The Botany of Desire Young Readers Edition by Michael Pollan

Author:Michael Pollan [Pollan, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group
Published: 2023-05-09T00:00:00+00:00

Quitting Caffeine

Like the great majority of caffeine users, I didn’t give it much thought. My morning coffee and afternoon tea were just a part of my routine. Which also meant, whatever caffeine was doing to my brain seemed like my normal state of mind. After years of drinking coffee and tea, I no longer knew what my brain was like when it wasn’t on caffeine.

I decided I’d better find out. I just never realized that giving up caffeine would make it harder for me to write about caffeine. Looking back, I should have expected it. I knew about all the caffeine withdrawal symptoms. I just didn’t realize how extremely difficult writing would be when I couldn’t concentrate and had lost all confidence.

The first day of my withdrawal was by far the most trying. I had postponed the day as long as I could, making up the kinds of excuses every addict does. “I have a stressful week coming up,” I would tell myself. “Not a good time to quit.” This went on for weeks. Eventually, I found I’d done all the other work I needed. Quitting caffeine to see what it was like was the only bit of research left to do. I settled on April tenth and stuck to it.

That morning, I found that without my usual cup of coffee, the prospect of writing, or even just reading, seemed impossible. I was caught in the feelings of caffeine withdrawal. In fact, my withdrawal had actually begun the night before while I was sleeping. That’s when coffee drinkers are at their low point. The caffeine we took in the day before has worn off. But we sleep through this low point. Then we wake up and have some more. The day’s first cup feels powerful because it stops the unpleasant withdrawal feelings that are just starting to build up.

This is one of the hidden powers of caffeine. It works perfectly with the natural rhythms of our bodies. Our morning cup of coffee arrives just in time to head off the looming misery set in motion by yesterday’s cup of coffee. Every day, caffeine solves the problem caffeine creates. What a neat trick.

My usual morning ritual, after breakfast and exercise at home, involves a half-mile walk with my wife, Judith, to our local coffee shop, a place called the Cheese Board. This day, I was conducting an experiment, using myself as a guinea pig. I made sure to keep everything about the morning ritual unchanged, except that when I reached the front of the line, I forced myself to ask for a mint tea. After years of “the usual,” the barista raised an eyebrow.

I carried my mint tea in the same type of cardboard cup and sat and sipped it in the same place, just as I would my coffee. Of course, without caffeine, it didn’t do what I wanted. The mental fog I’d woken up with never vanished. The clarity and focus that coffee brings never arrived. I didn’t feel terrible—I never got a headache, but I never felt fully awake.

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