Quit Drugs

How To Quit Drugs

• You may not know it, but you are more than likely a drug addict.  Sure, while you may not be buying smack on a street corner, or you couldn't tell the difference between crack and rock salt, there's a fairly good chance you still have an addiction to some type of drugs.  Even if they may not be fatal, learning how to quit these drugs can help lead you to a longer, happier and healthier life. 

• The most common drugs used throughout the world are widely available and consumed by many, most of the time in broad daylight, on the street corner or even in the cubicle next to you.  Right now, I'm talking about caffeine.  Caffeine is the most widely used drug in the world, and it is also one of the most socially accepted.  It is part of many people's daily ritual, whether it's having a Coke at lunch, your morning cup of coffee or a steamy cup after you've finished dinner. 

• You may be reading this and thinking it sounds crazy, but 100 mg. of caffeine starts a series of events that effect the activity of the brain, and just to put that to scale, a cup of coffee has about 75 mg. of caffeine.  That means if you have two cups of coffee in the morning will effect your thought patterns when you start the day. 

• Caffeine can be found naturally in coffee beans, and also in cocoa plants, making coffe, soda, pills, tea and chocolate all sources, and while most people will only consider a direct source of caffeine to be from coffee, you can develop a caffeine dependency from any of these sources.  The typical person can injest around 200 to 300 mg. of caffeine a day safely, but if that amount goes over 350 mg. a day, a dependency can develop.  A toxic build-up can begin to develop in the body if a person consistently injests over 650 mg. a day, which can lead to adverse health symptoms.

Effects Of Caffeine

• Since caffeine is a drug, it has certain effects on the body when a certain level of intake is reached.  At 100 mg., the brains activity is effected, leading to headaches, jitters, an increase in heart rate,, convulsions and delirium, with these effects becoming more likely as a person reaches the 300 mg. to 350 mg. levels.  When a person hits around 650 mg. of caffeine a day, the toxicity of the substance will start to build in the body, leading to insomnia, depression, anxiety, and even the possibility of developing ulcers.  While there are several drugs out there that will have the end result of death, caffeine has a far less likelihood of that event, especially since it take 5,000 mg. of caffeine to equal a fatal dose.  The lowest recorded level of caffeine to cause death is around 3,500 mg, which was the result of an accidental injection and ingestion.  Just to put that into perspective, 5,000 mg. of caffeine is about 40 or so cups of regular coffee.

How To Quit The Drug

• Quitting caffeine is a simple process, just limit your injestion to under 300 mg. a day.  This will take careful watching, since most people don't take into consideration everything that has caffeine in it.  That means limiting soda, chocolate and coffee, not just cutting down to a cup of joe in the morning.  Quitting the drug known as caffeine for many people means completely leaving caffeine behind.  That means no more coffee, soda, chocolate or tea.

• To make it better, the withdrawal effects of caffeine are also hard to deal with. While they may not be as devastating as say the effects of heroin withdrawal, they are still enough to get a person to go back to the habit.  Headaches, irritability, difficulty working and concentrating, restlessness, nerveousness, and an overall tired feeling can result when you quit using caffeine, even if your body hasn't developed a full fledged dependence.  In more severe cases, nausea and vomiting can come along with the withdrawal symptoms of caffeine.  Luckily, you will only have to deal with them for about a week, as long as no other caffeine is taken, and should you steer back ontu the path, it will only prolong the symptoms until the body's tolerance lowers back to a normal level.

Benefits Of Quitting

• Should you quit caffeine, you will notice a considerable drop in weight.  If you think about it, you can no longer drink soda or eat chocolate, both of which are unhealthy as sin, and you should start dropping a little weight within the first month or two.  Diet soda or calorie free soda still do contain caffeine, in case you were wondering.  You will also notice an ability to sleep better, and an overall better disposition on life. Quitting caffeine may be the best decision you've ever made.

• If there is another drug you'd like to quit, try the links at the top of the page for advice on how to quit marijuana, heroin, cocaine and prescription meds.

If you have decided to follow through on you decision to quit drugs, 

You can do it!