Adrenaline, Performance And Activating Hormone

Adrenaline is what makes us feel good when we play sports. It puts butterflies in our stomachs when we are interested in someone and gives us the ability to respond to daily dangers.

However, in addition to helping with performance and activation, adrenaline also has a dark side. Its excess has serious side effects.

Adrenaline is a polyvalent substance, just like dopamine and oxytocin. It also acts as a mediator and affects our behavior more than almost any other hormone. Adrenaline, for example, activates our instincts for survival, but also gives us a tendency toward addictive behavior. It can incite the type of anxiety and chronic stress that many people suffer from.

Many professionals working in crisis management train their clients to manage their adrenaline properly. To do that, they ask them to do physically and mentally stressful activities and stimuli. Activities require them to regulate how they respond.

The goal is simple: educating them so they don’t lose control, and teaching them what to do to make adrenaline their friend, not the enemy.

Doing it  and knowing all that this hormone is capable of doing to our bodies and behaviors is incredible. Let’s take a closer look at adrenaline.

Adrenaline: what is it and what does it do?

In 1982,  Angela Cavallo of Lawrenceville, Georgia, became Mother of the Year. That’s what the media called him after he got into the news all over the world. He did something that would be hard to believe if several people had not witnessed it.

His son Tony was working on his old Chevrolet in the garage when something terrible happened. The crane that held the car up suddenly broke. The car fell on top of the young man, leaving him trapped under it.

Angela Cavallo was 51 years old and weighed just over 60kg. She didn’t go to the gym, she wasn’t a big woman, and she had never lifted weights. Seeing his son’s feet under the car, he began shouting at his neighbors for help. When it turned out that no one was coming, he did not hesitate.

He ran to the 1,300-pound car and picked it up without thinking for a second. He held it up for several seconds, long enough for his neighbors to arrive and move the unconscious boy.

This amazing male work has two almost magical elements: maternal love and a lot, a lot of adrenaline. Adequate amounts of adrenaline give us the strength to do amazing things to survive and help others survive.

Activating hormone

Adrenaline belongs to the catecholamine group together with noradrenaline and dopamine. It is produced by the adrenal glands just above the kidneys.

There is also a synthetic version of adrenaline called epinephrine. Developed in the laboratory, it is chemically identical to adrenaline and thus really useful in medical emergencies for CPR.

To understand the mechanics of adrenaline, we can take advantage of the story of Angela Cavallo and her son:

• We notice a threatening or dangerous situation (such as a car falling on our child). Our hypothalamus, which is responsible for our mental reactions, activates the sympathetic nervous system to send a certain response to that stimulus.
• The hypothalamus also has a direct connection to the adrenal gland. That nucleus then connects to the adrenal gland. These glands are ready to release large amounts of adrenaline to activate us and act as an advocate for how we behave and respond.

Adrenaline uses concrete mechanisms for action

More is yet to come. With the release of adrenaline, a series of well-tuned biological mechanisms are triggered. These mechanisms facilitate our reactions:

• We lose consciousness of location. That way,  our brains try to focus all our attention on just one thing. Everything else ceases to be significant.
• On the other hand, the brain chooses which senses are most useful of all. In fact, hearing exclusion is very common. In other words, we stop hearing just as well so we can see better.
• Our pupils dilate almost immediately to let in more light so we can see better.
• Adrenaline does something else you might recognize. It dilates our blood vessels and speeds up our heart rate. There is a reason for this event: to pump more blood to get more oxygen into our muscles. Thus, we have more strength and ability to act.

Here’s an interesting fact. Our brains tell the immune system to release large amounts of dopamine and pain-relieving endorphins.

This means we don’t feel pain when we’re injured, just like Angela Cavallo, who didn’t feel pain when lifting a 1,300-pound car.

The pros and cons of adrenaline

Adrenaline does a lot of good. It stimulates us to get over the challenges. It can be both enjoyable as well as addictive.

Adrenaline helps us adapt to any stressful situation. It helps us when we practice high-risk species. It allows us to do our best in an experiment or enjoy a romantic date. Trembling hands, butterflies in the stomach, dilated pupils as we look at the person we are attracted to… These are all direct effects of adrenaline.

Adrenaline makes us feel happy as we dance and have fun with other people. It also gives us the incredible feeling we get when we are on a roller coaster or driving hard.

As you can see, many of these behaviors have some aspect of danger. It is when we put our feet on the ground inviolable after the experience that we feel the euphoria, immediate gratification, and liberation that follow.

Because of this, there are people who are hooked on adrenaline. That’s the dark side we need to know more about.

Adrenaline dependence

Some people are drawn to the more dangerous side of extreme species. Some really play with their lives. Behind this style of behavior (which many of us have probably witnessed) is sometimes more than just the search for pleasure and adventure.

This powerful adrenaline spike that is experienced can also be filling a void or masking emotions.

When we think of an addict, we immediately imagine in our minds someone who is addicted to certain drugs. He doesn’t use them much for pleasure, but to try to get rid of the feeling of discomfort.

However, we don’t always talk much about such dependencies. Adrenaline and the constant search for risks to feel alive is also an addiction.

On the other hand, as with other addictive substances, it is common to  require higher and higher doses to experience similar efficacy as before. Over time, our bodies develop resilience, so addicts need to look for even more risky and extreme behaviors and experiences to be able to achieve a similar feeling.

It is important to distinguish between athletes who practice extreme sports responsibly  and those who do the same without thinking or considering the consequences of their actions. 

In that sense, we can say that the addict does not think, he is just trying to satisfy his biological needs.

Adrenaline and chronic stress

We have seen that adrenaline can become very addictive. Adrenaline also has another downside. It is a daily developing chronic stress.

Chronic stress is a direct result of constant pressure and tension. When we don’t treat them on time, they lead to chronic stress. This mental state comes from the formation of two specific hormones: adrenaline and cortisol in the blood.

When we go through difficult, uncomfortable situations that threaten our physical or mental balance,  our brains interpret them as danger. That’s when adrenaline enters the picture and we need to act effectively.

However, we don’t always do it and that’s when adrenaline builds up and it causes changes in our body (high blood pressure, fast pulse, digestive problems).

Our health is endangered and our lives are put at risk. We can’t just sweep it aside, nor should we postpone it for tomorrow or next week…

In summary, we can say that  adrenaline fulfills its “magical” purpose as long as it is released at the right time. It acts as a vital impetus in those situations to help us act, to keep us safe, and to make us better adapt to certain situations.

But if we need this feeling every day or allow tension and fear to take control, adrenaline can have the worst possible effect: it can ruin our health.

Written sources

R. Kandel (2001). Principles de la neurociencia Madrid, LTC.

Hart, A (1995). Adrenaline and Stress. Thomas Nelson Editors.

Bennett M (1999). “One hundred years of adrenaline: the Discovery of autoreceptors”. Thieme Publishing Group.