Coffee Addicted World

(NOTE TO READERS WHO CAME HERE FROM A WEB SEARCH: Since I wrote this post almost a year ago it has now become one of the top search results on Google for phrases such as 'coffee hurts my stomach' or 'caffeine and stomach problems'. I would like to say that, a year later, I have still not had a single cup of coffee or a single caffeinated soda. I have also not had any diet soda of any kind. I haven't regretted this decision for one minute once I got past the initial withdrawal symptoms. I now drink enormous amounts of water and that suits me just fine. Where I used to swallow Alika seltzer and Rolaids in massive quantities on a daily basis I now hardly ever use them at all and, if so, usually because I ate something that was a little too spicy for my own good. I used to get heartburn, from time to time so severe and so painful that I thought I might be having a heart attack. Once again, I have not had such an experience in the past year.

I can't stress enough, that if you are experiencing heartburn, stomach problems and, possibly irritable bowel syndrome, you might want to seriously think about quitting coffee. One other benefit is that I am now aware of how much caffeine was affecting my personality. From being irritable and impatient to becoming rushed and stressed unnecessarily. None of these symptoms come from a crystal clean clear bottle of water.)


Ok, so maybe this isn't some earth shattering observation or anything but I do want to discuss my thoughts after quitting caffeine for about a week now. (This is not a Freemason themed post.)

I quit caffeine completely about a week ago, primarily because of stomach problems. I did some research and I found that coffee is extremely harsh on the stomach. This is fairly obvious on the face of it and no great revelation.

I also experienced some fairly unpleasant caffeine withdrawal headaches. I experienced this symptom as well as fatigue (last weekend I would wake up, read the newspaper, then fall back asleep for another three hours, this is completely abnormal for me!). I really began to wonder, what is the upside of all of this? Once the withdrawal symptoms have gone how am I going to manage and function? After all, the whole world needs its cup of coffee in the morning or they cannot function, how could I?

I researched this sort of thing on the Internet and I didn't find much. How does one 'live without caffeine'? Well, it turns out that maybe the reason I didn't find much is because it actually isn't much of an issue. Most people have been addicted to caffeine for a substantial portion of their life. I began drinking coffee (with a lot of milk and sugar) at the age of 12. I have never stopped drinking it since (that is until last weekend).

We are all so addicted to coffee that we have forgotten that a human being can function absolutely perfectly fine without it. We are convinced we cannot because if we miss our caffeine hit for even a single day we suffer withdrawal symptoms of headache and fatigue. We confuse the withdrawal symptoms with what we think is the natural state we would be in we didn't drink it in the first place.

This simply isn't the case.

So, what are the 'advantages' of not drinking coffee? Well, they are more significant than you might think. First of all you stop abusing your stomach. And, second of all, you break a vicious cycle that half the world seems to be gripped in.

This leads to another thought that concerns me a bit. Half of the world is becoming seriously addicted to caffeine. You can't walk a single block in some cities without hitting one, if not more, Starbucks or other coffee emporium.

At the same time as this massive growing world wide addiction we, seemingly, have an exploding increase in medical problems. These are heartburn, acid reflux, and insomnia. Simply look at the amount of product being sold and advertised for stomach problems and inability to sleep.

I find it difficult not to see an obvious correlation between this and the world’s addiction to coffee. The thing is, all of these people popping sleeping pills and stomach medication continue to drink their massive Starbucks coffees each morning.

It seems to me that they would be a lot better off ditching the sleeping pills and ditching the stomach medication, and just quit drinking coffee.

Once you get through the withdrawal you find you really don't 'need' coffee all that much. Once you get through the withdrawal you notice that your stomach isn't churning as much and your acid reflux isn't fluxing through your esophagus. Once you completely quit caffeine you can finally experience a normal sleep cycle once again.

In my own case I have, for over 15 years, gone through a cycle of massive quantities of caffeine in the morning, followed by numerous beers in the evening, topped off with Rolaids, Alka seltzer, and occasional sleeping pills. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize this is not a healthy pattern. However, when giving up caffeine is viewed as a completely pointless exercise culturally you don't consider that as an option. I have tried to quit a number of things in my life, but never caffeine. I never even considered it an option. The whole world drinks coffee. It is the great elixir of life. How can you program a computer or face board meeting without this stimulant coursing through your veins?

Caffeine withdrawal is no joke. It is not fun. And, most people who start to give up coffee, even just for a day or two, view the withdrawal symptoms as an indication of 'what their life will be like without caffeine." They assume it's 'not worth it' and give up.

If you want to keep having acid reflux, pop Pepcid AC, and using sleeping pills, alcohol, or other downers on a daily basis to get you to go to sleep, that is your choice.

To be quite honest, after getting through the withdrawal symptoms (which are not fun and can easily last a week), giving up coffee (and caffeine in general) has been one of the easiest things i have ever done. I have no desire for a cup of coffee. The smell of it just makes my stomach start to churn.

Just remember, and make no doubt about it, that this is a wagon that takes only a *SINGLE CUP OF COFFEE* to restart the vicious cycle. It takes only one cup to start the addiction cycle and re-experience even a minor bit of caffeine withdrawal.

Of course the makers of analgesics know this. They realize that a substantial percentage of all headaches are really just caffeine withdrawal because somebody skipped their morning cup of coffee. That is why so many headache medicines actually contain caffeine, so they can kill off the withdrawal symptoms and get you back on track again.

Now in closing, I don't mean to sound like an anti-coffee fanatic. Drink it all you want. It is purely a personal choice. I just wanted to make the observation that it does seem to support an addictive lifestyle that pushes you into a vicious cycle of taking stimulants in the morning and then searching for downers in the evening (abusing either alcohol, sleeping pills, or both). If you can drink five cups of coffee and sleep like a baby in the evening, and your stomach is a calm ocean of peace, I congratulate you.

However, just by listening to a few advertisements on the television it seems clear that a large number of people are stuck in this cycle and rather than going through the withdrawal and quitting caffeine they instead turn to more drugs to manage their addiction.

In short, there is life after caffeine and once you get through the withdrawal symptoms (approximately a week) you may find it is easier to stay off of it than any diet you ever tried to stay on.