Can Energy Drinks Make You Addicted? (Find Out)

Energy drinks are revitalizing energy drinks that can make you feel energized and lively. Due to the well-defined benefits of energy drinks, it’s one of the most sold beverages in the market.

Some people like consuming caffeinated beverages to stay more active and alert throughout the day.

However, a few energy drinks are highly caffeinated or highly sugary, this is a downside of energy drinks due to which I would not recommend energy drinks as safe drinks.

Energy drinks contain ingredients that are addicting or a more appropriate word would be, that they have the tendency to make you feel more dependent on those ingredients.

So, caffeinated energy drinks can make you addicted or dependent on them. However, this addiction might be different from the one you are thinking of – however, it has similar effects.

Let’s explore the details of this a little more!

What Does Addiction Generally Refer To?

Addiction is a condition characterized by a physical and psychological dependence on a substance or behavior that is harmful or unpleasant when stopped.

People use the word addiction to refer to a substance, such as alcohol or heroin. These are the ones that cause addiction.

In addition, addiction can refer to a group of related disorders such as drug addiction, which is a disorder that causes compulsive drug use despite negative consequences, and behavioral addictions such as gambling.

Moreover, addiction is a complex disease that affects the brain’s reward system. When someone is addicted, their brain becomes dependent on a substance or behavior to produce a feeling of well-being.

addiction
Addiction is a psychological and behavioral dependence on a substance

Ingredients in Energy Drinks

You’ll be surprised to know the ingredients that we consume on a daily basis can have effects similar to addiction – in cases, other than alcohol, the addiction can be rather referred to as dependence.

Dependence can be an alleviated form of addiction where you might experience negative effects kind of similar to those of the addiction.

Following are the ingredients in the energy drinks, which can make you feel dependent on them:

Caffeine

Caffeine is a psychoactive drug – from the drug, you might think that caffeine is a drug like heroin or cocaine.

There are different types of drugs – drugs can be addictive, health-threatening, illegal, or controlled.

Most controlled drugs are illegal, as drugs are illegal to possess and/or sell without a prescription in almost all countries. Drugs are controlled because they are strongly addictive and have high abuse or dependency potential.

However, some classification of drugs, such as stimulants, such as caffeine is a legal psychoactive drugs. Being a stimulant, it has many positive effects on the mind, such as increasing and sharpening memory and concentration; it can also cause your mood to become better.

Also, there are certain side effects of caffeine consumption. They are mentioned below:

  • Restlessness and shakiness.
  • Insomnia.
  • Headaches.
  • Dizziness.
  • Fast heart rate.
  • Dehydration.
  • Anxiety.
  • Dependency/addiction.

Caffeine can cause dependence if you drink it too much, and if you try to quit drinking caffeine, then you’ll experience withdrawal effects which can cause you to feel the following symptoms:

  • Headaches.
  • Tiredness.
  • Difficulty concentrating.
  • Nausea.
  • Muscle pain.
  • Irritability.

So caffeinated energy drinks can make you addicted or give you a sense of addiction.

It’s best to keep your caffeine dosages low. A few energy drinks are high in caffeine, which makes them pretty dangerous such as:

Energy drinksCaffeine content
Redline Xtreme316 mg
Spike Hardcore Energy 350mg
Bang Energy drink300 mg
The caffeine content of energy drinks

Sugar

Don’t you love to eat sugary baked goods or sugary beverages? The sugar present in these foods and drinks tastes pleasant.

The daily limit sugar intake of a person is around 24 grams for females and 36 grams for males.

Sugar consumption can also have several side effects and one should actually avoid consuming sugary beverages as they can negatively affect a person in the following ways:

  • Headaches.
  • Irritability.
  • Fatigue and difficulty concentrating.
  • Feeling jittery or anxious.
  • Feeling shaky.
  • Dizziness
  • Hunger.
  • Bloating.
  • Higher blood pressure.
  • Inflammation.
  • Weight gain
  • Diabetes
  • Fatty liver disease
sugar in energy drinks
Sugar is an addictive substance

Is Sugar Addicting?

One of the defining features of being human is the tendency to want to repeat things that feel good and to avoid things that feel bad. This is the basis for addiction.

