seriously! like how do you become addicted to coffee, I drink it regularly but I can’t say I am caffeine addict or something. how one become a caffeine addict?
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might be worth it to consider that addiction is only a colloquial word for substance use disorders, which have strict diagnostic criteria
Drink a few cups a day for a year and then cut back to no caffeine.
If you get a headache you were addicted.
How old are you? The side-effects or withdrawal symptoms didn’t really become noticeable for me until my mid-30s…I went from feeling fine whether I had caffeine or not, to getting a headache in the afternoon if I missed my morning coffee, to waking up with a headache already that wouldn’t go away until I upped my dose.
You say you drink it regularly, have you ever tried to stop? If you suddenly experience headaches and shakes after, I’ve bad news for you.
The thing is, caffeine addiction is so heavily normalized and encouraged by our capitalist society that most people do not realize they’re addicted. They consume caffeinated products with enough regularity that they never crave it, and you’re only ever encouraged to stop if you develop a health issue.
You don’t get ‘addicted’ to caffeine. If you consume it daily your body will adjust to the new baselines and discontinuing will have symptoms (headache for a day, tired, etc…), but it is not a clinical addiction.
Edit: caffeine does not have a “Substance Use Disorder”, merely a “Withdrawal Syndrome” (DSM-V pg. 482)
That’s simply not true.
Ignoring that the habit formation is the most effective mechanism towards long term dependence and why rehab/treatment from people who genuinely want to stop often “doesn’t take”, caffeine also causes physical dependence, with meaningful withdrawal symptoms.
No, it is not physical dependence. It is acclimation. A habit is not addiction.
Someone drinking coffee daily for years could stop cold turkey for a day, drink some water and take 2 doses of aspiring throughout that day and actually reduce their coffee consumption once resuming without realizing it due to increased efficacy returning to baseline. The person would go through that day normally despite the predicable headache from blood vessel dilation.
A cigarette smoker going cold turkey for a day does NOT have that experience. After the first hour or so every minute of the day would be thinking about needing a cig, and depending on the severity of their addiction could experience serious life-threatening withdrawal symptoms.
[Addicts] Anonymous meetings serve coffee and tea because it is not addictive. It never ceases to amaze me how insistent people are to defend this mistaken idea that caffeine is addictive and yet we’ll let teens drink it without restriction, and serve it to actual addicts.
Here’s an idea, if you genuinely believe caffeine is addictive start lobbying to set age limits to consumption, or protesting in front of Starbucks.
You very clearly have no knowledge of what the research on addiction says, because this is all complete and utter bullshit.
If physical dependence was the primary issue with addiction, weaning would work. Shockingly, it doesn’t.
Cravings aren’t physical withdrawal. They’re caused by your brain expecting a different balance of neurotransmitters than it receives. Your body also adapts in other ways to drugs to prevent them from killing you as you increase your dosage, but the entire reason you increase your dosage is because the prefrontal cortex is “designed” to decrease the stimulation of the same behavior as the habit is learned, and the goal of hard drugs (again, along with other thrill seeking behavior, and gambling) is to chase that high stimulation. That loop is why you constantly need more, and it’s the habit formation of that loop that defines addiction.
This is all very basic, well understood stuff. The actual low level details are hard to pin down, but the fact that addiction is habit formation caused by neurotransmitter fuckery isn’t something that’s debated by anyone relevant.
So well understood caffeine isn’t in the list of compounds forming addictions. You’re the ignorant one trying to equate a habit with addiction. I look forward to seeing you protesting in front of Starbucks and getting laughed at.
habit formation of that loop that defines addiction.
No, it’s the negative impact on lifestyle that defines addiction actually, but you can get addicted before even having formed a habit. Smoke a couple cigarettes the first day and you’ll have withdrawal the next. A couple hard drugs literally get you hooked first try.
Seriously, stop polluting this community with your ignorance.
Just want to chime in with a few things
First and most importantly - drop the attitude, please, everyone. We can have a civil conversation about this topic and disagree in a healthy way. You’ll never convince someone of anything by calling them “ignorant”.
Now, to the debate:
caffeine isn’t in the list of compounds forming addictions
Whose list? Can you share your reference here? Is it the DSM?
negative impact on lifestyle that defines addiction
I would argue that caffeine does have a negative impact on ones lifestyle. While it is substantially lighter than other substances, the inability to function normally without your morning cup of coffee is a bigger deal, in my mind, than most people realize.
And to your later point I do not believe we should be giving kids caffeine. They don’t need it and it starts an unhealthy relationship early. Of course, that’s just my opinion as a caffeine-avoider
Whose list? Can you share your reference here? Is it the DSM?
Pg 482 of the DSM-V
Caffeine has a withdrawal syndrome, but is not something associated with substance abuse disorder. People mistake withdrawal for addiction when it is only half the story.
the inability to function normally without your morning cup of coffee is a bigger deal, in my mind, than most people realize.
