[Artchic528]

I find myself drinking soda frequently. Mostly diet soda. I go through 5-6 cans in a 12 hour period. When I don't drink soda for a while, I feel very sluggish and tired and wind up sleeping a lot.

Am I addicted?

[IrisBloom]

Soda, diet or not has a lot chemicals in it and some of them are addictive. You may be addicted to the sweetness. I have periods where I drink a lot of soda then stop, and I still crave the sweetness, so I replace it with something not so bad for me.

[Permacultural]

I think the aspartame and high fructose corn syrup in the diet sodas is addictive and actually pretty nasty stuff.

[SufferingHumanBeing]

Do you steal to get soda? Do you spend you rent money on it? Do you lie to others about your diet soda use? Fo You Need It To Feel normal? Are you sick w out it, obsessing about your next drink? ...I'm not trying to make light of your habit but to ppl who struggle with hardcover addiction issues, I'm kind of skeptical.
Maybe you are addicted, I guess you can be addicted to anything but compared to other stuff, it's not so bad. Cut down, taper, get off the stuff but I dunno, sheesh, when your crying, sweating, barfing, shaking, hallucinating from not drinking it, let me know.

[thecrankyone]

caffeine? It's in a lot of sodas

[IrisBloom]

Caffeine is addictive too, but it is not as bad for you as the other chemicals especially in artificial sweeteners.

[junkDNA]

Originally Posted by SufferingHumanBeing

Do you steal to get soda? Do you spend you rent money on it? Do you lie to others about your diet soda use? Fo You Need It To Feel normal? Are you sick w out it, obsessing about your next drink? ...I'm not trying to make light of your habit but to ppl who struggle with hardcover addiction issues, I'm kind of skeptical.
Maybe you are addicted, I guess you can be addicted to anything but compared to other stuff, it's not so bad. Cut down, taper, get off the stuff but I dunno, sheesh, when your crying, sweating, barfing, shaking, hallucinating from not drinking it, let me know.

umm.... ????????????

[Artchic528]

Originally Posted by SufferingHumanBeing

Do you steal to get soda? Do you spend you rent money on it? Do you lie to others about your diet soda use? Fo You Need It To Feel normal? Are you sick w out it, obsessing about your next drink? ...I'm not trying to make light of your habit but to ppl who struggle with hardcover addiction issues, I'm kind of skeptical.
Maybe you are addicted, I guess you can be addicted to anything but compared to other stuff, it's not so bad. Cut down, taper, get off the stuff but I dunno, sheesh, when your crying, sweating, barfing, shaking, hallucinating from not drinking it, let me know.

You say you're not trying to make light of my situation but you are.

[depressedtodeath]

for the past 15 or so years, I _only_ drink Diet Coke .. water tastes awful and I can't stand it .. I can't remember the last time I had a glass of water .. it's an addiction, I'm sure .. the caffeine .. it's been more than 15 years, in fact .. I am a diabetic so I drink the Diet Sodas .. it hasn't done any harm, yet ..

[ComfortablyNumb5]

Originally Posted by Permacultural

I think the aspartame and high fructose corn syrup in the diet sodas is addictive and actually pretty nasty stuff.

I agree. The sugar substitute they put in diet soda is probably worst than sugar itself. There's all kinds of studies about how bad it is for you. But yes I'd say you're addicted. Theirs caffeine in pop (I'm from MIchigan so I call soda pop lol). If you quit cold turkey you'll find that you get headaches. I used to drink 4 liters of diet Pepsi a day. My bf drink Mountain Dew around the clock. Tisk tisk.

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[SufferingHumanBeing]

Originally Posted by Artchic528

You say you're not trying to make light of my situation but you are.

No. I'm not. I am skeptical. I guess after battling & losing to alcohol, cocaine, heroin, benzos, & everything else in between for over 20 years, soda may seem a little trivial, sorry.
I believe you that you're a hard core soda pop addict. I've been sober for a year, I hope you can get sober, too.

[capricorn1975]

I believe diet pop has caffeine in it... and caffeine is addictive. It's just like coffee... if you don't have it you feel sluggish and you crave it. That's one reason caffeine gets a bad rap... the fact that it's addicting. I'm a slave to coffee myself. It curbs my appetite and helps me keep my weight down.