Daily Coffee Consumption Killed my Creativity

Beware the Bean!

Home-brewed beginnings

I remember it just like yesterday, hopping out of the womb with a warm black coffee in hand. According to my mum, my first words were “two sugars and a dash of milk”, and my birth stone is a coffee bean. Alright, alright, my account is mildly skewed, or in the case of my coffee, I’ll have that strong, please! You get the gist!

I can’t pinpoint the specific day that I fell in love with the smell and taste of coffee, but as a family of tea and coffee enthusiasts, it quickly formed a large portion of my identity. It was the first thing I thought about in the morning as I witnessed a befuddled shell of myself somehow bounce from wall to wall to reach the kettle. Before I knew it, the conscious me was also bouncing off the walls after my second, third and fourth cup of the day. My addiction had peaked at an all-time high.

Beyond the bean, I had developed a passion for the ritual of crafting the perfect coffee. I invested more of my precious time into researching the differences between instant coffee and filtered coffee, and eventually made the informed decision to buy a make-do coffee machine and several aero press contraptions to take on camping trips so that I’d never miss out on that sweet buzz of adrenaline.

What I’ve grown to learn, and as is likely conveyed to a heavy degree within my writing, is that my energy has always been through the roof regardless of my caffeine intake. I often contributed this to my frequent mood swings, jittering and intermittent periods of intense motivation to be creative Vs. the crescendo of hopelessness, self-doubt and demotivation that left me helplessly staring blankly at my monitor for an entire day.

Coffee killed my creativity

Fast forward another 15 years and I can categorically say, in my personal experience, coffee killed my creativity. At 27 years of age, It pains me to end my bittersweet relationship with coffee once and for all, as the wound is still fresh, but 2020 changed my life, as it has for everyone else (for obvious reasons), but surprisingly in my case, it was for the better.

“Wake up and smell the coffee.” — Fran Drescher

Back in February, on the cusp of the United Kingdom entering lockdown for the first time, I stumbled across a YouTube video titled “Why I Quit Coffee”, unbeknownst to me, this was only one of many, and after digesting a handful faster than my remaining droplets of coffee could hit my bloodstream, I started to become aware of the negative toll that coffee, or in particular, caffeine, had been having on my mental health and physical wellbeing.

Not so fun fact, once consumed, caffeine takes a mere 15 minutes to enter the bloodstream via the small intestine of the stomach, and will sit in the body for hours before being flushed out. Cool fact, but what does any of this scientific jargon actually mean? Well, in layman's terms, my physical dependence on caffeine was altering the structure of my brain.

Now back to the science, but to simplify proceedings and stave off your boredom, I’m going to break it down into bullet points.

Yeah, Science… LIST!

• A robust molecule by the name of Adenosine plays a key role in digestion.
• When our body has expended all readily digestible sugars, adenosine transfers the message for our body to trigger the onset of non-REM sleep which kickstarts our bodily process of rebuilding our energy stores and facilitates optimal functioning of our sleep cycle.
• Caffeine blocks Adenosine by sticking to the same receptors. This inhibits the natural state of sleepiness we experience as more Adenosine is released.
• After Caffeine intake, we exhibit alertness, but as soon as caffeine is flushed out, Adenosine takes back its rightful place, which explains the highs and the crashes we feel after having one too many coffees.
• Our groggy impulse to seek coffee in the morning can be attributed to an over-production of unused Adenosine during the day (depending on how much coffee we ingest that day), which has not fully been utilized by the time we wake up, leading to us feeling drowsy.
• What do we then do when we have brain fog and feel sluggish? Grab another hot caffeinated beverage.

It’s a catch 22! We lean on coffee like a crutch in order to complete our daily tasks. We get anxious and experience the full-force of withdrawal symptoms if we haven’t got that mug in our hands alongside our lunch, when we’re out shopping with our friends, before we hit up a big gym session and late at night to complement our gaming.

Caffeine is a dangerous drug when abused. Coffee addiction exists. We already know this, but we still blindly welcome it into our lives without a second thought about the potential long-term cycle of elevated blood pressure, insomnia, indigestion, headaches, brain fog, heart contractions and anxiety.

