Dependence on the hormone adrenaline or thrills. What is adrenaline addiction

Are you ready now to get behind the wheel of a car and drive at a speed of 200 km/h? Would you dare to jump with a parachute if you were offered? Maybe one of you answered the questions in the affirmative. People who are constantly looking for thrills are called adrenaline addicts by doctors. What is adrenaline? How should it be considered - harmful or beneficial? And can an adrenaline addiction really form?

- a stress hormone produced by the adrenal cortex, a certain amount of adrenaline is always present in human blood. When a stressful situation arises, adrenaline is released into the blood, adrenaline prepares the body for action.

The stress hormone can cause an unusual burst of energy. Once in America, a small truck drove over a young man. A passer-by rushed to pull the young man out from under the wheels, he lifted the truck, and the driver pulled the guy out. The passer-by did not possess any special physical strength, he was a common person but the situation he saw affected him greatly. A passer-by's adrenaline helped save a man's life.

Adrenaline renders useful action on nervous system, it stimulates it, causes an increase in heart rate, has a relaxing effect on smooth muscles. Adrenaline affects the breakdown of fats, inhibiting their synthesis, the performance of skeletal muscles improves, and the human motor activity increases.

But the hormone can also affect the body negatively, for example, a sharp release of adrenaline raises blood pressure, which negatively affects the heart, a hypertensive person can get a stroke. A person who suffers from cardiovascular diseases and at the same time has high pressure, stress can send to the next world.

Duration of action of adrenaline

The stress hormone affects the body for no more than five minutes when adrenaline enters the bloodstream.
oh, then the systems that are responsible for the “repayment” of its action immediately work. Norepinephrine- a hormone that is responsible for reducing congestion. Excitation is followed by inhibition. The person feels emotional and physical devastation. The more adrenaline affected the body, the longer the person will come to his normal condition. Condition reminds withdrawal syndrome that occurs in alcoholics or drug addicts. Remember the strong scandal that was in your life, and remember your condition.

It's a matter of dose. A small amount of adrenaline is only good, a large amount can kill. A small amount of drive is even beneficial, but the constant and prolonged release of the stress hormone leads to the fact that the adrenal medulla begins to deplete. This can cause sudden cardiac arrest. Prolonged stress should be avoided by all means.

What about a person whose life is full of adrenaline?

People of extreme professions have a kind of immunity against the action of adrenaline. But it is also important for them to know that it is useful to listen to calm music, take a walk on fresh air or indulge in relaxing exercise after the adrenaline rush.

Some people love dangerous situations and stress, they are constantly in search of thrills. They are called adrenaline junkies. It is no secret that a parachute jump will be remembered for a lifetime, because it causes a violent outburst of emotions. Sources of adrenaline can be leisure, sport, gambling and other. Racers, climbers, gamblers, skydivers constantly cause themselves a feeling of stress, they like it so much that they are ready to receive it all the time. These people are unfamiliar with apathy or depression.

Businessmen who were able to quickly achieve success can be compared to climbers or skydivers. They also experience an adrenaline rush. Journalists, the military, resuscitators and other people whose profession requires high responsibility or poses a danger to life, are constantly under the "adrenaline high". Doctors say that people specifically choose such professions for themselves in order to be constantly on an emotional upsurge.

So is adrenaline a drug or not?

This question is difficult to answer. A drug addict is a person who depends on any substance, it does not matter how the substance comes in - from the outside or is produced inside the body. Therefore, adrenaline can be attributed to a legal drug, which can be sex, alcohol, and happiness. The main thing is to follow the consequences.

On a note

Lack of carbohydrates causes an increase in the level of adrenaline in the blood. Therefore, people who practice fasting often experience a feeling of uplift and constant energy. Usually this condition occurs on the second or third day of fasting. Physiologists and traditional healers say that this is the influence of the energy that a person usually spends on digestion. But fasting is stressful for the body, so don't fast too long.

Life on the run, literally at the limit of its capabilities, constant fuss, haste, excitement - it is generally accepted that this is a natural pace for the inhabitants of the metropolis. But psychologists believe that the habit of living in nervous tension is not only harmful to our health, but also dangerous with the risk of addiction to adrenaline. The absence of vivid experiences instantly plunges such a person into a feeling of fatigue and emptiness. Why adrenaline addiction occurs and how to avoid it - we will understand today.

What is adrenaline addiction and where does it come from?

At first, the need to keep up with a million things every day seems burdensome to us - the fast pace of life causes a feeling of fatigue. But over time, endless running with rare and short breaks for rest, increased levels of adrenaline and stress become our habit and become the norm of life. Getting used to living in endless nervous tension, people lose the ability to relax and rest - if there is a pause in life, an adrenaline addict begins to experience extreme stress and confusion.

Most often, people with many complexes and internal contradictions are subject to adrenaline addiction - filling their lives with stressful experiences, a person automatically stops suffering from internal conflicts - he simply does not have the strength or time for this. Man with developed intuition and a high level of awareness is unlikely to choose for himself a way of life in which he does not even have time to feel its taste, enjoy it, rather, he will struggle with conditions in which he ceases to hear and feel himself, his true desires and needs, and not create them for himself artificially. The subconscious desire to “load” oneself with deeds and impressions can signal internal problems and the desire to hide from them behind bright emotions and experiences, and not always positive.

In some cases, adrenaline addiction is formed even in childhood - most often, adrenaline addicts become people whose parents overprotected them, not letting them take a step on their own, as well as those who, on the contrary, did not pay due attention. In both cases, such children grow up without a “core” inside, with an unformed inner “I” and a lack of understanding of how to fill the void in the soul.

What harms us adrenaline addiction?

