Posted on 06/04/2013 6:39:19 PM PDT by grundle
Ask anyone coming down from the high of one too many cups of coffee, and they'll tell you that the headaches from caffeine withdrawal can drive you crazy. So much so, that the latest version of psychiatry’s bible, DSM-5, is naming caffeine withdrawal as an actual mental disorder.
Matt Peckham of Times.com shares some of the symptoms a person who's drunk on coffee would typically experience:
If you’ve had more than 250 mg of caffeine (two to three cups of brewed coffee) and experienced five or more of the following symptoms, says the guide, you’ve probably been caffeine-buzzed: restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushed face, diuresis (having to pee a lot), gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, rambling flow of thought and speech, tachycardia or cardiac arrhythmia, periods of inexhaustibility or psychomotor agitation (unintentional motion, say, rapidly bouncing one leg).
But it's when you come off the coffee bean high that you start to show the worst side effects.
So what exactly qualifies caffeine withdrawal as a mental disorder? It’s more than just the splitting headaches and irritability — caffeine withdrawal becomes a mental illness when it gets to the point that it actually interferes with your daily life.
In December 2011 when caffeine withdrawal was announced as being “recommended for inclusion” in the DSM-5, work-group member Alan J. Budney attempted to address the controversy:
“We feel that there is enough data to support a caffeine-withdrawal syndrome. There are enough people who go into withdrawal — that if they don’t get caffeine, it becomes a real syndrome and can affect work, sleep, or whatever they need to do. So we’re suggesting that it ‘make the big leagues’ and become part of the DSM to make sure everyone is aware of it.”
With that said, in defense of that crazy person behind you in line at Starbucks, it’s not their fault — blame the caffeine!
I’ve got a cousin who now claims his trouble with math are due to mental illness.
Obama’s mental health speech was nothing but another dog whistle.
And I am sure they can cure it for only $75 bucks an hour talking about your sex life.
Freaking idiots.
Watch some able-bodied twenty-somethings put in for SSDI based on this.
Alrighty, then, I guess I, too, can jump on the SSDI bandwagon with the rest of the parasites with hangnails, and miscellaneous insundry maladies!
That proves that too many psychs. are crazy.
I suspect Obama has something bigger and better in mind.
Probably something that involves giving billions of dollars to millions suffering from these new mental illnesses, I’m sure there will have to be a registry of some sort, special rights, etc.
It does seem to make the rest of the world a little more nuts though.
As long as I can remember, my parents always had a pot of coffee on. When the “Mr. Coffee” type coffee makers came on the market they switched to it.
They absolutely had to have their coffee tho of course it was not a mental disorder. They could have quit if they had no other choice.
Yeehaaa. I went cold turkey a couple weeks ago on my 5-6 cupa day habit and felt like garbage for a few days. I got a disorder so now I can skip work and stuff.
It’s their fault anyway, they were the ones with free coffee. Maybe I’ll sue them.
My ultra liberal cousin has decided that he has dyscalculia because he sucks at math.
Bf’nD, I suck at math too and I can figure out that there isn’t enough money in the world to create utopia.
Great post. I agree 100%.
I’ve still got a big ole urn type percolator.
I’m gonna go hide my wife’s coffee pot then sign her up for SSDI.
So being gay is not now a mental disorder but coming down from caffeine is?
Caffene patches, now THERE’s an idea!
Used to be you could buy these really strong caffene
mints at the Linux stores, I would get them to take
deer hunting.
Oh please. It’s a few days worth of headache. Just like carbs, get over the hump.
What a pussified nation we have become.
And a threat to people who own guns or may want to own a gun.
But...will it be one that California takes away your guns because you now have a mental disorder?
Ever hear of shift work disorder? A commercial is running on one of my local radio stations for a drug to treat it.
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