Your Brain on Frappuccino

Sometimes I just seriously have to have a ton of caffiene to get me going. Its not like I even stay up too late or anything, its just that I have so much to do in so little time I need that boost to get through it. This week I had a paper and 3 midterms in 3 days. I could have done it without but I'm sure I aced them all and it wouldn't have happened without those rockstars. =)
 
Its weird- I limit myself to 2-3 coffees each week, as to not develop tolerance/addiction- yet I drink sugar free softdrink all the time and have choclate occasionally.

I probably down alot more caffiene than I think.
 
When I went off of caffeine (after a taking it for years and drinking it heavily day after day) I had the WORST withdrawal symptoms I've ever felt. Intense body aches that made me want to cry and lasted for a few weeks. It was horrible.
 
fruitfly said:
Even if your system is highly tolerant to caffeine, a gram a day can cause irregular heartbeat and ringing in the ears, not to mention insomnia, outbursts of temper, and heightened distractibility.
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Ironically I was deep in thought about this today.

For well over two months now, I have been getting more and more 'abusive' with coffee. I went from having one cup every few weeks, to a cup every week, to a cup every few days, and now i can have anywhere between 2-3 cups.

I waste tons of money on it seeing as there is a Starbucks AND Dunkin Donuts right outside of my job, in fact I probably spend more on coffee than my alcohol intake and i drink a lot. I load it up with sugar too just for the sake of it waking me up 'more'!

I generally will only drink it when I work which is good i guess, BUT not so good for my days off. I wake on a day off and I am severely craving it, I get headaches within two hours of waking up, then the moodiness starts in. It is horrible.

I have a routine now, I go to bed between 2-3 am during the week and between 5-6 on weekends, I wake up for work and Im exhausted so i down some coffee, mid-day I crash so i drink another, then that night I either drink alcohol and when i get home its like a delayed caffeine buzz because I cant sleep. lather, rinse , repeat.

I wasnt aware ringing of the ears could be an effect as well, I get that too!!!
 
I enjoy a certain amount of caffiene. Not exactly sure how much, probably something like 100-150mg. I get the most benefit from this. It provides some alertness that wasn't previously there, improves concentration, and gives me an all-around refreshed feeling. More than that though, and the negative side effects begin to compete with the positive effects.

The problem is that the effect I get from 100-150mg only last a couple hours. So if i have stuff to do I'm always sipping on coffee. At the end of the day, I feel a bit overstimulated. If i am taking caffiene to stay awake (when I havent slept the previous night, or am just very drowsy) it tends to make me irritable. It won't always keep me awake either, and in that case I get very poor sleep.
 
its so comforting to know that our drug laws distinguish between banned and legal on grounds of detailed knowledge of effect, historical compatibility, consistency and those substances that aren't banned are completely safe to the user and society...wait...
 
Don't like caffiene, makes me feel like shit.

Found myself becoming subtlely addicted to it two times already when I started consuming it because I was pressed for deadlines (I would start drinking it regularly too, even when I didn't need the boost).

Now I don't touch the stuff. Not enjoyable, not healthy... no caffiene.
 
Wow, I wish I got some of the effects some of you get from caffeine! I've never gotten a high
 
I hate caffeine with a passion.I tried to eliminate it from my diet about 3 months ago.

I've never liked the caffeine buzz - the jitters were too significant to overlook.

My only problem is that I absolutely adore coffee.

I can happily go a month without drinking caffeinated coffee but sometimes, when I'm pissed off about something I'll head to a coffeshop and knock back espressos as an alternative to getting drunk.

Decaf simply cant compete - I've never had a cup of the stuff that tasted anywhere near as good as a half-decent cup of regular.

It didn't use to be any problem at all. I'd drink a couple of cups a week and not even think about it. Unfortunately, my epilepsy medication seems to hate caffeine even more than I do (it despises nicotine even more, which is why I am always giving up or thinking about giving up smoking).