It would seem that, increased activity much better than passivity and can be useful to a person - to help reach certain heights and prove to himself that he is capable of much. However, the price of retribution for the frantic pace of life and addiction to adrenaline can be quite high - a constant excess of adrenaline in the blood destroys the immune system and leads to cardiovascular diseases, sleep disorders, ulcers and gastritis - and this is just a small list of how life is "wear out" can affect our health. An adrenaline addict does not allow his body to rest and recover - as soon as the habitual activity is reduced, the person begins to feel the symptoms of the so-called adrenaline breakdown - lethargy, emptiness, lack of emotions. Feeling the desire to feel "alive", the adrenaline addict again and again performs actions that contribute to the release of adrenaline, and often these methods are destructive to physical and mental health - alcohol, drugs, extreme sports, scandals with other people ...

What to do?

If you find yourself showing signs of an adrenaline addiction, it is worth taking action to combat it as soon as possible, without waiting until the craving for thrills begins to harm you.

Try to understand your true motives. What exactly are you trying to drown out - a sense of inferiority, resentment, loneliness ... What would you like to feel instead of emptiness inside, what do you lack? Admit to yourself the lack of love, understanding, trust, the need for self-realization through your favorite business, instead of a "prestigious" career... Have you always needed stress to fill your existence with meaning? How did you fill the void inside before? The more precisely you can articulate your inner needs, the easier it will be for you to find an adrenaline addiction cure that is right for you.
Look for "retreats". Come up with activities for yourself that you could switch to as soon as you feel that you are starting to drive yourself into a stressful situation again. These activities should not excite you, make you feel nervous tension or other strong emotions. For example, it can be any kind of needlework - by creating something beautiful with your own hands, you will help your body relax and relieve stress, the main thing is to choose the type of creativity that can captivate you and give you pleasure. If you're used to getting your adrenaline pumping through extreme sports, try swapping it out for relaxing yoga or Pilates - the endorphins you'll get in the process will be a great alternative to your usual dose of adrenaline and cortisol.
Try something new. To get rid of adrenaline addiction, you need to find equivalent replacement adrenaline - something that will make you feel "alive", but without the stress and risk. Try everything in a row - the feeling of novelty, in itself, can provide you with a portion of the hormones of happiness - endorphins. Any new impressions, sensations, new information or new skills will contribute to mental healing from adrenaline addiction - regular intake of hormones of joy in the body will not let you miss adrenaline.

Adrenaline addiction is not as well known as alcohol, tobacco or drug addiction. At first glance, the consequences are not so terrible. However, adrenaline addiction is just dangerous in that little is known about it and rarely associated with it certain diseases and negative states of the individual.

A little about adrenaline. The hormone adrenaline is produced by the cells of the adrenal medulla. When adrenaline enters the bloodstream, almost all organs react to it with changes in activity. You can determine the release of adrenaline by an increased heart rate, an increase blood pressure, vasoconstriction of the skin, organs abdominal cavity, mucous membranes and skeletal muscles. The heart starts beating faster and then slows down. Adrenaline is very important for the body, because in dangerous and difficult situations it mobilizes all the forces of the body to protect or avoid danger.

However, adrenaline can enter the bloodstream not only in critical situations, but also in any stressful ones. Do not forget that they can also have a positive connotation: holidays, achievements, victories - these and other events make the body react with an adrenaline rush.

What is "adrenaline addiction"?

There are a lot of adrenaline addicts, but they themselves may not know about it. At first glance, they are impossible to identify. Interestingly, there are many adrenaline addicts among successful people who constantly strive for something, achieve success.

However, often people talk about adrenaline addiction when a person is addicted to thrills. It can take our breath away when we watch people jumping from a parachute, from a bridge, jumping and other extreme sports. But a person with an adrenaline addiction does not see anything terrible in these sports, but, on the contrary, enjoys them.

The thing is that in situations of risk to human health or life, the brain gives a command of danger and the adrenal glands begin to intensively release a large dose of adrenaline into the blood. Increased heart rate and other effects of adrenaline cause the pituitary gland to produce a large amount of endorphins - hormones of happiness. Increased heart rate, rapid breathing and hyperventilation of the lungs in turn cause a feeling of euphoria, which can last for hours. Of course, having experienced such euphoria once, the body will want to return to this unusual state again.

Adrenaline addiction: causes.

1. Desire for unusual sensations after they have been received several times.

2. adrenaline addiction may be due to work. It is clear that such professions as a firefighter, pilot, policeman, military man, athlete do not exist without adrenaline. A person may go to work in these specialties for the reason that he likes to experience a feeling of fear, or he may become addicted to it already in the course of work.

3. Weak self-esteem and complexes. Sometimes a person tries to overcome his complexes with the help of something unusual. He takes risks, receives a dose of adrenaline, which for some time maintains self-confidence in a person. The return of complexes and low self-esteem pushes a person to new achievements.

The problem of adrenaline addiction in the fact that in order to get adrenaline, a person needs more and more emotions each time. In addition, frequent stay in adrenaline excitement leads to the fact that a person feels uncomfortable in a calm environment, while he may experience weakness and malaise, his chronic diseases are exacerbated, which should be treated not by doctors, but by psychotherapists. Adrenaline-addicted person may look for experiences where it is better not to, he takes reckless risks just to get another dose of adrenaline.

How to get rid of adrenaline addiction? believes that, just like from any other, one should try to refrain from situations that carry a surge of adrenaline. Sometimes, in especially severe cases, adrenaline addiction has to be treated by a psychotherapist.

Adrenaline Rushing: The Best Tricks in the World.

Due to the fact that the need to fight for survival has practically disappeared, when the release of this hormone into the blood occurred regularly and naturally. But the need remains. Therefore, many people artificially try to mobilize their resources in order to resume this process. And today I want to talk about the ways in which it is possible to satisfy this need.

What is it and signs of occurrence

The name of this type of addiction has not yet been invented, in scientific books such a diagnosis does not yet exist, but in life it is quite real. The release of this hormone occurs during stressful situations, when a person experiences fear, horror or shock.

