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I started drinking coffee when I started as a junior dev.

I loved its boost, but after a while being on coffee was exactly how I felt before as normal. I incrementally upped the dosage, while my resistance creeped up too. I reached a moment when I drank a liter daily, so I witched to yerba maté instead, which resulted in more potent brews. Then I got used to its strength too plus it tasted like horseshit. I switched to caffeine tablets, takingg more and more. Soon after I reached a level which was described medically as the top one should be allowed to take.
I no longer felt any boost. In between caffeinated moments of normalty, I felt like a brain-dead zombie. When I was caffeinated, I was jittery, my shoulder and eyebrow was glitching, my stomach was flexing like before taking a huge exam.
After some miserable time like that, I quit caffeine entirely. I was fatigued, dull and my mind was hazy for te next 1-2 weeks.

I then finally, became gradually normal again.
I drink tea and coffee only socially, perhaps a few times in a month, and never after too much later than noon.

Now I can't wear my "Programmer. Converts coffee into code" shirt anymore. Apart from that, I'm much better off :)

What's your coffee story?

Comments
  • 12
    coffee is overrated
  • 4
    1/2
    heh, I always liked coffee. I started caffeine abuse by the time I started studying Med at uni. Oh what a fucked up time that was... 2 2l bottles of CocaCola, a cup of strong coffee every 2-4 hours, 6-10 cans or redbull/battery/wtv,... This was a one day's (day+night) intake AT LEAST once a week. As my caffeine tollerance grew I needed more and more.
    I left Med eventually bcz my mind wasn't able to cope with all the shit at uni any more and 24 hrs a day was no longer enough to do it all. I know others were doing amph but I wasn't sure I wanted a med career THAT much.

    After dropping out I needed $$. Night-time work - here I come. Coffe intakes now limited to night time only. Sleeping at days.
  • 2
    2/2
    A year or so later I got hired as a sysadmin (12 hr shifts) AND started studying sw dev. 12 hours shifts were fucking with my mind as for a few days you work 12hrs at night and after that -- 12 hrs at day time. And then switch back, and so on and so forth. Not to mention I had to deal with college stuff as well.. So energy drinks and coffee - here I come again! I even got some caffeine pills I used before exams.

    Eventually I was in a state when a cup of coffee every 2 hours was no longer working as caffeinated was my normal state. Oh and the headaches were killing me every day. So I was constantyl juggling with uppers and downers: caffee and ibuprofen.

    I did one or two 2-week long caffeine quits to restore sensitivity to it. Now I'm limiting intakes to 1 latte in the morning and 1 latte after lunch. This seems to be optimal in my case. I like coffee, I like its taste so I'm not gonna quit it. But it has to be used carefuly
  • 2
    @irene 10 cans per night :)
    I know 4 is max. Prolly that's why I could feel every single beat of my heart after such nights ;)
  • 3
    BLACK TEAAAAAAA
  • 1
    @netikras holy shit 10 cans, once I was dumb enough to drink 3 cans at once and I felt like I was going to die from a heart attack. I've never drunk energy drinks since then
  • 0
    I never got into Tea/Coffee, never liked the taste.

    I super gave up on it when drinking it the night before exams made me extra sleepy.
    Same with energy drinks and other caffeinated beverages for me. Never got any boost out of those.
    If anything, I had better naps after those drinks.
  • 4
    Don't like tea or coffee. Don't generally like hot drinks in general, aside from a good hot chocolate now and again.

    I prefer "turns pizza into code" t-shirts.
  • 1
    @irene Aside from hot chocolate now and again (and that's very rarely!), no hot drinks at all. I'm that weird :-)
  • 1
    @irene Definitely alien. I live in rainy England. Weather is, as usual, currently cold and miserable.

    Sitting here with a nice glass of cold water :-)
  • 1
    I used to work the overnight shift and go to school during the day. I was consuming upward of 8 cans of energy drink a day (the 500ml one) just to sustain me and get me through the day/ night only like 4 hours of sleep. That was pretty crazy and I cut back to just coffee, oh yeh I sprinkled coffee in through the the day as well.
    Recently I noticed I've kept up to 8 cups of coffee and day and I'm trying to cut down because it stops working after a while.
  • 1
    I've never liked coffee but I started drinking it at breakfast (one espresso with milk actually) and since I started my headaches and migraines have also disappeared.
    I also drink one cappuccino after lunch.

    I get no energy boost from coffee but that's ok 😊
  • 2
    @irene Not liking tea, I'm kind of even an alien by English standards.
  • 4
    @AlmondSauce "Turns pizza into code" - now that's a shirt I'd wear! :)
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