#Caffeine Withdrawal

[todorokis-girl]

Let's talk about the caffeine addiction - Kirishima x reader

Kirishima and Y/N navigate an evening of tension and care. Despite struggling with a caffeine withdrawal headache, Y/N resists drinking coffee to preserve their breakfast date the next morning. 

Requests are OPEN!

masterlist

No one had ever really paid attention to your struggles before. You knew caffeine was an addiction, and the headache you’d had all day was definitely because of the caffeine withdrawal. But it was 7 p.m., and you couldn’t have coffee. Kirishima had planned a breakfast date for the two of you tomorrow morning, and you didn’t want to mess that up.

As you massaged your temple, Kirishima glanced over from the driver’s seat while waiting at a red light. His concerned eyes studied you, taking in the tension etched across your face.

“I have to stop at the gas station. Need anything, baby?” he asked, his voice a soothing rumble.

“No,” you replied softly, trying to muster a reassuring smile.

He raised an eyebrow, his eyes narrowing slightly in suspicion, but didn’t press further. Once he parked at the gas station, he got out of the car without another word. You closed your eyes, leaning your head back against the seat, wishing you could skip the party. But you knew he was excited about it. It was a reunion of sorts—a chance for his old class to be together again after so long. You didn’t want to dampen his excitement, even if you felt like curling up in bed instead.

The car door opened, and the cool night air rushed in. Before you knew it, a cold bottle was pressed against your cheek. Startled, you opened your eyes to see Kirishima holding a glossy bottle of iced coffee—vanilla, your favorite.

“What?” you muttered, taking the bottle from his hand. It felt cool against your fingers, and you bit your lip, hesitating.

“You’ve been nursing that headache all day. You’re the one who wanted to come to the party,” he reminded you gently, his crimson eyes filled with concern.

“I can’t. We have breakfast tomorrow, and you haven’t seen all your classmates in forever, Eiji,” you protested, your voice wavering.

“It can be breakfast for dinner. Please, drink it,” he urged, his tone sincere and caring. He reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind your ear, his touch comforting.

You looked at him, a smile slowly spreading across your face. His thoughtfulness warmed your heart. You unscrewed the cap and took a tentative sip, the sweet vanilla flavor immediately soothing your headache.

“Thank you,” you said, your voice soft with gratitude. “You always know how to make things better.”

Kirishima grinned, his sharp teeth flashing in the dim light. “That’s what I’m here for. Now, let’s go enjoy this party. And if you’re still not feeling great, we can leave early. Deal?”

“Deal,” you agreed, feeling a wave of relief wash over you. With Kirishima by your side, you knew you could handle anything, even a caffeine withdrawal headache at a party.

[the-blueberry-sage]

I'm in caffeine withdrawal and it's 1 AM, way too late to make coffee but I want it! I'm in a hell of my own making! What did I do to deserve a mild to moderate headache??

[bi-luminescentdragon]

Worst idea of my life: quitting caffeine.

HOWEVER BAD THIS HEADACHE IS, I WILL NOT BACK DOWN.

[themanta]

@reverseprompts

[izabellathepole]

I decided to decrease my consumption of caffeine and these caffeine withdrawal headaches are not playing around

[tinycatslay]

#15 The hate

Everyone hates me.

Everyone hates me at work when I try to strike conversation as I pull a thread from my visibly worn-out green cardigan.

Everyone hates me at home when I sound too excited recounting my day.

Everyone hates me on a night out when I want to keep dancing instead of going home – it’s rare, but it happens.

Everyone hates me at the doctors when I complain about being in pain. It stings, it breaks, it bends me in unimageable ways…

Everyone hates me all the time, everywhere I go.

I would love to have a cheeky rhyme and positive conclusion to this bit.

I hate this chapter.

I lay down at home watching stim board and mukbang videos to calm down. The ones with pretty water sounds and people eating sushi graded salmon, respectively. It is a temporary solution for a long-term fight with everyone that hates me – which is surprising, given my phobia of seeing people eat a lot of food at once. The things we most hate bring us a reassuring comfort to watch, in some cases. A sense of ownership and accomplishment washes over me when I see things that remind of the bad times I´ve been through. Some people can’t stand to even think about it but I get curious, impressionable – almost as if I’m grasping at the concept for the first time. It’s an itch you can’t scratch. Lingers on your clothes, on the way you can’t joke with everyone else at office Christmas parties, at the extra quiet seconds when your mum tries to decipher if you still think about it. You do. I do.

