I can't sleep well at all for about 8-12 hours following a dose. It has killed my ability to take a lunchtime nap.

But as long as I don't take it after noon, I get great sleep at night. I fall right to sleep in minutes. Plenty of dreams as well, which suggests to me I'm getting in some good REM sleep.

I've been thinking about moving in the opposite direction, actually. ADHD meds like lisdexamfetamine/adderall have been moderately helpful.

But I am starting to think that I might do better treating this from an anxiety/depression angle. ADHD is so comingled with anxiety for me that I can't tell them apart. When I'm falling behind on tasks I get anxiety, which is the literal worst thing for my ADHD, so that exacerbates the ADHD, which increases the anxiety.

I'm curious (if you're open to sharing) if you're still treating the anxiety/depression side of things?

I didn't have that same experience with methylphenidate. That one was a much more pronounced effect. I felt pretty locked in and it was easy to focus. The downside was I was getting headaches, stomach cramps, I would sweat more and my heart was always racing like I had too much coffee.

The amphetamine feels much different. It's more of a chilled out effect where all the noise seems to go away. It doesn't make me feel any smarter, but I do feel less distracted and I'm able to complete boring routine tasks. I wonder if that's why I sometimes get sleepy with it. It's like a relaxation spa for my brain.