When we are addicted to anything, it’s our behavior and our thoughts that have changed. We are no longer in control of our actions and our decisions.

It might surprise you, that sugar can actually cause addiction and acts in a similar way a drug would.

Consumption of sugar releases dopamine in the brain, which makes you feel pleasant and happy. It has effects on the reward system of the brain and it can actually affect the way you work.

The classic feature of addiction is that you cannot stop doing something even after knowing the negative consequences of that thing – in this way, sugar can be referred to as something close to a drug.

Despite knowing the negative effects such as weight gain, hypertension, diabetes, blood pressure, etc., we keep consuming sugar, because its consumption makes us feel good.

Hence, the highly sugary energy drinks can actually give you a sense of addiction or dependence.

What Makes People Addicted To Energy Drinks?

Addiction is a condition that affects the brain’s reward system. When someone is addicted, their body becomes dependent on a substance or behavior to provide the same feel-good sensation that it would normally.

This can happen with drugs, alcohol, gambling, Internet Gaming, and even shopping. Drug addiction is the most common type of addiction.

Energy drinks contain sugar and caffeine, which are stimulants. Caffeine is classified as a drug, however, sugar is not classified as a drug by many experts even though it has a similar working just like many drugs.

Due to the presence of such ingredients, energy drinks can cause dependence which is similar to addiction but less serious than addiction.

Why is Monster Energy So Addictive?

Even though the Monster energy drink is safe to consume if you keep your consumption of the drink limited.

However, for some people, it might feel addictive or what you might experience is dependence due to the presence of caffeine and sugar.

But for others, Monster energy will not have addicting effects.

Monster energy
Monster energy drink does not contain alcohol and does not make you addicted

Does Monster Energy Have Alcohol?

Monster Energy is a famous energy drink that has become more popular than Red Bull energy over the past few years.

If you are wondering whether an energy drink contains alcohol or not, so the answer is usually NO.

Monster energy drinks do not contain alcohol, it mostly contains caffeine, sugar, and vitamins.

Can You Get Withdrawal Symptoms From Energy Drinks?

When you quit energy drinks, you’ll probably experience some withdrawal symptoms. Most of the time, these symptoms are mild and most people are able to cope with them.

Also, if your symptoms are severe or if they last longer than a few days, then you should see a doctor.

The most common withdrawal symptoms include cravings for caffeine or sugar – a feeling of wanting to consume these drinks from time to time, a feeling of being relaxed when you drink them, and a feeling that you can’t quit drinking caffeine.

The most common caffeine withdrawal symptoms are:

  • Headaches.
  • Tiredness.
  • Difficulty concentrating.
  • Nausea.
  • Muscle pain.
  • Irritability.

What Will Happen If I Drink Energy Drinks Every Day?

Drinking energy drink daily is safe – however, if you drink an energy drink that has a harmful quantity of ingredients present in it, then you can experience negative side effects such as the following:

  • Restlessness and shakiness.
  • Insomnia.
  • Headaches.
  • Dizziness.
  • Fast heart rate.
  • Dehydration.
  • Anxiety.
  • Dependency/addiction.

What Happens When You Quit Drinking Energy Drinks?

Most of us are habitual of sipping on some caffeine daily and this daily consumption becomes a habit.

As we become habitual of drinking a caffeinated energy drink, so quitting it later becomes a difficult task and you are likely to suffer from a few side effects also known as withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can range from headaches to irritability to muscle pain.

Check out what extreme caffeine can do

How Long Does Energy Drink Withdrawal Last?

If you have been having energy drinks for a long, while quitting energy drinks, you might experience certain side effects such as:

  • headaches
  • irritability
  • depression
  • fatigue
  • impaired concentration

The symptoms of quitting caffeinated energy drinks might last for at least 2 to 9 days.

Final Thoughts

  • Energy drinks are known for giving you a quick boost and helping you beat the afternoon slump.
  • Energy drinks contain sugar and caffeine, which are stimulants.
  • Due to the presence of such ingredients, energy drinks can cause dependence which is similar to addiction but the side effects are a bit less serious.
  • Anyway, you shouldn’t depend too much on energy drinks and drink them only once in a while.

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Tim

I like to write about energy drinks and play video games. I hope the information that I share on this website is useful for you.

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