Re: Dependency on legally accessible stimulants (e.g. caffeine, ephedrine, dmaa)
All of the following recommendations are from hard-won personal experience with addiction to various substances (including, but not limited to, caffeine).
Stop using the substance completely. Yes, there will be withdrawl symptoms, the worst being within the first three days. If you can do this when you've got some time off (a long weekend or something along those lines) that will help. Do not give in to the temptation to take more of the substance. With caffeine, you'll get a hell of a headache, although drinking water will help somewhat, but if you can just make yourself put up with the headache and the loss of focus and the other symptoms, that's the first battle won.
Do not use the substance any more if you know you can't manage your use of it. This sounds obvious, but it took me years to work out that there are simply some things I cannot consume, full stop. I can't control my craving for them, nor my dependence on them. One leads to three which leads to six. So there are simply some things I avoid as completely as possible.
I know this all sounds really obvious, and it kind of is, but when you're wound up in the addiction and the addictive behaviours, it can be difficult to see. From all my years of experience and struggle in this area (and I do have a very addictive personality), I learned the hard way that the only way to stop doing something is to stop doing it. That's the bottom line.
May the light surround you, may you be blessed. May the light surround us, may we be blessed. May love and light surround us all, and may we all be healed and blessed. And so it is, and so it shall be, now and ever after.
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