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COFFEE ADDICTION
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Coffee addiction? Is it possible you can have a coffee addiction, and if so, is there any harm in it?
LETS TAKE A TRIP TO THE DARK SIDE!! Aaaaahh! That wonderful aromatic smell of fresh coffee, wafting through your senses, as your mouth hangs over your coffee cup in anticipation of that first little sip. Down goes that dark liquid, warming your throat and tummy, as it flows into your body. Hmmmm!, tastes great doesn't it? Seconds later the caffeine hits your brain, stimulating it, and giving you that nice warm glow inside. Now your brain is all fired up it sets off a reaction which tells your adrenal glands to start producing adrenalin. Adrenalin fires up your body, ready for action, the problem is, if your sitting down watching tv or at your desk, your body doesn't really need to be on high alert. When you finish your cuppa, the adrenalin wears off, and your no longer in this "ready for action state", the "high" has gone. Now you start to feel tired, irritable and unable to relax. The effects of the caffeine have worn off.
SO IF YOU DRINK A FEW CUPS OF COFFEE A DAY DOES THAT MAKE YOU A DRUG ADDICT? I eat two apples a day, does that mean i am addicted to apples? Of course not. I enjoy the taste of apples, but if i don't eat any apples for a week i'm not going to start panicking about it. We go through our entire lives experiencing pleasurable things, but we don't need to keep repeating them, it's just the way of the world. This is how i viewed drinking coffee, a pleasurable exercise, where is the harm in that? I mean, has anyone ever died from a caffeine overdose? Not that i know of. To say that you are a drug addict is a bit over the top. I enjoy a cup of coffee just as much as the next person. Here is what a typical day for me used to be:-
So i drank around 8 cups of coffee per day. coffee addiction? Here is the good news, studies have shown that it is very unlikely you can be addicted to caffeine. There are many studies on caffeine, and whether or not it is addictive. Caffeine does produce symptoms very similar to drug addiction, in that people can find it very difficult to stop. However, the way caffeine affects the brain makes it very different to addictive drugs. The reason is that caffeine does not stimulate the "reward and motivation" part of the brain, unlike nicotine or cocaine. So in reality you will feel the highs and lows of the stimulation that caffeine produces, but you will not crave the caffeine. What you will be feeling are the side effects, which can be very unpleasant. I know there are many of you out there that probably drink far more coffee than i did, and there are some of you that only drink a couple of cups a day. I was certainly not too worried about any health problems by drinking 8 cups a day, i never had any problems getting to sleep at night, but i did wake up feeling really tired, always hitting the snooze button a few times before eventually getting out of bed. However, i did start to notice a few mental effects from drinking coffee. It kind of creeps up on you without you realising what is going on. Everything is fine while you can get your drink of coffee, but when you can't, things start to go funny. I got most of my coffee from a vending machine at work, but i started to get irritated if the person from the vending machine company was filling up that machine when i went to get my coffee, i had to wait, or miss my coffee hit. Disaster!! Why should i be feeling like this? THE REASON IS THAT I HAD GOT INTO THE HABIT OF DRINKING COFFEE, THAT'S ALL. I WAS NOT ADDICTED TO THE CAFFEINE, (YOU CAN'T!) JUST THE PROCESS OF DRINKING COFFEE!! WHEN I COULD NOT GET MY COFFEE A SENSE OF BEING DEPRIVED HIT ME, SO I FELT DEPRIVED. This made me think a bit more about why i felt like this. Looking back, i also found i was feeling stressed about things that weren't that important, i was blowing things all out of proportion. Here's an example:- if i couldn't find my pen, i would be charging round work asking everyone if they had pinched it, getting stressed out. Or if the photocopier had no paper in it, i would be huffing and puffing around, knowing i had to go find more paper, and then waste even more time loading it in. I WAS ON AN EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER ALL DAY, EVERY DAY! The reason was the side effects from being over stimulated by caffeine.
