After water, tea and coffee are the most popular beverages in the world. You can get it in a wide range of varieties, such as: white tea, green tea, Oolong Tea, and one that is is most and most popular, it is Black Tea. They all have a common point, because all of them come from the Camellia sinensis plant.

People think tea is very healthy, but it’s not healthy at all, which I can tell through my personal experience. Even you develop tea addiction gradually, when you drink it for a long time.

From November 28, 2021 Sunday, I quit my 100% Tea forever after a long struggle. And the good news is, successfully I completed a month free from Caffeine.

How My Tea Addiction Started?

Like a lot of people in the world, I used to love my masala Chai(Masala chai Tea Recipe, which I used to drink for decades) 3-4 times a day. Even I quit my morning tea in August 7, Tuesday 2018, still it was hard for me to quit 100% tea.

First of all How This habit formed? I was born and brought up in a small village of India and my parents were farmer. So we used to have our own buffalos( own milk) We used to have our breakfast( Plain salted Parathas) with tea and after coming back from the School again tea in the Evening.

Then for my High School, I moved to City(Patiala, Punjab, India) with my brother and his wife. Here my tea increased more than the village. One bed tea and after wake up early in the morning for studies and then breakfast with tea and overall 3 times tea in a day. This routine was the same until I was married at the age of 22.

Oh my God, now my tea increased a lot more, because I was free to make as many times as I wanted to and slowly-slowly, I started to have tea 5-6 times a day. Here also I started to eat so much fry food, such as(samosas, Pizza, Chana Bhautra etc.) My health started to become worse and worse. I used to go to this doctor and that doctor. This life style was the same for 13-14 years and then we moved here in Canada.

Here due to more stress and struggle in life, my tea increased more. I am doing Yoga from 1999 and Vipassana Meditation from 2001. I got so many benefits from these both practices, but usually I used to have constipation, severe headaches, legs pains and sometimes anxiety.

Around 7 years ago, I made tremendous improvement in my diet, such as I quit my my morning tea and replaced it with green vegetable juice. I also started to eat more fruits and more salads in my daily diet.

I got relief from constipation and overall my health improved. But around five months ago, I started to have often headaches and sometimes, constipation, nausea etc.

I always knew that, tea is the culprit, but was unable to stop drinking it. Caffeine in tea cause dependency in people who consume it on regular basis. Now I know that tea is the cause for my health problems, so I have tried to quit all tea several times before as well in my life, but I was unsuccessful to quit it.

So I started to reduce my tea gradually; such as from 6 cups of day to 5 cups a day, then 4 cups of day and then I quit my morning tea couple of years ago. I reduced my tea many times, even there was a time, when I used to take only 2 cups a day, then for couple of days, I took it only once a day, but again it used to increase and 3-4 cups a day.

Tea or Coffee habit is kind of magnet, once you are addicted to it, you’re stick to it. It makes you dependent on this cup of tea/coffee.

We human beings, who like independency a lot, even marriages break for the purpose of freedom, because nobody likes to tolerate others orders. Means we don’t like slavery, but very easily we become slaves to any addiction whether it is something for eating addiction, drinking addiction or even some are addicted to objects; such as-Cell Phone( means can’t live without cell phone)

My Wake Up Call to Give Up Caffeine

 Despite of doing so much and for years; such as I am doing Yoga for last 21 years and Vipassana Meditation for last 20 years, Walk, Healthy Diet etc. still I used to feel frequently Headaches, Nausea, Gas, Legs Pains as well.

I Quit my morning tea, changed the method of making masala chai, took Cold Showers for a month continuously, Walk, stopped drinking milk, stopped eating Yogurt, but still my all these problems used to stay the same.

It was a huge wake up call for me because I realized what caffeine was doing to the lining of my gut; something I’d never considered before, especially on the days I was sipping on three-four cups.

Now I came to know that tea contains caffeine and this caffeine made me dependent, which I didn’t like anymore. Because it was hard for me to quit, but all the time I was aware that it is damaging my health, which made me mentally strong or ready to stop drinking tea. If you have just consumed too much, you should get caffeine out of your system

Caffeine Withdrawal Symptoms

Caffeine is the world’s most commonly consumed psychoactive substance and here in this particular post, I’m going to discuss about Black tea made with milk, means masala chai. I will also discuss my personal experiences about withdrawal symptoms.

