When most of us think of addiction, our thoughts snap to images of scraggly bearded men injecting bruised arms with brown liquid under a bridge or white-collared, clean shaven, bleach-skinned men snorting through their disposable franklins equally as white lines from their desks atop cosmopolitan buildings---but what of a petite, messy-bun having 20-something girl who needs a quick pick-me-up?
This is me, penny-pinching wherever I can as well as over-saturating my time with tasks to bring me closer to my goals---vying for a less than $2.00 diet soda versus the almost five dollar small cup of Starbucks coffee.
But now, since the semester is over, I have no outward need for a "pick me up." Working a part-time job, writing articles for this blog, and going to the gym leaves plenty of room for some much-needed downtime with some USSR documentaries and sweet mint flavored gum-- so then why do I have the overwhelming urge to drink a coke zero sugar?
It's more than a craving--- as a self-proclaimed health-nut, I'd like to think I'm pretty adept at fighting off the occasional junk-food desire when I got out with others. No, what I was experiencing were outright withdrawal symptoms. Random anxiety, splitting headaches, and sweat episodes coupled with the constant craving for those caffeinated, caramel-colored bubbles would haunt me until the late afternoon when I caved via coke zero.
Sound funny? Like it's just a harmless habit? At one dollar a can, it's an expense that if entertained daily can equate to 365 dollars a year on a product that doesn't add anything nutritionally to my diet. (Caramel color, is not, in fact, a micronutrient; nor are bubbles. Hard to believe, I know.). As the penny-pinching, health-nut that I had asserted myself as earlier, this fact alone should voice my grounds for kicking the can to the curb so to speak.
In order to understand my symptoms, I researched the addictive qualities of the ingredients of my beloved (diet coke products, I'm not much of a Pepsi fan). At first, I envisioned the addictive components to be some malicious, secretive, and purposeful scheme by the Coca-cola company to secure itself customers; but as I looked closer I found that suspicion to only be half-right.
The ingredients that are responsible for addiction are none other than caffeine and aspartame---names I'm sure we're all familiar with, caffeine especially. Present in a larger amount than its sugar containing doppelganger, caffeine from diet coke is known for its addictive qualities. Technically a stimulant, though it's effect is medial and therefore not recognized as a significant dependency by medical and psychiatric professionals.
According to an article on livestrong.com, caffeine, like most dependency-inducing drugs, takes the place of a neurotransmitter (in this case, adenosine) in the brain, thusly creating a space for the body to cease production of that neurotransmitter so then when you stop taking in that drug, your body's forced to temporarily function without that neurotransmitter until it builds it back up again.
Consequentially, this effect makes coffee and tea addictive too, but unlike its brown-colored counterparts, diet soda (coke brand in particular) contains another addictive additive---aspartame. An artificial sweetener repeatedly accused of causing cancer (although proven innocent time and again) this zero calorie alternative has been reported to stir withdrawal symptoms within people who switched from caffeine-free diet soda to cold turkey. The amount and time an individual has been taking in aspartame determine the intensity level of these symptoms.
Downing several cans a week for years versus having one measly diet coke at a party matters. Because of this variation in intensity, some individuals have reported struggling for weeks on end with headaches and even mild depression. Why depression? Aspartame stimulates the brain to release dopamine in a similar way that sugar does, making it a special kind of inconvenient to compound the troubles in an age where depression is rising startlingly in the population.
I was aghast to find that my jokes to my mother about my addiction were correct---my mood was better once I had my "fix." Luckily, the time I had been "using" was medial, a semester at most. Naturally, I've started going cold turkey and have been running off my irritability at the gym. At most, the withdrawal symptoms should last no longer than a month, so I'll be saving that cash with ease in no time!