No, it actually isn’t. This perception that people are debilitated without a dose of caffeine is a cultural thing. A joke, or someone’s musing that caught on and grew to a belief supported only by the near instant relief from grogginess caffeine provides. The same effect can be achieved taking a cold shower, being startled, or taking a brisk run to get the body to an alert state again.
I do this every 3 months: take a weekend off from caffeine to reset blood concentration (half life of ~6 hours so assuming consistent daily usage the amount builds in the blood and efficacy drops as the body adjusts). It IS something I plan for, making sure it is a weekend I’ll be active and able to get a full nights rest. Hydrate well the night before, take 2 aspirin in the morning and 2 in the afternoon both days. Monday morning feels good as new.
That experience is NOTHING compared to attempting to quit smoking 1.5 packs a day (2 on weekends) for 10 years cold turkey. Half a day in and every thought is about smoking. “Where is the nearest cigarette?” “Buddy’ll spot me a smoke if I ask. Did I leave a pack in the glove box?” Your mind justifying why you can just have a puff, it’ll be fine! You get the shakes, and chills. Go without long enough and your lungs feel like they’re on fire and that burning/itch only grows and spreads throughout your whole body. This lasted for 3 months. After which I felt fine but still thought the scent of smoke was delicious and still had that nagging ‘It is safe to have a toke, you are all good now!’ for another year. That would have cost my job because I literally told my boss to “fuck off” when he said ‘I looked rough’ in the throws of agony at my post. I had shared my intentions and had the staff’s support so he just walked away smiling but that could easily have gone the other way absolutely.
People that think caffeine is an addiction don’t know what real addiction is like.
You’re clearly very passionate about this issue, but you’re arguing semantics and you are, at least from my reading of the DSM-V, not even correct.
You are against describing caffeine usage as an “addiction” because you claim it is not listed in the DSM-V as such, and yet the DSM-V clearly states that it doesn’t define “addiction” because it’s such an overused term.
Some clinicians will choose to use the word ad diction to describe more extreme presentations, but the word is omitted from the official DSM-5 substance use disorder diagnostic terminology because of its uncertain definition and its potentially negative connotation.
From page 485 of a version of the DSM-V I was able to find online.
Also you claim “caffeine isn’t in the list of compounds forming addictions” in the DSM-V, and putting aside the fact that the DSM doesn’t use the term “addictions” as a diagnostic tool, the page you reference has caffeine right there near the top of the table with several serious diagnoses, although granted not substance abuse diagnoses. We shouldn’t discount a substance because one row of that table is unchecked. If it shows up, it’s there for a reason.
From page 482 of a version of the DSM-V I was able to find online.
Caffeine is associated, according to the above table from the DSM-V, with anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, substance intoxication, and substance withdrawal. You give an anecdote of how you handle the withdrawal symptoms even, yet somehow suggest that, despite having a special ceremony with dealing with a substance including taking medication, it is not a big deal just because it doesn’t have the same symptoms as nicotine withdrawal. You also hand-wave the complex biochemical reactions that make caffeine work saying a cold shower is equivalent, when it’s strictly not - a cold shower does not block any chemoreceptors unless your shower has some really wacky features mine doesn’t - and you can’t bring the DSM-V into a discussion unless you plan to talk clinically and consider the chemical pathways of the substance under scrutiny.
All that aside, you’ve correctly edited your original comment to state that you can’t get a substance abuse disorder from caffeine, and you misspoke when you said “addicted”.
You don’t get ‘addicted’ to caffeine. If you consume it daily your body will adjust to the new baselines and discontinuing will have symptoms (headache for a day, tired, etc…), but it is not a clinical addiction.
Edit: caffeine does not have a “Substance Use Disorder”, merely a “Withdrawal Syndrome” (DSM-V pg. 482)
So I don’t see why you’re still arguing with people here, nobody used the phrase “substance abuse”, they used “addiction” which is a colloquial term for excessive use of something. There’s no point to this discussion when, if you’re using the DSM-V, you should be in complete agreement with everyone.
- This comment you are arguing about the word “addiction”.
- This comment you reference “addictive” substances
- This comment you say caffeine isn’t addictive and then call someone ignorant
Just let it go. According to the DSM-V, it is completely fair to call caffeine addictive in general discussion, and caffeine has real and serious effects on a persons biochemistry that you can’t just brush off because they aren’t as bad as meth.
Friend of mine used to drink quadruple espressos at Starbucks every day, then go back to work. I was talking to him last week and told him about remembering the time he called me from the Starbucks and his name was called with the quadruple order. He laughed and said he actually bumped it up to quintuple at one point.
Then he sold his house and moved to another state, living out in the woods. Asked him how he managed without a Starbucks nearby. He said he now does Keurig espresso shots every morning. But it was getting expensive, since he had to press 10 pods in one sitting!
Moral of the story: he’s perfectly functional and productive. Go nuts!
Jesus what an inefficient way of doing it. Just buy a grinder and beans
