Am I Addicted to Caffeine?

By ‘I’ I mean we, as in my husband and I.

I want some of the good coffee you guys have down here.

That’s what a friend of mine who lives up the street says when he jokes about wanting some coffee when he comes by. He will get some sometimes, but other times refuse to drink it because then he won’t sleep when it’s time to go to bed. He’s not alone either. Family members including my Dad and aunt tell us our coffee is way too strong.

Too Strong?

Den a wah coulda cause dis?

Just the other day, I noticed that my sister, Kodi who is now staying with us, brought out her instant coffee, so I offered coffee in the pot instead. Personally, instant coffee ain’t it for me. It doesn’t taste rich enough and as far as I can tell, the bean power is just a waste of caffeine intake. Anyway, she promptly refused, saying…

NO! Your coffee is way too strong for me! I’ll make my own.

Now, I might be a self proclaimed Caffeinated Powerhouse, and I do need my get up to function, and like people, adult and communicate with others, but I don’t know about being addict and all that, but I do need my coffee to have a little kick to be work. That and the cup I have enables me to have four ‘cups’. Otherwise, I’ll be needing three to four recharges throughout the day. From where I stand,

Dat no mek a lick a sense!

I even have a couple packs of coffee I bought when I was in the US. I parked them so fast once I got home, it wasn’t even funny! I also love me some refreshing, cold, green tea. In an attempt to be objective, I do wonder about my tolerance levels, since, I’m still able to go to bed when I want to. In fact, I find that if I want to wake up feeling refreshed, I can have coffee right before bed. If I get a good four hours or so, I don’t feel groggy at all when I wake up. (P.S. I only do this when deadlines are tight. I don’t make a habit of it.)

So, are we addicts? I don’t know.

According to an article I found on the Addiction Centre website (2020) the following is true.

If someone drinks caffeine on a daily basis, he or she will develop a tolerance, just as one would to other drugs or alcohol. After a while, the user requires more and more caffeine to produce the same effects of alertness. Regular caffeine drinkers become acclimated to the wake-up aspect that the substance produces, and gradually require higher amounts to achieve the same “caffeine fix.”

I have to admit that coming face to face with the literature puts some things into perspective; including the caffeine headache and the lagging feeling when I don’t have any, or when the coffee I have simply isn’t up to scratch.

The Spiral

The truth is before I became a mom, although I liked to have a cup of coffee in the morning, I wasn’t nearly this dependent. But, having a newborn after a C-Section and having your husband go back to work after three weeks meant that I needed to make it through long days and nights on my own.

Often barely making it til nightfall with a newborn baby who absolutely refused to sleep or lay down flat, searing back-pain, barely including eating throughout the day so I could keep my milk supply up, doing laundry so they wouldn’t pile up, and managing to just keep the house in order, child, I never needed that bean crack so much.

After a while, adding a new business to the daily dealings, and yea, I needed that coffee and we’ve since grown dependent. Hubby’s dependence on caffeine are was fostered by the school, work (24-36 hour shifts), studying, leaving work to relieve me for the shift shift and, whew! Caffeine was a life saver.

Still, I feel like if I truly needed to eliminate caffeine from my diet, I could. Does that sound reasonable, or is it that self assured confidence we all have before we realise we we don’t have as much control as we think we do? I don’t know, but whatever it is, Coffee is it!