Gonna spitball a theory. You used to consume sugar or sweets with your coffee? Maybe you somehow trained you body to spike insulin when you ingest coffee. (Pavlov's pancreas.)

Definitely. Milk and sugar, usually a couple of teaspoons. No mas! 🥱

Have to admit my theory about the Pavlov effect is probably silly. But I think investigating the relationship between caffeine as a trigger for an underlying insulin resistance is probably where the clue leads. I started eating salads for the first meal if the day around a year ago...

I used to eat a banana in the morning, then coffee w sugar and milk. I switched to a cup of homemade lentil soup and coffee w milk, no sugar. I’m sure this change has something to do with my lethargy. It’s just weird to feel sleepy after coffee

Maybe it's the soup? Maybe there's a sensitivity to something in it? I'd try to isolate the variables. Effects probably stand out first thing in the morning.

I’ll do that. I’ll try eating my egg whites for breakfast instead of lunch for a few days. Or maybe just give up my coffee? NEVER!

My own experience with lentil soups and pea soups is that they sometimes make me want to take a nap. I might as well have just had a beer sometimes.

So I talked to my doctor about this & he said it’s possible that giving up all sugar (6 wks now) is having an effect on how caffeine alone is affecting my brain. It’s possible I may have ADHD (wow!) bc we talked about how my hyper fixation is also making a huge comeback rn. He wants me to get tested

My hyper fixation is usually expressed in 3 big ways & I’ve known about it for years: 1) My writing, I can work for 10-12+ hrs straight for many days (often prefer to) to get a rough draft done before I crash for a few days

2) Food. I prefer to eat the same foods for weeks, days, even years on end, then will suddenly stop. When I had a desk job, I ate a tuna sandwich for lunch every day for 3 yrs. One day, I took a bite & it tasted weird. Put it down & didn’t eat another one for a decade

3) Media consumption. This is the weirdest one. I will watch the same television series over & over, listen to the same podcast for years sometimes. My record is every night for 9 years, same bootlegged radio show from the UK that aired in the early ‘00s.

The 4th way it’s expressed is not as compulsive, but I’ll find an exercise I like and do it every single day, same routine, same amount of time, for years lol. I used to wake up at dawn and run 3 miles in the same park every morning. Then switched to swimming (my true love) & am still doing it

I’ve also randomly decided to stop meat and/or alcohol. Last time, 5 yrs for meat, 10 yrs for alcohol. I always figured these were just personality quirks or stress responses. ADHD doesn’t run in my family, so I suppose I’ll find out when I get tested.

So if any ADHD folks out there are seeing this, please feel free to weigh in. Am I just a creature of habit or is it something more? Bc now that I’ve written it out, I realize I have more hyper fixations, like wearing the same color clothes for yrs, or only dresses and then only pants lol. Normal?

I suspect there's no such thing as normal, just whatever works for each one of us. Normal is a myth.

I agree. I’ve always spun my quirks in a positive way. I can hyper-focus, which helps so much. I learn languages quickly (3 & counting), I can write an entire tv pilot in a weekend, I can stop bad habits by switching focus & disassociating from withdrawals. I’m super goal-oriented.

I do tend to neglect friendships, though. My brain gets very noisy sometimes, especially if routine is broken or someone interrupts me & I tend to neglect stuff (even if it’s important) that’s not in my direct line of sight.

For those of us with powerful ADHD, we sometimes like to enjoy a fine caffeine nap. Which is to say, stimulants don’t really stimulate us so much as they stabilize us.

Thank you. I guess it was the sugar pepping me up all this time. I only drink one coffee a day in the morning, so I don’t think it’s about tolerance. The only thing I’ve changed is no sugar in it. It’s more than just “not feeling it.” I get powerful drowsy about 30 min after I drink it.

And I’m a child of the 80s so I doubt l, until now, I’ve ever gone a day in my life without refined sugar. I had terrible withdrawals fr it. Brain fog, etc. I’ve given up caffeine full stop in the past & never had any withdrawals, so WTF? 🤷🏻‍♀️