Signs are very easy to spot:

Hyperventilation of the lungs occurs due to too frequent shallow breathing
pupils dilate
Heartbeat quickens
Increased mobility of the whole body

A person is aroused and experiences sensations that are similar to alcohol or drug intoxication. And then relaxation sets in, and the pituitary gland begins to produce endorphins, which are considered hormones of happiness. This euphoria can last for several hours, after which lethargy sets in, up to a depressive state. This is the reason for the regression - there is a need to repeat the adrenaline rush in order not only to experience pleasant feelings again, but also to get rid of a hangover-like state. And so in a circle. Over time, it is formed at the chemical level, a person is not afraid of trauma due to extreme sports, and even death. There remains a thirst to live the sensations of being on the verge, it excites more than falling in love.

Causes

Psychology has long been looking for the causes of extreme cravings, and it was found that addiction begins to form in childhood, plus there is a genetic predisposition.

There is a gene that is responsible for the passion for alcohol, drugs and, accordingly, for adrenaline. As a child, a teenager can get addicted to trying to assert himself, to prove to himself and everyone his coolness, to experiment in order to test what he is capable of.

But as an adult, adulthood may be caused by the following reasons:

Low self-esteem. When the child grows up and the insecurities remain, the grown man or woman simply needs an outlet of energy so that he or she can thus declare to the world about himself, about his courage or belonging to adulthood. Men begin to get involved, for example, in football, eventually becoming an active fan. Or they take big risks when doing business, achieving success. In the article " Best Methods success that will help you finally believe in yourself ”I have already said that a person has a polarity of qualities, for example, if he is very cowardly, then there are always moments and situations when this person behaves fearlessly. Therefore, the polarity of uncertainty "shoots" in extreme sports or risky business.
positive reinforcement. Having experienced such euphoria a couple of times, a person simply sits down on a constant desire to live it. Having jumped once with a parachute, or having made a steep rafting in kayaks, there is a possibility that there will be a desire to repeat, with increased risk, since the previous level of difficulty will no longer be so exciting.
Profession. Due to the daily living of stress and risk in work activities, a person can simply no longer imagine his life without it. Adrenaline bursts are constantly experienced by the military, athletes, firefighters ... And after completing a career, or having served a contract, they cannot find themselves in a measured and calm life.

Consequences

In addition to the fact that basically there is always a threat to life, constant bursts of the hormone in the body entail a deterioration in health.

Problems of a psychological nature. Due to the constant bursts of adrenaline, the body is depleted, there is no way to recover morally, rely on internal resources. Then there is such a symptom as emotional burnout. When in the morning there is no strength to get out of bed, perform your duties and generally communicate with someone. Depression may also begin, the meaning of life will disappear and there will be a constant feeling of anxiety.
Work disruptions occur of cardio-vascular system. high risk get a heart attack from extreme sports, tachycardia, pressure surges may occur.
Irrational use of the body's resources leads to convulsions, difficulties with the respiratory system. And also there is a high probability of falling into a coma.
exhaustion nervous system. Since there is too active consumption of nerve cells.
Women are at risk of infertility.
The level of useful and necessary substances, for example, calcium, decreases. Which over time leads to frequent trauma even at home.

How to appease?

Treatment, as in other types of addictions, begins with the recognition and awareness of the problem. Because until you understand that the problem exists, no one and nothing can help you. The most important thing is the willingness of the person himself to do something about it. Re-read carefully what consequences your passion can lead to, and think about whether you are ready to sacrifice health and relationships with loved ones in order to satisfy the need for euphoria?
Look for other ways to boost your self-esteem. Read my article, which I already mentioned. Explore other areas where you can feel successful, have fun.
Go in for sports. Not risky, but for example, running, exercising in gym, yoga, swimming ... In fact, during the performance of any physical exercise, adrenaline and endorphins are produced. Only in the case of a hobby for ordinary sports, they are not only safer for health, but also more useful. And by the way, it also helps to raise self-esteem when you manage to complete the planned program in the number of approaches during exercises with dumbbells, or run as many kilometers as you have not mastered in previous times.
It is quite possible to leave your passion for extreme sports, only to control the level of risk. And not to be in the first place in the value system. For example, if these are races, then not around the city, creating an emergency situation, but on special tracks, if skiing - without descents along “black tracks” and without complex acrobatic numbers.
Communicate more. This is a very important point for healing, you need to learn to enjoy communication with other people, from contact with them on an emotional level, from the formation or renewal of close relationships.

Conclusion

It doesn’t matter if you are an active fan or a risky businessman, I want to say one thing - appreciate your life, learn to enjoy every day you live, and then you will be able to cope with addiction and take control of your life.

Sincerely, Valery Kharlamov

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How to overcome adrenaline addiction

Are you living at your limits? Excitement and vivid experiences are replaced by a feeling of emptiness and extreme fatigue? These are signs of adrenaline addiction. Psychologist Tatyana Zhadan explains how it arises and how to get rid of it.

Bustle, rush, running with occasional breaks for a short rest - this is how the life of most active residents of modern megacities looks like. The daily solution of a chain of tasks, the adoption of important decisions, on which not only we ourselves, but also other people often depend, the search for ways out of again and again emerging problem situations - all these are the realities of our life. Living with a sense of stress increased level adrenaline has become almost the norm. We have developed a habit of overexertion. And when it comes - suddenly! - break, silence, pause, we are lost ... We begin to hear ourselves, feel ourselves and find ourselves face to face with all internal contradictions, with all our conflicts, from which we successfully closed ourselves with fuss and increased activity.

When our real life full and rich, it has a lot of bright colors and experiences that make us "alive". But if we haven’t answered the question “What is the meaning of life?” for ourselves, if family life for us - boring, monotonous everyday life, if work is a routine functional, then our “soul of a poet” still desires something, looks for something even in this gray mud. Then we head towards strong feelings that walking on the edge brings us, balancing between “get it” and “fail it”, between success and failure - and the habit of the sharpness of the adrenaline life quickly becomes second nature.

But maybe it's not bad at all - to live at the peak of emotions, move at breakneck speeds, promote project after project, not even having time to savor the success of the previous achievement? Why stop, because it's so interesting to live? Probably, everything would be fine if we did not have to pay for such a crazy rhythm of life.

