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Originally Posted by carenkh  . In doing some writing, I know that part of me believes that drinking coffee means I'm an *adult*. I wasn't allowed to have it as a child, so to me, it's something grownups do. |
Interesting. For me coffee was something I largely had from about age 6-12 (when I switched to just water), as my dad would regularly make me a giant mug with milk and sugar when he was having some. Now on the occasions I drink some it reminds me of that. My "adult drink" is loose leaf green or white tea, as I never had any until recently. It provides small amounts of caffeine throughout the day and no sugar is involved.
The main time I've felt jittery or bothered after ingesting caffeine is when sugar was part of the equation, so if you do end up drinking coffee again, perhaps see how it feels when you drink it black (provided you don't already, I don't remember). You could also try making a coffee however you like it, with sugar, cream, or whatever else, but use high quality decaf and see how it affects you/if it satisfies you.
Another option would be to make coffee ingestion something you do on certain special occasions. Recently I've elected to have some coffee with sugar and cream when I go to Quaker/Friends meetings on Sundays. I just relax after the meeting and sip my little tiny cup (about 3 ounces of coffee). The rest of the week I enjoy lots of tea, some with caffeine, some not.