Adrenaline Rush

I couldn’t sleep at all after watching the England-Portugal match (which ended at one in the morning in my country). One hell of a game, I must say. Rooney’s sent-off (another stupid mistake made by an England player at the World Cup), England played extremely well with only ten men (France 1998 second round revisited), the penalty miss (pointing out the fact that the English were incapable to shoot a penalty even if their life depended on it; the only England player that succeeded on it was the Canadian born Hargreaves); it was very intense. And I didn’t even support England (I supported Gary Neville, the Manchester United skipper; mind you, there’s a substantial difference here). It’s difficult to relax when your body was still pumping adrenaline; the inevitable side-effect of watching the football game.

But now, let’s begin with physiological overview (I know, it’s boring; but this is my blog, right?!).

When confronted with stress condition due to either physical or emotional activities, the body needs to be alert. Sometimes, it even needs to perform feats of unusual strength. As a consequence of this stimulus (stress condition), the body produces and releases more chemicals called adrenaline to the system. Adrenaline stimulates various physiological responses inside the body: increased heart-rate, faster and deeper breathing, increased blood sugar level, etc. Of course, watching a football match can be considered to be a “stressful condition” for some people (^_~). Given the physiological changes, no wonder I couldn’t sleep.

There’s nothing wrong with it, though. Being on adrenaline rush was actually quite good. I became more aware of the surroundings, not to mention more concentration. It’s like being on higher state of consciousness (or whatever you’d like to call it). You probably think that I’m over-exaggerating here, but that’s exactly how it felt. To think that I was only a mere football spectator, watching at home. Could you imagine how it must’ve felt for the footballers themselves? And for the people who performed death-defying acts like Evil Knievel and such?

Honestly, I’d never really been impressed by death-defying stunts. I used to think that they only did it for the sake of their ego, to get more attention. In short, total stupidity; considering what at stake here, one’s life, was way too priceless. But now I (sort of) understand why they did such things. The adrenaline rush; it was probably too good to miss.

Hmm, I should probably try the approach whenever I’m not in the mood to do anything. Watching football to get myself all excited. Nifty!

Author’s Note: As you know, this piece is begun with reference to football. Again. Please bear with me.... By the way, this piece contains some material taken from “Principles of Anatomy and Physiology” by Tortora and Anagnostakos. No copyright infringement intended.