[olladecarne]

I also recommend switching from coffee to tea if you consume a lot of it. I used to drink gallons of coffee a day. Basically from late highschool to a few years into my career (so like 10 years), I didn't drink anything but coffee (with milk). No water, even at night I was drinking coffee. I quit cold turkey a few times and I basically passed out for a few days from the headaches and feeling dizzy. When I quit I would sleep like 16 hours a day for a couple of days and in a weird way it felt great because I wouldn't be conscious for the worst of the withdrawal symptoms.

As I got older it became clear that this was probably both unhealthy and unsustainable so I switched to drinking black tea (with milk) all day instead. I make a giant batch every few days. I feel much better now and the headaches are not nearly as bad in the morning, I just feel slightly tired if I don't drink tea. I may have undiagnosed ADHD or something because I basically can't concentrate without a stimulant (this was true even before I started drinking coffee), but once I take it I find it much easier to focus. I also drink matcha sometimes, but don't like the taste as much. There's something about the bitter taste of strong tea or coffee plus milk to smooth it out that is irresistible to my brain.

[nullsense]

I used to drink about a litre of RedBull a day, sometimes more. I got diagnosed with ADHD a year ago. I'm on Methylphenidate now, and the caffeine, though it helped, didn't come close to the positive impact the right treatment has had. Changed my life.

If Driven To Distraction, How To ADHD, and r/ADHD resonate deeply, then it's worth getting evaluated.

Statistically speaking untreated ADHD shaves 13 years off expected life span due to high rates of comorbid health problems, fatal accidents, drug/alcohol/gambling addiction, and higher suicide rates from the depression that goes with severely fucking your life up.

[olladecarne]

Thanks, I didn't know about those statistics. Every time I read about ADHD I definitely think I have it given a bunch of problems I've had throughout my life. Luckily I've managed to get a really good job as a software engineer that is pretty flexible time-wise which has been a life saver since one of the biggest issues is my inability to sleep on a schedule. That led to me dropping out of high school once as well as college once even though I was acing all the tests. I've also found ways to organize my life in a way that makes things more manageable.

The main thing that keeps me from getting treatment is that I don't want to become dependent on a controlled substance. I tend to move around and travel a lot and depending on medication makes me feel very uneasy. I'm also worried about side effects or worse withdrawal problems compared to caffeine. I already know very well how caffeine affects me and I know I can quit and be ok other than the lack of focus. From what I've read, the dependence that can be formed with ADHD drugs can be much more serious.

[aloer]

Do you have a link regarding these 13 years?

[Stratoscope]

Coffee shouldn't taste bitter. Bitterness generally indicates that the grind is too fine for the brew time. Short brew times work with finer grinds, long brew times with coarser.

As an example, I'd used an Aeropress for years with a rather fine grind (finer that typical drip, but not as fine as espresso) and short brew time. (For Aeropress aficionados, I was using the regular method, not inverted.) The coffee was always smooth and never bitter.

Then I got a Clever Dripper (highly recommended!) which typically uses a much longer brew time. I started with the same fine grind and it was coming out bitter. So I increased the grind size to more of a typical drip grind (and slightly on the coarse side of that), and it fixed that problem.

The Clever Dripper also uses much less coffee (again because of the longer brew time), and it pretty much replaced the Aeropress for me.