Coffee is my cocaine

Inside my debilitating coffee addiction

Coffee addict.
(Image credit: iStock)

I quit drinking alcohol and doing drugs 13 years ago. But even after that, I still found a way to get high every day.

My body would start to twitch at around 5 a.m. I'd remain in bed until 6, but then it was on. I would bound to the kitchen, grind the beans, set up the pour-over, and anxiously wait for the water to boil. Those days, I drank coffee like I used to snort coke. But then, like all good drugs, it stopped working. It no longer got me high. Instead, I became scared, anxious, scattered.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Aubree Nichols

Aubree Nichols hails from Texas, but finds comfort in the grit of NYC. Her writing for Elite Daily and Work it Health has made her a resonant voice in the self-love movement. Aubree leverages her MA in Organizational Change to transform creative cultures and organizations. If she's not drinking coffeee, dancing to Beyonce, or writing, she's posting to her Instagram. Her memoir, Me: A Love Story, will be released in 2018.