Caffeine Addiction and its Impacts - Essay Example

"Caffeine Addiction and its Impacts" is a great example of a paper on addiction.

People with busy schedules rely on coffee to remain active and alert to keep up. College students who are trying to catch up with a whole semester’s workload on the night before exams are most affected (Carey par. 3). Going out till very late at night, jobs and classes are some of the reasons why college students rely on coffee to create a bit more of time. Stress is also another lead reason why people end up mindlessly abusing one substance or another. Just like any other business, the coffee industry is making use of the coffee addicts to gain a marginal profit. There are all sorts of caffeine products ranging from energy shots and power shots that are supposed to accelerate the effect of caffeine. The discussion below encompasses the negative and positive consequences of caffeine and how one can overcome caffeine addiction.

Chin looks at how caffeine works in keeping people alert. The caffeine substance in coffee works differently from the sleep-imposing receptors in the brain. Caffeine combines with adenosine in the brain to block the process of drowsiness inducing alertness. The brain is also influenced to produce more adrenaline hormone, which increases the heart rate and blood pressure. This is the reason why people experience anxiety despite being alert and active. The adenosine receptors are required more and more to keep the body alert and one compensates by taking even more coffee (par. 4).

Caffeine has both short term and long term effects (Roth par. 6) ranging from physiological to behavioral. Right after the intake of a caffeine product like coffee one may experience a general feeling of being more alert. Overdosing on caffeine may present itself as headaches in mild cases chronic. Chronic cases can however see the victim go into a state of disorientation and experience spasming. Amanda First outlines insomnia, depression, stomach ulcers, and breast cysts as the long term effects of caffeine addiction (par. 7).

Although caffeine has negative side effects emanating from short term use, it also has elevated levels of health benefits to the human body.  According to Chin, Harvard University has done a study on caffeine and has come to conclusions that caffeine can be beneficial to the human body. The study asserts that when one consumes coffee daily, especially black coffee they can put off the risk of developing diabetes (Chin par. 7).

Coffee, unlike other substances like alcohol and cocaine, is easily socially acceptable. There is no awareness or any form of an education program that educated people on the actual dangers of excessive caffeine intake(Johnson par.9) People will most often regard coffee consumption as something normal, so that a person who is not drinking it may even be considered a bit of a black sheep. People will start to depend on their coffee especially college students without even knowing until the withdrawal symptoms kick in. This is when coffee turns into substance abuse which takes a toll on both physical and mental health of a person (Sober College par. 1)

The only way to get over caffeine addiction is to stop the intake of caffeine products. Caffeine addiction is a habit that is as easy to get rid of as to pick it up, to begin with. One can start by cutting down the amount of caffeine they take in their coffee by doing decaf or half caffeinated (Chin Par. 8). Dealing with the withdrawal symptoms is usually the most difficult part; these however pass within a few weeks of caffeine cutback (First Par.10).