Are You Addicted To Coffee?

Caffeine is the most modern drug of choice in today's world. It is easily available, socially approved, affordable, and of course perfectly legal. But as for the health effects, I’ve read facts both for good and ill, so right now I don’t fall strongly on either side. One thing is clear that caffeine is addictive. And this nature of addiction is what leans me towards the negative side.

As a teenager I never used to have tea and coffee. I never have even colas as a teenager. But when I got into the fashion field, doing my project works , I’d sometimes drink coffee every day for months at a time. But I’d always tried eventually break the habit and have no coffee at all for a few days at a time too. It was sort of cyclical.
I know, not all coffee drinkers are like Starbucks, but still, I think coffee is among the best. Another favorite of mine was Irish Coffee from Costa. I bought a nice espresso maker and used it to make my own cappuccinos at home.

I really grew to like the taste of different gourmet coffees, which were much better than the one, I used to drink in college. But it was so easy to fall into a pattern of addiction, drinking coffee out of habit instead of only when I actually wanted some. Today I still drink coffee on occasion, but that’s the exception. Most of the time I don’t consume any caffeine for days or weeks at a time. I found it fairly easy to break the habit. Here are a couple ways to do it:

First ,try to switch from coffee to tea. You still get the caffeine from tea, but not as much. Enjoy some good quality tea — like Green Tea. I found this easy to do right away. But if you find it too hard to control so abruptly, then make the transition over a period of weeks equal to the number of cups of coffee you drink each day. For example, if you drink 4 cups of coffee a day, then knob into 3cups of coffee and one cup of tea in a day , slowly u will come finally to 4 cups of just tea for the fourth week.

Next, make the transition from regular tea to caffeine-free herbal tea. Herbal tea isn’t really tea, but it’s close to it. These days you get a wide variety of flavors. I recommend getting a variety pack to see which kinds you like. You can do the switch abruptly, or use the gradual method above. Now you’re caffeine free.

The other method is, try to switch from coffee to grain coffee. Grain coffee is to coffee as herbal tea is to tea, and grain coffee is naturally caffeine-free. Grain coffee isn’t real coffee, but it’s a ground mixture of things like grains, nuts, dried fruit, and natural flavors that you can put into a regular drip coffee maker and make something that looks and tastes similar to coffee.

When you give up caffeine, you’re likely to experience withdrawal symptoms. If I’m doing 4c coffee a day and , I get headaches and backaches, and generally my emotions are out of control for several days. But I still personally prefer to transition quickly rather than gradually. I’d rather just get the withdrawal over with.

Why Should we Give Up Coffee at All?
I’m not saying you need to give up coffee entirely, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to remain addicted to it throughout the year, especially if you experience a drop in intuition, creativity, and holistic thinking as I do. If you find it becoming an addiction, try one of the methods above to transition to a coffee substitute like herbal tea or grain coffee. Then you still get to enjoy a warm beverage without the negative side effects. I think it’s easer when you have a substitute for coffee instead of having to do completely without, but this is not necessary for everyone.