Mountain Dew Me No Wrong

Every day, I wake next to a pile of empty Mountain Dew bottles and cans. I head to the kitchen, down my heart meds with a sip of Dew, and grab a bottle for the road. When I get to school, I squish the now empty bottle into my locker, the slight disturbance causing empty bottles to fall to the floor. I gently toss them back on top and smile at my growing collection. At lunch, I get a chai latte from Einstein's to get me through the afternoon. When I get home, another bottle of Mountain Dew preps me to do my homework.

During StudProd tech week, my house ran out of Mountain Dew, and I didn't have 10 minutes to run to Walmart and buy more. I was ill. I cried. I raged. I yelled onstage, backstage, on the elevator, and in the car ride home. My cast members told me I had a problem. My mom informed me that she was going to take steps to cut the caffeine dependency out of me. So I went to Cracked in the mornings to buy my Mountain Dew. Mom couldn't stop me if she couldn't see me.

But deep down, I knew she was right.

On Saturday, I stopped myself after two caffeinated drinks. Sunday, I was stuck at home with a migraine and no way of getting caffeine. Monday, I was in a feverish state and honestly forgot what caffeine was. Today, Tuesday (yeah, late blog post, I know), I'm still sick, but I can happily say that I got 9 hours of sleep last night and I'm sipping decaf tea free from hand jitters and unnecessary anger.

Caffeine is nowhere near the worst substance to be dependent on, and I'm sure that by next week I'll be back to daily caffeine highs. Mountain Dew is only a problem if I run out, right? But this week, I'm reminding myself what it feels like to get energy from sleep instead of from a green plastic bottle. Full honesty here, it's kind of boring, and I miss the Dew.

Comments

  1. HaNovember 26, 2017 at 5:43 PM

    I can't relate because I love the taste of coffee but hate that it makes my hands jitter, and I can't take unscheduled naps throughout the day if I have caffeine in the morning, which makes me even more tired by the end of the day, so I need another dose to pull through the extracurriculars. You're right, it is a cycle. I hope you find a way out of it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 26, 2017 at 8:40 PM

    Wow, I have never been addicted to anything but it seems to be difficult. I must say that a you experiencing withdrawal sounds a bit scary and worrisome. I'm glad that you experienced what not having caffeine feels like and can decide what you want to do from there. Personally, caffeine or any other substance can't keep me going and I only rely on sleep. Something that I usually get little of during the week. Anyway, it was n interesting, well-written post.

    ReplyDelete
  3. LawrenceNovember 28, 2017 at 5:33 PM

    Now that you've incorporated Mountain Dew into your life, it's time to add the Doritos. In all seriousness, though, I hope you successfully step away from caffeine. Even though I've never gotten addicted, I know that it can be really addicting, and once you start consuming it it's hard to stop, especially since it is so accessible. My advice, find something else (I suggest Lipton Citrus Green Tea) that you really like that isn't caffeinated and let yourself get addicted to that (as long as it doesn't have any bad side effects either).

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChristelleDecember 14, 2017 at 5:28 AM

    I’ve always been tempted by the energizing powers of caffeine, especially after I stay up excessively late on a school day. However, I never really started drinking any large quantities of it, mostly because I wanted to have the full effect of caffeine but I can see how the addicting effects can be bad. Hopefully, you’ll manage to break the cycle.

    ReplyDelete

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