When I visited San Diego State for my freshman orientation, the first thing my mom and I did when we got on campus was search for food; we had run out of our hotel without any time to stop and grab something. Our haste to leave also meant my mom hadn’t been able to drink her daily dose of caffeine. My mother is a part of the ninety percent of Americans who consume caffeine every day. While I wasn’t that hungry, she was hyperfocused on getting caffeine in her system.

We asked an orientation volunteer to direct us toward the nearest source of caffeine, and she pointed us to the Starbucks down the corridor. My mother sighed in relief and we hurried over to grab her some caffeine. Her drink of choice is an unsweetened Trenta black iced tea. As we waited for her drink, we talked about how nice it would be to have not one but three Starbucks on campus. I made grandiose plans to eat a daily breakfast for the first time in recent years, and Starbucks seemed like the perfect place to grab that meal.

Any hopes of eating a Starbucks in the morning went out the window within the first week of school. The daily morning line for Starbucks wraps around the store and more often than not goes out the door. My mom and I had forgotten to factor in the large population of students who need to satiate their caffeine cravings, as she has to.

The European Food Safety Authority, or EFSA, claims that the recommended healthy daily dose of caffeine is four hundred milligrams, while individual servings should not exceed two hundred milligrams. My mom’s Starbucks drink of choice, unsweetened trenta black iced tea, has about fifty milligrams in it. That’s less than twenty percent of the recommended amount, yet it's enough to get her hooked on the stuff.

While it's not considered addictive, many people become dependent on it, hence the diagnosis of “caffeine dependence.” My mom doesn’t have an insatiable itch for her next dose of caffeine; however, she does experience symptoms such as headaches and irritability if she doesn’t get her iced tea in the morning.

At this point, my mother is not drinking caffeine to wake herself up. She is drinking it because if she doesn’t, she experiences the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. This withdrawal is not as serious as the withdrawal from actually addictive substances. While the withdrawal period for an alcohol addiction and a caffeine dependence are both about a week, the symptoms vary significantly. The worst a person can expect from cutting out caffeine cold turkey are a headache, lethargy, and irritability. On the other end of the spectrum, a habitual alcohol drinker can experience much more severe symptoms such as nausea, confusion, hallucinations, and even seizures. This has to do with the differences in how caffeine and alcohol affect the body chemically.

When I was in middle school, I experienced chronic migraines. As a possible solution, my doctor ordered I cut caffeine out of my diet. At that point in my life, I didn’t think I drank that much caffeine. I didn’t drink coffee unless it was in some sugary frappuccino, and even then that was an infrequent habit. I drank soda at parties but we never kept that around the house. What I did drink though, relatively frequently, was black tea (like mother like daughter). When I stopped drinking my tea, I experienced my first instance of caffeine withdrawal. I had horrendous headaches and had an inability to focus. Yet the reality of the situation was, I never drank that much caffeine to begin with. Yet my withdrawal symptoms were horrendous. Even after my chronic migraines continued and my doctor rescinded her caffeine ban, I continued to avoid it. Those few days of absolute misery taught me that I never wanted to have to experience it again. Unlike my mother, who avoids those symptoms by repeating her consumption, I chose to cut it out completely to prevent it.

Like I said before, it wasn’t too much of a hardship to cut it out in the first place, considering I didn’t drink it much. When I did drink it, I usually actually felt tired.I allow myself a couple cheat drinks a year, which is almost always a can of Coca-Cola, which used to be my favorite drink. Within an hour of drinking my Coke, I start to feel very lethargic and usually pass out. It's a weird anomaly that no one has ever been able to explain.

Going through my first year of college, it seemed that every student, professor, and TA had a cup or can of something caffeinated at all times. My journalism professor this semester always drank a Rockstar during class. Especially as finals begin, I notice more and more the dependence people have on caffeine.

My decision to not drink caffeine isn’t something I take pride in or brag about. It's just a fact of life that confuses most people. Starbucks employs are especially bewildered when all I ever order is pastries. Yet I’m glad I don’t have that dependence, even if it means I’m tired sometimes. Because while caffeine has many positive effects, like the obvious energy boost and the less obvious memory enhancer, I would rather live my life with as little dependencies as possible. So if you see me walking around like a sleep-deprived zombie, don’t offer me a coffee. I’ve made my bed and I will lie in it -- after class.