If I drink several cups of coffee, I experience a tremor which is instantly obvious to anyone around me. Once I reach this state, the awareness that I'm making a spectacle of myself brings on embarassment, which makes the tremors worse.

I'm far, far too dumb to learn any lesson though.

One time in Tokyo, I'd been smoking far too much and hadn't eaten in about 36 hours. The solution was to buy some food - anything! The problem? Nicotine is a helluva good appetite suppresant. The thought of food made me nervous.
I brokered a deal with myself. I walked upto a coffee booth and asked for a large, white decaf. The assistant informed me that they didn't have decaf.

I should've walked away but I put my burning hands further into the fire. That large cappuccino pushed me so far over the 'slightly too jittery' line and straight into the 'would-be parkinsons sufferer' stage.

I was about 2 miles from my hostel but I ended up walking down only the most secluded alleyways and it took me three times as long to get back.

Interestingly (sorry to stray off topic) I used the fact that I was still hyper when I got back. A couple of people were having a big night out. I decided to swallow a few diazepam and join them. The benzos seemed to cancel out the caffiene nicely. The alcohol did turn me into something of a lunatic though...

Sorry to ramble on but I've been wanting to complain about caffiene for a long time!
 
I did an experiment last year because I was bored likening the feeling of speed to caffeine. Anyways, this involved drinking a fuckload of strong coffee and observing the effects it had on me...

Basically I got the same stimulant like effect as speed only I was much much jumpier. I was watching a movie at the time and anytime something loud happened in it my entire body would jerk.

It left me feeling fairly dreggy while I was doing it, but there wasn't really a come down like speed.
 
How many people do you hear saying "I can't start my day without a cop of Jo' " ? sounds like die hard addicts to me...
 
Meshuggah [/i] [B]This article is has technical inaccuracies. It is saying "adenosine" in place of epinephrine/adrenaline which is wrong said:
I actually get headaches if I abstain from coffee.
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Ok, heheh here I'm sitting with my 4th cup of coffee for this morning... Hardcore caffeine-addict indeed.

But, to settle these two quoted points (the first one is already partly settled by someone else), caffeine affects the brain functioning in at least two ways. First, it constricts the blood vessels in the brain, thereby decreasing its blood supply. (Abstention from caffeine after repeated use increases blood flow to the brain and can cause a headache.) Second, caffeine interferes with the effects of the neurotransmitter adenosine. Adenosine acts at 'special' receptors on the presynaptic terminial, inhibiting the release of dopamine and acetylcholine. By blocking the inhibitory effects of adenosine, caffeine increases the release of dopamine and acetylcholine.
 
but it's still a little worrisome that the difference between a useful dose and a deadly one is a mere matter of 50 to one.
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I really hope the author of the piece is kidding with this comment. I'd be hard pressed to come up with drugs (other than LSD and cannabis) which aren't deadly at 50 times their normal dose
 
the only real negative affect he gave was irregular heartbeat

he did takl abuot anxiety, but that doesnt depend on dosage it depends on the persons particular psychological reaction

he spoke of "stealth attacks against the blood-brain barrier" what the hell? dosnt any psychoactive drug need to pass this barrier? and how can it be considered an "attack" if it gets into the brain by just sliding through the barrier?

lethal dose is 50 times the useful dose? how is this scary, who is going to drink 50 cups of coffee in a small period of time?

"The U.S. government allocates many billions of dollars a year to the "War on Drugs," but it spends hardly a penny on the most insidious, most omnipresent psychoactive drug of all." he calls caffeine the most insidious drug of all.. nuff siad

"Some people can't even handle that one espresso without experiencing feelings of anxiety." This is like using the argument against cannabis that some peolpe get panic attacks, so no one should do it. if someone dosnt like what coffee does to him, he just dosnt drink it

"When the dosage rises above 600 milligrams (only about three shots' worth), a majority of imbibers experience side effects like nervousness and irritability;" If someone dosnt like this when he drinks this much, he just dosnt drink that much again, obviously

from my perspectiev this essay seems to try to demonize caffeine without much evidence at all
 
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