Why can’t we trigger our own fight or flight response, purposefully, on command?
In: 46
We kind of can. If you’ve ever decided you’re going to fight someone before you fight, you’ll notice that you feel the rush as soon as you know what you’re about to do, it doesn’t take until the first punch is thrown. But if you mean why can’t we trigger it for trivial purposes, then the answer is that it doesn’t help. A trivial situation is, by definition, one where your survival doesn’t hang in the balance. So the ability to enter fight or flight for trivial matters doesn’t provide a survival advantage and so it isn’t selected for. Also, it has disadvantages. You can seriously injure your muscles through the strain you can put them under, and it wreaks hormonal havoc on your body.
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