Caffeinism

Caffeine - is the most widely distributed legal psychoactive substance, and some people badly abuse it. It's called caffeinism and considered as a subtype of toxicomania. Personally, i consider myself a caffeinist, and even knowing that this addiction can cause some serious physical health problems, i am willing to offer it as a sacrifice in exchange for better mental status(i am currently suffering from MDD and antidepressants don't seem to help alot)

Let's dive into some physiological effects of caffeine to better understand logic behind consuming it and possible health issues. According to drugbank, caffeine is an inhibitor of phosphodiesterase (PDE) and adenosine receptor antagonist. What does it mean? Phosphodiesterase is an enzyme, in context that is important to this topic - it breaks down cyclic AMP, which is responsible for cells responding to glucagon(a hormone, that makes blood sugar higher) and adrenaline(fight-or-flight response hormone). Adenosine is an end product of used up ATP(main source of energy for cells), it's receptors in the brain signal fatigue and slow down signal conduction. Also, not entirely sure about it, but according to some sources it also inhibits GABA, which is a main neuron "brake", and also plays a significant role in reward system by stopping dopamine from constantly giving you a reward signal and effectively making you addicted to it's source, that is also why coffee improves mood, enhances motivation and why it is so addictive.

Generally caffeine enhances short-term memory, reaction time, as i said earlier improves mood and motivation, masks fatigue and makes concentrating easier. In higher-than-normal amounts may cause hyperacticity, leap of thoughts, but in some cases also starts to give off side effects such as nausea, headache, dizziness, insomnia, agitation, sweating and much more.

Severe intoxications of caffeine include such symptomes, as seizures, rhabdomyolisis(muscle breakdown, causing proteins to flood into the blood, happening due to spasms, violent seizureous contractions and\or overheat), kidney injury(or even failure caused by muscle proteins), fever, excessive sweating, shaking, and also there are some clues that it can cause psychosis(hallucinations, mania, delusions, etc.), and it also can be caused by chronic abuse(in case of some old woman, that drank about 3000mg of caffeine((if i remember correctly)) with coffee daily).

So with all the explainations, so that even a person, who never drank it knew what am i talking about, im here to ask you about your opinion on it as well as your caffeine consumption experience\habits\etc. And if you read all my scientific bullshit i am also grateful for it, thanks :3