It wasn't just in work i felt constantly irritated either. If i was driving and the lights turned red as i got there, i would be cursing under my breath. If i went to the ATM to get some money and it was out of order, i would be stressing out, even though it was just a small walk to the next one. I thought that perhaps it was my natural personality to just be like this, but the more i thought about it, the more i realised this wasn't the real me at all. I like to think i am a laid back type of person, The "lightbulb" came on, and i put two and two together. It had to be the side effects from the caffeine and sugar in the coffee. All i needed to do was break the "habit" of drinking coffee, and the side effects of the caffeine, which were making me feel stressed, would go away. It really was that simple. There is a big difference between a habit and an addiction. I used to smoke, around 10 a day for 10 years. I started when i was 20 and quit when i was 30. Smoking is drug addiction. Nicotine is the most addictive drug known to mankind. It involves the "reward" part of the brain, so when you finish your cigarette, the nicotine leaves your body within 20 minutes, and your brain says "i want more nicotine" so you light up another and repeat the process for life, unless you decide to stop. If you drink cup after cup of coffee each day, with sugar in it, and smoke as well you are putting your body and mind under immense stress. You now have a triple whammy to deal with. After 20 minutes of finishing your sugar laden coffee and cigarette, your brain will start to crave another cigarette, your adrenalin levels will drop, and your blood sugar levels will drop from the artificial high you created. You will feel tired, lethargic and irritable all day long. Do you really need to be putting yourself through this? Quitting smoking for me was very easy. I just read Allen Carr's book, called the "easyway" to stop smoking.The book focuses on getting yourself in the right frame of mind, The author tried hypnosis to quit smoking. It gave him his "lightbulb" moment. The power of being in the right frame of mind. By using these techniques i found quitting smoking ridiculously easy, and so have many other people, there is a success rate of over 90%. I knew that if i could beat the smoking addiction, i could beat my coffee addiction, or rather coffee habit! The solution? I looked for something about coffee addiction, or something to break the habit. I found that the most popular way to beat addictions and habits was by hypnotherapy. Self hypnosis to be exact. Getting yourself in the right frame of mind. Now you may be thinking why the hell do i need to listen to some hypnotherapy CD to stop me drinking coffee? Well you don't! The choice is yours. You could just drink decaffeinated coffee, that way you can still enjoy the process of drinking coffee, without the caffeine, and not experience the caffeine symptoms. The problem is that it doesn't taste quite the same, and it still contains some caffeine. Part of the reason you will drink coffee is because you like the taste. If you stick with it you will get used to the taste in a couple of weeks. It was harder for me to drink the coffee without sugar, but a bit of perseverance will get you through. But let me tell you, the power of being in the correct frame of mind is awesome. Your brain is the most complex thing on this planet, your body is the most sophisticated machine you will ever own. So much of our brain is untapped, but you have the ability to open it up a little bit, it just takes the power of suggestion. I don't want to go overboard about this, but it worked for me. 500,000 other people have tried self hypnosis, are they all mistaken? Of course they aren't. The CD or mp3 download is only $12 and if for some reason you don't think it works for you, well just let them know and you will get a full refund. You cannot lose!! I seriously don't think you will be asking for a refund though, you will be pleasantly surprised! By using this self hypnosis CD i was able to control my coffee intake. The key is to remove the desire to keep throwing down copious amounts of coffee down your neck, and this is what will happen if you open your mind. You will also learn a lot about yourself using these techniques. Coffee has many health benefits if taken in moderation. The key word here is moderation. If you fully understand what is going on when you start to consume lots of coffee, you will realise it cannot be good for you. Around 3 cups a day is considered to be a safe amount, with health benefits to be gained from the antioxidants in the coffee. Various other studies have shown coffee to reduce the risk of diabetes, Alzheimers disease, skin cancer and liver disease. Coffee has many benefits, all you need to do is drink it in moderation. But how can you do this? Easy, get yourself in the correct frame of mind to limit the amount of coffee you drink, and look forward to enjoying coffee for what it is, a tasty beverage. I now drink a couple of cups of decaffeinated coffee a day, without sugar, and i enjoy them. I am no longer stressed all through the day, and the side effects from stopping drinking coffee were hardly noticeable, because i was prepared in my mind. First of all i reduced the amount of sugar i took. I used to take one spoon of sugar with my coffee. So i just decreased the amount every 3 days, only by small amounts, until i got to zero sugar after a couple of weeks. I then listened to the self hypnosis CD and everything fell into place Just ask yourself, do you want to keep going through each and every day feeling:-
These side effects are the result of drinking coffee, from constantly stimulating your body, from the high to the low.
You have a choice, all you need to do is take action and do something about your coffee addiction. or should i say coffee habit. The saying " everything in moderation" has never held so true! Good luck. if you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me at
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