The Health Dangers of Caffeine

Many people don't consider this, but caffeine is as much a drug as tobacco, alcohol, or even marijuana. We all think of the positive effects of caffeine and never the negative. Well, being someone who has had a caffeine overdose, I can tell you firsthand that the experience is not pleasant, either from the initial overdose or the withdrawal effects. That is why I wanted to warn anyone who hasn't considered the negative side of caffeine.

I have been cutting down on caffeine for quite a while after my overdose. It's the only drug I've ever overdosed on and it's completely legal. Of course I have never done illegal drugs and never will but I know plenty of people who have and say that the effects of caffeine are very comparable to the illegal drugs. So before you start chugging more Coke or Dr. Pepper, consider the negative side of the caffeine you are putting into your body.

First off, from a personal perspective, a caffeine overdose can make you feel dizzy and disoriented. While small doses of it help one to concentrate, larger doses do the opposite. Your mind becomes so stimulated that it is probably comparable to having ADHD. You get bored of sitting doing whatever you might have wanted to concentrate on and can't stand doing one thing for any extended period of time. Your body begins to feel dizzy and weak and as much as you want to do things, the feeling is very unpleasant. Then there are the withdrawals, similar to a hangover from getting extremely drunk. You of course have the headaches that are often attributed to caffeine and you feel a ton worse than you did when you initially had the caffeine, before the overdose. It really is uncomfortable and difficult to do anything while experiencing these effects. A lot of people tell themselves it's normal and they just need more caffeine but if you keep ingesting substances containing caffeine, you are only asking for it all over again.

Now here are some of the facts. Research shows that there are a number of short term side effects connected to caffeine that can be very uncomfortable to the person experiencing them. Some of these, according to Erowid, include: