Caff-"fiend"

Can anything good be said about caffeine? I mean, when is it ever not doing something to manipulate the imbiber's brain chemistry in such a way as to change the way one feels? A little pick me up, a little energy boost, a little kick-in-the-pants? And even when the partaker is not aware of its effects, caffeine is subtly working its molecules into the nooks and crannies of the neurons anyway, increasing alertness, and increasing reaction time, improving memory and recall. Making people become dependant on it to function at an expected level, developing the dreaded caffeine habit. And being dependant on things to function can't be good. And having bad habits definately isn't good.

So can anything good be said about caffeine? The soft drink makers put caffeine in their products to increase sales, a gross exploitation of millions that are dependant on the drug. (Yes, let's call it what it is. It is a drug.) This should be a crime. Soft drinks do not need caffeine and should not have caffeine. Millions of children are hooked unwittingly every year. They don't know the danger. This must stop.

Coffee and tea drinkers are another matter however since these beverages contain caffeine naturally. But good news for aficionados of these fine consumables, modern techniques for extraction of the offending xanthene drug caffeine leave the coffee beans and tea leaves unharmed and perfectly suitable for use as decaffeinated beverages. They can saturate themselves with these infusions to their hearts content and not poison their systems with the undesirable caffeine.

And I must say something for those poor souls that suffer from migraine headaches. They are carefully instructed by their physicians in the dangers of caffeine, how caffeine can and does trigger the severe migrainous headaches, thus thwarting efforts at treating and controlling the headaches. But what do they face? It is amazing, but true. Excedrin MIGRAIN, the premiere over the counter product sold to migrainers for the treatment of migraine headaches, contains caffeine as the active ingredient. There should be a law.

I must confess. I know of what I speak. I have battled a compelling urge to ingest caffeine most of my life. I am not what you would call a "morning person." So a cup of good morning cheer has always been a mighty temptation to me. But in recent years my compulsion has descended to new depths. Not really being interested in the Java or the Cola or the tea or anything else that might happen to be hitchhiking along with what I really want, in recent years I have gone right to the source and started my day with pure caffeine. A No-Doze tablet foots the bill. I tell myself there is a certain amount of sincerity involved in it. I want the caffeine, so I get the caffeine. Pure, simple, straight up.

So, what, am I bad? Taking caffeine pills in the morning to wake up? Is this wrong? Would my dose in a mug be better? There are different opinions, I think. Would it be better to go on the caffeine-free wagon again like I have so many times before? Only to fall off again because the advantages of being caffeine-free just don't ever seem to outweigh the advantages of using caffeine? Can anything good be said about caffeine? Maybe. Should I try? I don't know, it's easier to complain about it.