I hate it.

[randomfusilier]

.

[sofiadragon]

I got decaf coffee for myself because I'm supposed to reduce my caffeine. My husband has been drinking the "autumn coffee" exclusively the last couple days. He did not read the box or the top of the coffee pod. He saw the vibrant orange DECAF subtitle on the pod and his brain said orange = fall seasonal flavor.

"You know babe, that flavored coffee doesn't taste like anything."

"What flavored coffee?"

"The orange one."

"The decaf coffee?"

[failed-version-of-both]

they should invent a caffeinated beverage that doesn't give you a headache when you don't drink it

[secretly-a-trekkie]

theyre scheming probably

[cjbolan]

The worst of my coffee withdrawal may be over. Still tired but my hands are no longer trembling. It’s been about a week since I last had a cup of coffee. So far my withdrawal symptoms have been on-off. Let’s hope they stay off from now on.

[rockymountainqueen2]

Hunter and Gus accidentally consume drugs.

Hi Lottie! For a request, Gus and Hunter visit Panera and get charged lemonade 😋

requests that make me go get a lemonade

[quillofthewest]

With tumblr as my witness, I WILL complete the first chapter of this fanfic. Tonight.

BY THE LIGHT OF THE CAFFEINE MOON.

[hyacinthi-mortem]

I think I'll cry if I don't get caffeine rn

My brain is buzzing rn bc I eat instant coffee packets like pixie sticks

[tinycatslay]

#14 The imaginary war – English banter, friendships, and ice cream pit stops

At 19 I moved to the UK to go to arts university in Nottingham. It was the best decision I’ve made in my life. But now, 5 years later, I feel like I lost a war I didn’t even know I was fighting.

It’s not like I gave up my country, I visit whenever I can. I love boasting about the lovely weather, incredible food, blooming new places across the city.

But it’s a feeling of pride and shame that confuses me when all I can retain now is a housing crisis, no jobs, and a country whose mentality is as old as the population. I feel proud to have made it out here. But I feel ashamed of missing it as often as I do. It’s a mixture of knowing you got out of a long-term relationship that wasn’t right for you – but now you don’t know how to fit anywhere else, too strong was the previous puzzle piece outline that it draws blood when you try to squeeze in elsewhere.

For me it’s the English banter. It is, without a doubt, my demise. Absolute social suicide. I used to be outspoken, extroverted, excited to say something (anything really). But now I can’t relate to these people because, ultimately, they are not mine. They will never be mine nor make the effort to understand what that would be like. I think that is why I fell so in love with my boyfriend. He wanted to be my person and he knew he had to become part of all my past lives to do so. This is not to say I expect everyone I meet to immerse themselves in my problems so that I feel welcome - I am not that self-centred. I am merely trying to make sense of why I haven’t been able to connect with people in a while.

My long-lasting friendships with people I have grown up with have come to an end, no matter how much I try to reignite that flame. Some of them are still around, hidden in text messages that offer a glimpse of what their life is like now. I am the happiest to have those updates - it’s as if they take me with them on their new chapters, and I hope they know I always wish them well no matter the number of pages from where we started. But the ones that moved on so easily make me question why anyone else would willingly stick around to read the news.

I can feel myself give in to this imaginary war every once or twice a week. It’s a five-minute jog between not relating to English office culture to fully believing that I will never have a deep and meaningful friendship again.

I have read the answer many times. I am still working on it myself, but I will leave it here so that someone else can make sense of it.

Ultimately, everyone is just worried about making it through the day. You wouldn’t care if I was sat here overthinking the way you awkwardly said “okay” at a joke that didn’t land. No one gives a shit if you want to wear that top, or change your hair, or go to that thing you think you’ll be judged for. You will only regret not doing what you wanted to when you are old and bored.

So, make the appointment, send the text, confront that person, ask people questions. It’s hard but it will be worth it. In the end, the worst it could happen would be for you to be a little bit embarrassed and have a nice night-in with three pints of ice cream to pull you out of it.

