Caffine......

I have been for many years...at least 20 years...a serious coffee hound. I all started when I was in college. Working evenings, nights and weekends at the radio station. The diner at college always had coffee on too. I graduated and went to work...they always had coffee. I was consuming 6 to 10 cups a day...sometimes more. Funny thing though. I could go home and just go to sleep. It takes 4 or five cups back to back for me to feel the caffine. Since I was just constantly sipping on it I never really reached a buzz most of the time..but my body was taking count, it liked it.
Enter 2007. In 2007 I began to notice my ears were ringing a lot. Low rumbles. I have always had, at least as long as I can remember, some tinitus. Too much music, guns and weedeaters growing up I guess. Not too bad though, not distracting. I began looking for reasons. I tried ginko this year for a few months, it helped some. Then I was reading....caffine can cause ringing, not a good thing...I love coffee.
So I tried reducing my caffine for a couple days to just morning coffee...maybe a little at night. End of day my ringing would subside some, then after morning coffee...it would increase a little. It still was there very prominatly. I decided I would bite the bullet and try going off caffine for at least a month or so...almost completely.
Do you know how hard that is? Coffee is everywhere. Coke is everywhere. Black tea is everywhere. I have had to readjust my whole thinking.
I took a one cup coffee maker to the office. Am now making one cup of decafe at a time. Am also drinking a cup or two of green tea during the day...yeah it has 40 mg of caffine in a cup, but I consider that acceptable, since the tea lasts for a long time..you can't chug it like I do coffee. It would make you nausiated. I drink it unsweet too. (my coffee is always black by the way).
What has happened? Well for the first day I was ok, a little tired. Monday I was friggin exausted all day. Tuesday was a little better. Wednesday I could still feel it.
What am I feeling. It's like my whold body achs....is tired. It just wants to go to sleep. Addiction withdrawal. Not fun, but not bad IF I can keep going. Is like I am on the edge of fatiegue. My mind is the biggest thing. I am not trying to wax philosophically, but my mind feels different.
I feel mellow. It's like before I couldn't wait to just jump into a conversation. My mind would race at things to think about as I constantly ran into situations. At the moment it as if my mind is trying to take in all the scenery it has missed for the last 100 years. My skin feels different...or at least my tacktile senses do. Have not eatin any multi contextural food...ie complex flavors, so I do not know how this has effected my taste buds. I suppose until the caffine withdrawal finish everything maybe effected. Will it change back? I can't say. It is almost like I have read drug addicts talk about how on cocaine, speed or what have you...everything feels different. Since I have been on HEAVY caffine for the last 20 years...I guess I don't remember what it feels like to NOT have caffine effecting my nerves. I feel calmer. I feel not so relaxed right now, but I can feel it easing. Will post again in a few days.
Decafe coffee is like drinking coffee without something. I know it isn't there, and it does taste slightly different...I still like it though..just have to find some good stuff or mix it half and half to get some more flavor.
Eventually I guess I will be able to stand a cup of regular in the morning or when ever...but I don't think I will ever be back on the coffee barge...why.
Over the last 5 days the ringing in my ears has changed pitch. NO more low rumble, less high hiss. Hope it continue to subside. We shall see. More later.
k