We all like a bit of drama in our lives. Nothing like something different, exciting or even scandalous to add interest to our day. Some of us like the adrenaline rush of extreme sports. I have to confess during my mad travels around the globe I have bungee- jumped, skydived and enjoyed hot air ballooning and white water rafting. I hit some dangerously fast speeds on the back of a motor bike too many times to count.
Now that I have children I suppose I should be a bit more sensible but there is nothing better that that incredible fear when just about to do something that might just kill me! That rush, that sensation, that thrill. That whole “what if?” feeling that culminates in a great triumph of having beaten the odds and stared possible death in the eye and laugh. Ha ha ha , I say!
That’s the kind of drama I like. The physical kind. The other kind, of the Drama Queen variety, actually has the opposite effect on me. I have no interest in hearing the latest woes of someone’s latest ‘someone done me wrong’ song, nor do I have a lot of patience for the drama queens in our lives who seem to start every sentence with “oh my God! You will NOT believe what I had to put up with today!”
Why do the emotional drama queens do it? Same as us bungee jumpers, except theirs is more long term and subtle. And potentially more dangerous that someone who jumps out of a plane for a living. It’s all about the adrenaline. People who tend to thrive when in crisis, or who invent them when life is going too smoothly, can inadvertently cause themselves lack of sleep, constipation, indigestion and other physical issues caused by stress. And those surrounded by the emotional adrenaline junkies often bear the brunt of the latest crisis because they don’t thrive on the drama the way the instigator does.
How can you recognize one of these drama lovers? In a guide to stress management, Elizabeth Scott, MS, lists several identifiers
• “The people who always seem to have a crisis going in their life (real or overblown)—or surround themselves with troubled souls who constantly need their help.
• The people who are always rushing, with a packed schedule—and if things begin to slow down, they take on more.
• The people who have dramatic conflicts with people in their lives, exploding in anger and otherwise causing unnecessary ‘drama’.
• Students or workers who wait until the last minute to begin a project and then need to really scramble to get it done.
The list could go on, but you get the picture. This is not to say that every busy person or crisis-ridden soul is an adrenaline junkie—some people do come by these circumstances by chance, but if it’s a circumstance that seems to span years and take on different forms (as with people who experience ‘crisis’ after ‘crisis’, or continually over-schedule themselves) love of adrenaline could be the culprit.”
(http://stress.about.com/od/situationalstress/a/adrenaline0528.htm)
While I find it hard to imagine actually thriving on this kind of mental and emotional stress, I know that many people do! If you think you might be an emotional adrenaline junkie, take this test and find out! http://stress.about.com/library/adrenaline/bl_adrenaline_self_test.htm
And tell us –
What drives you? What makes your adrenaline rush? Do you think you thrive on the stress of drama or are you all for a peaceful life?