There’s a term for sports addicts that just about sums up the feeling that drives them to achieve greater highs – adrenaline junkie. If you’ve ever played a sport and felt like you needed to continue playing it so badly or you would die, you’ll know what I mean. And even if you haven’t, if you’ve watched game after game on television or from the stands, rooting for and cheering your team on with a passion that never seems to die or even taper out, you have been affected with the same kind of addiction.
In a way, sports is modern day man’s version of compensating for all the caveman fights that took place in the Stone Ages; it’s a natural testosterone thing where your essence of masculinity is released and you’re able to display raw emotion without coming across as a sissy – probably the reason why men are more likely to watch sports with a tinge of violence like football and rugby (and wrestling, even though it’s the fake kind).
Women are affected by sports too, sometimes in a completely different way. Some of them do play it for the sheer joy of playing, others enjoy watching it and enjoying the bonhomie they share with their male friends and members of the family, while the rest end up using their energy to curse the man who invented sports because she finds it takes the men away from their families.
Playing a sport gives you an entirely different kind of rush – your adrenaline levels soar and your brain is flooded with dopamine and other natural mood enhancers. That’s why victory feels as good as it does and losing brings you down to earth so fast and so suddenly that you feel like you’ve hit the ground after a free fall without a parachute.
Extreme sports, the kind that brings on that high feeling because of the element of danger and the thrill involved, are not for everyone. But if you understood why people do it, you would know that addiction, any kind, is hard to beat. And when you know that you’re not doing irreparable harm to your body (other than the fact that you do have to worry about broken bones and sometimes death too) with your addiction, you just keep pushing yourself to reach greater heights and achieve higher rushes.
If you’re a sportsperson, either pro or amateur, you probably know why you don’t ever want to stop playing. Sports is probably the best way to beat the blues, take out your frustrations, let loose your wild side, and savor and gloat over victory without the losers feeling too upset. So if you don’t play or even watch a sport, it’s time to start right away!
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This guest article was written by Kat Sanders, who regularly writes on the topic of ekg tech . Kat welcomes your comments and questions at her email address: katsanders25@gmail.com.