Peter R. Martin, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology and director of the Vanderbilt Addiction Center at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, was a corresponding author for a recent research report that found Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) participants are heavy users of coffee and cigarettes.
“Most individuals (88.5%) consumed coffee and approximately 33 percent drank more than four cups per day. The most common self-reported reasons were because of coffee’s stimulatory effects: feeling better, better concentration, greater alertness.
More than half of the respondents (56.9%) smoked cigarettes; of those, 78.7 percent smoked at least half a pack per day, and more than 60 percent were considered highly or very highly dependent. The most common self-reported reasons were because of smoking’s reduction of “negative affect,” which refers to depression, anxiety and irritability. “Many of these negative affective states are described by patients as contributors or triggers to relapse after periods of sobriety,” said Martin.
Even though it does not seem to appear in the report, I am sure that most of those coffee drinkers are dumping large amounts of sugar (or sugar substitutes which are just as bad) into their coffee.
Why?
Because most alcoholics are hypoglycemic and have a difficult time processing sugar – they can’t get enough! They also may be addicted to caffeine.