Put Down the Coffee & No One Gets Hurt! Caffeine Withdrawal is Officially a Mental Disease
You may have heard about the recent release of the latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) but, what you may not know is that a disease you likely suffer from on a daily basis is one of the newest to join the ranks of officially recognized mental illnesses: caffeine withdrawal.
That’s right — the shakes and brain-splitting headaches you experience when you haven’t had your daily fix of caffeine are costing you your sanity, according to DSM-5 work-group member Alan J. Budney, that the addiction can be disruptive to daily life. Back in late 2011, Budney defended the decision to consider adding the bane of coffee junkies to the DSM, by explaining that getting caffeine when your body wants it “becomes a real syndrome and can affect work, sleep, or whatever [you] need to do."
Symptoms of caffeine withdrawal include fatigue, headaches and difficulty focusing. And, though some argue that it’s not a real disease because the effects are “transitory” and “take care of themselves,” many of us know what it's like to experience the lows of a caffeine crash and simply seek out more of the substance to keep us going through an afternoon lull. Sounds eerily like the symptoms of an addiction, doesn’t it?
It’s not just the withdrawal you should be worried about, either. The previous DSM iteration included “caffeine intoxication” in their list of known diseases as well. Unlike the intoxication you experience from alcohol, however, there is no high — caffeine intoxication leads to restlessness, nervousness, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, tachycardia, and psychomotor agitation (such as bouncing a leg constantly), among other side effects. These symptoms can occur after consuming 250mg of caffeine, ie. more than 2-3 cups.
Even with small amounts, different people have different sensitivities to the effects of caffeine. While one person may be able to tolerate 4 or 5 cups of joe during a workday without feeling jittery, another may be jumping off the walls after eating a single bar of chocolate — and those effects can still be felt for at least 6 hours after consumption. For this reason, many experts recommend laying off the caffeine (even if it’s just a little bit of chocolate) for a few hours before you’re planning on going to sleep. In case the above isn’t enough to convince you to cut back on the energy drinks, chocolate, and coffee in your daily consumption habits, lack of proper sleep can cause irritability and anxiety and have seriously detrimental effects on your quality of life, not just socially, but also for your physical health.
That said, coffee may also have some extremely beneficial qualities when consumed in moderation, so there’s no need to cut it out of your diet entirely. As with everything else in life, there is a balance to be found to keep you happy, healthy, and not looking like this guy.
[Pic via Flickr - Justin Henry]