Caffeine functions as a central nervous system stimulant, meaning it affects neural activity in the brain and increases alertness while reducing fatigue.

But when the body becomes dependent on caffeine, eliminating it from the diet can cause withdrawal symptoms, which starts in few hours, depends on person to person.

Caffeine is a drug, and like any drug, in order to free yourself from addiction, you have to be committed to your plan of action and be ready for the withdrawal symptoms and a serious dip in your energy levels. Caffeine withdrawal occurs when people, who have been consuming caffeine regularly for a long time and all of sudden stops consuming it and I was one of them. Most people who regularly consume caffeinated beverages are familiar with at least some of these symptoms.

If you skip your morning tea or coffee, you might start to feel some of written below unpleasant effects just a few hours later. They can be from fairly mild to more severe, depending on your regular caffeine intake.

How to To Know that You Have Tea Addiction?

The best way, if not the only way, to figure out whether you’ve developed a tea dependency is simple: stop drinking tea and see what happens.

Within the next 12 – 24 hours, you should start experiencing some of the typical withdrawal symptoms like:

1. anxiety
2. depression
3. headache
4. fatigue
5. lack of focus
6. irritability

If none of the above mentioned symptoms occur, then you’re not addicted to tea. Congratulations!

Another sign of tea dependency is that you have difficulties reducing your intake even though you know that it’s causing you some harm.

For example, you may experience agitation or headache when drinking tea. If, in spite of such symptoms, you still can’t stop drinking tea, then you may be in trouble. Quitting caffeine can also be quite personal and you may be wanting to quit for other reasons not in the list above. Whatever your reason for quitting or cutting back caffeine, hopefully this article can help to achieve that goal successfully.

1. Headache

Headaches are among the most commonly reported symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Headaches are perhaps the single most common sign of withdrawal. Yes, it is absolutely right.

After quitting my Tea within few hours, I started to had Migraine and this time I was 100% confident and mentally ready to quit my tea forever, no matter how much headache I’m having?

My headache was increased so badly and even I didn’t ate any pain killer to cure it. The pain was so severe, even I couldn’t speak and first two days was so bad that I couldn’t sleep properly first two nights. On the third day, without taking any medication, my migraine was gone almost 70%, which gave me so much confidence to continue without any pain killer and no caffeine forever. Today second month started, means by the time of writing this post(Date: December 31, 2021 Friday) still sometimes I have migraine, but it is not powerful like as before, means it goes within few hours automatically.

2. Nausea & Vomiting

Nausea and Vomiting are much more common caffeine withdrawal symptoms. Nausea is that unpleasant feeling as if you are about to vomit right now, but actually you will not have vomiting. This feeling is very uncomfortable, which I faced first two days, after quitting my tea. When my migraine, was okay, my nausea became okay as well.

3. Muscle Pain, Stiffness, Cramping

Since caffeine has pain-relieving qualities, muscle pain will become very noticeable, when you quit Caffeine.

4. Anxiety & Depression

Quitting coffee or other forms of caffeine can create particular issues for individuals with anxiety. Caffeine increases heart rate, blood pressure, and stress hormones, but quitting can aggravate these same sensations.

Once a caffeine dependence develops, abruptly ending caffeine use can cause feelings of anxiousness. It can also trigger muscle tremors and even panic attacks in some cases.

5. Fatigue

Many people consume caffeine in the morning to boost their alertness levels. Caffeine prevents fatigue and increases alertness by blocking adenosine receptors in the brain.

Adenosine is a neurotransmitter that slows the central nervous system when the body prepares to sleep.

However, when a person suddenly stops or reduces their caffeine intake, it can briefly have the opposite effect and make a person feel more tired during the day.

People can avoid feeling overly tired during the day by getting enough sleep during the night. In the first month, I took so much rest and used to sleep early than before, which helped me to stay relax and get Energy as well.

Caffeine Free Related Question Answers

In some people, caffeine actually causes anxiety, but in others, withdrawing from the drug can cause feelings of anxiety and panic attacks have even been reported by some.

Question: 1. How Long Caffeine Withdrawal Symptoms Last?

Answer: 1. According to the research, caffeine withdrawal symptoms last from 2 to 9 days. However, for some people, various symptoms continue for much longer than this.

Question: 2. Should You Quit Caffeine?

