[ THE OTHER ADDICTION ] -- "Caffeine Madness" and What They Don't Want You To Know!

Like most Adult Americans, I too enjoy a Cup of Coffee to start my day, and another to push me through until the end of my day. BUT since my cup of choice is a Starbucks Grande, which is actually 16 ozs or 2 cups of coffee, then I actually drink about 4 cups of coffee just about everyday, literally.

I have bought Starbucks coffee grounds, and other higher end and lower end coffee grounds as well to make my own coffee at home. I have bought the more expensive Keurig Coffee makers down to the cheap $20 coffee machines from Walmart. In the end, I always revert to going to a coffee shop for the convenience both time and cleanup. I mostly go to Starbucks, but will also try a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf or even a smaller independent Coffee Roaster like Demitasse. But I rarely fail this daily intake of coffee.

What is Coffee and When It all Started For Me

Coffee is a drink (usually hot) that is brewed from the cherries of the Coffea Plant. First, when ripe, the cherries of the Coffea plant are picked, and then roasted. Once roasted, the cherries or now beans (since they take on the appearance after roasting) are now ground up. Now hot water can be filtered past the ground up coffee beans, and out throught the filter comes out a nice hot cup of Coffee. And as we all know, the active ingredient that we all seek for drinking coffee is known as Caffeine; a psychoactive chemical that acts as a stimulant when ingested.

I did not seek this "fix" from Coffee until I started working at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles as a Computer Tech. on the swing shift, from about 3pm until Midnight, with the occasional overtime. It was usually after 9 PM when I would seek out a Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf not too far from the Hospital. This would help me end my shift with a spring to my step.

My First Withdrawal Symptom

During my rounds at Cedars Sinai Hospital, I would traverse most if not the entire hospital on certain nights. Hospitals are 24/7 with NO Downtime. The Internet and computer systems must always be working. And part of my job was to make sure that the Hospital's Computer System was always working. I have literally been in delivery room watching as a baby entered the World to an Operating Room where a surgeon was performing open heart surgery to fix a computer or ensure Net connectivity or some other Computer System/Network system problem. During my first encounter with such a situation I was not able to leave until I had repaired the problem. Fortunately I was able to fix the computer problem, but unfortunately the 2 coffee shops I would go to, Coffee Bean and Starbucks were closed by the time I resolved the issue. I DID NOT have my usually dosage of a Large or Venti Cup of Cofffee. Back then I would drink 1 large or Venti if it was Starbucks.

It was not until the next morning when I awoke with a sickening headache and the worst nausea. I almost called in sick that day, but went to work feeling really bad. I remember surviving my shift until 9 PM, when I went for my usual coffee run. And without realizing it, I began to feel AMAZINGLY better when I drank my coffee. I did not really give it much forethought, other than loving the aroma of fresh coffee, and then drinking that mildly bitter yet stimulating brew.

Coffee When It Is Summer Hot?

When the same thing happened to me again in missing my routine coffee stop, then having nausea with a migraine the next day, followed by a miraculous recovery upon having coffee, I began to put 2 and 2 together. And then it hit me, an old childhood memory of one particular hot summer day as I sat and watched my mom boil water. It was hot in the kitchen and even hotter outside. I Then saw her grab a mug and put 2 or 3 spoons of Instant Coffee with a little bit of sugar followed by that hot boiling water. I watched her stir it, add a little half and half and then when it was a nice caramel brown, she raised it to smell it and by then I remember being enchanted with the aroma as well. But I was freaked out because it was so hot that day, and here was my mom in the middle of a hot summer day, with no A/C in the house, drinking a boiling hot drink. I did not understand it. When I asked her, "Mom, why are you drinking something hot when it is so hot?" All she said was, "Because I have a headache." It made no sense to me, until at this moment some 20 years later when I had my 2nd bout of nausea with migraine headache followed by no headache or nausea after drinking coffee.

Am I Addicted?

Studies have shown that there are many life saving benefits to coffee. Some studies have shown that coffee is associated with longer living or less disease causing death such as This Study on Coffee and Mortality. We know that it helps with energy since it is a stimulant, and it can possibly make you smarter or more cognitive too.
And yet, there are some important things to be aware of when drinking coffee. First, it is addictive, very addictive in fact. By the very definition of Withdrawal Symptoms and samples,

Emotional Withdrawal Symptoms
Anxiety
Restlessness
Irritability
Insomnia
Headaches
Poor concentration
Depression
Social isolation
Physical Withdrawal Symptoms
Sweating
Racing heart
Palpitations
Muscle tension
Tightness in the chest
Difficulty breathing
Tremor
Nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea

coffee/caffeine can be equated to an opiate such as Heroin. And yes these symptoms can vary per person but I happen to get most of the above symptoms so it can be bad.

Along with being addictive, drinking coffee can be detrimental to one's health in other ways. Coffee Plants are some of the most heavily pesticide sprayed crops, so making sure your caffeine comes from organic or pesticide free plants is important for long term health. You should also avoid drinking coffee on an empty stomach since this can lead to gas, bloating or worse, cancer due to improper food digestion. Coffee can cause heartburn, exacerbate ulcers and other digestive tract illnesses. There is also a cause for concern for heavy coffee drinkers due to nutritional absorption of minerals, or rather the lack thereof such as magnesium, calcium, zinc and others.

So the answer is YES, I am addicted to coffee and caffeine. I do plan to lower my daily intake of coffee from minimum of 4 cups a day down to 2 or 3 and no more. Then slowly wean myself down to 1 or 2 a day and eventually to just one a day. I plan to do this both for financial and health benefits. Hopefully this will also diminish those horrible withdrawal symptoms that I get when I do occasionally miss my daily dose of coffee. Some of these Caffeine withdrawals have been worse than an Alcoholic Hangover, for which I recently posted the best HANGOVER CURE EVER!
I actually had stopped drinking coffee before leaving Cedars Sinai Hospital by slowly weaning myself off so I know I can do this. I will post about this Caffeine addiction again when I am down to 1 or 2 cups a day, so it will be a little while but stay tuned since I always KEEP IT FRESH!

I know I will Succeed!
sources:
google.com
healthambition.com
authoritynutrition.com
www.cambridge.org
dictionary.com
medicinenet.com
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09/14/16
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