Comic Strips

Well, there is an innate drive to be part of a community baked into our biology. We see people enjoying something, and we want to do it too. It doesn't need to be framed so negatively as being an insecurity, though I wouldn't necessarily frame it as peer pressure, either. It's more just a human desire to share in a new experience with others.

Peer pressure is the sensation of psychological pressure when deviating from peers. It doesn't have to be caused intentionally or through active action, and it's a basic fact of life that at least 95% of humanity experiences. (I can't speak for all forms of neurodiversity).

You literally described peer pressure.

ED?

Uhhh

Caffeine dependency is a thing for sure. You'll get some gnarly headaches for a few days and feel fatigued. Takes about 2 weeks to lose it.

It's caffeine withdrawal. I used to get it a lot as a kid. My parents were separated and one of them had caffeinated drinks and one didn't. When I figured out why I was getting headaches, I just stopped drinking anything with caffeine.

Some people are more or less sensitive to caffeine. Going from one coffee a day to zero has me with headaches and tiredness for a day or two.

The way caffeine works is that it allows the body to release energy reserves that it usually "locks" away from you. It allows you to tap into these reserves for concentration and makes you feel less tired.

That's helpful for short-term use, giving you more energy and concentration.

But if you use too much caffeine for too long ("too much" depends on your body and "too long" is a few days), the body adjusts to the caffeine levels and now you have the same energy reserves and concentration that you had without caffeine before. Caffeine thus loses its effect on you and your baseline shifts, so that you need caffeine to be on the same level as before.

If you now stop your caffeine intake, this swings back. Your body thinks you are really tired and you get headaches, bad mood, low concentration and so on, until you either take in more caffeine or you abstain long enough for your baseline to shift back.

That's why there are people who say they can't work before they had their first coffee/energy drink. They literally can't, because if they aren't on the level of caffeine they are used to, their body tells them that they are super exhausted. This is the caffeine dependency/withdrawal effect.

Also, it is Espresso in every language except French, where it is called Expresso

Espresso because you e-presso the fuck out of it.

I always thought it came from "being pressed through the coffee grounds"

I never said the mom was judging her. I rather see it she cannot even approach her own mom to ask if it is ok to sit and not drink coffee. Or likewise her mom wondering why her daughter doesn't want to sit with her when she drinks coffee. I don't know, just overall seems a very artificial and unlikely situation to me.

I haven't noticed this personally. I quit for two weeks a while back and didn't notice any physical symptoms and just missed the ritual.

I'm reading "The Zoomers are Killing Coffee" headlines in my mind's eye already.

lower cost alternatives

lol

Once you have the wherewithal to grind your own coffee and acquire a percolator or a French press, a cup of coffee is dirt cheap and only takes like five minutes. Doesn't take -that- long to recoup the costs, either, if you're a regular drinker.

Buying coffee from Starbucks every morning is for suckers.