Hey there, viewers!
How much coffee do you guzzle down each day?
The average American can drink 3 cups in just 24 hours.
That’s around 27 ounces!
At that rate, not getting your coffee when you need it can give you serious caffeine
withdrawal.
What?
Did you not know that was a real thing?
Not only is it real, it can affect your life in many different ways.
Let’s discuss things caffeine withdrawal can do to your body.
Do you get a headache?
How bad is the anxiety?
Can you become angry?
Wait, what are tremors?
We’re talking all that AND more…
Tremors
We’ll kick things off with a symptom that isn’t as common, but boy is it scary when
it happens.
If you depend on caffeine to get you through the day, you may experience tremors.
No not the earthquake kind.
There’s another kind of tremor.
The kind that happens in your body...
A tremor is an involuntary muscle contraction that causes your body to shake.
Caffeine stimulates the nervous system.
That’s why you feel so alert after drinking a cup of coffee.
A good caffeine jolt makes you feel like you can accomplish anything.
If you quit drinking coffee cold turkey, your nervous system won’t react kindly.
It’s a sign that it hasn’t had its stimulant and is unhappy about it.
One of the things you will notice right off the bat is your hands shaking uncontrollably.
If you continue on without your caffeine intake, your tremors will continue.
Only this time, you’ll probably feel them throughout your arms, legs, head and torso.
You might even have trouble speaking.
This is because your vocal chords are also experiencing tremors.
It’s the same type of thing that happens when you’ve had way too much coffee.
Your nervous system becomes overwhelmed and doesn’t know how to react.
But there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The tremors normally last for a total of 9 days or so.
What is the most amount of coffee you’ve had in a single day?
Were you shaking uncontrollably?
Share your story in the comment section and start a conversation with our Bestie community.
Irritability
A caffeine withdrawal can leave you extremely cranky.
When you drink coffee, your body receives a mood enhancer.
You now have energy you didn’t have a few minutes ago.
If the body is used to getting this type of boost on a constant basis, withdrawal will
feel terrible.
Think about it, your body is going without one of its favorite things.
A coffee boost lasts between 4 to 6 hours.
You will begin feeling irritable after waking up in the morning.
Not an ideal way to start the day.
Sudden irritability has consequences.
It really can affect the way you manage throughout everyday life.
You will become frustrated at small, rather insignificant things.
Your friends and family will also notice the change in your overall mood.
Nobody wants to be around someone who is constantly moody.
A study from 2012 focused on nearly 100 adults who were addicted to caffeine.
During the study, 89% of the subjects reported that their previous attempts to wean off the
drug had failed.
This was because of the irritability they would go through.
Anxiety
Caffeine withdrawal will bring on some serious anxiety episodes.
Yes, coffee can give you one heck of an energy boost.
This is exactly how you become anxious.
This energy boost comes with a change in heart rate as well as increased blood pressure.
From here, the stress hormone cortisol will be triggered.
If you experience anxiety on the regular, just one cup of coffee can send you into a
frenzy.
You will become jittery.
Every negative thought in your brain is overwhelming you at once.
In some cases, you are too worked up to even sit down.
And similar to tremors, going without caffeine can have the same effect.
If your body has become dependent, the mental and physical stress from going without caffeine
will be too much to bear.
You can have the same reaction from sugar withdrawal.
Your body is used to being fed sugar.
As a result, going without it will make you upset.
In other words, the human body is like a spoiled child who hasn’t had their candy yet.
Depriving it will only make it more antsy.
Experts suggest that if you struggle with anxiety, it is good to avoid coffee and other
caffeine-filled products all together.
This way, you have a better chance at avoiding mental health issues.
Fatigue
Reducing your caffeine intake will only make you feel tired.
You’ll sometimes feel so exhausted that you can’t manage throughout the day.
This will make it harder to get through tasks.
Caffeine helps create alertness by blocking neurotransmitters that make you drowsy.
This is one of the reasons people drink coffee in the morning.
It prepares them for the day ahead both mentally and physically.
When consumed in moderation, caffeine will improve your physical ability, especially
when it comes to sports and exercise.
Unfortunately, when you remove caffeine from your diet, your body will feel run down and
fatigued.
Studies have shown that regular caffeine users will experience extreme fatigue after just
16 hours of being without it.
The more caffeine you consume, the harder fatigue will hit you during your withdrawal.
Depression
If you think anxiety is bad, it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
As far as mental health goes, that is.
Weaning off coffee can cause you to feel depressed.
A nice cup of coffee in the morning can not only boost your energy, it can make you happier.
In fact, studies have linked regular caffeine consumption to a reduced risk of depression.
One piece of research found that those who drank more than four cups of coffee a day
had a 20% lower risk of depression over those who don’t drink it at all.
But weirdly enough, studies have shown that the more caffeine you consume, the greater
your risk of getting depressed.
Your feeling of happiness will only last as long as your caffeine buzz.
When this buzz wears off, you will feel gross and sad inside.
So if you suffer from depression and feel like you can benefit from the effects of caffeine,
you might want to consider increasing your intake.
But if your doctor suggests you cut back on the caffeine, just prepare yourself for a
possible mental health decline.
Before we continue, are you concerned about the overall state of your health?
You need to be sure your organs are in tip-top shape.
Check out our video on 8 Signs Your Intestines Are Unhealthy.
Now back to our discussion on caffeine withdrawal.
Little Concentration
Cutting caffeine out of your diet can leave you unable to concentrate.
Again, the important tasks will suffer if you aren’t paying proper attention.
This can be anything from office work, to house chores to college exams.
When you consume something with caffeine, your body sees a jolt of adrenaline.
It also provides a healthy boost in dopamine.
These reactions happening all at once will cause an increase in both heart rate and blood
pressure.
As a result, your brain will be stimulated.
Once the brain is in a comfortable space, it allows you to think and function properly.
When you subtract caffeine from the equation, your brain will be unprepared to deal without
it.
This makes it harder for you to focus.
Your body and mind need time to get used to this sudden change.
If you’re a person who needs to cut caffeine, try and reduce your intake gradually.
This way, you’re not shocking your body with a radical change.
If your body has time to prepare itself for less and less caffeine, your brain might be
able to focus better.
Bad Headaches
A bad headache can ruin your day.
It makes life so much more difficult when it feels like your brain is pounding.
Because they’re so common, it’s easy to mistake headaches for the countless other
conditions associated with it.
But if you’ve had a headache for the last little bit and have recently changed your
diet, you might want to look into how much caffeine you’ve deprived yourself of.
Caffeine consumption causes blood vessels to narrow.
This way, there isn’t as much blood flow to the brain.
Studies have also shown that caffeine assists pain-relieving medication and helps reduce
headaches.
When you stop consuming caffeine, the blood vessels become wider, allowing more blood
to flow to the brain.
This sudden change in blood flow will cause headaches.
Unfortunately, there’s really no way of telling how bad the headache will be, or how
long it will last.
The good news is that once your brain gets used to the blood flow change, the headaches
will go away.
Have you ever gone through caffeine withdrawal?
Did you experience any of these symptoms?
Let us know in the comments below.
We would love to hear from you!