About this episode

A college journalist shares her experience with caffeine addiction and the physical toll it took on her health.

Episode Summary: For a college journalist juggling classes and two jobs, coffee seemed like the only way to get everything done. It took a disastrous boat interview where a severe caffeine overdose triggered uncontrollable vomiting for her to finally say enough is enough. This confession is about the physical toll of stimulants, the illusion of productivity, and what happens when you try to swap coffee for black tea and end up right back where you started. What You'll Hear in This Episode How a four-to-five cup daily habit created terrible migraines and nausea. The way caffeine crashes can actually drain your energy rather than boost it. What happens when a coffee overdose almost ruins a front-page newspaper story The hard truth is that switching from coffee to black tea can still lead to the exact same physical sickness. The physical relief and increased natural energy that come after completely kicking the habit. Key Takeaways Caffeine can cause severe physical symptoms like migraines and vomiting when your daily intake fluctuates. We often convince ourselves that coffee makes us more productive, but the jitters can actually make us less efficient. Masking exhaustion with…

People in this episode

Host: Al Kushner

Topics covered

• caffeine addiction
• productivity
• health risks
• mental health
• lifestyle change

Keywords

• caffeine
• coffee
• black tea
• migraines
• vomiting
• energy
• productivity

More episodes of Live Unwired : Life After Caffeine

• From Cold Winters to Two Open Hearts · June 2, 2026 · 16 min
• 28 Years of Caffeine — Ended by an Accident · May 19, 2026 · 18 min
• When Your Drug Feels Like a Soulmate · May 12, 2026 · 17 min

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