Ever find yourself eagerly awaiting your caffeine fix? You’re not alone.
“I can’t wait for Prof to call for break time now. I really need my caffeine fix”, mutters every SMU student 30 mins into their dreaded 8.15 am class.
If this sounds familiar, you’re definitely not alone.
Caffeine -- whether it’s an iced latte, Kopi Beng, Teh ‘C’, or matcha latte, has become a vital part of our daily routines. In fact, I’m sure some of us feel like we can’t kick start our day without at least a cup of coffee in our system first.
But, why is that so? Just a few decades ago, people avoided over-consuming caffeine due to its associations with anxiety, restlessness and insomnia. Additionally, taking reference from our non-coffee drinking friends, if they can function without coffee in their daily lives, why is it so difficult for the rest of us to cut back?
To those who consume four to five cups a day - could the effects of caffeine be more psychological than neurological? Might the perceived effects of caffeine come more from our psychological expectations and habits than the actual physiological changes in our bodies as we sip our coffee?
Addiction, Hype, or Genuine Necessity?
After consulting both fellow caffeine consumers and abstainers, I narrowed the conversation down to three reasons why one would subscribe to a habit of over-consuming caffeine, even when it isn’t absolutely necessary to stay awake, though this may irk the likes of our miserable selves during 8.15am classes.
Hype
In an age where “café-hopping” has become the new go-to weekend activity for students and working adults alike, consuming caffeine seems to be unavoidable, even when we do not necessarily need it.
Spending a sunny Saturday afternoon sitting at the newly opened, beautifully decorated and aesthetic café while sipping on an iced cold latte along with your friends is undeniably a great way to kill time and catch up, without having to rack your brains planning for your next destination.
Moreover, this convenience goes beyond friendships. Meeting for coffee has become a natural excuse for a variety of situations, from casual meet-ups to professional networking.
I’m sure you have heard the phrase: “hey, want to go grab coffee?”, where corporate employees use coffee meetings to build connections, and people on dating apps often choose coffee dates to keep things low-pressure and short-term; just in case the date doesn’t go as planned.
And honestly, that’s perfectly understandable.
Addiction
Of course, it isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. Well, what’d you expect?
Caffeine is, after all, a drug. A highly addictive one, to say the least. It’s easy to drink, easy to get, and easy to grow a tolerance for. Almost like the feeling of falling in love.
Picture this: you go on a date with someone you really like, and everything clicks - you both have a great time. As the date ends, you’re already looking forward to the next one. This is the same adrenaline and dopamine from caffeine that elevates our mood and increases our heartbeat.
However, life gets busy and you both end up not meeting for a few days. In turn, you feel upset. Likewise, this is where you start to miss the energising effects of caffeine, and find yourself reaching out for your next cup.
Okay, you get the drift, imagination over.
Couple this with a few more rounds of adrenaline rushes and dopamine boosts, and you’ll soon find yourself reaching out for the next cup in shorter intervals.
In case you haven’t noticed, these are signs of early addiction. Sounds mildly worrying, but I’m sure most of us relate to this. How else do professors expect us to sit through and participate in 7 hours of classes straight?
Necessity
Necessity often comes hand in hand with addiction.
Without a genuine need, we wouldn’t repeatedly reach out for the same thing. Because we feel that the hit of caffeine is essential to get through early morning classes, we indulge ourselves in that cup of coffee.
It’s the same with hype. We’ve come to view coffee meet-ups as the ideal way to catch up with friends, bosses and dates in a relaxed setting. As a result, it becomes our convenient, necessary reason.
However, caffeine, something conventionally associated with staying awake and functioning, have long gone beyond such rudimentary definitions.
Having caffeine, and all the other fancy drinks that have spun off of it, has become an activity in and of itself, becoming a convenient line for the next catch up with a close friend; the next date with someone you’re meeting for the first time; and the next one on one with your boss.
Concluding thoughts
Well, I’m not sure about you, but until I find a worthy replacement for caffeine, it will unfortunately not make my list of items to be taken in moderation.
So, want to go grab coffee?
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