If you drink coffee every day, you almost certainly have a coffee addiction.

Or, to be more accurate, you have a caffeine addiction. Which means that your addiction could just as well be to tea or cola. But for the purpose of this article, we'll talk about coffee.

How can you tell?

One way is to monitor how you feel when your regular coffee routine is interrupted.

For instance, when you stay over with friends, or spend the night at a hotel, how do you feel in the morning when you can't automatically reach for your coffee brewer?

Or how about when you're running late for work and can't stop off and pick up your usual brew?

When you have a coffee addiction, the effects of withdrawal can be quite noticeable. Here are just some of the symptoms people feel when suddenly deprived of their caffeine fix:

- Headache

- Fatigue or drowsiness

- Depression or irritability

- Difficulty in concentrating

- Flulike symptoms including nausea, muscle pain, and stiffness

According to one researcher, "With regard to severity, 13 percent of people had clinically significant distress or functional impairment. At its worst, caffeine withdrawal involved missing work, canceling social functions, and going to bed with the belief that they had the flu."

For most of us, the symptoms manifest themselves as a sense of irritability and a loss of focus and concentration when at work.

But here is the good news.

If you decide to quite caffeine and kick your coffee addiction for good, then the withdrawal symptoms generally last only between seven and nine days.




Learn more about coffee and your health...