The effects of stress

Adrenaline, excessively entering the bloodstream, leads to the destruction of immunity. The heart cannot withstand constant high loads, cardiovascular diseases occur. Unrelenting anxiety is accompanied by insomnia. And the endless nervous tension "shoots" peptic ulcer and gastritis. And that is not all.

After the next portion of adrenaline, a decline in activity occurs, in which a person feels lethargic and lacks sensations. He wants to experience the rise again. And he again resorts to those actions that lead to the release of adrenaline as a result of stress. This is how addiction is formed.

After the next portion of adrenaline comes a decline in activity

Like most of our problems, it "comes from childhood." In adrenaline addiction, hyper-custody is “guilty” (parents are overly attentive to the child, but at the same time they infringe on his freedom and do not allow a sense of responsibility to develop) and hypo-custody (parents practically do not pay attention to the child, leaving him to himself). We can also refer to hypo-custody a situation that is very common in our time, when parents disappear at work, and the child is given attention in the form of expensive toys, not realizing that the child needs not expensive designers and dolls, but sweet words and hugs.

Both of these parenting styles lead to the fact that the child does not develop a clear understanding of himself, his capabilities and their limits, he grows up with an emptiness inside, while not understanding what to do with this emptiness.

Often this problem - emptiness and dullness inside - a child or teenager tries to solve with the help of extreme sports, alcohol and drugs, as well as filling the emotional deficit with quarrels and scandals with loved ones.

Adults find the same exits for themselves. What to do?

1. Find out what you are really missing. You need to start by exploring the emptiness within. What should be there instead? What exactly is missing? When this emptiness first appeared, what events in your life did it involve? What have you filled your life with in the past so that you feel fulfilled and alive? What changed? What is missing? The truthful answers to these questions will give you the opportunity to choose the right strategy for healing from adrenaline addiction.

2. Learn to switch. As soon as you understand that some activity absorbs you, that you are no longer so interested and pleasant to do it, as it draws you in with some unknown forces and does not let go, stop and do something else. It can be no less laborious activity, but while your mind is busy with it, you will have time to understand the motives for your actions in the previous step and determine whether this pursuit of another dose of adrenaline is really necessary.

Replacing part of the training with other types vigorous activity, you will get a drive without harm to the body

Often such an addiction is developed in girls who, in pursuit of beauty (and not for Olympic records), go to the gym every day, sometimes even twice a day. In such a situation, the motive for training quickly becomes not the achievement of the desired appearance, but the feeling of drive, uplift and subsequent relaxation that training gives. It is not a sin to strive for these sensations, however, having lost the measure, the girls become addicted to training (they devote all their free time to them, continue to practice even after injuries, feel unhappy if they have to skip training). Replacing part of the training with other activities, you will get the same drive, but without harm to the body.

3. Find new activities that will help you feel "alive" and fulfilled. The most important thing that should be in all these activities is novelty. Any new impressions, new information, new skills will not only saturate your life, but also contribute to your mental health, because the effect of novelty leads to the release of endorphins into the blood - the hormones of happiness. With adrenaline addiction, we get endorphin after the fact: when a large amount of adrenaline has been released and its action needs to be somehow mitigated, the body produces the hormone of happiness.

Any new impressions, new information, new skills - a way to get a dose of endorphins

Instead, you can hit right on target - to achieve endorphin production directly, bypassing massive doses of adrenaline. This will help travel to new places (not necessarily to the other end of the world, but even just to the neighboring area of the city), rest in beautiful corners nature, active classes sports, meeting people, meeting in clubs, learning a new profession, new skills (for example, learning a foreign language or learning how to create websites), reading interesting books, and maybe even writing your own (not for sale, but for myself, for personal creativity). This list goes on. What way would you suggest to fill your life?

Sports anorexia: why intensive training is dangerous

"Hypergymnasium", "sports bulimia", "athletic anorexia". We will not see these terms in medical directory, but doctors are increasingly using them in practice. So informally called the compulsive and excessive need for exercise to maintain a low weight.

A successful woman who is unlucky in love:

cause in childhood

A beautiful successful woman came to the appointment with the psychotherapist Olga Lukina, who is catastrophically not going well personal life. During the first sessions, it turned out that the problem was not in her partners, but in the client herself, or rather, in the events of the distant past, the memory of which she forced out of her memory.

Adrenaline addiction is not as well known as nicotine, alcohol and drug addiction. It may seem that a person's need for large amounts of adrenaline is not so terrible, but it can lead to physical and mental disorders.

What is adrenaline addiction?

First you need to understand what adrenaline is. It is a hormone produced by the cells of the adrenal medulla. When it enters the blood, it begins to affect almost all body systems. Such an impact is necessary for a person in order to direct all vitality to deal with a threat or to overcome any obstacles.

Adrenaline release can occur with both negative and positive stress. This condition is characterized by the following symptoms:

rapid pulse;
narrowing of skin vessels, abdominal organs and skeletal muscles;
high blood pressure;
palpitations that stabilize over time.

Many people are not even aware that they are adrenaline addicts. They often achieve significant success in life, as this hormone spurs them to constantly strive for new heights. What's wrong with adrenaline addiction?

What threatens an excess of adrenaline?

The fact is that adrenaline addiction requires a person to constantly get thrills, forcing him to engage in extreme sports. Increased heart rate and breathing, combined with hyperventilation of the lungs, lead to a feeling of euphoria that the body wants to experience again and again. The problem is that every time a person needs more and more thrills. Staying in a calm environment can plunge an adrenaline addict into depression and exacerbate chronic diseases. In pursuit of a new dose of adrenaline, these people can commit reckless actions that pose a danger to health and even life. They often provoke conflicts in the family or at work, which negatively affects well-being.

