Explanation

I am doing this because I have noticed some strange symptoms when I drink a lot of certain beverages containing aspartame and/or caffeine (and we might as well deal with Splenda too), so I am going to see if my public declaration of these symptoms helps anyone else to come forward and reveal their own similar experiences. Maybe you think you are crazy or that it must be some other factor. You know hundreds of people who drink Diet Coke and none of them experience these things. Whatever happens, I am here to write it down. I go through cycles, so I see all kinds of things. Sometimes I quit one, sometimes the other, and rarely both. Strange things happen in all cases. I also sometimes consume huge quantities of both, so I see what happens then too. I'm talking on the order of 6 liters a day. That's three 2-liter bottles. Yeah, just me, by myself. I have tried Diet Coke, Diet Mountain Dew, Diet Pepsi, Diet Dr. Pepper, various cheapo brands, and I've sampled many others. When I'm off caffeine, I use Fresca, Sprite Zero, Crystal Light, and some iced teas, all with aspartame. Typically, I am settled on Diet Coke with Lime. That doesn't seem like it would be that important, but I have noticed different effects with each product.

Like what, you ask?

First off, when I drink almost any diet beverage made with aspartame but without caffeine, I get a tickle in my throat that makes me cough. The funny thing is I almost never cough at any other time in my life. I tend to think of coughing as a voluntary activity, and I have proven it by not coughing for years on end, no joke. I'll tell the story of why I feel this way sometime later. Anyway, these drinks create such an irritating feeling that I eventually have to cough to try to dislodge it. It feels like a hair is stuck right in the middle of a swallow, and I can't get rid of it. Of course I can't, because there isn't anything there. Does anyone else get that? Crystal Light is the worst offender in this department. I don't think I have ever swallowed any Crystal Light without coughing shortly thereafter. What is the deal?

When I drink these things, I gain weight. There has been some research out there suggesting that diet beverages may increase weight. I am here to support those findings. Because I go on and off of them every year, I can see the direct relationship. I am an amateur endurance athlete, and weight is something I would like to keep as low as possible, but it is extremely difficult for me when I am drinking caffeine. I have had luck cutting the caffeine and keeping the aspartame, and losing weight. Based on that, I am currently blaming the caffeine.

When I am addicted to drinks with aspartame, a lack of it gives me a specific type of headache. This pain is way in the back. I call it an occipital headache, because it feels like my occipital lobe is swollen and pressing against the back of my skull. I have sometimes thought that it might be stress from withdrawal tightening the back of my neck because massaging that area feels soooo good when I am trying to quit aspartame, but the feeling is really higher, right on the bulge in the back of my head. It can be remarkably painful.

When I drank a lot of Diet Mountain Dew, my eyeballs hurt. It was most noticeable when looking in any direction as far from straight ahead as possible. In other words, looking to the extreme right or left, all the way up or down, and all the way around, my eyeballs literally hurt. I have no explanation for this, and I can't figure out why it only happened with Diet Mountain Dew, but I swear to you, that is what happens to me.

Likewise, there are a couple of these beverages, notably Diet Mountain Dew again, that make my teeth very sensitive. I started using Sensodyne toothpaste at one point because I thought I was getting old and my teeth hurt a lot all the time. As it turned out, that wasn't the cause. It was the drinks. For some reason, this does not happen with any Diet Coke products, which is one of the reasons I tend to drink those when I fall off the wagon.

I'll add more as we go along, but this should get us started and generate discussion if any of you have had these experiences. If you have, let's get it out there.

The War is Long

Thus begins my public, longitudinal, autobiographical, phenomenological research concerning the addictive natures of caffeine and aspartame (commonly called by its brand name Nutrasweet). I have been addicted to these two substances independently and/or combined for about 20 years. I have seen many curious effects from quitting one or both over these years, but have never successfully stayed off both simultaneously for very long. I will be documenting and reflecting on the systemic effects of consuming these substances, usually in the form of diet soda but sometimes other beverages, as they happen, and without foreknowledge of where they will lead. Feel free to join in. I will be eager to read the experiences of others suffering from similar or different manifestations of consumption of these substances as we roll through this life together.