The Subtle Grip of Mundane Addictions: My Struggle with Coffee
I struggled to settle on a topic for this week’s blog (as you might have guessed from the title) but give it a chance—you might enjoy it and even gain some food for thought.
Addiction is a complex and multifaceted subject, demanding expertise and nuance. While I’ve never been complimented on my expertise or nuance, I’ll give it a shot. Addiction is a vast area of study, encompassing everything from its causes to how we define it. My armchair definition? Addiction is a behaviour and/or thought process that an individual wants to stop but cannot.
When people think of addiction, they often picture the exciting and dangerous kinds—cocaine, alcohol, gambling. These addictions are ‘sexy’ in the sense that they grab headlines, and rightly so, given the destruction they cause to individuals and communities alike.
But what about more mundane addictions, like social media or watching TV? These are just as prevalent, yet they don’t receive the same attention. Why? Likely because their negative consequences aren’t as extreme. And that’s fair—who compares a toxic social media habit to a cocaine addiction? A useful way to frame mundane addiction is as an addiction unlikely to ruin or end your life. Of course, one could debate what qualifies as “ruin,” but for the sake of keeping this blog engaging, I’ll avoid that rabbit hole.
As I write this, I’m deep in the throes of a mundane addiction: coffee. Even discussing it triggers thoughts of, “Oh god, I’m going to have to stop drinking coffee again.” A red flag, perhaps—a sign that something needs to change.
When or how my coffee habit became a problem, I can’t quite pinpoint, but lately, I’ve been scrutinizing my relationship with it—and I don’t like what I’m finding. Although I went the entire month of January without coffee (cue applause), I immediately nosedived back into my one-a-day, come-what-may routine. You might be thinking, “So what? It’s just coffee, relax.” And I get it—hence the ‘mundane’ label. But since I’m struggling for a topic this week, hear me out.
Despite drinking coffee daily under the guise of “necessity” and “performance,” I reap few real benefits. Instead, I get shaky, experience physiological anxiety (elevated heart rate, for example), and disrupt my sleep. And here’s the tricky thing about mundane addictions—if you bring them up or, heaven forbid, ask for help, people tend to brush them off: “Just stop drinking it” or “For Christ’s sake, grow up. People have real addictions.” These reactions aren’t entirely unreasonable, but they do highlight the difficulty of escaping these less extreme habits.
So, where does that leave me? I want to cut down on coffee, but I can’t—or rather, I can, as my coffee-free January proved (cue second applause). The real problem isn’t quitting; it’s forming a healthier habit. I don’t want to eliminate coffee from my life, but I do want to change my relationship with it. Between now and my next blog, I’ll be reflecting on how to achieve that balance.
What about you? What mundane (or raging) addictions are you experiencing? And how could you end—or create a healthier relationship with—these behaviours or thought patterns?
