Health Hazards of Adrenaline Junkies
According to several sites and on line articles, the term “adrenaline junkie” officially became part of pop culture thanks to Point Break – a 1991 movie featuring Patrick Swayze, Keanu Reeves, Gary Busey and other cast members immersed in a constant search for extreme situations triggering the high-producing rush. As the term began to catch on, the more obvious trades for adrenaline junkies began to stand out. Other movies have followed the trend, including Vin Diesel’s sequel movie xXx (triple x). Extreme sports athletes, people in dangerous professions like police work, undercover agents, high profile case lawyers, car racers, and a number of other high stress situations seem to be the areas of choice of these dare devils. It may sound all glamorous and impressive, but behind these adrenaline rushes lies true health hazards for those chasing these highs.
Adrenaline junkies are people who, instead of getting a high from taking synthetic or natural drugs, get high from life. This is not to say they are rejoiced by being alive, but take a great deal of pleasure from extreme stress-producing experiences and situations that cause the body to stress and cause the popularly known adrenaline rush – a stress-triggered release of epinephrine in the body. When adrenaline is produced in the body, usual signs include increased heart rate, blood vessel contraction and dilation of air passages. The ultimate response to adrenaline release is the famous fight or flight the nervous system experiences.
Like a tranquil zebra grazing in the African open prairie that suddenly notices the presence of a hunting lion, humans too react to danger in a number of ways. The fight or flight response attempts to explain exactly what the body goes through during these stress-packed times. Be it you decide to fight it or run for it, your body’s response is likely to include one or more of the previously mentioned signs.
As is commonly heard of, some people are said to work better under pressure. Certainly, some might perform more efficiently when challenged and therefore, are fit for more demanding and on-the-spot situations. From the stressful work lover to the racing car/base jumping freak, all people can be (to some extent) adrenaline junkies. Make no mistake to think only those competing in what seems to be a triathlon of extreme sports can be cataloged as adrenaline junkies.
But not all is fun and games with adrenaline junkies. Because these people get a high out of extreme stress situations, they are inevitably immersed in a number of dangerous situations that can represent a threat to the integrity of their health and even be life-threatening. In nature, the response to danger is actually a self-defense strategy to guard from predators. In the case of adrenaline junkies, people who practice these activities would have to be watching out for themselves. Pushing yourself to the limit is said to cause adrenaline to provide a state of well-being and satisfaction.
Adrenaline junkies, though, are subject to mishaps, mistakes, and plain old pitfalls. The moment you are throwing yourself down from the edge of a gazillion storie building for the sake of experiencing base-jumping, then you are also increasing your chances for technical difficulties (your paraglider no popping open), tricky weather conditions (unexpected change in wind direction) and other external factors you can’t really control during your adrenaline rush experience (a car runs you over because you landed somewhere else than your previously planned landing spot). And you though telling your girlfriend about your generic Viagra was nerve-wracking.
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