Fight Or Flight Response Research Paper

Improved Essays
You can feel a rush of energy go through your body. Your hands start to shake, you are alert, the energy you have is through the roof. It’s called adrenaline. The hormone secreted by the adrenal glands, especially in conditions of stress, that gives you that extreme rush of energy that makes you feel like you can do almost anything. Most of the cases, when you get an adrenaline rush, are in fight or flight situations. The fight-or-flight response is a physiological reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event, attack, or threat to survival. The fight or flight method is created by two bodily reactions. The first reaction is the sympathetic nervous system. This reaction uses the nerve pathways to tell the body something is happening. The second, the adrenal-cortical …show more content…
However, there are people that are known as “Adrenaline Junkies”. These are people who purposely go out and try to get the adrenaline rush. It is a certain type of high for them and that’s just something they get addicted to. In an article online, researchers conducted an experiment to see how the brain responds to new experiences that would cause a spark in adrenaline. When researchers looked at brain scans taken during the experiment, they noticed that one particular area of the brain, known as the reward center, lit up whenever people chose new experiences. This is the part of your brain that releases chemicals such as “Dopamine”, which is a chemical that makes us feel good. The act of taking risks in life and trying new things is what causes the excitement and spark in adrenaline to begin. “Anything that is addictive will have a dopamine rush to it, so whether it is drugs, sex, driving fast, playing sports, bungee jumping, fear or being scared, there is a dopamine rush that is very sudden,” said Dr. Angie MacKewn, Associate Professor of

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The best way to get the biggest adrenaline rush out of life is by taking adventures. Adventures come along almost everyday without our knowledge because we fail to notice them sometimes. Lots of memories can be made and shared with others after taking just one adventure, which is why they are so precious and should never be overlooked. Not only does a person experience something new after pursuing the escapade, but there is always a lesson to be learned after every adventure as well. It is good to remember that some adventures may not turn out the way you expected them to before you began pursuing such activities.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Specifically, the reason humans become addicted to a certain drug is because the drug tricks the brain into releasing pleasurable and rewarding chemicals which intrinsically reinforce the person into consuming it again and again. The moment one associates the drug use with these positive feelings, the behavior is learned. Based on the law of effect “behaviors leading to a satisfying state of affairs are strengthened” (Powel & Honey & Symbaluk,, 2013, p. 215), therefore the positive reinforcement that comes after using a drug determines that this behavior will be repeated again. This cyclical pattern of drug use and positive reinforcement is clearly seen in Mark Lewis 's behavior throughout his life as an addict, described in his novel. Lewis himself has stated in an…

    • 1064 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As some people develop addictions to drugs, and not others, it’s interesting to think about why. Robinson and Berridge go into many complex neurological explanations for this issue, mainly involving animals, but that can, however, carry over into humans. Why certain people can start taking an addictive drug and stop when they so choose, and why others cannot, is interesting to think about. As no two people are the same, there’s obviously not a single, distinctive way to determine a definite cause. It is interesting that both negative and positive reinforcement had been considered as possible descriptions for drug addictions, as they would appear to be opposites.…

    • 254 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    5). Amongst other factors, an individual’s dopamine levels are a big contributor to the reason a person continues to use and abuse drugs (Nutt, 2012, p. 139). Since dopamine levels stimulate the reward and pleasure areas of a person’s brain, when a drug is taken and their dopamine levels spike up, they will feel immense happiness and pleasure. However, what comes up must come down, and like all other things, their dopamine levels will go back down (Nutt, p. 139). During the “come down”, the individual will experience depression –like symptoms and the brain will start to recognize and associate happiness with the drug that they are taking.…

    • 1772 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Nora feared that if she stayed in Mexico, her father wouldn’t return and her family would end up penniless. Therefore, she derived her motivation out of fear. “Fear and excitement mixed in me like oil and water,” said Nora. Although these two emotions seem divergent, what makes them parallel is that they both give energy. Excitement prompts enthusiasm but fear makes people want to protect themselves and makes them more motivated to get out that fearful situation.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of Blue Lens