Doctors have proven that an excessive amount of adrenaline in the blood causes such disorders in the body:

destroys immunity;
contributes to the appearance of cardiovascular diseases;
negatively affects the state of the gastrointestinal tract;
provokes insomnia and other sleep disorders;
women are getting worse reproductive function, namely, difficulties with conception.

Each person is responsible for their actions, so illegal acts cannot be justified by any adrenaline addiction. For full life it is very important to eliminate this factor of influence.

To understand how to get rid of adrenaline addiction, you need to understand the reasons for its appearance.

Causes of Adrenaline Cravings

A constant need for stress indicates that a person has unresolved problems. The following factors may contribute to this dependence:

Reusable receipt of unusual sensations to which the body begins to get used.
Dangerous job. Among the police, firefighters, pilots or athletes, there are a lot of adrenaline addicts. Without an excess of this hormone, people in these professions often simply cannot perform their duties.
Complexes and low self-esteem. To overcome complexes, a person can consciously take risks. When receiving adrenaline, a person gains confidence in himself, but when the hormone level normalizes, the complexes return again. It pushes a person to new achievements.

The development of a craving for adrenaline can be compared to a passion for alcohol. To get rid of a hangover, the easiest way for alcoholics is to get a new dose and again feel the desired euphoria. This is how adrenaline addiction works. The need for adrenaline is felt both at the psychological and physiological levels, overshadowing all important areas of life. This situation turns into a vicious circle, to break out of which without outside help sometimes impossible.

How to get rid of adrenaline addiction?

The treatment of this condition lies for the most part in the psychological plane.

Doctors believe that a complete recovery is impossible to achieve. But a man can replace his favorite hobby others, not so dangerous. The best way out will be the alternation of several hobbies. This will allow you not to reduce the flow of adrenaline due to the fact that this or that activity is no longer felt so sharply. For example, if you start to get less pleasure from rope jumping, don't go skydiving right away. Take a trip to the mountains, travel, go in for boxing or karate. When these hobbies stop causing an adrenaline rush, you can return to rope jumping.

This video talks about the human need for adrenaline:

Such an alternation will allow you not to experience a lack of adrenaline, without exposing your life and health to danger. In some cases, treatment of adrenaline addiction is only necessary with the help of a psychotherapist.

adrenaline addiction

Human behavior is directly related to the processes occurring in his body. a huge role hormones play a role in these processes. Not the last place among them is occupied by adrenaline, or the so-called action hormone.

Adrenaline has a stimulating effect on the central nervous system (CNS). Thus, in stressful or borderline situations, when we feel danger or fear, experience shock or suffer trauma, we catch our breath due to the narrowing of the abdominal organs, the heart beat quickens, the pupils dilate and the overall mobility of the body increases. In the presence of such signs, it is safe to say that an adrenaline rush has occurred. The level of adrenaline in the blood at this moment increases tenfold.

Why does a person need this hormone?

IN primitive society man had to constantly fight for survival and day after day to get away from danger. The role of a stimulant that promotes instant mobilization of physical and brain activity was performed by adrenaline. But over time, the hormonal composition of the blood has changed. A person has become less resilient, has lost a decent proportion of vegetation on the body in the process of evolution, has become less mobile, his vigilance has weakened, because he no longer has to flee from an angry predator and hide from the cold in a stone cave.

Yes, we still experience stress, but this stress is caused more by our internal attitude to the situation than by an external factor. We are not fighting for survival, the most terrible "predator" for us is the boss or the tax inspector. Unlike our grandparents, we do not experience great physical exertion. Technology does most of the work for us. Physical labor is abolished, giving way to sedentary office work when even a mechanical process can be controlled by pressing a button on an electronic device. Simply put, human life has become easier and calmer. But, like everything in our body, the release of hormones requires stability and regularity in order to maintain the necessary balance, so we have to provoke the release of the missing amount of adrenaline.

So, we calmed down, adrenaline began to stand out less often, but the need for it remained. That is why we are so often attracted to gambling, competition, extreme entertainment and sports. We embark on an adventure to pinch our nerves, consume shock doses of alcohol, energy drinks, drugs - something that can cause us to feel such feelings as anger, love, hate, joy ... All this allows us to feel a surge of adrenaline.

The last argument in favor of adrenaline: adrenaline is nice! Adrenaline excites. Even if the release of the "hormone of action" is not associated with the use of alcohol, drugs, or "energy tonics", we are still in a state of mild intoxication, because the effect of this hormone on the vascular and nervous systems of the body is similar to the action of the above-mentioned stimulants.

After a sharp excitement, the body relaxes, we are in a state of euphoria, we feel good and we want more. But modern man unable to maintain adrenaline release mode naturally without any additional stimulants. They can also be such innocent hobbies as sports, participation in fan clubs, spectacles, food, card games. Such an addiction, no matter how innocent it may seem, can be detrimental to the psychological and physical condition of a person, because we begin to depend not on what causes a surge of emotions in us, but on the effect that an adrenaline rush produces on us.

It would be appropriate to recall the experiment conducted by scientists on laboratory rats. Several wires were connected to the rats, each of which came from a specific button. These buttons allowed, when touched, to send certain impulses to the rats: pain, pleasure. Another button allowed food to be fed into the cage. As you know, rats are pretty smart creatures. They quickly figured out the situation, however, the result of the experience was deplorable. Having identified the purpose of the buttons, the rats neglected the opportunity to get food, preferring the button that allowed them to receive pleasant sensations at any time. The experimental rats starved to death. They didn't want food, they didn't want to drink. They became hostages of their own pleasure, a real drug, which they could now have in unlimited quantities.

The reverse side of the action of adrenaline is that after the release of the hormone into the blood, after a while, a decline in activity occurs. A person becomes lethargic, experiences something similar to a “hangover” state, which significantly aggravates the situation, because now he wants not only to experience pleasant excitement again, but also to save himself from the painful consequences of such a shake-up. As you know, a wedge is knocked out by a wedge and the easiest and most common way to get rid of a hangover, no matter what it was caused, is the repeated use of a stimulant. The circle closes and you are inside it.

