PVCC Puma Press: March 2006

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	AP Photo
	Athletes often experience an adrenaline high on such a routine basis that they become literally addicted to epinephrine, a potent stimulant of the nervous system.
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The only thing between the swinging hockey stick and Dee Morrill’s face is a flying, frozen puck. Crack! Silence falls on the arena as instantly as darkness falls on a room when the switch is flipped. ¶Blood sprays over the ice in a graceful arc as Morrill shakes his head from side to side. Instantly, he lets out a yell that could inspire a warrior charging to his death, sticks his index and middle finger up his nostrils and, with his free hand, wrenches his broken nose back into place. He shakes his head again, lets out a deeper, even more guttural yell and skates back into position. It is a full five minutes before he receives an injection of pain medication, but he plays like he isn’t aware of the blood dripping down his chin or his broken bones.

Because he isn’t

In most cases the body is well-equipped to deal with pain, exhaustion and emergencies, thanks to the adrenal glands, small organs atop each kidney that produce adrenaline which stimulates the release of endorphins. These endorphins are known as internal morphines, says Dr. Michael Todd, PVCC faculty and a psychologist in private practice. This wonder chemical enables a person to lift a car off a child, drop from a helicopter to ski down a glacier, run 98 yards for a touchdown or jump over a canyon on a motorcycle. But it can also wreak havoc on the mind and body of someone addicted to the feelings caused by an adrenaline rush. Adrenaline is just as addictive as morphine, Todd says.

Adrenaline addiction is as real as drug or alcohol addiction, rewarding the body with exquisite pleasure and pain relief. But, as with any other addiction, the body builds tolerance to the chemical and needs larger, more frequent doses to achieve the desired effect.

Although it allows enhanced achievement and temporarily increases stamina, it has serious, sometimes life-threatening consequences—not just to the addicts but to their family and friends as well, Todd says.

Adrenaline is a drug – a potent, mind-altering narcotic. It’s legal and free, and the high it produces is very desirable. Junkies crave the next “fix” and create situations that lead to the release of this powerful analgesic. Their lives are filled with stimulants, drama, challenges, crises and often danger. Even mundane events transform into big deals to them in order to trigger the flight or fight response created when the adrenals pump out their soothing euphoria.

Adrenaline, also known as epinephrine, is a catecholamine hormone of the adrenal medulla that is the most potent stimulant of the sympathetic nervous system, resulting in increased heart rate and force of contraction, vasoconstriction (diminishing blood flow) or vasodilation (increasing blood flow), relaxation of bronchiolar and intestinal smooth muscle, glycogenolysis (sugar metabolism), lipolysis (fat metabolism), and other metabolic effects, according to “The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary.”

Pro athletes and daredevils like Evil Knieval are the most likely groups to come to mind when the term “adrenaline junkie” is used. But what about the “Type A” personality, the driven, wired, busy or intense person? Or what about the procrastinator who agonizes to the last minute, sweats through a project, heart racing because it’s down to the wire. How about the friend who can’t function if she doesn’t spend two hours a day at the gym at least five days a week, no matter what? Or the CEO whose life is filled with racing from one meeting to another, quenching corporate fires? For the mother of six, there is always an emergency or soccer practice or music lesson or meal to prepare. She has to find a way to make it all work.

“Like it or not, many people are addicted to adrenaline and the increased vitality, delayed pain and deep euphoria it offers; and we live for the thrill it adds to everyday living,” Dr. Archibald Hart, psychologist and professor, says in his recent “Focus on the Family Magazine” article “Adrenaline Junkies.”

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	Ardrenaline addiction is as real as drug or alcohol addiction, rewarding the body with exquisite pleasure and pain relief
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As for athletes, Todd developed the Adrenaline Addiction Treatment Program for Sport Athletes (AATPSA). Based on a survey of 167 professional and amateur athletes, the greatest danger in an addiction arises when a person is no longer able to experience the adrenaline high, he says.

“Sometimes athletes are hooked on the attention,” he says. “They crave the applause, cheering, interest from the opposite sex or the fame. Take those rewards away due to injury or retirement and withdrawal begins.”

One athlete surveyed expressed the effect of exposure to the crowd as “walking into a bright room where all your senses are heightened. When it’s over, you walk into a dark room where your senses all shut down.”

The later description is the flashing red light of warning. “Withdrawal causes symptoms such as confusion, irritability, anxiety, depression, lack of energy and decreased self-confidence,” Todd says. “The athlete then becomes chemically less equipped to cope with daily pains and stress. Thus, we see athletes sent to jail for rape, drug sales and use, gambling, spousal abuse and attempted murder or murder.”

Spouses and children usually bear the brunt of either the athlete’s addiction or the withdrawal from it. Often neglected or ignored, families learn to work around the adrenaline junkies’ needs and demands. They spend days and weeks alone while their spouse is on the road for the next competition, concert or promotion. Children are trained never to interrupt when their parent is home. Families fall apart, and children grow up to repeat the pattern.

No longer relegated to the exclusive domain of professional athletes, the risk of addiction is high for individuals who have difficulty relaxing, Hart says. “While we cannot survive without adrenaline, we also cannot survive if we abuse it. Symptoms such as headaches, panic anxiety, muscle pain, rapid heartbeats, bruxism (teeth grinding), gastric distress, fatigue and sleep disturbances may be signs you are over-adrenalized, if not addicted.” His book Adrenaline and Stress examines the realm of this addiction and names it as a major indicator of heart disease.

Both men say recovery can be difficult, especially because the condition is socially acceptable in our success-driven culture and sufferers don’t want to give up the benefits of the addiction. They see it as a way to meet their goals, be in control and multi-task effectively. For these reasons, Todd and Hart agree that professional help is generally required, often for the family as well.

Aside from the physical symptoms described above, there are other indications that a person is addicted. “When we slow down or take a vacation we nearly go berserk,” says Dr. Hart. Fidgetiness, restlessness, pacing, leg kicking, finger drumming, intense gum chewing, and feeling of irritability and aggressiveness are all signs of possible adrenaline addiction or withdrawal, he says.

He recommends four concrete steps to reduce the need for adrenaline:

• Incorporate healthy physical activity into the life of your family. Regular exercise burns off excess adrenaline.

• Tolerate frustration. Learn to calm down and accept the uneven flow of life.

• Practice disengagement techniques. Implementing the mental strategy of letting things go puts you and your children in neutral gear...coasting smoothly.

• Slow down. Be more selective with scheduling appointments, activities and obligations – allow yourself breathing room.

It is generally difficult for an adrenaline addicts to accept the fact that they are dependent, that the need for the rush has taken over their life, says Todd. “I have found rodeo people to be the most accepting of the diagnosis.” They are more willing to admit they are driven by the need for the rush, he says.

Todd uses a cognitive treatment program. The issue is treated as a behavior instead of an addiction and the sessions and patient work are very structured. Specific new behaviors are developed to replace the harmful old ones, he says. It takes patience and commitment to succeed.

For hard-core adrenaline junkies, help could mean the difference between a successful marriage and divorce, mental health or disability, enjoying life one activity at a time or pushing oneself to the ultimate high—the precarious moment between life and death, or beyond.