YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Coffee is fucking great when you need a fast pick me up in the morning. It's a miracle, but only if you have stuff to do. Which, in my case, I usually don't. So I drink coffee to help me get out of bed, then to stay out of bed. Then I'm at a loss for what to do, my cut off point is usually 3 cups. I hate the feeling of being over-caffeinated, like everything is bottled up inside you, your gut is churning and your brain is sweating. It's god awful. I don't know why I've never addressed it before, I guess coffee is just such a widespread and mainstream stimulant that I assumed there can never be any health affects associated with it. Except when I overdrink it, or just start the day with coffee and no food, I feel like I'm rotting from the inside out. you guys know what I mean, everyone and their mother drinks this stuff, and like all addictive substances, it's GREAT until you do too much and start to rely on it, which I have for about the past 5 years, so how unhealthy is it? Is there anyone out there who doesn't consume caffeine, how do you get through the day, SERIOUSLY? I'm just trying to figure out how to drink responsibly, have a more balanced diet and respect mother caffeine.

Ha! Now I take caffeine pills!

Full disclosure: I drink Voltaire levels of coffee and am a total monster without it, I don't do any other drugs (OTC or illicit) and only take medication when it is prescribed.

Have you considered switching to tea after the first cup of Joe gets you out of bed? Dry tea vs. dry coffee does actually have more caffeine in it, but for some reason you take in less of the caffeine. I have a problem with tannin so I drink white tea (which is from the same plant but harvested at a different stage of development so it has more antioxidants than black tea and almost no tannin, and is far less acidic than coffee or green tea.

Have you tried maybe a more natural pick me up? I drink coffee once a day, so I don't know much about it, but I think things like wheatgrass and the like are similar but without the skittishness? I also drank a lot of orange juice way back when I tried to kick caffeine since it's got a lot of sugar.