Drugs- Caffeine

The thing that I found the most surprising in the lecture slides on drugs was the component on caffeine, specifically coffee since that is the most common. This opened my eyes to just how much coffee is a drug that is scarily similar to other drugs. The fact that caffeine is the most widely used psychoactive stimulant in the world is crazy! This made me want to do my own research and I found out that in just America, 64% of people are coffee drinkers! Coffee makes people feel energetic, alive, and clear headed. Addiction is described as an intense craving, seeking out, and use of a particular drug. And craving is described as a feeling of an overpowering, uncontrollable urge for the drug. They crave both the pleasures it gives and the relief of their withdraw symptoms they are experiencing without the drug. I have a lot of close family and friends that are this way with coffee. They can not be talked to or function in their daily routine until they have had their sufficient amount of coffee. My mom will even get headaches that are so bad until she drinks hers. There is a Buzzfeed video called, "Coffee Addicts Quiz Cold Turkey" (link included) and it shows just how reliant people can get on coffee and what the affects of cutting it out are. I personally am not a big coffee drinker but when I do drink coffee I definitely notice I feel more anxious and the video notes this is accurate. The video also points out that coffee can literally alter your brain and when your brain gets accustomed to it, cutting it out does in fact cause you to be extremely tired along with other side effects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAMIQn78iAA