12 years old. Staring at the vanilla bean speckled fissured white ceiling panels. My acidic and sugar poison of choice were chips and gummies while playing Half Life 2 into the wee hours every night.
Occlusals for #18 and #19 here I go. It wasn’t even the needle or drilling that bothered me.
Nah…
My white haired 57 year old dentist hovered over me as a vulture ready to devour prey. His coffee breath spilled upon me as fresh as the cup of Indonesian Java blend just gulped.
It suppressed my breathing for the next 45 minutes so much, resuscitated by the couple of hygiene checks he had to do. I think this early negative connection I’ve had with coffee is part of why I don’t drink the black concoction.
Today, we chat about the most used psychoactive drug in the world. Caffeine. Scientifically 1, 3, 7-trimethylxanthine.
It’s seductive, unassuming and productive while in use. 90 percent of the planet consumes it daily. Children are given it in the gateway form of soda and chocolate.
Becoming the solution to the problem it ultimately creates. Our sleep deprived selves look for that next morning hit to blow away the mental fog that consumes us. Created by the day before’s fix of the alkaloid and phenolic drug.
Legend has it, a herder noticed how jumpy his goats became after eating the berries of an Arabica plant. Sharing the berries with his monk friend, the first cup of coffee was created in 850 A.D. Starbucks got nothin on this monk.
How is it, a natural plant pesticide the most abused drug of choice? Simple. It has powered our capitalist society. To work long and hard when we should be asleep.
Even bee’s understand the stimulating effects of caffeine. Flowers with natural caffeine in the nectar are 3 times more likely to revisit the flower. Remembering the floral scents and distinctive nectar. Those late night dental cram sessions laden with coffee and chocolates unknowingly unlocked the memorization super power of caffeine.
If you’re one of the many daily abusers of the wonder drug, try to reduce and slow the intake. Wean yourself clean of it for a period. And when you eventually want to try it again. You’ll remember that first time having the stimulant and how powerful it can be.
So before you give your patient a second-hand whiff of your coffee breath, let’s give a cheer to our drug habit!
Lam