If you’re a parent, you’re likely familiar with the pressures of working, raising a family, and making sure everyone is happy and healthy. It is a tough job for sure, and parents are superheroes in our book! It seems like there is nothing they cannot do, and there is no problem they cannot solve. Parents deserve an award!
Unfortunately for some, the responsibilities can become quite overwhelming, and we don´t blame them. If you are a single parent, for example, you may need to ask for help from time to time. If you work nights and weekends and have no one to stay with your young kids, you may feel helpless.
33-year-old mom Samantha Sharpe felt the pressure of being a working mom of three kids. So she turned to energy drinks to help her get by.
The Mirror reports that she didn’t just consume one or two a day. She consumed a whopping six energy drinks per day!
“I have three children and I work so it was daily life that pushed me to drinking the energy drinks,” she told Leicestershire Live.
She added, “I work in the evenings so it got me through the day.
“It woke me up and got me a bit hyper.
“I also had eight months off work, which didn’t help how many I was drinking.
Little did she know that her habits would have a devastating effect on her health.
She added, “The drinks made my heart beat faster, which would cause palpitations, then after I would crash when I needed another one, causing my heart rate to drop to 20 beats per minute. It would give me headaches , I’d be grumpy, and I’d need another one to keep me going. I wouldn’t sleep and I had an overwhelming feeling of doom when trying to sleep. It’s something I haven’t experienced before, which made me want another one. And I’d have the shakes. I felt like a addict to the stuff. My family warned me but I didn’t listen. I went to the doctor over a year ago because I kept blacking out at home. I had a first degree heart blockage and it then extended to second degree ”
In February last year, she had a pacemaker fitted to help her heart function, at the age of 32. While she is much healthier now, thanks to the pacemaker, she still feel the effects of her addiction.
“I don’t blackout anymore and I can’t feel my heart messing up anymore. My heart used to skip beats. But I do have to go back to the doctors every six months and I have to have the pacemaker replaced every 10 years. I know I shouldn’t drink it anymore, but I have had one energy drink since and I could feel my heart racing, my kidneys hurting and a headache coming on.
Now, the mother has an important warning for anyone who drinks energy drinks regularly: you don’t realize how bad they are for you until it is too late. Stop while you can!
Samantha is also calling for energy drinks to carry warnings and for there to be a stricter enforcement on the age limit of energy drink consumers, as she says that she still sees mothers buying the unhealthy drunks for their own kids.
What are your thoughts on energy drinks? Do you think they should be treated like alcohol, and only young people of a certain age can buy them? We think this mom makes a fair point, and 6 energy drinks a day is a lot! Please share to warn kids and other parents of the dangers of energy drinks!