That’s enough with the coffee-shaming! It’s starting to make me feel uncomfortable and I’m the one writing it. My intention is not to preach about the risks of caffeine. I am not Jesus incarnate! In moderation, it has many ongoing health benefits. Instead, my aspiration is to offer an alternative evaluation after eight months of being caffeine free.

Without further ado, this is how I quit coffee, and these are the juicy outcomes… SPOILER ALERT, it’s not that deep, but it’s definitely noticeable!

How I quit my caffeine addiction

I’m not going to sit here and slap down my day-by-day report because it’s unrealistic to expect that quitting coffee will affect everybody the same, and quite frankly, I have the memory of a sieve! What I can recall is that I chose to throw all caution to the wind by going cold turkey. When it comes to a well-conceived plan, I’m not your guy.

“The most dangerous drinking game is seeing how long I can go without coffee.” — Unknown.

I cut out tea, coffee and chocolate. Chocolate!? I know you’re thinking that I’m a pitiful excuse for a human being, and you’d be right, but it was a necessary evil. What wasn’t quite so necessary were the erratic hot and cold sweats in conjunction with recurring nightmares that filled me with dread and disorientation for the first few nights.

Daytime had the feeling of forever as I shouldered an empty longing for an activity to fill the gaps where I’d previously excuse myself away from the monotony of work or pent-up anxiety derived from overthinking every aspect of a task that I had yet to begin. Then came the headaches and extreme lethargy. Boom! My head was on the verge of lift-off whilst I could barely get my feet off the ground.

I nestled into the corner of every room, refraining from opening the cupboard where all our mugs were stored, and purred “my precious” in envy as my parents slurped away at their coffee in delight.

For the next few days, I anguished over the abnormal rhythm of my heartbeat as the pulsating sound swirled around my ears and through my head. My senses had heightened, and I could no longer make sense of my whereabouts. I lay in bed confused and overwhelmed.

Life begins after coffee

Nothing about that 10-day honeymoon period was glamorous, but eventually, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’ll say it louder for those at the back, the sequence of events that unfolded didn’t play out in quite the traumatic fashion I’ve relayed, but that isn’t to say it was easy or anywhere near enjoyable.

Roll forth to the present, and despite still getting the odd craving for coffee, I have more time and freedom than ever to plan my day. What is more, My energy stays consistent throughout the waking hours. Gone are those random 3pm energy dumps and I sleep like a baby near enough as soon as I put my head down on the pillow. From the moment I open my eyes, to the moment they shut together, I have this laser-like focus to learn and act upon what I’ve learned.

Before quitting caffeine, I would set out with a goal in mind, anxiously ponder over strategies to achieve that ambition, lose concentration, become irritable and then grab a coffee as a source of comfort. Nowadays, I don’t have to think, I just do. Call it what you want, placebo or no placebo, my productivity is on another level and my mind is sharp and clear. Plus, how do I carefully word this… I now have healthy heart-shaped, gold-encrusted poopsicles. Tmi? TMI!

The downsides being that I tend to feel a lot more hungry at times where I’d previously have grabbed a coffee to quench that urge. On top of that, I had to substitute coffee with naturally caffeine free teas to mimic that conditioned behaviour of holding a hot beverage. All in all, I’d say that’s a fair trade. Get it? I’ll grab my coat (and never condemn you to another tasteless joke).

The Decaf A.K.A the closing statements

Here’s my 30-second elevator pitch.

If your crippling anxiety is holding you back from self-actualization, if your sleep is compromised, if you simply want whiter teeth without excessive dental costs, the next time you go to knock back a coffee, instead, knock on a loved ones door and ask them to lock you up for ten days.

I’m just messing. In all seriousness, if you enjoy drinking coffee and it makes you happy, don’t let me, a random stranger on the internet convince you to turn your life around. My only hope is that you take an objective stance and seriously ask why you drink coffee and whether it plays a vital part in the interplay between your work and life balance. Otherwise, be conscious, apply moderation to your intake and live your best life. After all, you wouldn’t go out drinking every night… or would you!?

On the topic of cutting down, why not check out the recent blog I wrote outlining the appeal of minimalist gaming