• Question: Why do people feel they are most alive when doing something involving possible death for example jumping off a cliff into the water

    Asked by Jemma-_- to Rob, Rebecca, Josh, Chris on 22 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: Rebecca Dewey

      Rebecca Dewey answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      Doing dangerous things makes our body produce adrenaline – the “fight or flight” chemical. This makes us feel like we need to prepare for imminent danger, which increases our heart rate and breathing and makes us sweat more. It also makes us very aware of our surroundings so that we can detect danger.

    • Photo: Chris Armstrong

      Chris Armstrong answered on 22 Jun 2015:

      In situations that we perceive as dangerous, our brains trigger a fight or flight mode. Where a whole host of things happen, we have better vision, better hearing, recall information better, our muscles respond better. We are just generally better.

      This is all to aid survival, the brain just wants to survive. I think a lot of it is down to the adrenaline that’s released, hence the idea of “adrenaline junkies” who throw themselves out of planes to get a release of adrenaline.

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