Daisies and Bruises

The Caffeine Queen

16 Feb 2012 3 Comments

by daisiesandbruises in Day-to-Day Life Tags: anxiety, caffeine, change, fight-or-flight, headache, stress

I have a love-hate thing going on with caffeine. Actually, I love caffeine but I hate the crash that inevitably comes later on after it wears off.

I’m sure you’ve experienced it, too. It’s usually sometime in the afternoon and suddenly you feel exhausted. Not necessarily sleepy, but sucked of all energy and sort of feeling like you’ve just been run over. Most people try to have a second cup of coffee by that point to keep their adrenaline going, but that only delays the inevitable crash.

When my chronic headaches first decided to stampede into my life, I cut down on caffeine to see if it would help. It did help my headaches a little but I also noticed that my energy wasn’t on a constant roller coaster of highs and lows anymore. It became dependable.

Then my stomach problems started and caffeine made them worse, too, so I cut it out almost one hundred percent. That lasted for a few years but when my stomach got better I was so happy to be able to have caffeine again that I basically bought a share in the Starbucks company.

So this morning, when I felt fairly decent, I decided to forgo my instant cappuccino mixed drink. Yes, I’m a cappuccino and latte girl, which is unfortunately more expensive than just coffee, and I am so broke that I also didn’t want to spend money at Starbucks when I was downtown today. It was smooth sailing until I had to wait for the bus in freezing drizzle for a good twenty minutes. I came home and had a nap and then I couldn’t wake back up.

So, I thought, “Fuck it, let’s have some caffeine! I’ve earned it.”

Now I feel energetic but anxious, which is what caffeine does to our bodies. The energy kick we get is from our adrenaline which is the source of our fight-or-flight response. Essentially by drinking caffeine we are keeping our bodies in constant flight-or-flight mode. And what happens after we outrun that grizzly or fly away from danger? We’re exhausted, naturally.  (What, you guys don’t have feathers, too? I thought I had more birds in my audience.)

(You can read more about the stress caffeine puts on our bodies here.)

Now I drink caffeine most of the time, even though I know better. It’s comforting, it’s a ritual. It’s yummy and makes me feel a type of energy that I don’t feel otherwise. It’s warm and perks me up in the dreariest month of the year.

I recently wrote about all-or-nothing thinking and I’m wondering if there’s some grey matter between having no caffeine and therefore no energy, and having caffeine with a bi-product of anxiety. How can I recreate the yummy comfort of a warm cappuccino in the morning? How can I perk myself up?

I’m not much of a tea drinker but I should give it a better try. A friend of mine has chai tea instead of coffee and loves that as her morning ritual. I’ve heard that drinking a big glass of cold water in the morning wakes up our bodies in a similar way to coffee but is much healthier.

Do you have a caffeine alternative that you want to share with us? How did you break the habit of indulging in a Tim Hortons’ drink or swinging by Starbucks? Or if you’re from the other end of the arena, why do you love caffeine and want to stick with it? Let’s get our minds percolating!