… I have a problem. I think I have a caffeine addiction.
Stop not falling over in shock like that. It’s not like I mainline coffee. In fact, I drink about one cup of coffee a week. So when I get these weird headaches about once a week, even after eating well and drinking lots of water during the work week, two things happen.
At first, I completely refuse to take headache medicine. Who am I trying to be, some sort of samurai warrior? Tom Cruise? Tom Cruise with a samurai sword? It’s not the taking drugs that bothers me. I have no problem with drugs. None. Drugs are ace. Go doctors go! But something about this particular headache makes me think if I’m just tough, and ignore it, it’ll slink away out my ear or something.
And then when the headache gets to the point where I’m squinting because it hurts less to squint and also trying to decide if I can take a nap under my desk (I can’t), I start totalling up what I’ve eaten and drunk that day. What usually happens is I realize I haven’t had my two to three daily cups of tea.
Tea! Sweet innocuous anti-oxidizing tea! Nectar of the intellectual, the liberally-inclined, and the dotteringly old! Tea! …. rammed with caffeine. Tea has as much caffeine as a cup of coffee, and while I save the coffee for weekends and special occasions, I absolutely drink buckets of tea.
Except on days where I get these splintering headaches. And refuse to take anything for them because not only should they go away on their own, taking medicine and brewing a cup is tantamount to admitting I’ve got a problem.
But now that the Tylenol Rapid Release and a cup of Twining’s Prince of Wales is coursing through my various systems, I’m less inclined to care. Oh sweet merciful relief.
I think I have the same problem. I wonder what’s the deal with my headaches and shaky hands and general blehness on the days we don’t sleep at my house, where there is no tea-making equipment. But I refuse to believe I have a problem, and I ignore the headache and the blurred vision and goddammit I’m a trooper and I will not be felled by an old-lady beverage. (P.G. Tips is the best! With lots of sugar!)
Leah … so this guy Simon, I know we love him and crap, LOVES to Simon, but there’s no TEA-MAKING EQUIPMENT AT HIS HOUSE?
Before we start talking about little Lola and Judas, we really need to have a chat about this problem. Do I need to fedex you an electric kettle and a Brown Betty?
Also PG Tips OMG. I really didn’t realize that you can’t brew a pyramid bag for more than exactly 49 seconds and brewed mine for a goodly five minutes and then turned my mug upside down and LO! the tea stayed IN IT.
I feel your pain.
I have wrinkles from ‘squinting cause it hurts so bad’.
I gave up the ‘no drugs cause I’m tough’ thing.
Now, I’m with you….”sweet merciful….” …. you get the picture.
Thank you for the love, I feel it. But there is indeed tea-making equipment at my house. Indeed, there is tea-making equipment in my office. I would have a kettle in my car if Detroit would just get on the stick and figure out how to do make that possible. And why? Why, you ask? (or don’t, I will answer in any event.) I AM THE KING OF CEYLON!!!!! OOLONG IS MY MIDDLE NAME!!!!
Anyway, aside from the fact that I do drink about ten cups of coffee a day, topped off with three or four cups of tea, how did I get dragged into this?
By the way, I typed this really really really fast. Because of the, y’know, caffeine.
Okay, so I actually followed the link to Leah’s site and now realize that there is actually more than one Simon in the universe. Who knew?
Sorry. As you were. Nothing to see here, move along.
Tom Cruise with a samurai sword, yes! Except cuter and doe-eyed and intelligent and not psychotic nor prone to cultish religions.
Tylenol has never worked for me for some reason, not once. I always took Advil until I heard it can shred your stomach lining and now I suffer in silence, Tom Cruise styles, as well.
I used to have the same problem, back when I worked in an office where one’s mug was refilled with tea the moment it was empty, all day long. At weekends I got stinking headaches, owing to tea deficiency. I have cut down slowly, and went off it altogether in early pregnancy – now I have a cup every other day, or something. And no headaches.
As someone who’s had agonizing migraines since I was 14, I totally sympathize with the squint-misery. Just an FYI that Tylenol has never worked for me–Advil is much better. And even better is Exedrin, in which the active ingredient–shocking!–is caffeine. Hang in there!
To all you Advilites out there, let it be known that I, too, an an Advilite! I just didn’t have any handy, and a coworker had Tylenol.
Umm, it think that your problem isn’t caffine, but teaine! It’s a stimulant too. Check out this website :
http://www.babingtons.com/english/swf/teax.swf
Simon was speaking not only for himself but for MY Simon when he said that he does indeed have tea-making equipment at his house. It’s actually my house that doesn’t have all the gear. Simon is the one who got me drinking tea in the first place, and on his trip to England over Christmas, he bought enough tea to last us three lifetimes. He also has several fancy teapots, an entire set of teacups and saucers, a bunch of tiny silver teaspoons, the cutest matching sugar bowl and creamer…Yeah, so no lack of tea love in his household. I’m holding off getting my own kettle so we don’t end up with two, hint hint.
My mom had the same problem, she used to get really bad migranes when she cut out coffee. She went to see the doctor and he said that without coffee her veins were restricting the blood flow causing the migranes. He said to still have coffee, one cup to get the blood flowing. It worked. Caffeine is a drug, and some like me need it to survive too.
I just noticed the Brown Betty. My Gram had one of those, back in the day. And now I am wondering where it went . . .
PG Tips are sooo good. The same company has a Scottish Blend (which I don’t think I’ve seen in the states, unfortunately) that is a.w.e.s.o.m.e, and also in the pyramid-shaped bag. every time i drink it, though, it makes me yearn for kippers, tomatoes, and mushrooms with my eggs for breakfast.
Celestial Seasonings Tea. Naturally Decaffinated