The first time I got in line to ride Fury 325 at Carowinds, I could felt nervous and

anxious. Typically, I would never ride a roller coaster at an amusement park, let
alone the tallest and fastest one there. But, since I was with my friends I didnt want
to embarrass myself. I didnt know it at the time but me fighting the urge to get out
of line was my flight or fight response. I had heard of this concept before but, I had
never really applied it to myself before. In these situations, our body tends to
produce more epinephrine, better known as adrenaline. From the first drop to the
last turn into the station I could feel a rush that led me to want to ride the roller
coasters over and over. The rush could probably be attributed to endorphins
released with adrenaline. I felt the effects of an adrenaline rush, but how does the
adrenaline rush affect us as people.
In this day and age roller coasters are just one of the many ways to get an
adrenaline rush. From fast cars to extreme sports, there are people who push the
boundary every day searching for the ways to get their blood pumping. Is there a
limit to this though, at what point is there a significant danger to yourself and others
around you? Recently there have been accidents that are centered around what
could be considered high adrenaline activities. Does this mean that there need to be
more precautions allowed and if so what is being done to make such things safer?
While some people engage in extreme sports for fun, I want to know if there is a
deeper cause behind it. Id like to figure out if one, people who do these things are
aware of what makes them repeat them, and two if the effects of adrenaline and
endorphins are increased when the aspect of danger is higher.
While I dont consider myself an adrenaline addict, I cant deny that I like the rush of
roller coasters and fast cars. However, I myself have a limit when it comes to the
lengths Ill go to pursue an adrenaline rush. Initially I wanted to research a different
topic. When I started looking into the perception of car cultures I felt like I had too
many of the answers already lined up in my head. There was one sub topic that I
didnt really have much of an answer to though and that was why do people like fast
cars. To me that was kind of narrow but it led to me looking at adrenaline as maybe
a reason people tune their cars to reach insane amounts of power. From there I
found myself wondering what else falls under the category and it made me want to
know why people pursue adrenaline rushes in the first place.
So from here I need to quite a bit more research. At the moment I have kind of a
basic knowledge of how adrenaline works and what it does to our brains and
nervous systems. But thats only part of some of the things I need to learn. I want to
get some personal responses why people pursue the extreme activity that they do.
So Ill need to work on the right questions to ask and find the right people to ask.
There is also a great deal to be researched about how far certain extreme activities
have come and the availability of them. The key thing will be to filter out all this
information and make sure that I answer some of the questions I have, and
hopefully learn something new.