Fed by the Cup

About this episode

The episode explores the relationship between caffeine consumption and creative identity, detailing the struggles of a writer who believed he needed caffeine to write.

He thought Stephen King got over cocaine. He just drank coffee. This is the confession of a writer who couldn't write without caffeine — or at least that's what he told himself for years. Four dollars a day at Dunkin' Donuts. Eight cups at Denny's, scribbling on legal pads. Friends who mocked him the moment he ordered hot chocolate instead. A girlfriend who believed in him. And a blinking cursor on a blank screen that became the most terrifying thing he had ever faced — sober. He tried to quit three times. The headaches were brutal. The disorientation was real. The withdrawal peaked at 48 hours and nearly broke him every single time. But it wasn't the physical pain that kept pulling him back. It was the page. Without caffeine, the words stopped coming. Or so he believed. His friends rated his caffeine-free writing somewhere between "unnerving" and "get help." His identity as a writer was so tangled up with his identity as a coffee drinker that he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Then one month without writing anything. Then one line. Then a poem. Then another. Then the most rewarding experience of his life. Turns out the caffeine wasn't fueling the creativity…

People in this episode

Host: Al Kushner

Topics covered

• caffeine addiction
• creative identity
• withdrawal symptoms
• mental health
• writing process

Keywords

• caffeine
• withdrawal
• writing
• creativity
• mental health
• addiction
• Stephen King

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dunkin' Donuts, Denny's

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