Caffeine addiction affects many people around; people rely on caffeine daily in the morning, unaware that these daily drinks can harm their body and their overall health.

“About a year ago, I started drinking 1-2 [energy drinks] a day,” sophomore Addison Glover said.

Caffeine can be extremely addictive, as the effects first begin to block out your tired signals before boosting your dopamine levels, which is the chemical that regulates being happy. After a while, the human body begins to adapt to the effects of the caffeine and to have the same lasting effect of happiness, the body will require the missing caffeine as time goes on.

An excessive amount of caffeine could cause a lot of adverse symptoms, one of the main symptoms being that caffeine can cause is an increased heart rate.

“It naturally sped up my heart rate when I wasn’t doing anything, and I had to wear a heart monitor from drinking too many,” Glover said. “I drank enough Alanis to where my body was used to having a high heart rate. I’d just be sitting down, and my heart rate would go up to 120.”

As Glover said, caffeine makes your heart faster, but daily intake of caffeine below 400mg cannot cause problems. When people start drinking caffeine, and if the person does get addicted, it could get bad because the person’s body is going to demand more caffeine; it could do a lot of harm to the body and people’s mental health.

It could have more symptoms than heart rate speed, like anxiety, upset stomach, and trouble sleeping. Withdrawal symptoms, people could have without caffeine include headaches, feeling sluggish, and trouble concentrating. This works by causing a rapid reversal of its stimulating effects, primarily through adenosine receptor upregulation and increased blood flow to the brain.

“I drink caffeine when I’m stressed because caffeine calms me down,” science teacher Stefanie Clarke said.

For heavy caffeine drinkers like Clarke, who has been drinking caffeine for five years, caffeine doesn’t affect her as much. Caffeine is very addictive to a lot of people, but there are ways to stop this addiction.

“You can do hard things. It takes 72 hours for the true chemical effect to wear off. After 72 hours, it is purely behavioral,” Clarke said. “If you did it for two weeks, you’re done.”

Ways to stop being addicted to caffeine are slowly reducing the amount of caffeine weekly to let the body adjust, then slowly also start mixing regular and decaf, and identify hidden sources of caffeine like chocolate, soda, and more. Lastly, increasing water intake and finding other things that give you that dopamine caffeine does that makes you want to keep going back, like going on a walk or playing your favorite sport.

Caffeine may seem like a normal part of everyday life, but it can turn into a dependence that affects the body and the mind. Understanding how caffeine works and recognizing its risks can help people set healthy habits with caffeine and stop them from relying on caffeine.

References:
https://www.verywellmind.com/caffeine-addiction-4157287
https://www.ama-assn.org/public-health/prevention-wellness/what-doctors-wish-patients-knew-about-impact-caffeine
https://www.bluecrossvt.org/health-community/blog/listing/healthy-ways-get-caffeine