Am I Addicted to Dr Pepper?

How do you know if you’re addicted to Dr Pepper?

There is no medical diagnosis for being addicted to Dr Pepper, but a daily habit can be very real. The honest signs are simple: you drink it most days, you notice (and mind) when it’s not around, you’ll go out of your way for a refill, and you get a headache or a slump when you skip it. This quiz turns those signs into 8 quick questions and grades you, for fun. For the straight version, I keep a list of the signs of a real Dr Pepper habit and the health risks worth knowing.

Is there a real diagnosis behind the quiz?

Partly. Dr Pepper has 41 mg of caffeine in a 12 oz can, and the DSM-5, the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual, recognizes caffeine withdrawal as a diagnosis. It needs prolonged daily caffeine use, then three or more of headache, marked tiredness, low mood or irritability, trouble concentrating, and flu-like symptoms within 24 hours of cutting back, bad enough to cause real distress or get in the way of daily life, and not better explained by something else. Stopping as little as 100 mg a day, about two and a half cans, produced symptoms in the studies Juliano and Griffiths reviewed.

What the DSM-5 does not do is call caffeine use an addiction. Caffeine use disorder is listed only as a condition for further study, and nothing in any manual is specific to one soda. So the quiz below the fold is a joke with a true core: the habit is real, the “diagnosis” is not. If you have tried to quit and hit a wall, there is a day-by-day guide to Dr Pepper withdrawal symptoms and how long they last, and the full case for and against calling it addictive is on the front page.

How the quiz is scored

Each of the 8 questions is worth up to 3 points, for a maximum of 24. Your total drops you into one of 6 tiers, from barely-a-fan to full case study:

• The Casual Acquaintance (0 to 4 points): You and Dr Pepper are barely on a first-name basis.
• The Social Sipper (5 to 8 points): A can here, a can there. Nothing to see. Move along.
• The Daily Habit (9 to 12 points): It's not a problem. It's a routine. There's a difference.
• The Functioning Pepperhead (13 to 16 points): High-performing. Fully caffeinated. Quietly devoted.
• The Certified 23-Flavor Addict (17 to 20 points): You don't drink Dr Pepper. You're in a relationship with it.
• Patient Zero (21 to 24 points): Researchers would like to study you. Bring a can.

It’s a bit of fun, not a medical assessment. A lot of the “symptoms” are really just enthusiasm for a good soda, and knowing how much caffeine is in Dr Pepper and the famous 23 flavors is a point of pride, not a diagnosis.

Is a Dr Pepper habit actually bad for you?

In moderation, a Dr Pepper is just a treat. The thing to watch is volume: the sugar and caffeine add up fast if you’re drinking several a day. I dig into that honestly in is Dr Pepper bad for you?, and I wrote up what a decade of drinking Dr Pepper every day actually adds up to. If the quiz hit a little too close to home, here is how to actually cut back. No judgment here, I made a whole website about loving this stuff.

Questions about the quiz