p thoughts and notices

We all know that addiction is a terrible condition, and one of the fundamental rationale behind the prohibition of a number of substances. We also all have heard about the devastating effects that addiction and its ensuing withdrawal effects can have, not only on the addict, but also on the lives of his family. You can see paraphernalia addiction view in its own section.

The following quotes are typical of addiction and its abominable repercussions, but are still worth repeating (a la Energizer rabbit). Plus, as per writing standards imposed by media everywhere, if a story does not have a personal element, it’s supposed to be boring so we have no choice but to be cheesy too. So here’s the personal thing:

Kip Kendall was a typical American (what does that mean anyway?) living the Seattle suburbia live, married with a young daughter. However, he was an “ADDICT”. How bad? Judge for yourself: “On a middle call budget stretched thin, he’d bounced several checks. Most days he was a zombie, sleeping just a few hours before rising well before dawn. He swore to shape up, but they never knew how hard it is for him. He couldn’t quite get used to more than 4 hours of sleep. Without it, he was just another pent-up working stiff. His wife told him: If this is the life you want, I think we’ll find another place to live.”

Heavy stuff! So much so that the above horrific story became a feature article of the September 27 edition of that leading Sports Medicine Journal, AKA ESPN The Magazine (well, paraphernalia thinks it’s a medical journal, as they seem to have a drug story in pretty much every issue). The topic was addiction to fantasy leagues, where jocks can use various devices to re-enact “Being Theo Epstein”. (hey, why did he get to be the Red Sox GM at 28!). We’d love to give you a link, but this is hard to do given the exclusive nature of this magazine (It's owned by Disney so….)

In the meantime, another terrible and shocking news about addiction shocked the world. As per As per USA Today: “ Psychopharmacology reports that half of all adults experience drug-withdrawal symptoms when their coffee or soft drink supply is cut off. Among the withdrawal symptoms found were sometimes-debilitating headaches, fatigue or drowsiness, depression or irritability, difficulty concentrating and flu-like aches and nausea. As per Roland Griffiths, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University Griffiths says "This is the beginning of having a formal diagnosis and guidelines. It provides an education forum for physicians and health professionals to recognize caffeine withdrawal, which can get confused with differential diagnosis of other illness."

Wow! And don’t take this lightly! ESPN quotes “health experts” estimating that as many as 750 000 people have serious problems logging off. ESPN also quotes Dr. Kimberley Young, a psychology professor heading the Center for Online and Internet Addiction as saying: “You can be a functional addict for months, even years, but it can’t be forever.”

Of course, other “experts” may have a different view. The USA Today article quotes Charles O'Brien, an addiction researcher at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Philadelphia, saying that it's too extreme to call coffee lovers caffeine addicts. The need for coffee "doesn't produce compulsive, drug-seeking behavior," says O'Brien, who served on a panel that rejected an earlier proposal to change the medical manuals. "People can go without their coffee in the morning." Kip’s wife Tracie in the ESPN article seems to be in denial about her husband condition. To her, it’s a little weird addiction, but it’s relatively harmless, and it’s something he is good at. Of course, Kip was hiding from his family to go play games. Does this qualify as compulsive, drug seeking behavior? What about darting off to Starbucks for a double espresso during working hours????

Paraphernalia does not know how to answer this (as if!), but does find the ending quote from Mr. Griffiths enough of a happy ending:

"If you don't have a medical contra-indication and you can afford the drug and you can protect the continuity of your supply, it's not a problem at all," he says. "It's relatively available and cheap." "Make decisions about your caffeine use, using it as a drug to optimize your functioning instead of willy-nilly taking it here and there".

As for Kip and Tracy, well, paraphernalia does not care very much so….