Kicking Caffeine

emilyelizabethfran
Apr 21, 2015
2 min read

Catching up with my girls, over morning cappuccinos at The Red Bench; Photo by Alisha Lynn

I jolted myself into caffeinated bliss when I was 16 years old. Like any teenager, I wasn't a fan of putting myself to bed before midnight, and found it unbearable to rise before the sun to head to school. Enlightenment came however, in the form of a Starbucks franchise, and my discovery of flavoured syrups that masked the taste of coffee until I could adjust to the intrinsic bitterness of morning Joe.

I remember my first few months as a coffee-guzzler. And I do mean guzzler. Before Starbucks had even invented the Trenta size, I owned a travel mug that exceeded Venti ounces, and filled it with a coffee Misto every morning, never failing to be tortured by a devastating caffeine crash each afternoon.

When I entered university, I was surprised to find that very few of my friends drank a morning mug of coffee, but my, did this change quickly. By my final year of university, my housemates and I would polish off a few extra-large pots of coffee on a daily basis, in addition to caffeinated colas and energy drinks. The pressures of pending deadlines and immense workloads can make one reliant on caffeine, especially when this stimulant tends to make one feel more awake, productive and happy. Recent studies have also shown drinking coffee reduces one's risk of developing type 2 diabetes and various cancers. So why not fill your tank with java every morning?

If you’re like me, you aren’t a stranger to anxiety, and you’ll understand how detrimental caffeine can be to your mental and physical health. I know when I’ve over-done it with my coffee because I’ll feel shaky, and sometimes even panicked, with an upset stomach and volatile mood. Considering my personal mental health issues are linked to anxiety in many ways, drinking copious amounts of caffeine only exacerbates these problems. Nevertheless, the lure of my morning coffee ritual is hard to abandon.

That’s why, every few months I kick caffeine completely and shed my reliance on coffee and other caffeinated beverages. It’s quite difficult at times, but I know that once I’ve rebooted my body, I can return to drinking one small mug of coffee in the morning, and enjoy my morning ritual without getting the shakes later in the day. Over time, that one morning mug inevitably increases, maybe because one particularly sleep-deprived morning, I’ll pour myself a second cup. But every few months, I know it’s time to kick the caffeine and reset my body.