Coffee Is A Sucky Drug (And Ruined My Life)

I look back with nostalgia to my childhood in the nineties. But I mostly miss the culture. The music, the movies, the television. In many ways, it was also still the dark ages. We didn't have easy access to all the scientific information about nutrition and mental health, for instance. We were pretty ignorant of important facts we consider obvious today. 

My mother was a schizophrenic that refused treatment and my father once said that "it was his pedagogical conviction that children raised themselves". His profession was high school teacher, interestingly. My mother and father both came from big families, and really, they should have called child protection. We were left alone to our own devices and I ended up drinking liters of coffee every evening, not realizing what it did to me. I made 2 to 3 pots of coffee every evening.

I slept only about 2 or 3 hours every school day, but I rarely missed a day of school. Getting up after 2 hours of sleep was tough. I would be a zombie all day and fall asleep in class. The teachers decided not to intervene. In the weekend I would sleep from Friday night, through Saturday, and I would wake up in the middle of Sunday. I did this for a decade or so.

I was pretty stupid, and was actually proud of how extreme my sleep schedule was. Not realizing that it was because of the coffee.

I was wrecked with constant anxiety and panic attacks. My memory didn't work. I didn't remember the day before. The week before might as well have been 10 years ago. My hands were constantly shaking like I had Parkinson. 

Drinking a moderate amount of coffee seems to actually be healthy. But caffeine keeps you awake and has a half-life of 6 hours. Meaning after 12 hours, 25% of it is still in your system.

Tea, except for herbal tea, also has caffeine. Tea is even healthier than coffee. Whenever I am on a health kick, I switch from coffee to tea. But I have a rule not to consume caffeine after 13h00 (1pm).

One of the reasons I hassle my family and friends on social media with nutrition facts is that I think a lot of people simply are not aware of the health effects of their choices. For instance, people think alcohol is relaxing, but it actually causes anxiety when you are sober (alcohol is the cure to your anxiety, but also probably the cause of your anxiety), and alcohol is also a carcinogenic (causes cancer) in the same category as smoking and asbestos. You should know the consequences of your choices.

I would probably be an engineer right now, had someone told me that it was the coffee keeping me awake.

peace ✌️ 💜