I've given up caffiene

Written 4th January 2025

My memory is shocking.

I can remember songs from when I was young after 1 note, but ask me what I did yesterday and more often than not I'll struggle to remember.

It's scary.

I mean, really scary.

Could this be the onset of dementia or alzheimer's or some other degenerative disease?

I first realised I had a problem with my short term memory when my then husband and I used to get into an argument and he'd say 'but you said this'. And I'd say 'No I didn't, I've never said that ' and he'd say 'you literally just said it'...

I was fine at work, I could remember my job but did have a zillion reminders for things, more because I couldn't keep up with everything because there was so much going on.

These days I like to write lists or have reminders for things. I put that down to just ever changing and increasing things to do or just normal old age.

But I know there is a serious problem there. I have to read the page in a book multiple times as I just don't retain things. I've given up trying to learn new things for the same reason.  I struggle to follow films or series because I just can't remember what's happened before.

It's like it goes in, and goes straight back out again or disappears somewhere I can't access it.

Why am I writing about this? Because I don't want this to happen to you and my personal belief is that its been caused by years and years of drinking caffeine. I could say maybe cider too but I'm not that big of a drinker so I think that's less likely the cause.

My caffeine consumption started as a kid. My mum didn't like water so it was never given to us. I guess we drank squash as kids but I think more often than not it was a cup of tea. As I got older we had a small glass of supermarket cola of an evening some nights, and gradually coffee during the day too.

Once I started earning my own money I started drinking a well known diet cola brand with my lunch. Then I'd buy another one for the afternoon. I'd always drink it when I was driving. It soon became a staple drink in my diet, along with coffee.

When I was in Switzerland, I got my first taste of full fat branded cola. OMG, it was delicious compared to the diet ones. I put on about 4lbs that week in Switzerland and promptly returned to diet cola upon returning to the UK.

My consumption was probably 2 litres a day, never less than 3 cans. And always also coffee.

A few months later when I stopped in the corner shop at 7am to get my normal ration for the day I was horrified that they didn't have any. But they did have a popular brand max sugar free cola. That for me was a game changer. OMG, it was amazing.  I loved it. From then on it was pretty much my only drink and I'd drink cans at work and straight from a 2l bottle at home or in my car. It was my constant companion. Goodness only knows how much I spent on that drink. Morning, noon and night. Holidays, everyday.

And unless I was at the gym, or a class or swimming when I'd drink water, that was all I drank for years.

I'm sad and embarrassed to say that I also drank it when I was pregnant. I argued that the main ingredient is water, so how bad could it be? If I knew how that would affect my son and his life, I definitely wouldn't have done. Even though they warn you, it's not real. It's someone else.  It wouldn't be that bad. My son has had a lot of health problems, I can't tell you the guilt I feel for not realising the impact of my actions on my child.

After a few years I'm off the max but on the coffee. My sleep and coffee dalliance really started to become an issue when I was providing a daily report for 4 weeks one year. I was getting up at 4am to create a consolidated overview report that couldn't be produced by the end of the day before but had to be available 1st thing the following day.

Eventually I was drinking up to 20 cups of instant coffee a day, and little else.

My sleep pattern started to be really affected and I was often awake before midnight after going to bed at 9pm. Then it would be broken sleep all night. I'd take a nap in the day time to catch up, then be awake until late, fall asleep at 2am, sleep til 5am, and it would just continue.  Being stupidly tired so drinking vast amounts of coffee, then sleeping badly and irregularly. And because of my poor sleep and lack of coffee when I was sleeping, I used to wake up with a caffeine headache.  I'd feel like I'd just been run over by a truck.  Until I had my first cup.

Two other big noticeable things were also going on in my body. Firstly my hair was dry and frizzy, scraggly, slow growing and falling out in handfuls.  I even had alopecia at one point when I was really stressed at work.  2nd, I was on and off depressed. Sometimes significantly worse than others, to the point of needing to take long term sickness from work a couple of times. I don't think I'm bipolar, but I was definitely happy and sad more often than I care to remember.

And every year my new years resolution was, lose weight, give up caffeine. I read loads online researching my rubbish hair condition. I eat healthily and exercise regularly so I knew it must be the caffeine. I knew I couldn't control my intake of it. I was addicted. I loved the taste and the high, or whatever it is it makes you feel.

I read a lot about caffeine and a lot about water, how those liquids work in your body. What they do. After 35 odd years of telling myself I should stop drinking coffee and cola, I did. March 2023. I've been clean ever since. Apart from a very very small amount of chocolate and 1 coffee cake over that time.

I no longer wake up with a pounding head. My sleep has vastly improved. I'm rarely depressed or have low mood any more, and I'm much more calm and mellow as a person - few things annoy me any more. My hair is lovely and shiny and glossy again and it feels so soft to the straw feel of my previous hair texture.  My skin is smoother, shinier and clearer. My blood properly flows when I cut myself whereas it used to be very thick. More importantly than anything else, my memory issues don't seem to be getting any worse.

Getting off the caffeine was really easy to be honest. I spend nothing on caffeine drinks now and I never fancy one any more.  I love my redbush teas and water. If you are worried about or have noticed that you are suffering from any of the things I experienced, perhaps what has helped me will help you too. I'm currently as at Jan 2025, 22 months caffeine free. Good luck.