The Accepted Addiction

Addictions ravage lives. I’ve always felt somewhat blessed I don’t have an addictive personality. Well…except for one thing. I am deeply entrenched in perhaps the most widespread, widely accepted (even encouraged) addictive behavior in the US: Coffee consumption.

Some people say they have one cup of coffee a day, maybe two. I don’t even count.

Brewing a batch is literally my first activity of the day. And thankfully, my employer provides free coffee to help sustain my habit through the workday.

Is there another addictive, borderline harmful behavior as accepted and promoted the way coffee drinking is? As you might expect, there’s an organization out there that exists solely to promote java, the National Coffee Association. This group reports that 166.6 million coffee drinkers raised their cups in the US in 2003. And a staggering 2.5 billion pounds of coffee were roasted in the US last year. My math has that working out to about nine pounds for every man, woman and child in this country.

Johns Hopkins researchers recently released results of a study that showed that when coffee addicts tried to quit drinking the stuff, they can get headaches or have difficulty concentrating. In severe cases, people experience bouts of depression and flu-like illness, including nausea, vomiting and muscle pain. 

A serious drinker finds quitting coffee no easy feat. No doubt about it, coffee is a big-time addiction. Can’t you just imagine class-action lawsuits against Folgers and Starbucks five years down the road -- plaintiffs asking for compensation for millions of hours of lost sleep?

Oh well, just some thoughts about my workplace addiction. I’ll stop now; I have to go pour another cup.

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Posted by Thad on November 16, 2004 at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (2)