Coffee Addicts: How do you refrain from going overboard with your caffeine intake?

I use caffeine to fight depression. Sometimes I do go overboard and make myself anxious, though!

Unless I’m really droopy and desperate before something important at work, I refrain from any coffee outside my 1–2 cups in the morning. I do, however, drink tea (black and green) and diet soda throughout the day.

If I’ve really gotten myself in a bad way, to where my heart is racing or I get short of breath, I’ll drink some calming herbal tea like mint, licorice, chamomile or valerian.

I’ve cut back from 32 cups a day.

I try to stop by noon – 2:00pm at the latest if I’m really dragging.

Easy. The coffee at my company stinks, and work is really the only place I drink it. I retch down one cup each morning and then drink water the rest of the day.

I have to have my morning coffee, average 3 large cups between about 7 a.m.and 10.am. then I am done for the day. 3 is my limit unless it is half caff. and then I might have a little more.

I don’t have a desperate “need” for specific levels of caffeine, but I do love coffee, and can’t overdo it or it messes with my sleep schedule (such as it is). If caffeine didn’t interfere with my life, I would drink coffee all day – but experience shows that this is a bad idea for me. I drink a strong cup of coffee in the morning, and seldom have more after that. This means that my expectations from that first cup (taste and strength) are very high – so I make it myself. It’s delicious.

I will switch to tea in the afternoons, because I find the effects of caffeine from tea to be much more “even” than those from coffee, and yet it satisfies my need to hold and sip a hot beverage. I prefer a nice black tea (often English breakfast), and if it’s late afternoon or evening, sometimes I will have a decaf version of the same type of tea. I strongly dislike herbal teas, so that’s not an option for me.

I have been able to cut way back with substitution. I don’t have my first cup until after my breakfast, with orange juice instead of coffee.

I only fill my coffee mug part way, and when it is empty, I don’t refill it right away. I cut way back on coffee and I have quit drinking any alcohol since before Thanksgiving. I don’t know if there is any correlation.

Laziness and frugality.

We brew just enough coffee on weekday mornings for both of us to enjoy. For me that equals 32oz. Although I’m out and about all morning and again in the afternoon, I’m too cheap to pop into a café or shop. Trust me, this is a good thing for my wallet. I live in Seattle.

On the weekend, I usually treat myself to an americano or a latté at least once. One of my fave things to do is to enjoy coffee on the weekend in the afternoon. On those days I guess I drink 2x the norm, which works with my later bedtime.

I can’t relate to the high anxiety, although I have upset my stomach because I’ve forgotten to eat.

I wait until I start dropping scalpels and then I stop.

Coffee just starts to taste bad after 11 am. That’s when I switch to water, the occasional coke zero and in the evenings it is teatime.

Note to self: Do not schedule @Rarebear for morning surgery. lol
Hey, my obsterician showed up half drunk to deliver my daughter at midnight from a party. lol

I try to never drink more than two cups of coffee per day, big cups, but only two…lol

Well…I had the pleasure of popping wide awake at 4:15 a.m. this morning, sooo, my 3 cups were dry by 6:30. It was hard to not go for another fill it to the rim moment. lol

I stop when I can’t hold the cup anymore due to my hands shaking

I brewed an 8 cup pot of coffee this morning and I should have made it 12. I’m brewing 4 more cups right now. It’s one of those days. I rarely make a second pot. (Yes, I’m the only person drinking from these pots of coffee.)

I can never refrain from going overboard. I dump what’s left of my last cup of coffee and turn to water and food when I feel I’ve had too much. I never feel anxiety. I do get an upset stomach at times if I haven’t eaten anything.

When filling our coffee machine, I often use 50% decaf powder.

I used to drink 3–4 cups (large cups) of coffee daily. But I’ve cut down because I feel some palpitations especially when I drink stronger varieties. No espresso for me. I usually drink 2 cups daily these days with optional decaf on some days of the week.

I know it’s difficult to totally stop drinking coffee, but like what other authors said, adding variety or an optional drink can help curb the need for caffeine.

I go to Dunkin Donuts to get coffee. I never drink more than 1 cup a day.