The people who say they need 3 cups of black coffee to start their day are just addicts with a high tolerance that experience mild withdrawal symptoms each morning.
If you feel like that, it’s your body crying for you to take a break.
If you like an occasional cup of coffee or energy drink to get through something, then that’s fine. But if you ever feel like one isn’t working like it used to, you should take a break from caffeine to reset your tolerance, not up the dosage like an addict.
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So?
I mean, this opinion isn’t really popular or unpopular. It’s just banal, unsolicited advice.
I think people often confuse “unpopular” with “uncommon”
You know you have a good post here when people are immediately hostile to you. And people who are replying specifically to tell you that they don’t care about your opinion, who clearly haven’t had their morning coffee.
As someone who just gets sweaty when they drink coffee, I don’t begrudge people who get a kick out of it. But there are too many people who make their caffeine addiction a part of their personality.
Nah see…
I’m a coffee person and an addict.
I don’t resent my addiction like you seem to, there is no animosity in my relationship with coffee. I embrace my addiction and love it, and it loves me back by giving me just what I need. The high, the robust flavor, the aftertaste, the smell, the experience, everything. And 3 cups of black coffee? Bruh, more like a pot or two to get started (8 cup pots) before 7AM, then maybe a french press or an espresso , followed by perhaps a cup of instant or maybe I’ll put some coffee sprinkles in my protein shake. All of that before 11AM. Then if I’m going out in the evening, at least a double espresso and or if I’m out and about maybe an Americano or just a latte. Maybe hit a vending machine or grocery store and get an can of iced Mr Brown or a double shot.
When I was a smoker, there was nothing I loved more in the world than a nice cup of black coffee, something thick like motor oil, and a nice cigarette. I stopped smoking for the health impacts which are material, but I didn’t resent it when I was smoking. I enjoyed every minute of it. Its the same with coffee. This puritanical approach to self-hating anything that brings you joy. Its a bit silly and not for me. I have no shame in the things that bring me pleasure. Its a far deeper shame to avoid pleasure because of some intrinsic guilt about it.
Everything in life is a managed addiction. Balance is needed in all things. Ensuring your addictions are taking you in a direction you find productive is critical. Relationships, entertainment, reading/not reading, eating, social engagement, the internet, pets; everything is ultimately brain chemistry that creates addictions.
N… no?
That’s a complete misunderstanding of chemical additions. Caffeine is a stimulant with chemical withdrawals.
You don’t have chemical side effects for any of those things besides food.
Humans are literally entirely chemistry at all times. Literally anything that makes you happy/comfortable releases dopamine in your brain. Even dopamine can become addictive if applied too often, the ‘withdrawal’ would be feeling down cause you’re not as happy as usual.
You can be happy or not happy with relationships, which can cause your (misguided) definition of addiction to dopamine, and almost no part of that scenario involves external chemicals.
And all of that is just one example. You really need to attend a high school chemistry and/or biology class.
I would love to see what the withdrawals are for swimming.
Yes, I will probably be bummed. But I won’t get a mood disorder over it unless I’m already unstable, or vomit. I’ll be sad not having something I like, yeah. Withdrawals from a stimulant is different than “I’m feeling sad chemicals because the thing I like is gone”
It’s crazy that people are so determined to say nothing is wrong being addicted to a drug that they are refusing to admit there is a difference. I can also replace anything with other things. If I can’t swim, I can do other things I enjoy.
Who ever said anything about swimming? Are you just trying to deconstruct the points I made that you don’t understand? I mean you clearly have some kind of disorder, disassociative at least. Enjoy being constantly lauded for your understanding of sciences (or lack thereof).
Things I like = won’t make me vomit or cause me physical harm for not doing it
Caffeine = will cause physical harm/vomiting for not doing it.
If you insist you’re right, I can’t make you believe.
Also backfire effect is clearly in effect, me posting proof I’m right will just make stubborn coffee drinkers believe I’m wrong because of weird brain things. So that last post with evidence probably won’t sway anyone.
