I have a not full mug in the morning say 6 to 8oz and then lay off regular the rest of the day.
The best thing honestly is to figure out how much you are drinking then cut back a bit every couple of days. You have to wean off it cause you don’t want the withdrawal migraines.
I actually make do with instant decaf the rest of the day most of the time. When I was in the office it was on par with the office coffee so I got used to it.
Let me tell you, I haven’t ever vaped caffeine, but I have insufflated it, and it is an experience that at best is bad but ranges all the way to utterly wretched.
I wouldn’t give it a shot.
For quitting, just keep in mind, caffeine basically triggers emergency ATP dump. After the first few days you use it, you’re really no longer getting any benefit from it and it’s really not making you objectively energized even up to “normal”.
My biggest recommendation is to exercise every day if you don’t already. Like take a walk, or cycle somewhere. Making sure to get in exercise every single day will do wonders for your wakefulness and energy levels.
I feel you there on the depression front. I’ve had to deal with it since I was a teenager. Prozac and other SSRIs were minimally helpful. Just turned active festering rage turning inward into gray nothingness. I suppose better than killing myself, but it had all the usual side effects.
I lost my job in 2018 doing IT work, and was out of work for three months. Eventually my sister in law helped me get a job in January 2019 working in a major cell carrier’s mailroom. Every day I’m walking 10000+ steps, pushing and pulling 50-100 kg mail and package dollies up and down the campus, and I’ve never felt less depressed.
Had to take some time off and only hit 2000 steps a day for a week and I was feeling terrible. I’m positive that physical activity, every day, not even necessarily intense activity even, makes a huge difference.
Another boing boing poster reccomended a book on taoism I will pick up from the library. I hope it’ll help my mood both in terms of reading plus walking to library.
Before you cut back, be sure you don’t have a variant of ADHD. If you do, cutting back on caffeine can extremely backfire, especially if you are already prone to depression. Yes, I’m speaking from experience.
Why not just drink decaffeinated coffee? Coffee but no caffeine - well, drastically reduced caffeine, so unless you drink coffee all day yhou should be OK. And most cafes nowadays have their beverages available in decaf version.
I don’t recommend going cold turkey. I grind my own beans and combine really good beans from Paradise with decent water process decaf beans. Coffee still tastes good cut 50/50.
Also I’ve trained myself to only drink coffee in the early morning and have my water boiler and teapot ready right next to my coffee rig. When coffee is done, I switch to tea for the rest of the day.
It took me 6 months to establish this habit. Now, if I miss a day of coffee, it’s not a big deal, no headaches or cravings.
I caved and got a double espresso… but I think the caffeine helped my ear ache so I’ll argue it was medicinal.
But one is a big reduction!
Edit: I wonder if I subconsciously sensed it helped? I normally drink tea, unless in a big rush since an espresso shot is actually similar caffeine to a black tea. I’m reading a bit now and apparently ibuprofen + caffeine is a common pain remedy
