What actually happens when that feeling occurs? For example, you’re walking and expecting level terrain but there is a step down that you didn’t see, and in that moment of dropping when you didn’t expect to there is a strong feeling in your chest that emanates outwards to the rest of your body.
Is this some sort of chemical being released? What is your body trying to accomplish with that feeling?
In: 245
Someone mentioned the adrenaline (epinephrine) rush above, but it’s a little more complicated even on the simplest level, because usually what you’d think of adrenaline doing is indeed rushing- high blood pressure, faster reflexes, faster heart rate, open airways, etc. It does that through cell receptors.
Great, so then why the opposite feeling, the “deer in headlights” freezing? That’s the opposite!
Well, there is one special type of receptor that balances out the general stimulation of the other types of receptors when there is a flood so a person doesn’t basically explode from the inside out.
(It’s called the alpha2-adrenoceptor and a drug that specifically targets it, like clonidine, indeed causes {much} lower blood pressure and “deer in headlights” related compounds like {dex}metetomidine can basically knock a person out even though they “look like” adrenaline/epinephrine- there’s also a non-semantic distinction between nor- and desmethyl forms but that’s a bit over ELI5)
Latest Answers