It was great the first day. By the second day it was getting old. By the fourth day we’d had all we wanted. And we still had days to go.
I have adult ADHD. I discovered it late in life. Part of the reason it took so long was that I managed to hide it for so long. Although, that’s not right. Hiding it implies that I knew about it. I didn’t. I just learned to cope.
One of the ways I coped was to use medication. You treat ADHD with stimulants, Adderall, Ritalin, or caffeine. I found I worked better when I drank caffeine. Coke a Cola was my drink of choice. I especially liked Cherry Coke. But really, any of the full strength ones were good with me.
Eventually I figured out that I had ADHD and that the caffeine was helping. Once I figured it out, I could treat it. Coke has a couple of drawbacks. One it’s not cheap. Well, it is relatively cheap, but not free. In fact, my current favorite is what is called Mexican Coke. That’s not a derogatory comment. It’s actually bottled in Mexico.
It’s made with real sugar not corn syrup. And it’s delicious. But it’s also about $2 per bottle depending on where you buy it.
The second problem with treating my ADHD with Coke is the sugar and carbonation. I guess that’s the second and third problem, but still, drinking too much soda is not good for you.
I found another option. Energy packets are just a fancy way of saying, “Caffeine packets.” These are not energy drinks. They don’t have the extra ingredients that energy drinks have.
A few years ago my cousin had a stroke at age 42 from drinking two 5 Hour energy drinks while out snowboarding. She nearly died. I’m not saying energy drinks are bad. I’m saying that they might be bad for my family.
But these are just flavored caffeine. They don’t have sugar and they don’t have carbonation. Even with multiple flavors they get kind of tedious.
I recently saw a different flavor. As Bill Murray says at the end of Groundhog’s Day, “Anything different is good.”. I also noticed that the new flavor had carbonation.
The new flavor did have a mild carbonation. Carbonation is C02. I’m not sure how you put that into a powder form. Maybe it’s like Pop Rocks. Anyway, it was different. I’m not sure if I like it or not yet.
I am sure of one thing. If I had to drink the carbonated version multiple times per day I’d quickly grow tired of it.
That’s exactly what happened when I was 15 at Boy Scout camp. One of the Assistant Scoutmasters worked at a bottling plant. He was the Quality Control officer. That’s ironic. Because while switching from a line of soda to Country Time Lemonade, someone forgot to turn off the carbonation.
Country Time, like all lemonade, is normally uncarbonated. These cans were never going to be saleable. The bottling plant canned 25,000 cans before they found the mistake. What do you do when life gives you lemons? You make carbonated lemonade.
There was just one problem. The camp had to get through 25,000 in 8 weeks of camps. There was plenty. . .for everybody. More than we could want. More than we did want.
I don’t plan on making the same mistake with the new energy drink flavors.
I’ll make lemonade. Just not too much carbonated.
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
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