> According to popular legend, caffeine is a powerful stimulant with
> increases alertness, decreases reaction time, improves memory and
> cognition, and decreases fatigue. It's also addictive, and if you stop
> taking it, you develop crippling withdrawal symptoms such as headaches,
> muscle soreness, joint pains and fatigue.
>
> Question: Has ANYBODY ever actually experienced any of these effects?
> Either from taking the drug or stopping it? Because *I* certainly haven't.

Yes.  I used to drink 3 or 4 coffees, plus over a liter or Coke per day.

Went camping for a week-end, where neither of those were available, and 
had one of the worst non-migraine-related headaches ever.

>
> At various times in my life, there have been times when I'm drinking
> several cups of strong tea every day, and there have been times when I
> go for months without drinking any tea at all. I have never noticed any
> measurable difference.
>
> According to Wikipedia, the effects of caffeine are strong enough that
> if you take enough of it, you can actually /die/ from it. (Although,
> obviously, not from any quantity that you'll ever find in tea or
> coffee.) So apparently the drug does do /something/. But I've yet to
> experience any measurable effect.
>

I've also had cases where i've taken too many coffees, when pulling 
all-nighters at uni, or work, where I would have jitters.  I guess it 
was a combination of being tired and too much caffeine.

Which reminds me of my old .sig file that was a variation of the Mentat 
incantation from the Dune movie that I had found on the Net:

"It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion,
it is by the beans of Java that thoughts acquire speed,
the hands acquire shaking, the shaking becomes a warning,
it is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion."

> Is it just me?

You've probably have not taken enough, or are not atuned to its effects, 
so that even though they're there, you don't notice them (e.g. first 
time pot smokers who don't notice they're high), or attribute them to 
another cause (e.g. I used to think that having the flu made me have 
weird claustrophobic nightmares, except I later found out it was a side 
effect of the pseudoephedrine found in most flu medicine, and not of the 
flu itself).


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