Why I Overcame My Coffee Addiction

Coffee addiction is real. You don’t realize how much it is your source of life support until it gets abruptly unplugged from your life. The biggest mistake I made was to regularly drink 8 cups of coffee in a day (hey, I was a student that crammed for school), and forgot to bring ANY coffee on THIS first geology camping trip where we were sent to map out the terrain.  And I already underperformed far below the bar. Not a great start. In the three days that I mistakenly went cold turkey, my brain was in a heavy fog. I plodded slowly along in the hot and dry mountainous terrains like a depressed Eeyore, only that my classmates tried to be accepting and yet very baffled at my change of persona. 

“Hey Alyson, we gotta get this location mapped. What formations can you see?” They asked. I looked up from my deep set, heavy lidded eyes, mumbled, and proceeded to color my map. I totally invalidated them by accident and I’m sure they threw silent pissing fits. My brain no longer cranked its gear, and I gave up using the last two brain cells that I had and followed my group.

When I sipped my first cup of hot, steaming black coffee back at home, I felt a sudden whoosh as my memories came back and my brain awoken from its stupefied slumber. I only drank 4 cups that day. From then on I kept my coffee intake at most 2 cups daily. That took a while but I now drink coffee for enjoyment. Never again.