Every morning I get out of bed and quickly make myself a cup of coffee. If you told me I could not have a cup of coffee for a year I am not sure how I would react or more importantly how my body would react. It has become such a regular routine that it is becoming just natural for me to get my daily dose of caffeine. If you told me I could not consume alcohol for a year I could get by with no problem. This led me to the hypothesis, is caffeine more addictive than alcohol?
Caffeine is made from various plants or can now be found in a man made form. One can argue it is the most abused drug in America because Americans consume so many products that contain caffeine such as soda, coffee, energy drinks, weight loss pills, and many more. On average Americans consume three cups of coffee per day. One 8oz cup of coffee can contain nearly 200 mg of caffeine, and if you add up two more cups that equals a staggering 600 mg. When caffeine enters the body dopamine is released in the brain causing the body/mind. This makes the body want to do it again and again, making addiction a realistic possibility. The American Medical Association has come out and said that consumi
ng moderate amounts of caffeine is not harmful, but a great deal of Americans consume way more than the recommended amount.
I have often heard many people joke that coffee is the only thing getting them through the day, but thousands of people are dependent on the drink leading to negative side effects. One of the biggest is withdraw and a study has shown that caffeine withdraw occurs with 10 possible symptoms: headache, fatigue, decreased energy/activeness, decreased alertness, drowsiness, decreased contentedness, depressed mood, difficulty concentrating, irritability, and foggy/not clearheaded. “The negative effects of caffeine are often not recognized as such because it is a socially acceptable and widely consumed drug that is well integrated into our customs and routines.” Of adult 18 and older 7% (16.6 million) of them suffer from alcoholism. Millions of people struggle to deal with it every day, but it is believed every three of four caffeine regular caffeine users are addicted to the drug. 68 million people drink three cups of coffee a day, leading to the conclusion that of these people 51 million of them are actually addicted.
It is nearly impossible to make the argument that one addiction is stronger than the other because that is a personal thing with too much bias to determine. Based off the numbers one can conclude that there are more people addicted to caffeine than alcohol in America. After my research there is not enough evidence to fail to reject the hypothesis that caffeine is more addictive than alcohol. Although there may be more people addicted to caffeine, there are many outlying factors that play a role in causing this such as if someone was exposed to the drug at a young age or how much sleep one may get.
http://www.michaelshouse.com/drug-addiction/most-addictive-drugs-world/#_ftn25
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-004-2000-x
http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/01/29/caffeine-addiction-is-no-joke-for-some/65142.html
http://healthresearchfunding.org/shocking-caffeine-addiction-statistics/
This is really interesting because its almost impossible to determine which is worse because it can be different for everyone experiencing it. But I have come to realize that I am truly addicted to coffee and experience with drawl symptoms if I go one day without it. My mom always tries to give it up because it is so bad to be addicted to it. Really interesting to try to compare it with alcohol, as I have never thought about it before like this.
Your blog flowed well and was informing, I just think that its question in argument was one that is hard to take serious as alcoholics have more of the chance to be negative or violent. While many students drink tremendous amounts of coffee and they do positive productive things with their days. I guess no dependency on such things in general would be the more beneficial route for the body, but I would rather be hooked on caffeine before I would want to be hooked on alcohol.
I do not drink coffee usually but since I have come to college I have started to consume more. My friends tell me that they get extremely bad headaches when they have gone without coffee and I never want to get to that point. Coffee is good for keeping you up once in a while but everyday can really hurt your body.
This blog was really well written. I think the best conclusion you drew was that no addiction can be stronger than another. I think this is completely true because it completely depends on the person. I did some research and found out that caffeine does have profound effects on an individual. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, caffeine can alter moods, cause anxiety, create insomnia or lower levels of sleep, and cause withdrawals similar to those of drugs. I personally try to steer away from caffeine because I don’t feel well when I consume it. I think it is better for the general population to do so as well.
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/psychiatry/research/bpru/docs/caffeine_dependence_fact_sheet.pdf
I found this blog extremely interesting because I am someone who has a slight caffeine addition (My weakness is Pepsi). The part of your blog about caffeine withdrawal is 100% correct. I often find that if I drink no soda for a more than 2 days, I begin to get the headaches, lack of energy, and just feel bad overall. At that point I usually find the nearest vending machine and 30 minutes later I feel good as new. However I would not consider caffeine to be dangerously addictive because people skip it every day. I know friends who usually drink coffee in the morning, but if they don’t have time they can make it through the day. If caffeine were a “real drug” such as alcohol, the withdrawal symptoms would be too much for anyone to take a day off.
Ryan, My caffeine is just as bad as yours so I am with you on this one. Sometimes when I miss out on coffee in the morning, I get really bad headaches and can barely function properly. I thought that it was clever of you to think about the relationship between coffee and alcohol and see if there was any relation. That was scientific of you to form this hypothesis. I also was wondering if there was any relation while reading through your post and when I got to the final paragraph I recognized that you were right and this just did have to much bias and outlying factors like you said. Great job with this blog and if you want a break from coffee, I posted a blog last blog period about tea and you should check that out!