Answer: 2. In my opinion, yes. You should quit Caffeine, because it has so many side effects, which damage your health.

Question: 3. Why I Quit my Tea?

Question: 3. Because I used to have migraine, nausea and so much heat in my body.

Question: 4. How I feel Now?

Answer: 4. On December 28, 2021, successfully I completed one month caffeine free and within the first week, my constipation was gone, second benefit I see only in a month is weight loss and third benefit of quitting caffeine is Joy of being caffeine free and self confidence increases.

Question: 5. Are there any Replacement Drinks after Quitting Caffeine?

Question: 5. Yes there are many Natural replacements; such as, Herbal tea bags and if you don’t like to buy, then use your own herbs to make herbal tea.

How to Ease Caffeine Withdrawal Symptoms?

For those, who are quitting Caffeine and are going through caffeine withdrawal Symptoms, there are a few things that can be done to ease the symptoms, which I did personally and allow for more productivity are written below:

1. Drink plenty of water: Staying well hydrated is key during the withdrawal process and will help you feel better. You can also drink herbs water.
2. Get plenty of rest: It’s helpful to plan for your withdrawal during a weekend or a time when productivity isn’t a necessity. Sleeping a lot the first day or two is pretty common.
3. Exercise & Meditate: Most people won’t feel like exercising, but it will actually make you feel better. Exercise makes you stay calm and relax in the absence of caffeine. First two days, it was very tough to do Yoga and Meditation, but still I did it, because I’m doing Yoga for last 21 years and Meditation for last 20 years. So do Yoga and meditation as much as you can, especially meditation.
4. Eating healthily Diet: Improving your diet will help. Eating plenty of fresh vegetables and fruits or Fruits salad will provide your body with the nutrition it needs thus delivering natural energy and promoting a more positive frame of mind. Now I eat fruits twice a day, once in the morning and once in the Evening.

Health Benefits of Becoming Caffeine Free

1. Lowered Anxiety

When I used to drink tea for decades, I used to feel very anxious, especially when I used to drink tea, but now my that anxiety is gone almost 50-60%. It is just one moth since I quit my 100% tea and, I know and read about others’ stories of quitting tea helps more in the longer run.

2. Better Sleep

Drinking any kind of caffeine can bother your sleep. Since I stopped drinking my tea 100%, I sleep more hours than before and my sleep improved as well.

3. Stronger, Whiter Teeth

Coffee, soda, and tea are three of the most common caffeine beverages that can stain your teeth with their acidity and color. Their caffeine also dries out your mouth. Since I stopped drinking tea, my mouth tastes never became sour, which I often used to feel while drinking tea and also now my mouth don’t dry. Means my taste is better and love to eat other healthy foods.

4. No Constipation Anymore

Since I stopped drinking tea, from the next day, I never had constipation anymore, which I used to have while I was drinking tea, despite of doing so many good things and even eating healthy food. This is best benefit that I got and for it I am so happy.

5. More Energy Through the Day

Actually it is just one month, since I stopped drinking tea, my Energy is little better than before. I feel, it is going to increase in the long run as well, because my system is getting cleaned more than before by eating now only healthy food. Means more detoxification.

6. Lower the Risk of Heartburn

 Caffeine is often a main cause for heartburn and acid reflux, and people got tremendous success with alleviating symptoms by going caffeine-free. One research has shown that coffee, in particular, can boost heartburn risk but even tea to a lesser extent can be problematic, because coffee has a high degree of acidity, similar to other drinks with high acid content like orange juice.

7. No Migraine Anymore

My migraine gone, means no severe headaches. Still sometimes I’m having headaches, but it goes within few hours.

8. A healthy digestion

Caffeine intake can come with a host of unpleasant digestive issues. Coffee creates a laxative effect that stimulates the bowels. Consuming especially large amounts of coffee can cause diarrhea or loose stools. Since I stopped drinking tea, my digestion is improving, still it will take some more time to improve more.

Conclusion

Finally at the end of this article, I would like to say this only that, through my own experiences, I will Caffeine is not good for our health. Even you eat healthy diet, fruits, vegetables, Green Juices, if you’re drinking any kind of caffeine, you’ll not get the benefits. Caffeine gives temporary Energy, to feel the real Energy, you’ve to Quit your Caffeine 100%.

I hope this article is going motivate you to quit your Caffeine 100%.

Best Luck Quitting Caffeine