My specialty was addictions. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
eta: that sounds bitchy. It’s closer to a compulsive behavior that it is an addictive syndrome. There is more to addiction than a psychological drive to consume. Notably it requires a negative impact on social functioning along with a bunch of other criteria.
So by that interpretation, a high functioning alcoholic is not an addict?
“High functioning” is typically used to describe someone who is demonstrating competency at work. Academia, law, and medicine are full of these types. I’ve worked for/with a lot of them.
Home and social interactions definitely show the strain before professional life does. It’s possible for an alcoholic to function at very high levels professionally for years, but I can guarantee there are social impacts in their personal domain. Their old friendships erode, and change towards other heavy users. There are impacts in spouses and children. Their driving record may become affected, financial strains etc.
I’m confused. To me it sounds like social impacts are the results of an addiction, not part of the addiction itself. I would have thought it’s the addiction to a substance that drives changes in behaviour and results in the symptoms you describe - impacts to family, friendships, social standing. Whereas you’re saying that a body’s compulsive wanting for a specific substance is not an addiction if it doesn’t come with those social impacts. That just doesn’t sound logical to me, but hey, I’m not an expert.
it requires a negative impact on social functioning
So they’re only an addict after they miss their morning coffee?
The people who try to compare caffeine to a drug are both trying to make a mute point and have likely never done any real drugs that are truly addictive.
Yeah under the strict technical definition a drug is something you ingest that affects your body on some level. Yes caffeine is technically a drug under this definition as its a stimulant which represses the chemical signals in your brain responsible for tiredness.
Billions of people drink multiple cups a day, and some feel like they would really like some coffee in the morning. If you want to define that minor desire for coffee as an ‘addict craving’ well I guess nobody is stopping you from seeing it that way. So there, if you want to play the technicality game and do some mental gymnastics with your world view then I guess all frequent coffee drinkers are technially addicts to the most commonly used drug in the world.
Buuuut, heres where reality comes in. On the grand scale of all drugs that exist in the world today and their level of addictiveness/potential to destroy your life caffine is so so so far off the left side of the scale it may as not be there.
When we have a serious big boy conversation about drugs and their potential harms with people who actually know what they are talking about and lived that life, nobody is going to bring up caffeine.
I’ve worked in rehabs. Ive seen first hand what true addiction and harmful drugs can do to people. I’ve had friends whos lives/minds were destroyed by real hard opioids and narcotics. I’ve helped homeless strangers try to build up their lives from scratch. A vast majority of them had issues with alcohol and opioids, you want to know the demographic of affine addicts we treated? None.
You want to consider caffeine as a drug and point out how ‘lots of people are technically an addict lol’ fine fair enough. Just keep in mind that real truly hard drugs exist which caffeine can’t hold a candle too, that severe addiction is real and infinitely more hellish than coffee cravings in the morning. And maybe by trying to compare the two and think of them on the same level is an unnuanced overly simplified opinion
What? As a neuroscientist: caffeine is not “technically a drug” it is a drug. And yes, people are absolutely addicted to it. That “craving” you’re talking about is withdrawal and it’s real. Doesn’t matter if “billions*” drink it every day. It’s no mental gymnastics to say that there are millions if not billions of coffee addicts. Addict is not a defined term in the psych/neuro field so I would argue that that many people who would go through withdrawal without it are all addicted.
Wtf does it matter what other drugs are out there? Not everything is a competition. Current dependence on caffeine in our society is absolutely a problem as a result of too much stress and work pressure on everyone. Caffeine is not a cure to that.
Tl;dr: Yes caffeine is objectively a drug and yes very many people are addicted to it.
*Citation needed
I mean y’all are both right, no? Caffeine is a drug but its addictive nature is nothing compared to other drugs.
The secondary point, as mentioned, is “who said anything about comparative addictiveness?” Is heroin not bad because it isn’t as addictive as meth*? How is that relevant to the point that coffee can be addictive? Saying “claiming coffee is addictive just shows you’ve never been on hard narcotics” is at the level of an ad hominem, as if their point is invalidated by their sobriety.
*I have no idea the relative addictiveness of either (or really any drugs)
