The curious case of caffeine
Caffeine is one of the most widely used drugs around the world.
Coffee is the average Canadian’s morning pick-me-up and a commonality in our daily routine.
It’s legal, it’s easily accessible and is not usually associated with negative societal connotations. So what’s so bad about it?
We often overlook the negative consequences of coffee and the fact that it is a drug of dependence, simply because it is an accepted part of our society.
A pack a day doesn’t keep the doctors at bay
Nicotine, derived from the tobacco plant, has about the same toxicity as cyanide.
Dependence on nicotine happens extremely quickly, with people under the age of 20 being the most susceptible to forming an addiction. The younger someone is when he or she starts smoking, the harder it is to quit.
Boozing and losing
One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, fail!
Drinking at university is socially accepted. Studies indicate more than 90 per cent of students drank over the last year, notably, Caucasians, athletes and first-year students.
People drink too much, it happens. With good times and good friends, it’s easy to lose count of how much booze was chugged back. Before you know it, you might become unintentionally intimate with a toilet.
Managing eating disorders during a pregnancy
Pregnancy is perhaps the most life altering experience a woman can go through in a lifetime. Not only will her body temporarily house a growing human for the next nine months or so, but she will also be expanding her family permanently.
For most women this can be a time of discomfort (gotta love morning sickness) and a build-up of excitement towards the big day. But for women who have eating disorders before conception, this can mean a whole new set of worries and concerns once the test comes back positive.
The psychology of Addiction
In my final year as an undergraduate at McGill University, I took an English course called “Contemporary Women’s Fiction.” For the final assignment, the professor called on our creative resources and told us we could submit a piece of creative work that reflected the course content; it could be a collection of poems, a short story, a song, or even visual art.
