Posted by madwand on September 22, 2003, at 6:37:08
In reply to Re: Coffee addiction/ Simcha, posted by kara lynne on September 21, 2003, at 15:32:16
Another Bay Area person here. I live over on the Peninsula (er, when I'm home that is. I travel quite a bit).
I guess we drifted a bit from the original poster's concern about caffeine addiction. So Budgie, I have some thoughts for you before we get redirected to social <g>.
First of all, it really is possible to use a 12-step approach to get away from caffeine. I actually tried it once and it worked for quite a while, but I "relapsed" thinking I would have "just one" for a "special circumstance". I have subsequently decided I don't really want to eliminated caffeine from my life (at least at this time).
I am not sure if you have any 12-step experience, but from your reference to your success at the "cold turkey" approach I suspect you might not (pardon me if I conjecture too much). Those who have had good luck quitting stuff on their own often do not see a need, and even find the concepts of "powerlessness" and "surrender" to be foreign. If this is the case,
then all I can suggest is giving it a try -- you may have finally met your match (a lot of us in 12 steps come here reluctantly after a history of success in bludgeoning things into submission with our wills). And often this "success" has been predicated on holding on to the "one thing" we couldn't give up (e.g. some folks have sworn that it was easier to get off heroin than cigarettes).
And there actually is a "Caffeine Anonymous" in some cities (despite its existence being the subject of many jokes). If you have no 12-step experience you would probably want some support to start down that road. If you can't find one, perhaps there are others here who are interested and you could form a thread where you could support each other (and I know there is quite a bit of 12 step experience in this group).
Anyway, good luck in your quest. I was hoping to find a link for you, but my Googling found only one promising link and it was dead :(
poster:madwand
thread:261598
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20030903/msgs/262351.html