There are a couple of schools of thought here when it comes to breaking addictions, including caffeine addictions:
1. "
Quitting cold turkey is the best way"- As long as you make sure to avoid any sighting of said addiction whatsoever, as well as replacing it with something healthy. Apples, water, and juice are the best alternatives. I recently (within the last year) had to give up caffeine all together but once a week because I have IBS which gets 10 times worse if I have caffeine. If I have it every day my life becomes unmanageable. One of the other things I'm doing that hasn't been mentioned is drinking Powerade- It has vitamin B in it, which is a natural source of energy. However, it is still rather sugary, so toning that down to on a need basis is wise. Apples are great because they are nature's energy source- I find that having an apple when I wake up actually wakes me up without a crash, and complimenting it with Powerade and water makes it so caffeine would be redundant.
So a lot of that information applies to quitting "Slow Turkey"- So the biggest question becomes, what are the pros and cons?
Pros: Being able to acknowledge its effects on your system more accurately, Being done sooner, resolve may dwindle if done the slow way. You'll also be able to say "yo bro I'm stronk af", and the nightmare will be over sooner.
Cons: Productivity will be hard because the drop down is so steep it'll hurt like a killer hangover, the urge to get rid of the pain will be so bad it'll be extremely difficult not to relapse, and most people that go this route don't succeed and relapse (studies have been done, etc, it applies to most addictions as well)
In my opinion, quitting cold turkey should be reserved for emergencies only- (aka suddenly allergic or like what happened to me)
2. "
Slow Turkey is the only way that works"- This method is hard and takes more resolve than you'd think. It's far more important to slowly replace the caffeine with a preferred drink or food or exercise with this method than the other, as otherwise, the withdrawal will be far more noticeable. Also. because this method takes longer and allows the use of caffeine to stimy negative effects, it's really easy to justify doing more than you planned on. This method requires a lot of planning and support from family and friends, as since it takes longer there are far more opportunities to slip up. However, the withdrawal from this method is significantly less terrible and almost liveable.
Pros: Not ridiculously painful, has a much higher success rate than the other method, and again I mention that withdrawal symptoms from the other method are terrible- You might think "oh it won't be that bad because it's not like it's nicotine or cocaine" but believe me, it's terribly painful, and ruins many things you had originally planned to do during that time period- You will literally need to bunker down to survive the other method without a ridiculous amount of pain- I say this from my own experiences, it could be different for you.
Cons: Takes longer, easier to justify relapse during the planned dwindle-down period, more necessary to devise a plan, without a plan you are unlikely to succeed.
I wish you good luck man, I know you can do it, whichever method you choose.
I included some articles that have information I pulled from as well as possible methods of quitting caffeine.
http://www.sheknows.com/health-and-...oach-to-nix-caffeine-cold-turkey-or-slow-fade
https://www.thespruce.com/how-to-give-up-caffeine-765278