Adrenaline Addiction

Adrenaline addict? What does that mean? Are you one? Have you been one? Do you know one?

To understand what an adrenaline addict is, you have to know what the symptoms are. Because it is an addiction and it leads to cravings, but unlike other natural drugs the withdrawal symptoms are less obvious, tho still present.

Most people don’t realise that the effects of adrenaline aren’t found doing an activity, its found prior to doing something, as that’s when the adrenaline starts to build up… doing the activity dissipates the chemical… hence the nerves disappearing as soon as someone steps onstage or begins a performance or competition.

If a rush of adrenaline is frequent enough, eg, everyday day, week, month, the body can (and does) memorise this ‘feeling’ with its own body clock, memories of surroundings and other similar references (from our 5 senses) … and can trigger the release a lot earlier than required. A normal build up, can occur anywhere between 0-15mins (approx) before an activity. This will be uncontrollable at first and may take many months of frequency before the signs are obvious. Eventually tho, you can get to the stage where you can trigger the affect by thinking about the activity in any situation. Now I know this isn’t showing the effects of an addiction, its merely showing how the cause can lead to the effect and the recognition of how it can be summoned with thought.

‘Danger blindness’ is (my terminology), when there’s such a degree of adrenaline build up, the person can no longer accurately measure ‘risk’ effectively… a person is more likely to take a chance, and gamble on a situation… the payoff is greater reward, leading to a further ‘risk’ required next time for the same rush, and the alternative can be hospitalisation if calculations are incorrect. Just like how ‘love is blind’, danger can be equally as blind too, and any build up of adrenaline to the point of something feeling ‘dangerous’ needs to be dissipated… and the quickest and easiest way to be that is by ‘going for it’. Not good hey?

Parents will recognise their kid(s) becoming hyper prior to an activity, but they won’t necessarily recognise that its the childs way of dealing with the adrenaline chemical, until such a time when the activity can dissipate it. Instead of telling them to ‘calm down’ and ’sit still’ … they should tell them to go run up and down the garden 20times or go bounce on the back garden trampoline for 10mins.

Adults may feel a churning in their stomach and may need to go to the toilet. Prolonged doses of adrenaline, without dissipation, can lead to serious long term effects like anxiety attacks. Whereby most Dr’s will just dose you up with pills to try and chill you out. 

This is why I think its a good idea to describe my experience of it. I’ve had it, including the 2yrs worth of Valium to try and calm me down, and have been on the verge of it becoming a serious problem.

Adrenaline over all is a pretty good drug for most people, anything that stimulates the motivation to be active is fantastic I think.

I’d be lost without it.

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Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

• I’ve Been Blessed~
• Adrenaline Addiction – Part 5

~ by Mark on November 3, 2007.