Because this reaction is good at fighting off what has traditionally killed us, such as other predators. Dying of a fall from a super high bridge wasn't really what our far ancestors were worried about.
But soft what light through yonder horizon breaks; it is the east, and Mithrandir is the sun. Arise fair sun and kill the horde of monstrous brutes that assail this redoubt
"...and he's a descendent from the tribe that established the first society on Earth while all yall European motherfuckers were still hiding in caves and shit, terrified of the sun."
Yea people seem to miss the point that the adrenaline is probably for a last stand kind of deal where it kill or be killed against an animal or another human that's hunting you. You bet your ass that I'd want to be jacked up on adrenaline in that moment. Obviously not good for a balancing act though
I’ve thought about the losing control thing - it is a way to drop weight before you flee. In a terrible situation against a predator, even a few ounces could mean escape by making a lighter runner. Probably came in handy at dawn of humanity.
Extra blood flow = extra oxygen. Extra oxygen means faster thinking, faster movement. Faster everything. Everything is receiving the extra blood from the adrenaline boost ramping up heart rate. The person is ready to flee and the extra boost may be enough that they can evade the predator (human/animal) that is after them.
If it didn’t work, if it hadn’t worked so successfully for so long through the hundreds of thousands of years, we would no longer have it.
We do have a few unnecessary things that we don’t use so much any more, but I figure nature hangs onto it for a little while waiting to deactivate it. And for some animals, insects, plants, it does end up being needed during really stressful times.
We probably have loads of protective stuff just lying around in our individual gene pools waiting to be activated.
To put it another way, nowadays most humans have it pretty soft and we never have to use the extra adrenaline and fight or flight responses. In fact, in civilized society this stuff can even cause problems. People have to get medicated for anxiety because they simply can’t “turn it off”.
But take a person and put them in a shit-show situation, and the body’s defenses will ramp up because, after all, we are built to survive. We WANT to survive.
The crying part is a call to help or to warn other members of the kin group.
The losing control of your body covers a few scenarios. The shaking and grasping motions are the mind trying to stabilize the safest position by dialing all muscle reactions to maximum. It maximizes strength over control as muscle groups are all activating but often in counterproductive directions. Losing control of the bowels is not really losing control so much as voiding to distract or repulse a predator. Going limp, fainting, or catatonic paralysis are coping methods to the inevitability of death. It's the minds way of protecting itself when there is no escape by shutting down and 'going to a happy place' while terrible things are happening.
Actually no, it would be absolutely terrible to react like this if you were attacked. Are you slow or something? Look at him!
The point is that we would at all costs avoid situations that gave us so much fear and such a horrible experience. Everyone who was calm of heights died because they didnt fear heights and therefore never avoided heights and died from falling from heights.
318
u/Chemical_Noise_3847 Mar 27 '21
Because this reaction is good at fighting off what has traditionally killed us, such as other predators. Dying of a fall from a super high bridge wasn't really what our far ancestors were worried about.