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Whether there are physical addictions or not, many individuals will compulsively use drugs, shop, gamble, or engage in other dangerous activities as a response to stressors, and due to anxiety, stress, or low…

    • 1216 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    How Fear of the Unknown Inspires Sheer Panic Man has always reacted passionately to strong emotions. It is an evolutionary reaction for most social animals to do so. Feelings that convey a lot of passion, such as anger, sadness, or fear, have a big role in our society. Unfortunately, when feelings become too passionate, or too intense, people begin to revert to an animalistic nature.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Over time, the "happy mechanism" will be more and more plain. So, to get even more than the original degree of stimulation, drug users must continue to increase the dose of drug consumption, so that the brain of the nerve escape cells to release more dopamine to make up. According to “What Drugs Do to Your Body”, it claims “Most people who do drugs for a while develop what is called a “tolerance” to the drug. This means that their body gets used to it.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    An Unquiet Mind: Summary

    • 1484 Words
    • 6 Pages

    This allows them to be much more reactive or sensitive to things as well as seek out immediate gratification rather than pay attention to long-term consequences. Such behavior may be due to the dysregulated dopamine system found within their neurotransmitters. In relation, the psychological theories focus on the idea of rewarding as well but also punishment and stress. Through these theories they have allowed patients to go through certain tasks such as “pretend gambling”. In this task patients are compared to regular people, receiving a bad deck, which won’t allow them to win, or a regular deck.…

    • 1484 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When people engage in stressful social interactions, they make eye contact, talk and listen in order to calm themselves down. In addition, people can have a 'fight-or-flight' response when they believe they're in danger. The fight-or-flight response is the psychological response that prepares a person to either fight or flee from a threat, attack or harm. This causes their heart to race faster, blood pressure to rise, their muscle to tense and increase in speed and and strength. Once they believe the danger has passed, their nervous system returns to normal.…

    • 973 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The brain likes to achieve and Dopamine helps it do that. Bergland describes Dopamine as “the fuel that keeps people motivated to persevere and achieve a goal” (par. 2).…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Defining any type of addiction is referred to as a periodic use or action. Substance addiction, however, is likely to be correspondent when defining an addict (Kosovski and Smith 854). Dopamine is the neurotransmitter responsible for the ongoing pleasure the body receives while using drugs (Jedras and Field 2). An urging need of a “high” is the main objective for the addict (Piazza 388). Effects of drugs result in abnormalities in bodily functions (Bartlett et al. 350).…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rat Park Research Paper

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When someone takes drugs, he seems to be in another state of mind that includes either a sensation of excitement or peaceful feeling. James Olds and Peter Milner discovered, according to experiments they made on rats, that “throughout the brain there are hot spots of pleasure.” This means that once you get used to that sensation of pleasure, then you start to crave the substance that makes you feel that way. In “Rat Park,” Slater writes about Emma Lowry who was addicted to Oxycontin due to her pain in her back after surgery.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Research and technology have increased awareness of addiction processes work, with advanced achievement in the discovery and the mapping of neurotransmitters and hormones which strongly affect our feelings and inclinations. These new aspects of endocrine and nervous system function are key to the increased understanding of addiction. They have major roles in perception, cognition, and expression. But more importantly, they regulate and determine moods, emotions and motivations. Here is where addiction resides!…

    • 5982 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Fear And Phobias Essay

    • 1295 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It might even result from a combination of factors”(Umbach, 2015). This is sort of hard to acknowledge, it’s human nature to know answers and hard cold facts. When someone is fearful of something it’s completely normal to have butterflies, nervousness, queesiness; the “fight or flight” response. But, the moment that things are turned down or start to avoid things because of fear; that is when this fear is controlled by your own fear and anxiety.…

    • 1295 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays