Energy drinks are way worse for you than taking LSD or shrooms. Seriously, they are almost toxic, in that the by-products of digestion are simply killing your liver.
If you drank two 12oz "energy" drinks a day, you are doing more harm to your liver than drinking a 6 pack of beer a day. To flush a single 120z energy drink chemical residue from your body, you have to drink on the order of 12-15 GALLONS of water!!!
When you see physical/endurance athletes (like motocross racers, runners, etc.) on the podium drinking from an energy drink sponsor....it's WATER in there, real athletes won't touch that crap with a 10 foot pole.
Save yourself some grief, drink water, tea, milk, or something better than a crap for you energy drink.
And to the OP, you are right, it's a bitch, a nasty one, don't drink that
shit.