A Coffee Addiction

Well, if you have not been on the Coffee & Story Time Instagram or Facebook page within the past few months no worries cause your finding out here.

Recently a new college course I was enrolled into led me to identify an addiction for me and rid it for 12 weeks for the program to attend. I did take it a step further starting it sooner rather than later, so 13 weeks for me, but I bet you can imagine what this was…. yep, coffee.

No matter what I tried to think of to replace it with coffee kept reappearing and of course I did not want it to be a source of an addiction but then I realized I must truly have an addiction to it if I was looking for some other substance of thing or behavior to take the place of my coffee and coffee drinking habits.

Coming to this realization I knew what I had to do to truly embrace myself into this assignment, give up that coffee for this program.

So much hit me I did not believe I would encounter. I knew it would be a struggle but also knew if I put my mind to it I could do this.

What was so crazy, is the reactions from loved ones when I told them I would be giving this up. Shocked of course and ask why not something else as easy. Then someone told me why give up something you so much enjoy.

This made me question, because I enjoy it does that mean it’s a good or healthy addiction?

Is that something we can even say?

Someone addicted to smoking may find that enjoyable yet that is counted as a negative addiction due to health impacts.

This subject, topic, task really brought up so many curious questions and concerns I had not once thought of.

With this sudden stop I was immediately hit with caffeine migraines. If this happened then coffee cannot be that good for me can it? If I go without it for a day after years and this is my reaction something may need to change.

The migraines lasted days, more than I thought would, but other changes began to occur.

I began to sleep better, feel less anxious and jittery, and even began to speak up more. I mean was coffee actually keeping me chilled and quiet in some way. Maybe it is my brain just connecting the two, but what is so strange as soon as I stopped drinking coffee my nerves began to shorten and because of this I did not fully hold everything back and in again.

Of course, these “symptoms” lessened over the weeks and as they did I become more and more sad. I really did begin to miss coffee. I missed sitting around in a circle visiting with my family as they all drank their coffee. Sharing stories and laughing. It was not the same without my own coffee in hand. I also just missed the flavor so much. Trying to replace it with tea or apple cider, something else hot to drink in the mornings was only a short fix for me.

It was just not the same.

Well, during this time I felt I turned to energy drinks and caffeinated drinks. Because of this I started to give those up as well. When I did and I would drink one here and there the flavor was no longer good. Meaning maybe working on this addiction did help in a way. Help me rid the habit of energy drinks and sodas. At least not drink them as much.

Not only this but a dependence on something like coffee, even a joyous one, may not be the best either. So now I will bring my coffee back into my life but shorten it. I understand I need limits which means I cannot continue to drink it all day every day. Once a day, good, maybe even skip a day altogether here or there and if I know I will be drinking it later with family or friends skip it that morning. Just to see how that works.

I will continue with coffee and story time, because coffee is still a great compliment to a story telling or reading a book. And for sure I will still be all things coffee, but now I will just consider myself, my health a bit better.

Truly what are your thoughts on this experience and outcome?

It will be insightful to see what you think.