When I was younger I swore to myself I would never become addicted to caffeine. I saw how my parents and teachers couldn’t go a morning without their three cups of coffee, and I didn’t want that to happen to me.

Yet I now find that may be a little harder than I had originally anticipated. Up until recently I had never tried coffee, although the smell of it had always driven me away. But now that I have had the chance to taste some of the “doctored up” variations of coffee, I have to say that they are really good, and that scares me.

Just from what people have told me about how they depend on their daily dose of caffeine to keep them going, and from all of the warnings others have told me, I always thought it would be a bad idea to become so addicted to coffee, especially because it is bad for you (there’s a reason pregnant women are advised against drinking it). I was often turned away from caffeine in general when I was younger because my doctors told me it would stunt my growth.

I’ve heard people justify their reliance on coffee by remarking that they have “half-and-half” or decaf. To me that sounds a little like when people say they smoke “healthy” cigarettes. When you boil down to it, what you are taking in isn't good for you.

I’ll admit that the picture of waking up and heading out of the house on the way to work with a cup of coffee or stopping at a nearby coffeehouse for your regular caffeinated beverage is rather alluring. Perhaps it’s just because the consumer world has imbedded those ideas into us through commercials, television shows, and other forms of advertisements. Like all other things, the media have a strong impact on what people buy.

Now and then there are times when I feel I need that extra spurt of caffeine to get me through the day, or help me to stay up later to finish homework. But what ends up happening then is that I feel even more tired the next day and then rely on caffeine to get me through to the next day and so on. This usually continues until I am able to get a good night’s rest and feel awake the next morning.

Right now I drink hot chocolate to stay awake, partly because that’s what I like best, but also because I don’t want to mess with the large caffeine content of coffee. Maybe that’s like the pot calling the kettle black, but I’d much rather have a small dose of caffeine to keep me awake a little longer than consume many more times as much caffeine by drinking coffee. When it gets to the point where you seriously need the help of caffeine to stay awake, I don’t think it’s a good idea to push the use of something that isn’t natural or good for you too far.

I’ll confess that I do like those hyped-up caffeine drinks like French-vanilla cappuccinos and snicker-doodle coffee. I also rely on caffeine to help me stay awake sometimes, as I know much of the country does. But I don’t want it to get to the point where I cannot go a single day without the help of coffee — I don’t want to be that reliant on something so unhealthy. I would rather take the extra time to get more rest than force myself to stay awake at the detriment of my health.