[Storyteller.]

Hey,

My situation is slightly different, in that I drink a lot of coffee and a fair amount of tea, but I steer clear of soft drinks and energy drinks. What I've found is that if I have at least a cup or two of coffee a day for an extended period of time (a couple of months, usually) and then go a day without it, that day usually involves me getting headaches and just generally feeling ''off''. The solution that works for me is to take a day every now and then where I won't have any caffeine. If I have one ''cleanse'' day every few weeks I find that I can stay just below the threshold of addiction, because my body doesn't become dependent on it and I can then either go back to drinking it or go longer without it and not have any ill effects.

That said, you might want to look into gradually reducing your intake over time first. Try to replace some of your drinks with other things - set yourself a limit for how much soda you'll drink per day, and replace the rest with something else, like juice. If you have someone in your life you can talk to about it and who can help hold you accountable, that could also help a lot because that way you're not just relying on your own self-discipline. Also, if you're not morally opposed to it (my sister is of the mindset that decaf tea is an abomination), you could try drinking mostly decaf, especially on days when you know your caffeine intake has been high. It's not quite the same as instant gratification, but one thing I've found helpful is, when I'm craving caffeine, to drink something that has a different kind of sensation. For me, that's usually a turmeric latte - they have a bit of a kick to them and they're warm and delicious, but they don't have the caffeine (and they're actually quite good for you). So I get something out of it, even if it's not the instant gratification of caffeine.

Also, just to quickly clarify something that the person above me mentioned: as I'm sure you know, caffeine can actually have an effect on your health. As I talked about above, if I drink it frequently for too long a period, I experience withdrawals when I stop drinking it. Also I've had a couple of times where my intake for one day was too high and I ended up feeling jittery and having heart palpitations. That's only my experience, but I've known other people who have had similar things happen to them, and there's also science to back up the anecdotal evidence. So, if you're careful about your intake and manage it well, you probably won't have any problems, but caffeine is definitely one of those things where it's easy to become dependent on it without even realising it.

I hope this helped a bit, and feel free to reply to this thread or PM me if you want to talk about it further.