We will not consider examples with alcohol and drug addicts. Let's take the situation with football fans for clarity. The game is excitement, excitement, satisfaction of many needs, such as: the need for unity with other people, intimacy, taking the victory of your favorite team into your own account (the team won, and you feel part of this general jubilation and success). You assert yourself. The game is a huge, all-encompassing adrenaline rush. Adrenaline is in the air. If we had a better sense of smell, we could feel it. But we can only feel it, feel it with every nerve, every little neuron.

There was a game yesterday. And no matter what the result of the game, you still experienced excitement. And today is weekday. You feel as if all the energy has been sucked out of you, all the vital juices have been sucked out of you. You are depressed and you don't understand why. But you clearly remember that yesterday you were very good. A picture stuck in my memory: me, a huge stadium, guys-fans, alcohol, a game, “chants”. Remembering yesterday, sorting through the memory of the most bright moments games, you come to the conclusion that all this makes you very happy, gives you joy. Unlike today, when the match is already in the past, and only routine lies ahead. You understand that it is worth coming back to the match and everything will happen again. Okay, let's wait for the match. But how to do it, because it is impossible to live in such a depressed state! And you make one more conclusion: I can reproduce the situation of the match. I will call my friends, I will buy alcohol, we will watch the match, singing our favorite songs.

“This is how millions of people live, and they call it a “hobby,” an innocent “hobby,” you might say. Yes, they live, and this is much better and harmless than using drugs, for example. But the essence of the problem is not that people go to matches or gather at home to watch them on TV. The problem is that true motive such behavior in the desire to re-experience excitement due to the release of adrenaline. This is chemistry, addiction is more persistent. It penetrates you from the inside, acts imperceptibly, but very effectively and quickly. And how you stimulate it - drugs, alcohol or football matches - does not matter. The result is the same: you gradually displace other values and things that are important to you, sometimes vital (remember the example with rats) from your consciousness.

Do you know that a certain percentage of domestic crimes occur for a reason related to watching football matches? It sounds a little ridiculous, especially for a person who is not fond of football: "it's just a game." However, what one calls a game, another will call a source of joy. I call it a stimulant. Now imagine that at the moment of watching a football match, a person who is thoroughly “addicted” to this business is interrupted: whether the wife is annoying with her conversations, children or interference in the image, it does not matter. It does not matter for him, for watching the match, because he, one might say, does not see anything around. He reached the phase of the highest excitement: the pupils are dilated, the pulse quickened ... Something like sex. Imagine that at the moment of the highest pleasure you were interrupted. What do you feel? Almost nothing. You are borderline. As if in weightlessness: just now you were ready to go beyond the Earth’s atmosphere, but then the turbines stopped, the aircraft hovered in the air, for a split second, but everything stopped, there is nothing ... So it is in consciousness. It hung. Stopped. Haven't been able to switch. And in that second, anything can happen: a blow, a scream, a throw, throwing something that came to hand - in other words, an affect is an unconscious assessment of the situation. However, it is quite natural for healthy person neurodynamic process.

Such a reaction is not at all necessary, I will not argue that the fans are potentially dangerous people, but I can still say with certainty that such behavior takes place, and has happened more than once. It all depends on the "experience" of the fan.

So my conclusion. As soon as our society is moving inexorably towards progress, as soon as we turn to physical labor less and less and more and more often we try to isolate ourselves from contact with reality, and more and more often we resort to artificial stimulation all kinds of processes, let's approach this issue reasonably and responsibly. Let's be aware that there is no panacea that can solve all our problems. If you have found the perfect stimulation method for you, try to diversify it, alternate it with others. possible ways. You should not turn into an avid fan who has forgotten everything in the world, interested only in your favorite sport, you should not “get hooked” on beer, “energy tonics” and, moreover, drugs, you should not disappear for hours in gyms, pumping your muscles more than that your physical form etc. Nobody says that sports, hobbies, excitement and alcohol are bad, but everything is good in moderation.

As soon as you start to feel like you're addicted to an activity, just switch for a while: get out of the gym and go to the game of your favorite team, cheer for them with your friends and allow yourself a bottle of your favorite drink ... and then back to the gym! Good luck.

Adrenaline longing: causes and methods of treatment at home

Recently, scientists are increasingly coming to the conclusion that the psychological state of a person, emotions and feelings depend on chemical processes in his body. Of particular interest from this point of view is adrenaline, an important adrenal hormone.

Dysfunction of these little workers can lead to both a lack of the substance, which causes addiction to extreme activities, and a large accumulation of it in the brain, which leads to the emergence of the so-called "adrenal longing" (Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome, "adrenalinovaya tossa").

At the same time, in official medicine, such a syndrome is not considered a full-fledged disease; doctors simply do not diagnose it. Nevertheless, every person at least once overtook such a state.

Symptoms

The first signs of "adrenaline longing" are lethargy, apathy, loss of appetite. A number of signs can be attributed to the symptoms of malaise:

trembling in hands and feet;
anxiety state;
irritability;
involuntary squeezing of the stomach;
continuous headache;
convulsions of the larynx;
exhaustion, exhaustion;
awakening at night;
increased sweating;
inability to concentrate;
frequent bouts of anger;
cardiopalmus;
dry mouth.

Such physiological manifestations are most often observed in mentally ill people and are accompanied by emotional outbursts - irritability, a sense of shame and longing. Those who claim that the disease of adrenaline overabundance exists, believe that it is provoked by dysfunction of the adrenal glands - insufficiency of the cortex.

At the same time, the person as a whole remains healthy, only “burns out emotionally”, each event is perceived with great difficulty, it becomes harder to communicate with other people, any situation puts the patient into a stupor, makes him worry about every little thing, provoking the production of a hormone.

"Adrenaline longing" causes a change in body weight, body pain, shortness of breath, frequent urination, sensitivity of the scalp. Such changes can lead to other serious diseases.

