If you ask just about anyone, they could all tell you a time they experienced adrenaline. That fight, flight or freeze response you get when you are in a hairy situation. What most people don’t realize, though, is that adrenaline is a drug as much as any other drug.
Another name for adrenaline is epinephrine, which is something doctors use to restart someone’s heart after it has arrested. It is also what they give people going into anaphylactic shock, aka an allergic reaction. Sure, as an average person, you don’t take a pill for it or inject it into your veins, but people will spend thousands of dollars for just one “hit” of adrenaline. Whether it is skydiving, bungee jumping or something in between.
My own addiction to adrenaline started with skiing, and only progressed from there. When I was first learning to ski, I would just ski straight down the mountain, no turning whatsoever. As you can imagine, I would get going pretty fast, even for a small child. One day, my mom said to me, “Why don’t you try throwing some turns in there?” and without missing a beat, I replied, “Mom, I just want to go fast.” That, right there, was just the beginning of my need for speed.
My own addiction in the end caught up to me, and it made me start to wonder how many people have lost their lives or suffered severe injuries because they kept looking for a better and better rush of adrenaline. I know what you are thinking. People die every day doing extreme sports because they are inherently dangerous, but what I started to question is why anyone would take that risk in the first place.
I started looking into the psychology of it, and there are a lot of differing opinions on this. The one theory that stuck out to me the most, however, was one from Freud. He had a theory about our life instinct and our death instinct. Life being the drive for sex, food and shelter. Death being about aggressive, risky behavior and the need to return to the inorganic state they came from.
These two things have a balance with in our lives, a sort of yin and yang. Those of us who push boundaries tend to lean further to the death instinct then the life instinct. My only problem with Freud's theory is that when you experience an adrenaline rush, it makes you feel more alive.
In reconnecting with death, do we become more aware of how alive we are? These questions could go on and on, spiraling in circles. Adrenaline itself is not inherently good or bad. It is, however, something you should keep in check in order to keep being able to do the things you love. In other words, check yourself before you wreck yourself.
