I’ve been struggling with my recent diagnosis of diabetes. I never ate too poorly, but I loved my Dr. Pepper in the morning. I don’t drink coffee or tea, so my morning DP is how I get my caffeine and get going. It’s also an enormous amount of sugar so I had to cut them out. Unfortunately that was my caffeine source and I have just never been able to stomach diet drinks. Lately I’ve tried Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Coke, Coke Zero and Diet A&W Root Beer. I’m not sure that I understand the point of diet A&W as it doesn’t have any caffeine in it anyway and it doesn’t taste good enough to drink otherwise. Ick.
This pretty much made the first full-on week of meds, diet and no caffeine hell. I had absolutely NO energy, which is counter-intuitive to what I thought I should be feeling. That is, if my glucose levels are elevated because my cells can’t burn the energy and I start taking meds to allow my cells to take in the glucose and burn it, I would have thought that I’d have had a little more energy. It was so bad I couldn’t concentrate and I could literally have laid down in the isle at Home Depot and napped and I wouldn’t have cared that people were walking by me. I had trouble driving home one evening.
From Energy Fiend:
Top 10 Caffeine Withdrawal Symptoms
1. Headache- A caffeine headache usually starts behind the eyes and then moves up the front of the head.
2. Sleepiness- This just isn’t your normal tiredness, this is sitting up straight but still can’t keep your eyes open tiredness.
3. Irritability- Everyone and everything gets on your last nerve. It’s best just to lock yourself in your room during this stage.
4. Lethargy- Forget about productivity at this stage because you’ll be unmotivated to do anything.
5. Constipation- Caffeine stimulates the bowel, so without its daily does the colon gets a little cranky too.
6. Depression- Caffeine withdrawal can take away all hope for living. Temporary blues are one thing, but if you already struggle with depression this could be a big issue.
7. Muscle Pain/Stiffness- If you normally have some caffeine prior to exercise then during caffeine withdrawal you could feel as though your muscles have weights strapped to them.
8. Lack of Concentration- Forget school, studying, brain surgery, or jet engine repair during this stage of withdrawal.
9. Flu-like symptoms- Stuffy nose, blocked sinuses and even vomiting have been reported by people withdrawing from caffeine.
10. Insomnia- Some people are strange and actually can’t sleep when going through caffeine withdrawal.
I pretty much exhibited all of these, except for the headache and constipation. If anything, my bowels are irritated by the medication and I have to go more than I’d like.
Things seem to be getting better, which makes me think that I am getting over the caffeine withdrawals. However, today was a bit difficult as I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. I’ve been drowsy and tired all day. It’s also harder for me to get out of bed in the morning. I used to wake up and just be ready to go – even before I’d grab my morning DP. Now it’s a struggle to get moving and make myself breakfast sans caffeine.
I keep telling myself things will get better as my meds and body get more dialed in. As one of my friends told me “it took a while to get it out of whack, it will take a while to straighten it out.”
