caffine (coffee + sodas) vrs no-caffine

I saw a thread talking about drinking caffinated drinks verses avoiding caffine in anything.  I wanted to open it up to it's own thread and see what other's are saying.

I actually see that I use caffine as a comfort tool when I am having a rough time, expecially if I lack energy.  Several of the medications I take for Rheumatoid arthritis leave me very fatigued, and I drink coffee any mornings that I need to get up and out.  If I feel I am uncomfortably "high" I will opt for decaf or even hot apple cider instead, but it is the coffee I crave when things get stressfull.

When I worked I drank coffee all day long.  At my one year of school I lived on coffee and had it with me at each class. I started drinking coffee in highschool when I started doing my homework in the local coffee shop.

Anyway, tell me what you think.  What have you read?  Do your PSY's have anything to say about it?

Thanks

I drank alot of coffee starting in HS too. One of the first grown-up things you can do, legally. Always looked forward to that big hot, steaming mug of coffee in the mornng as soon as I could stumble out there. Had a coffee maker that was automatic.
Quit caffeine a few yrs ago. Don't miss it anymore. Wasn't that hard, except for the initial withdrawal headaches, and just sipped a "little" to get by.
Its hard to tell if it is a help, comfort, when you are anxious, or contributes to feeling more anxious than at first, when that wears off. Rebound Its an addiction, habituating at the least.
Now I can drink coffee in the middle of the night, then go back to bed and right to sleep. It seems to have lost its hold on me.
I figure its one less chemical going down everyday.