Ever get tea withdrawal?

[mcrdotcom]

I'm currently going trough exam season, which ends on the 19th of December (praise The Lord). Because I've been so busy I just don't have the time to sit down and prepare tea gongfu cha, so my December orders are sitting by, useless :'(

Although I have indulged in western brewed tea quite a bit, and plenty of black with milk, it just isn't the same as 2 hours chilling out with a Gaiwan of fine oolong or puerh I feel like a drug addict going through mild withdrawal!

So I thought it would be fun to open a "Teaaholics anonymous" topic to share the pain of long lengths of time without that blessed live giving liquor!

So what's the longest you can go without tea before you become unbearable to be around?

[sherubtse]

I'm not sure if you are also including caffeine withdrawal under the rubric of tea withdrawal, but if so....

For me, it would be about 18-20 hours. That is when I start to get headaches (& nausea sometimes, as a result of the headaches) from caffeine withdrawal.

I only learned this by accident several years ago, when I went on vacation and didn't have any tea for almost a day. Boy, did I feel sick.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

[mcrdotcom]

I'm not sure if you are also including caffeine withdrawal under the rubric of tea withdrawal, but if so....

For me, it would be about 18-20 hours. That is when I start to get headaches (& nausea sometimes, as a result of the headaches) from caffeine withdrawal.

I only learned this by accident several years ago, when I went on vacation and didn't have any tea for almost a day. Boy, did I feel sick.

Best wishes,
sherubtse

Well, caffeine withdrawal counts I guess, but I drink plenty of coffee while I work, but I always crave tea! XD

[Chip]

I think tea withdrawl and caffeine withdrawl are pretty much intertwined for many of us. It is the nature of the beast.

If I do not have tea by around 11 am, I begin to get anxious and a headache may come with this. Once I have my tea fix, I am fine.

Then sometime in the afternoon, the next needy period begins ... but this time I get more cranky til I receive the remedy.

I am then fine til morning when the cycle repeats.

I have often wondered if a substitute source of caffeine in the morning would delay the withdrawl symptom onset. But I never experimented to see ...

[NPE]

I understand what you mean. I drink a lot of western style tea at work but if I do not get at least one proper gong fu session per day I seem to have trouble concentrating because all I think about is which tea I would like to drink, which teapot I would like to use etc. Once it has been so bad that I lay in bed awake thinking so much about how much I wanted proper tea that I got up in the middle of the night for a quick session with my tiniest teapot... ...but afterwards I got a (albeit short) night of contented sleep

[William]

Never had this type of problem, I can drink tea for a whole day, and then not drink for a week.

[Jspigs]

Every now and then I will get an intense craving for a certain kind of tea. The type varies, but drinking other teas generally does not satisfy these cravings. It is definitely not caffeine withdrawal since as I said other teas don't help. It is very puzzling. It is also very random. Sometimes I can go several days without tea and others it will hit me not long after I have had a cup or two.

[Joel Byron]

I don't know. I've never tried to quit!

[debunix]

I don't think I get enough caffeine from my tea tea drinking--dilute as it is--to go through proper withdrawal on days where I drink little to none. They are rare days, but sometimes do happen, most often because I'm too busy to make tea first thing and then the day continues like that.

[toasterburn]

Odd, I don't notice any effect of caffeine from my 1-2 cups of black tea in the morning. Definitely not the same reaction I would get from say coffee or soda. I always assumed the amount of caffeine in tea wasn't high enough to make much of a difference unless one consumed massive amounts of it.

[chingwa]

I'm almost sure I get caffeine withdrawal... kicks in usually at 25 or 26 hours with an annoying headache that won't go away all day. But it isn't consistent as sometimes if I go without tea it doesn't kick in, so I don't know if it's caffeine withdrawal or just poor sleeping habits.

Though, I feel I'm much more addicted to the behavioral patterns with tea than an actual chemical addiction.

[JRS22]

I don't think I get enough caffeine from my tea drinking to feel a physical impact with it or withdrawal symptoms without it. I travelled a lot this fall and went w/o tea for two weeks on one trip and just one tea session during two weeks on the second trip.

Though, I feel I'm much more addicted to the behavioral patterns with tea than an actual chemical addiction.

+1 on this. I really enjoy a quiet tea session of drinking and reading, especially in the morning.

[wyardley]

I get bigtime withdrawal headaches, and my intake is relatively moderate to start with. So generally, I try to keep my caffeine intake pretty even.

[茶藝-TeaArt08]

I don't think I get enough caffeine from my tea drinking to feel a physical impact with it or withdrawal symptoms without it. I travelled a lot this fall and went w/o tea for two weeks on one trip and just one tea session during two weeks on the second trip.

Though, I feel I'm much more addicted to the behavioral patterns with tea than an actual chemical addiction.

+1 on this. I really enjoy a quiet tea session of drinking and reading, especially in the morning.

+1 to the above. I don't feel any physical effects or withdrawal. But I miss the focused time of sitting, being intentional and attentive, of sipping, listening, and sensing. I am always deepened after a tea sitting and miss that deepening when it is absent.

Blessings!

[Peacock]

Though, I feel I'm much more addicted to the behavioral patterns with tea than an actual chemical addiction.

Me as well. I sorely miss the ritual and routine if my day goes without tea.