The quitting is extremely hard, but it’s still going. It’s been almost two weeks! My brain is putting up one hell of a fight. In fact, it’s fighting so hard that it’s kind of weakening its own efforts, since I become so shocked by its efforts that I start thinking about brains instead of cigarettes.

The caffeine content of chocolate in typical serving sizes is not enough to have any major psychological effect. Theobromine is not as well studied as caffeine; it seems to have similar but much less intense stimulatory effects, lasting over a longer period of time. Administration of theobromine in pills does not have any effect on chocolate cravings, suggesting that it’s not responsible for the seemingly addictive qualities of chocolate, and some researchers believe it has little to no psychological effect at all. The possiblity exists that caffeine and theobromine together have a synergistic effect, but there is as yet no evidence to support this hypothesis. Thus, the stimulant effects of chocolate appear to be fairly weak overall.

it might be weak but it’s enough to fuck with me!

hows the quitting going? :)

I realized that after Quitting Smoking (For Real This Time) a couple weeks ago, I have been drinking way more coffee. There’s some set boundary condition for my vices and so they flow back and forth according to what I’m not consuming at the moment.

But really, I’ll need to cut back on the coffee again, too. It’s just not good for me…

I think we are fortunate to live where we do, because we DO have easy access to the fancy teas, which I definitely drink a lot of. They are just so tasty. Suck it, Stash!

Interesting that a lot of migraine medications, particularly over the counter, contain caffeine. That said, looking at caffeine as a trigger for migraine can also be important. Detoxing from coffee might not be a bad first step. Did you have migraines when you quit coffee before?

Have your headaches been diagnosed as migraine? A neurologist can help with that if they have not been. There are other headaches that hurt like crazy that are not migraine and may be caused by medication, stress, or other health issues.

Re: migraines. For many women a key trigger is hormonal–changes in hormonal levels over the monthly cycle can kick in migraines. Birth control can also make matters worse. It’s always a good idea, regardless of whether you find a good medication, to keep a headache diary for a couple months, noting what you ate (or if you didn’t eat), what was happening (stress), overstimulation like loud noises, sleep loss, where in your cycle you are, etc. That will help with triggers, so you can begin eliminating or minimizing. Migraines are incredibly debilitating and anything you can do to ease or mitigate them is soooo helpful. It may not make the headache totally go away, but at least you won’t be throwing up or totally incapacitated for days.

There are quite a few migraine medications out there that help. Finding one that works for you may take a bit of time. That’s one reason why keying in to triggers or recognizing the early warning signs is so important. You can sometimes get the medication on board before you are in full blown migraine. Another approach is a minimum maintenance dose of betablockers (blood pressure meds). Sometimes that works.

Another thing to consider is biofeedback or meditation as a way to keep pain bearable.

Anything you can do to gain control over your migraine so it doesn’t control you is a sweet deal.

My primary cause was hormonal. Now that I am in menopause, migraines have decreased to one every two-three months that are mostly easily managed. Having had them for so many years, I am very aware of when one is coming on and can usually get some medication on board so that I just have a “normal” headache. (Whatever that is!!!)

Good luck, Jessie. I hope this helped.

Pat

Plus, every doctor tends to administer medicals in their own way. For years my dad had the same doctor who waved off his high blood pressure as part of the stress of his job. When that doctor died and dad had to go to another, he immediately lost his medical and had to go on long term disability because he’ll never get it back; much to the chagrin of the airline he worked for.

Dad told me this story once of a pilot that temporarily lost his eyesight. He of course lost his medical, but no doctor’s seemed to be able to figure out what was wrong or what had happened. After many specialists, he was at another doctor who started from the top. This doctor asked him how many cups of coffee he had a day, and he admitted to a couple dozen. There was the cause, he was ordered to severely cut back his coffee intake and all related problems did not come back.