I'm beginning to see just what a creature of habit I am. My only life-long habit has been an addiction, and that addiction is coffee.
Yes, coffee is an herb. The world runs on it, and I mean runs. Literally. My story is that my grandfather (who I dearly loved) was a coffee devotee who perked his coffee just as regularly as he wound his old mantel clock with a key.
When I was three or four, he used to take coffee to everyone in the house as they woke up--my parents and grandmother appreciated it. But he saw that I was left out, so he brought me milk with a little coffee in it. Gradually, the ratio of milk to coffee changed from less milk to more coffee.
And so, I've been a life-long coffee drinker. To be honest, I've gone months, even years without drinking it for various reasons, mostly health-related. But I always return to it because I've always (and I mean always) loved its aroma, its taste, and its effects. But I've always drunk it just the way my grandfather introduced it to me: with milk, or cream of some kind. Not black. No sugar. He meant no harm to me, but sometimes I wish I'd never acquired the habit. It's my only addiction. I guess you could say there are far worse ones, but coffee is something that's helped to define my life and my relation to it.
Not always a good thing, regardless of its benefits. For one thing, I'm now a chronic insomniac. I'm not saying coffee is the sole cause, but I know I'd probably relax better at night if there weren't traces of caffeine in my blood. I would like to be able to sit still, too. I have about a three-second attention span, so let's just say meditation hasn't been on my to-do list. I'm trying to be a writer, but with such a short attention span, I haven't produced one published work in my entire life. Should I blame it on coffee? I don't know.
On the one hand, drinking a cup of joe in the morning gets my brain fired up to read and write for awhile, yes. But in the long run, it's counter-productive, to say nothing about how it's ruining my adrenal system, liver, blood pressure, etc. And I'm kind of a coffee snob, too. If the beans were ground over a week before, they go stale--they lose their aroma and taste. So I buy these little bags of locally-roasted coffee at around $11-12 a pop. Even though I only drink 1-2 cups a day, the $ adds up fast. And I'm also averaging about 1-2 hours of sleep at night. I'm not kidding.
Here is your brain on coffee withdrawal
If you quit ingesting coffee ‘cold turkey’, your brain begins to reduce the number of receptors right away. But the process takes about two weeks, and during that time your body sends out mild ‘distress signals’ in the form of headaches, lethargy, fatigue, muscle pain, nausea, and sometimes even stiffness and flu-like symptoms. As a result most doctors recommend cutting out caffeine gradually.
Several times I've weaned myself from coffee. Here's how I did it. Using a French press, I'd use less and less grounds every morning, trick my brain into
a very slow withdrawal so I didn't get the headache and my brain didn't shrivel like salt on a snail. I was actually successful, but life wasn't as fun, and whenever I missed the ubiquitous aroma, I was like a dry drunk or a junkie on methadone. Who said coffee isn't a social drug?
Yeah, that's kinda melodramatic, but nonetheless, I had issues. I didn't stay off it very long. The older I get, the more difficult it becomes. So I've been browsing to learn other methods, like
mix with decaf or
switch to tea for awhile. But tea jacks my appetite beyond tolerance. Another method is to
replace half the cups of coffee with tea, and gradually replace the coffee and tea with other warm liquids.
Here's a pretty good strategy, even if it seems a bit righteous, it's worth a read.
Using meditation for the coffee addict is kind of an oxymoron, but I guess it might work for some people. Might as well just
go cold turkey. But OMG that is
dreadful. I sort of understand what kicking heroin or cigarettes must be like.