You didn’t lose the war, you just had a pit stop for ice cream.

[cumaeansibyl]

okay this is my biggest conspiracy theory except it's not really a Conspiracy Theory because I am not actually positing a shadowy prime mover who planned the whole thing from the start. that always ends up in wildly antisemitic places where I do not go, and also I don't think anyone in history has had their shit together enough to mastermind Schemes of this type. my theories are always more like "this happened serendipitously and at some point maybe someone noticed and took advantage but there's certainly no central figure in charge."

so we start with the normalization of overwork in our society, since roughly forever. in modern times this led to abuse of medical and recreational stimulants -- everyone was on speed in the 50s and coke in the 80s -- but we all kind of figured out that was a bad idea, for the most part. what we still had after the white powder settled, though, was caffeine. totally legal, totally normalized.

but people were still overworked, and they also still wanted to have energy after work, to do fun things with the little free time left to them.

enter energy drinks.

unlike coffee, which still has the feeling of a daytime beverage and also to some extent a workplace beverage, energy drinks are an anytime food! you can even get them in mixed drinks for a night out. they're for work AND play. they come in a wide range of dose strengths, including a shooter for when you're in really dire straits. after all, taking caffeine pills feels like "pill-popping," but having a little beverage is fine, right?

at the same time, there is increasing interest in remedies for a variety of unspecific ailments caused by "toxins," the new buzzword in a very old industry of patent nostrums and dubious cure-alls. the theory is that some sort of unspecified substance has entered your body, and in order to feel well again you need to detox and cleanse -- which in practice involves a lot of induced defecation. And this is supposed to be good for feelings of fatigue, muscle soreness, anxiety, stomach upset, and difficulty sleeping.

See where I'm going with this?

The "toxins" that make you feel terrible all the time are caffeine. Not heavy metals, or refined sugar, or vaccines, or yeast. It's just fucking caffeine.

Well, caffeine and chronic overwork/sleep deprivation, which is not entirely a direct result of the caffeine but is certainly enabled/exacerbated by it. Everyone is working too much and taking stimulants to get through the day and in fact experiencing mild overdose symptoms on a fairly regular basis (irritable? jittery? that's caffeine toxicity) and it's no wonder we all feel like shit.

And then! When you come home from your day of pushing your mind and body too hard! It is ALSO normalized to take downers to level out! Alcohol is also a toxin, and it takes a lot less of it to start doing systemic damage than most people realize. When you wake up in the morning feeling foggy and achy, it may not be enough to register as a proper hangover, but it's almost certainly the combined effect of alcohol and caffeine withdrawal. Both mild! Both nearly harmless and easily recovered from! If you're not doing it on a regular basis and if you're getting enough rest, which you're not, as we previously established.

It's the chronicity that's the issue, the neverending grind of it all. You can't recover from chronic sleep deprivation or overwork with an extra few hours of rest on the weekends. You can't recover from long-term chemical dependence with a 24-hour tolerance break. If you're a wage earner in late-stage capitalism your options for reversing the damage are pretty limited and they all look like deprivation: prioritizing an unbroken 8-9 hours of sleep per night may well mean giving up most if not all of your social life and leisure activities. Fuck that.

And to be clear, I don't consider choosing to stay out late with a vodka Red Bull to be a personal failure of any kind, just like I don't think poor people should never buy themselves anything nice. If work keeps trying to take more and more of your time, you gotta carve out time for yourself somewhere. But... y'all know me. I want people to know the risks.

I think a lot of people don't realize that their bodies are under this much strain. They don't know that we are better suited for a 4-6 hour work day, that 6-7 hours of sleep is genuinely not enough for most people, that as little as 2 cups of coffee might be enough to put them over the recommended maximum caffeine intake. They don't know that they're drinking enough alcohol to cause health problems.

If you know and you decide to do it anyway that's fine, it's your right. I do inadvisable shit all the time. But people don't know, they're not being told, because they can't be allowed to question the material conditions they're being forced to endure -- and then they're being sold a bunch of useless or even harmful bullshit to "cure" the inevitable consequences of those conditions.