Most people in creative industry that I met (graphic designers, animators, illustrators, editors) usually has addiction either in coffee or cigarettes. At least they will have one of those, or even both.

I would be the later one, the coffee addicts. My dependency with coffee begins when I worked as 3d artist in a post production company, making TV Commercials. The nature of creative industry can be quite different with normal work hours.  The studio is a fun factory when there is no crazy deadlines. We have x-box, pool table, cable TV and I am free to take a nap anytime, or play with my pets: stray cats and some fish. But …  when the deadlines are crazy … I don’t get nice sleep for days, just an hour or 2 at the studio before my co worker woke me up to do some revisions.   I am not complaining … by that time it was a lifestyle that I choose :)

To keep me awake … I gulped coffee. Coffee in the morning to wake me up, and coffee at night to keep me awake. I was in my early 20s so … it was ok. But you know what they said about “pay it forward” … now I am paying for it. I got gastritis, so I have to be extra careful with coffee. On some bad days, coffee can caused me a visit to the ER. I can only have 1 cup of coffee per day. That would be my daily dose.   

So now I am fighting my coffee addiction every single day. Some days I win, some days I lost. But I am taking it day by day.