Thrill Seeking Essay

604 Words3 Pages
Everyone knows what it's like to feel really scared. A pounding heartbeat, faster breathing, nervous sweating, butterflies in the stomach. But whether that fright is caused by watching a nail-biting horror movie, listening to a spine-chilling story, or walking through a dark haunted house on Halloween, some people actually love feeling frightened. They thrive on the latest gore movie. They love roller coasters, perhaps even sky diving. They crave being scared right. But experts believe that it's not uncommon for individuals to push the envelope, seeing how much fear they can tolerate, and ultimately feeling a sense of satisfaction when they're able to endure the anxiety. Risk takers seek thrills to stimulate their brains, which are numbed to excitement, scientists say. Brains of impulsive characters are less responsive to a ‘reward’ chemical called dopamine, researchers have found. It’s been found that the amount of these dopamine receptors are related to an individual’s interest in and desire for thrill. Research suggests that in high thrill seeking individuals, the brain is less able to regulate dopamine, and this may lead these individuals to be particularly responsive to thrilling and scary situations that normally induce dopamine release. The thrill-seekers consequently need to take increasingly bigger risks to get the same excitement that others feel normally. This is seen as people seeking out new and exciting experiences - such as overspending, taking risks and crazy partying. What's the appeal of the fright? Through movies, we're able to see horror in front of our eyes, and some people are fascinated by it. They're interested in the unusual and the bizarre because they don't understand it and it's so different from our everyday lives. For more than two decades, Glenn Sparks has studied the way men, women, and children respond to terrifying images in

More about Thrill Seeking Essay

Open Document