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May 17, 2009

Caffeine Withdrawal

So it's been about three weeks since my last exam...but I have not forgotten what the weeks of preparing and testing felt like. I got my grades back and they are a fairly good example of the hard work I did this semester. There's one thing that I do regret related to studying...and that's consuming so much caffeine. It's no secret that University kids drink a lot of coffee...and sometimes it's warranted...when it's needed to power through an essay or stay focused on a project...but there comes a time when it's gone beyond a pick me up to a dependency.

I first really started drinking coffee when I worked at a coffee shop...getting it for free almost daily...it went downhill from there...

Anyway...when you decide to let go of something you've been dependent on...there comes withdrawal. I don't think I need to explain how it feels to go through withdrawal cold turkey to anyone who's experienced it...but let's just say that "The potential for caffeine withdrawal to cause clinically significant distress or impairment in functioning is reflected by the inclusion of caffeine withdrawal as an official diagnosis in [International Classification of Diseases]-10 (World Health Organization)"

Here's a nice short and corny CNN clip about it:



How caffeine works:



You know you're really running on empty when caffeine has almost no effect. Or at least I did. Exhausted is really how you feel when you're dependent on caffeine...and you haven't had enough...and even more so the days after you decide to cut down/stop consuming it completely.

Which reminds me of a song...
Exhausted by the Foo Fighters:




P.S. I'm better now...but that's not something I want to repeat.

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