Causes of manifestation

Representatives of informal medicine claim that the causes of adrenaline longing include:

acute respiratory diseases, infections, hypothermia, inflammation internal organs, allergy;
extreme burden on the body: operations, prolonged malnutrition, lack of sleep, use of drugs, alcohol;
stressful circumstances, financial and family difficulties;
exhausting physical work: sports;
chemical poisoning.

However, official medicine sees the reason precisely in the fight against violations in the work of organs.

The adrenal glands and their role in the human body

Click on the picture to enlarge it

Even small changes in the functioning of the adrenal glands lead to the fact that the patient may show signs of anxiety, fear, unreasonable anxiety, male features in women, or vice versa.

The adrenal glands have many beneficial properties. These paired organs are responsible for the body's ability to survive stress, influence environment and irritants. Without adrenaline, the body will not be able to respond to potential danger. The adrenal glands also help the nervous system recover from stressful situations. Without them there would be a complete loosening of the psyche.

The ability to collect will into a fist at a crucial moment, to accumulate strength also depends on adrenaline. For example, a person needs to complete urgent work and he tries his best to achieve his goal. As a rule, in such a situation, at the end of the working day, the employee is overcome by fatigue, but suddenly, quite unexpectedly for himself, he receives additional “feeding”, an impulse, a “second wind” opens up and the thought begins to work faster.

The main causes of adrenal disease

In response to a stimulus, tiny organs (the adrenal glands) release adrenaline and cortisol (stress hormones) into the blood. The latter lowers the level of cholesterol in the body, increases the percentage of sugar, is responsible for the adaptation of the individual to circumstances.

At the same time, with each time, the production of cortisol decreases, which leads to inhibition of the work of the human body as a whole.

Thus, the adrenal glands suffer greatly from the fact that their owner is often nervous. The worst thing is that a chronic disorder matures gradually and does not make itself felt immediately. Long-term nervous tension, like a huge snowball, results in a serious malaise. Fatigue literally becomes not passing.

Among the causes of adrenaline longing are also poor nutrition, lack of vitamins and debilitating diets. Negatively affect the state of the body and intake oral contraceptives(among women). Many researchers believe that interference with the functioning of the ovaries also affects the overall hormonal background, since synthetic hormones that fall into human body, suppress the operation of the reproduction system, reproduction.

In this regard, it is necessary to realize that constant pressure may lead to negative consequences.

Diagnosis of "adrenaline longing"

Supporters of the existence of such a diagnosis diagnose the disease by analyzing a person’s blood or saliva. According to the analysis, specialists receive information about the biochemical imbalance and its consequences: obesity, depression, insomnia.

However, there is a way to recognize adrenal fatigue at an early stage. It is important to understand that the presence of constant weakness, involuntary falling asleep, indicate precisely that the state of the adrenal glands should be checked. Even at a “mature” age, these manifestations are not a variant of the norm, especially if it is coupled with nervousness, “out of temper” and a headache. Such combination is clear sign illness.

Treatment Method

The method of treatment includes a system of methods to combat the disease. In order to get out of an almost hopeless situation, it is necessary to restructure your lifestyle as a whole, otherwise time pressure will sooner or later lead to sad results.

Precautionary Adrenal Defenders:

work on the daily routine, following the schedule;
analysis of internal anxieties, appeal to a psychologist;
the use of adaptogen herbs: rhodiola rosea, gingo bolob, licorice, ginger, licorice or eleutherococcus;
inclusion in the diet of omega acids, fish oil, vitamins B and C, trace elements: zinc, potassium and magnesium.

Non-medicinal methods:

Rest. To work on yourself and take care of your own health, you should take a short vacation, otherwise the load on the body can lead to heart and other diseases. For the period of vacation, it is best to change the situation, type of activity, go, for example, to a sanatorium for professional medical care.
Proper nutrition. Eliminate preservatives from the diet, set the mode of eating.
Calm of the nervous system. As an option, weaken the external load on the body in the form of a working TV, washing machine away from the computer and social networks; listen to the sounds of wildlife and classical music.
Dream. Continuous sleep for 7-8 hours; rise at the same time.
Walks in the open air. Oxygen is a natural source of energy for the human body.
Physical exercise. Regular exercise contributes to the production of endorphins (“happiness hormones”).
water procedures. Swimming in the pool perfectly calms the nervous system and strengthens the muscles. Helps you relax and find peace warm baths with essential oils.

Medicinal plants with a sedative effect:

motherwort - will help to cope with insomnia. One teaspoon per day is enough;
calendula - copes with excitability, the recipe is similar to the first one, drink a teaspoon before bedtime;
mint tea - soothes well, useful for the female body as phytoestrogen;
tincture of hop cones;
valerian tincture;
tinctures of valerian and hawthorn fruit - 20 drops per glass of water;

Sometimes the level of adrenaline in the blood goes “off scale” and “heavy artillery” is needed in the form of drugs. To reduce the saturation of the hormone in the medulla, the following groups of drugs are used:

tranquilizer drugs that remove excess adrenaline from the cells and are prescribed strictly by prescription.
a drug such as Moxonidine is widely known, it has the effect of lowering the level of hormones in the blood and is indicated for hypertensive patients;
"Reserpine" promotes the withdrawal of norepinephrine, it seems that Oktadin affects the body;
Anaprilin, Atenol, Metoprolol and others - have wide range actions, but is not applied independently, only as prescribed by a doctor due to a large list side effects.;
drugs prescribed for nervous disorders and containing herbal ingredients, natural substances - "Phenazepam", "Seduxen", "Etaperazine", "Chlorprothixen".

Proper nutrition

The level of the hormone cortisol in the blood usually rises around six to seven o'clock in the evening, and reaches its highest mark at 8 o'clock, but at night it decreases to a minimum. In this regard, for health you need:

eat plenty of food in the first half of the day, and leave lighter food at the end of the day;
exercise intensively only at the beginning and middle of the day.

Sometimes the appetite, unfortunately, does not come in the morning, which is also due to hormones - cortisol suppresses the desire to eat, provokes fatigue.

