# Effects of Caffeine Pills? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 1, 2000, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506 "2000-12-01T03:02:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/1 "2000-12-01T03:02:14Z")
What are the effects of caffeine pills on a small framed, 5’1" adolescent girl with a low drug tolerance like me? ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/2 "2000-12-01T03:03:42Z")
Depends. How many are you taking? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/3 "2000-12-01T03:21:26Z")
Say a normal dose, which is like a 200 mg pill. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/4 "2000-12-01T03:24:28Z")
One of those is about a cup of coffee, rough estimate. Use that to figure it out. BTW, I once washed down about four pills at once, chased with a Coke. I didn’t sleep for about three days. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/5 "2000-12-01T03:24:28Z")
Odds are it’ll hit you relatively hard, unless you’re a hardcore caffeine drinker on the side. For me - 5’4", 130 - I get a seriously hard and rapid heartbeat, and this can sometimes get a little scary. Besides that, it’s nothing but heightened alertness and a little jitteriness, as you would expect. A pleasant side effect is that it raises my grades. 🙂 A friend of mine, female, 5’1" 105, has gotten horribly jittery, kind of light-headed, and felt ill (nauseous, I believe). OTOH, she almost never indulges in caffeine - she doesn’t even drink Coke. Both of these are with one pill, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Apricot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@Apricot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apricot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/6 "2000-12-01T03:33:34Z")
Well, it takes about 50 pills/100 lbs. of body weight to cause heart damage in the average person. However, you’ll be in the hospital long before that. Is that what you wanted to know? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/7 "2000-12-01T03:35:30Z")
and I keep on hearing about the supposedly addictive nature of them from all my friends are they spazzing out too much? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/8 "2000-12-01T03:36:40Z")
Apricot, Is that 50 pills at once, or over time? It’s got me all confused? ---
**Author:** ![Gozu\_Tashoya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7993a0/32.png) [@Gozu\_Tashoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gozu_Tashoya)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/9 "2000-12-01T03:49:21Z")
A guy killed himself ODing on caffeine pills recently (within the past year, anyway, IIRC). Trust me, they are _far_ from addictive. If not for the fact that I take tests best when I’m wired, I’d never touch the stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Apricot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bcef8e/32.png) [@Apricot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apricot)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/10 "2000-12-01T03:55:54Z")
I’m sorry, it’s 50 at one time. It’s not the brightest way to off oneself, or the cheapest. If you take them spaced out, I believe they are no more harmful that other sources of caffiene, which is to say, not really bad, but not really good. ---
**Author:** ![dragonlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f8ce5/32.png) [@dragonlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dragonlady)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/11 "2000-12-01T05:29:35Z")
IF you really don’t do caffiene, watch for: shaking hands,rapid heartbeat,difficulty focusing on task, sweating,and if you do it more than occasionally stomach upset. ---
**Author:** ![rpinrd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@rpinrd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rpinrd)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/12 "2000-12-01T05:30:16Z")
Before you go down that road, I’d consider what you want to take them FOR. If you just want to stay up to hang out, watch the sun come up, whatever, that’s fine. However, my experience has been that if you’re taking them to help cram for a test - you’d be better off just going to bed and being refreshed in the morning. Caffeine pills generally kept me awake, but totally unable to concentrate on anything - and I’m 6’, 240 lbs (o.k 220 lbs back when I was using them). For someone your size, you could probably drink a Red Bull and get the same effect. ---
**Author:** ![hypergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/49beb7/32.png) [@hypergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hypergirl)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/13 "2000-12-01T06:03:14Z")
Well to stay awake in class I have found that Ritalin works quite well. I couldn’t sit still though. But it wouldn’t be a good idea for someone who can already barely sit still (like DigitalMuse) to take them. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalMuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecccb3/32.png) [@DigitalMuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalMuse)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/14 "2000-12-02T02:54:36Z")
i can sit still when I’m overly tired, hypergirl. i just tap my fingers alot. ---
**Author:** ![Tzel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Tzel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzel)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/15 "2000-12-02T03:02:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by msrobyn \* > \*\*One of those is about a cup of coffee, rough estimate. Use that to figure it out. Nope. A 200 mg pill is about 2 cups of coffee. As for other posters who’ve said they aren’t addictive. Well, that depends on how you define addiction. They can definitely cause dependence. People get hooked on coffee, and the pills are twice as powerful, can be swallowed in a second, and can be carried around at all times. Just that much more potential for abuse. I used to bring caffeine pills to my horrifically boring job at an amusement park. Occasionally, when I’d get bored, I’d swallow four, five, or six of them, and get wired as fuck. Who says caffeine isn’t a recreational drug? Needless to say, I also had to piss like a racehorse soon after that. ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2000, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/effects-of-caffeine-pills/43506/16 "2000-12-02T03:11:05Z")
Large quantities of caffeine pills give you a really…(I don’t know how to explain it)…icky feeling. Like you want to crawl out of your skin. I get flighty, jumpy, anxious, and nervous. I figure if I want a “high” like that, I’ll stick to shoplifting. Zette