I only recently tried coffee for the first time in my 40s. I didn’t understand the appeal, but I suppose it’s an acquired taste.
What I’ve seen over the years from occasionally being around coffee drinkers in the morning didn’t look like joy. It looked like addicts, unable to function and singularly focused, until they acquired coffee in the morning. When outside of their normal environment with quick and easy coffee, this seemed like an annoying burden to deal with.
I had a caffeine addiction from soda when I was in high school, which I broke in college. It led to chronic headaches if I didn’t have enough. In high school I didn’t put 2 and 2 together to know why I was getting the headaches and my dad was trying to push to take me to a neurologist.
Nothing about my experience with was joyful, nor has it looked like joy when someone wakes up in an unfamiliar city and is frantically looking for the nearest cup of coffee before they can talk about anything else. I’ve seen this from multiple people on multiple occasions.
> What I’ve seen over the years from occasionally being around coffee drinkers in the morning didn’t look like joy. It looked like addicts, unable to function and singularly focused, until they acquired coffee in the morning. When outside of their normal environment with quick and easy coffee, this seemed like an annoying burden to deal with.
It's shocked me that this view isn't more common. Caffeine dependence often looks like addiction to me too, and I honestly don't think it should be as normalized as it is. People should know what they are getting into before they get hooked on the stuff.
I'm personally somewhat dependent on ADHD meds, but at least I've known that and made an informed decision. If I stop them suddenly, it takes me around a week to return to normal-ish levels of energy, but other than that I don't have any headaches or pain or anything. I think for me that's more than acceptable.
Those people were addicts, and not by a bit but deep into it. They should first realize their condition and then apply measures to get out of the hole. I bet they also had very poor sleep quality (regardless of length).
Like crack addicts longing for their dose, I've also seen people not able to work as functional adults until they get their precious morning coffee shot, and when on holidays their company ends up becoming a burden, not able to improvise, not able to stay in uncommon situations without a coffee brewer nearby for a couple days.
I'm a coffee drinker, and I take it around 2 to 3 times a week. To be honest, it takes effort to reach those addiction levels; I don't think it can happen without taking coffee every. single. day., which seems way too much honestly. Like "needing to drink hard alcohol every day seems odd"-levels of wrong.
Coffee addict here. Like any addiction, the ritual is the scaffolding on which the whole thing is built. Sure, I'd get a headache or be groggy without it at first, but having an excuse to sit and sip a warm beverage for 15-30 minutes has become a peace-creating space for myself to think and prepare. When I go on vacation, it's much less important or pressing, because that ritual is broken. There are seldom adverse effects in those situations when avoiding coffee.
There's nothing about this that requires coffee, but habits require primers and repetition, and starting coffee is that primer, and the socially accepted aspect of it maintains those boundaries so it can be repeated. When we go on vacation, it all goes away.
I used to smoke cigarettes as a young kid, and 90% of the reinforcement of that was the ritualistic work smoke break where you sat and bullshitted with coworkers or friends outside for 15 minutes. Without that, the habit broke easily because smoking didn't actually reinforce or be reinforced by anything joyful.
It is easy to look down ones nose at coffee drinking, but the core tie is rarely some crippling physical addiction so much as a ritual that is itself enjoyable, and we all have those. Any guidance on breaking addiction usually centers on the rituals you've created around your substance.
> when on holidays their company ends up becoming a burden, not able to improvise, not able to stay in uncommon situations without a coffee brewer nearby for a couple days.
Exactly. This is why it was so memorable. They made their coffee problem my problem as well. Suddenly the entire morning was a frantic search for coffee. It’s not exactly the vibe I’m going for in the morning.
I like this saying a lot, but I have found the opposite by experience. I stopped drinking coffee recently, and frankly, I found that coffee didn't add much positives to me, aside from the feeling of looking forward to drug myself. The evaluation of its effects after ingestion is bleak - my mood improved after 10 minutes for like 30-60 mins, then I was back to my normal feelings. I sweat a lot more, was more jittery, and much more irritable throughout my entire rest of the day. Which I didn't even know about, since I have been taking caffeine daily for 20+ years now.
