No Caffeine? Yeah, Problem.

I noticed with winter taking its sweet time leaving us, I've become more irritable and moody. With winter for me comes many things. I no longer exercise as much, I don’t get much sunlight, and I don’t have much opportunity to see people I like.

But, I figured maybe I've been having too much caffeine and it makes me touchy.

So I went off caffeine for a little bit.

The first day I was already feeling irritable because I had to wake up early for work and the lack of caffeine left me feeling slow. I wasn't all there. I definitely missed the taste in the morning so I substituted with some decaffeinated Columbian. It wasn't as great as the usual Hazelnut blend I like to drink. (So I like flavored coffee, and?)

The next day I was definitely feeling signs of withdrawal. I had a pounding headache, and I could barely bring myself to move off my couch at all. I eventually left the couch to hang out with some friends and go bowling. Unfortunately I was sluggish the entire time and grouchy, even though the physical activity should have been a mood pick-me-up. I eventually self-medicated with alcohol. My entire mood was listless.

The third day being off caffeine, I had a shift at work in the evening. It was hard to pull myself out of bed, and I still had the headache. My mood was also very listless and even though I was off caffeine, I still found myself worrying and stressing about other things. Speaking frankly, my higher brain functions weren't quite as active as I would have liked. Normally I would work out on Mondays but it took forever to force myself through the motions.

The fourth day off caffeine was a Tuesday, one of my days off work. I was working a charity booth at a downtown mall for a few hours. I drank my decaf coffee, and moved my sluggish butt downtown, where I had a hard time focusing on anything, or using my minuscule people skills for anything useful, other than playing Tetris BADLY on a phone. After I was done there, I went home and had a nap for the first time in years. I woke up slowly and worse than usual. I was grouchy, and I still had the headache. I went out to socialize with some friends and wasn't quite up to my usual par mentally. I had a hard time making conversation, and a delayed reaction.  Later that night, I did have some physical activity that upped my endorphins and made me feel better for a bit, but the headache continued.

The fifth day off caffeine was a Wednesday, where nothing changed, except the headache went away. The listlessness, sluggish behavior and delayed reaction times continued.

The sixth day off caffeine I had to wake up early for work again, and I had a long shift. I felt dull, and the previous symptoms continued.

The seventh day off caffeine was definitely a dull day for me. I had a Friday shift, it was busy, and I didn't feel up to par at all. It was probably the worst day out of the week in all. My brain finally felt like it was catching up, only to scream at me, telling me that normally, a Friday shift is no big deal for me, and I should be moving faster. I dragged myself out to a music show afterwards, and was almost grateful for the lack of intelligence or motor function needed.

The eighth day off was a Saturday and another long double shift. I finally began to feel a little more like myself when I got a huge endorphin rush later in the night, but it was short lived. I also found that while telling a friend a story, my memory wasn't what it normally would be. Then when I went on a date later that night, I almost passed out at the theatres, and my conversation was definitely not stimulating. I passed out almost exactly a half hour later, which was as soon as I got home, changed, and into bed.

The last day was Sunday, a day off, and the lack of proper memory, slowed reaction times and sluggishness made me turn to more couch potato activities. I also completely messed up and was half way through drinking a can of pepsi when I had a delayed reaction of realizing caffeine was in it.

So the experiment of attempting to go 6 weeks without caffeine failed, because I had a brain lapse, but I realized as long as I keep to a regular sleeping schedule, and I only have coffee before 10 am, I can handle the so-called irritability I thought caffeine was giving me.

So maybe no caffeine is good for some, but judging from that one week, not for me. Conduct your own experiments and form your own conclusions.