God I Love Coffee

Caffeine has become a staple in my life. I simply cannot function without it. I’ve tried giving it up in the past, but going through a couple of days of intense headaches and then feeling like I’m drowsy every waking minute for the next couple of weeks just isn’t fun. The last time I tried to kick the caffeine was probably a couple of months ago when I was sick.

It was easier to give up caffeine then since I didn’t want to eat, drink, or consume anything and I already felt like crap, but once I recovered from being sick I found that I still felt like I had no energy. I had (and have) such a strong addiction to caffeine that I pretty much need it to function. If I don’t get my usual daily dose I can expect to have a headache and not want to do anything other than crawl into bed and sleep.

Since it’s become such an essential part of my life, I decided to look up some information on caffeine and found out a few interesting tidbits that I hadn’t known before. When searching for caffeine resources, the first site I stumbled upon was this one. The first thing I saw that caught my attention was this:

Caffeine is rapidly absorbed through the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream, where it takes about 15-45 minutes to reach peak levels.

I thought that caffeine had a more instantaneous effect as I can usually tell a difference in a few minutes, or at least I think I can… Even though it takes effect relatively quickly, once I start getting one of my headaches from caffeine withdrawl, no matter how I ingest right then and there, there’s no stopping my headache. I simply have to let it run its course.

Sometimes in order to counteract, or in an attempt to counteract, my headaches I’ll take a little bit too much caffeine. Usually it wouldn’t have too much of an adverse effect on me. I’d mostly just have to pee a lot more often. Apparently you can have some really adverse side effects from too much caffeine.

Doses of over 750 mg (7 cups of coffee) can produce… a reaction similar to an anxiety attack, including delirium, drowsiness, ringing ears, diarrhea, vomiting, light flashes, difficulty breathing, [and] convulsions.

Now how come nothing sweet like that ever happens to me when I have like an entire pot of coffee at work? It would make sitting in front of my computer for 8 hours so much more bearable if I was tripping out seeing odd light patterns, thinking I was Buddha, and convulsing on the floor.

I think I may just have to experiment one of these nights and pop like 5 No-Doz tablets while drinking like 3 Red Bulls to see if I can somehow bring myself to see God or Elvis or Tupac or something. Not like I have anything better to do some nights…