I usually drank one-two cups of coffee a day. I drink the "good stuff" dark (lower caffine). I also have maybe 1-2 cups of Earl Grey tea a day. Compared to many people I know this consumption always seemed pretty light....Never considered that I had a caffine "addiction".
So I got this really bad bladder infection...because of the amount of pain I decided that I should remove bladder irritating things from my diet...one of those is caffine. WELL! I was groggy, almost light headed for the first couple days, presumed that was antibiotic effect or from the infection- then as the infection seemed to be clearing I was still groggy, spaced out, and lethargic.
Then a light bulb came on and I thought "could this be caffine withdrawal?!"
I checked out the withdrawel symptom lists on various sites to see if my symptoms could be caffine related. Then I had one cup of coffee and my symptoms started to improve within 20 minutes!
None of the sites I visited listed constipation as a withdrawal symptom. But that single cup of coffee worked wonders in that department too!
I think I will stay with one cup a day, then slowly wean myself away from caffine, as much as possible. I do not like the idea of being dependent on it.
This is a great site, excellent information in lay-womans terms. Thanks!