This was originally blogged on my technical site kang.fyi but thought I’d reblog it here.
It's heralded as something you need because:
a) Everyone is doing it
b) Successful people do it
c) Corporations sponsor content and studies that propagate across the internet toting it's benefits
Wake up to the fact that it's a stimulant, I always think back to the first cup of (black) coffee. It was kind of like first tasting beer, disgusting but made you feel different.
Even though dosage is measured in milligrams everyone has a different reaction and metabolic clearance time to caffeine so rarely is dosage taken seriously. It's usually measured in how many shots of espresso have you had or how many diet cokes etc.
Being on caffeine creates this heightened restless energy. When I push myself with caffeine I feel absolutely exhausted by the end of a session, by a session means end of a piece of work. It creates tension, excessive tension in the mind is actually terrible for mentally demanding tasks in the long term.
In 50 years or so it will go the way of Nicotine, where it will be "restricted" in more advanced countries. It will still be around in vast quantities in less advanced countries, just like how cigarette manufacturers target the youth in poorer countries.
We will wonder why there was once a drug shop on every street corner.
Humans discover something and use it as a crutch, that is exactly what the definition of an addictive drug is it temporarily heightens ability so people us it as a crutch again and again. If you use a crutch daily it becomes an addiction and it no longer has its stimulating abilities because the body quickly adapts. You now need this drug to feel baseline normal.
I've been on this drug on and off for a decade but the last few months have noticed it's worsening effects on my mind and productivity, it's noted by Stephen Cherniske with age the body becomes worse at adapting to metabolising caffeine which makes perfect sense teenagers chug it all day long.
Browse decaf reddit and there are reports of having a time period of 6 months to over a year before getting back to normal, which is an absolutely huge amount of time. Similar to the recovery times of a hard drug.
It is an underestimated drug because the introduction of stress hormones, such as adrenaline or noradrendaline essentially acts as a temporary painkiller. So when the initial stress hormone effects start to wear off you feel more underlying pain and tension in the body and need more caffeine to mask this pain.
Week 1 - Acute withdrawals, this is the easy stage the throbbing head pain and inability to stay awake.
Week 2 onwards - This is where it seems to be getting hard and interesting.
The irony is that caffeine works best when you are in a good mood, have slept well and of robust health. The opposite of when most people use and abuse it.
PS. I’m still addicted and drinking green tea