Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Coffee

How do you coffee drinkers do it? Drink 4, 5, even 6 cups a day. I've never been able to drink coffee. It's not that I dislike the taste. I actually find it mildly pleasing when combined with enough sugar and milk. It's the extraordinary jitteriness, head rush, and overall inability to focus that comes from the caffine that I find utterly bothersome.

I've always had a sensitivity to caffine. I feel funny, nauseated, and jittery whenever I consumed caffinated soda and tea. Coffee was the true killer though. One cup and I'm out for the count for at least 3 or 4 hours. Every once and awhile, though, when I've had a particularly challenging night of sleep (like last night - insomnia) I reconsider my stance on caffine. Maybe this time it will give me the jolt of energy (minus the naseau) necessary to stay awake and be productive. Alas, this mornings cup of iced coffee left me feeling nervous, twittery, and slightly headachy. I just don't understand how all y'all dedicated coffee drinkers do it.

And while we're on the subject of stimulants and sedatives - What's up with the alcohol? How do people deal with the aftereffects of alcohol? I've never been partial to the taste of the stuff. I can't seem to get past that bitter, stingy, burning taste to reach the nexus of complex flavors that everyone extols. I'm like the little yellow canary when it comes to alcohol. Even the smallest amount of it will destroy an otherwise perfectly tasty cocktail. But aside from the whole taste factor, I've never really liked the way alcohol makes me feel. Since I don't drink very often, I'm easily influenced by the smallest amount of the stuff. One cocktail and I'm feeling lightheaded, stumbly, and discombobulated. Furthermore, the effects of the potent potable still linger the next day. I wake up weary, unfocused, and heavy in the body. I'm told that if I drank more I wouldn't be nearly as susceptable to it's biological impact - that's kind of a scary thought.

I guess that's really it. When I use either stimulants or sedatives of any form I feel disassociated with my body. For me, if I'm mentally feeling tired, I need to my body to also feel tired. When I'm mentally feeling awake, I need my body to feel similarly.

3 comments:

foo said...

Coffee and alcohol are drugs; they change your chemistry to expect and demand their presence - it's not that you feel better when you have them, it's that you feel shitty when you don't - and having them satisfies the addiction - ask anyone who's had to quit cigarettes - and they'll be able to tell you - the need never goes away - they call it a monkey on your back for a reason. 11am in London - all this malarky really deserves a steaming hot dry vanilla cappuccino....

Allergic Girl® said...

hear hear sistah.
stimulant/depressants, dont need 'em-dont like them. except i do enjoy a cup of tea in the morning, are we counting that ?cos i don't neeeeeed it to get up but i do like it. and when im feeling wheezy a cup of tea really helps.

Kid Tricks said...

Oh man, no idea the chain of searches that led me to this blog, but caffeine really does a number on me. I drank some today, after not having any for a while, thinking oh maybe this time will be different (funny how I ALWAYS come back to that statement :) and sure enough now I have a fast heart beat, jittery, and sleepy at the same time. My leg is shaking, my gut is bloated and I generally just feel terrible. If anything coffee makes me UN-productive. Bleh.

-Amanda
-kidtricks.blogspot.com