To regulate the level of cortisol, it is worth setting the mode:

breakfast - strictly until eight o'clock;
at nine, eleven - a small snack;
lunch from two to three, so that cortisol does not decrease;
dinner between five and six o'clock in the evening;
an hour before bedtime, it is better to eat something “light” without sugar (cheese, vegetables, fruits).

hangover syndrome

Hangover syndrome is a reaction of the adrenal glands to the use of alcohol. Often people do not monitor the amount of alcohol they drink, and the next day after alcohol intoxication, a person experiences severe emotional condition: he is ashamed of what happened, his head hurts, he accuses himself of inappropriate behavior at the event.

Sometimes memory starts to fail, which is defensive reaction body to alcohol.

In the case when a person the next morning after drinking requires more alcohol, it is necessary to without fail engage in treatment, since the body has already become addicted to ethanol, and addiction has developed.

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It is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands. It is also called an emotional stimulant. Why? But because when the body goes into the blood, then a person experiences a real storm of emotions. Why is this happening? In which cases? What is the effect of adrenaline in general on our body? These are very important and interesting questions. So I would like to talk about it in more detail.

Hormone function

Adrenaline is a very powerful and important component of our body. Many people ask themselves: why do we need such a hormonal shake-up and emotional explosion? Logically. But first of all, the production of adrenaline is a vital process for a person to confront various difficulties. In case of stress, a hormone is released, and the resulting emotions keep the body in good shape. As well as the person himself. Well, if something good happens, then the hormone seems to inspire. Adrenaline is a vital necessity. If it is not enough, then the person does not cope well with difficult life circumstances, his reaction to what happened slows down, it is difficult for him to concentrate and start acting. Often he cannot make any decision. To put it another way, they just throw up their hands. Often, many characterize this as depression.

adrenaline rush

But we all know the case: here a real danger arises and suddenly ... No matter how deplorable a person has been until this moment, he seems to have a second wind! He is ready to synthesize thought, actively make decisions, act! And what is it called? That's right - an adrenaline rush. What it is? It can be said that emergency situation where the hypothalamus begins to function. It is located in the brain. And he is in such special occasions sends a signal to the adrenal glands, which instantly, at the same second, begin to actively produce adrenaline, and to all parts of the body, through all the nerve endings! This is a physical impulse of incredible power. The so-called adrenaline rush. A person feels it almost immediately, a maximum of five seconds after the start of the process. This is the explanation for the sudden opening of a second wind at the moment of something really dangerous or something that requires instant action.

physical processes

Adrenaline is a hormone that not only affects our emotions, but also activates a lot of physical and chemical processes in the body. After its release into the blood, a true storm begins inside us. The vessels instantly narrow, and the frequency of heart beats per minute increases almost several times. The pupils become wider, filling almost the entire iris. Skeletal muscles become larger and tense. And the smooth muscles of the intestine immediately relax.

Experienced sensations

At the time of the release of this hormone into the blood, several processes take place simultaneously - it is not surprising that a person immediately begins to feel at least strange and unusual. Everyone's feelings are different. Someone feels a strong pulsation at the temples. For others, the heart begins to pound in the chest. Still others feel a strange taste in the mouth and feel the active release of saliva. Some people's knees start shaking. Someone's head is spinning. The rest have it all together.

Many people say that adrenaline is good. Is it true? Absolutely everything in this world in small quantities is medicine, and in large quantities it is poison. It is the same with a substance such as adrenaline. The hormone is no joke. It can help keep the body in good shape or kill. If its effect lasts too long and happens often, then the myocardium may increase. This is fraught with serious heart disease.

Protein metabolism is also often increased. High level the content of this hormone in the blood also provokes exhaustion. Because of this, activity and immunity are reduced. There may be insomnia, chronic dizziness, excessively rapid breathing, increased nervousness, unreasonable anxiety and anxiety. If there is too much adrenaline in the blood, then this will easily provoke the occurrence panic attacks and fears. So the consequences may be irreversible. That is why it should not be abused artificial input adrenaline into your life.

Looking for thrills

What do you mean by artificial injection of adrenaline into your life? The question is interesting. So, there are adrenaline addicts in our world. Those people who are constantly looking for thrills, danger, always take risks. And no, these are not extreme sports enthusiasts, racers, skydivers, etc. Of course, all this also causes the release of this hormone, but in this case the definition is completely different. A true adrenaline addict is a person who ordinary life feels depressed and overwhelmed if he does not have a constant risk and opportunity to do something dangerous, extreme. And that's bad. They believe that only adrenaline makes their life interesting. which they experience when the hormone is released into the blood, they cannot exchange for anything. But every day they try something new, and sooner or later more or less adequate methods to bring risk into their existence come to an end. But the adrenaline junkie won't stop. There is no “no” for him. He is not able to stop the law, moral principles, the foundations of society. On the contrary, going against the rules is what he needs. Unfortunately, actions can bring harm not so much to him as to others.

But if you want to fix an adrenaline addict, you need to prepare for difficulties. It is not craving for alcohol, for smoking, for illegal substances. This is a need at the biochemical level, intertwined with mental factors. And to wean a person from the need to forever risk himself is not only extremely difficult, sometimes even impossible.

Hormone deficiency

There are people who have too much adrenaline in their blood (they were mentioned above), but there are those who suffer from a lack of it. Usually these are individuals with a monotonous, boring life, who practically do not show any activity (neither emotional nor physical). They are apathetic and indifferent, they have little joy in life. In 90% of cases, something led them to this state - a hard life, some deplorable incidents. Unfortunately, such people often try to increase the level of adrenaline in the wrong ways: they become addicted to drugs, smoke a lot, best case abuse coffee or alcohol. But this usually only leads to depression. Some drink special drugs. But since adrenaline is an “emotional” hormone, pills or injections will not help here. But real emotions are capable of this. So it is better to solve the problem of lack of adrenaline in a different way.