PSYchology

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. Life with a sense of stress, with increased levels of 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 is full and saturated, it has a lot of bright colors and experiences that make us «alive». But if we ourselves have not answered the question “What is the meaning of life?”, If family life for us is boring, monotonous everyday life, if work is a routine functional, then our “soul of a poet” still wants something, something it searches even in this gray ooze. Then we rush into the intense experiences that walking 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.

Ny vokatry ny adin-tsaina

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” with 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 does not need expensive designers and dolls, but affectionate 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 making up for the emotional deficit with quarrels and scandals with loved ones.

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

Three tips to beat adrenaline addiction

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 realize 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.

By replacing part of your workouts with other types of 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 filled. 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 — 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 are 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 traveling to new places (not necessarily to the other side of the world, but even just to the neighboring district of the city), relaxing in beautiful corners of nature, active sports, communicating with people, meeting in interest clubs, mastering a new profession, new skills (for example, learning a foreign language or learning how to create websites), reading interesting books, and perhaps even writing your own (not for sale, but for yourself, for personal creativity). This list goes on. What way would you suggest to fill your life?

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