What happens in our brains when we're scared? Is it
different when we're scared "in a fun way" versus being
actually afraid?
5
To really enjoy a scary situation, we have to know we're in a safe
environment. It's all about triggering the amazing fight-or-flight
response to experience the flood of adrenaline, endorphins, and
dopamine, but in a completely safe space. Haunted houses are great
at this- they deliver a startle scare by triggering one of our senses
with different sounds, air blasts, and even smells. These senses are
directly tied to our fear response and activate the physical reaction,
but our brain has time to process the fact that these are not
"real"
threats. Our brain is lightning-fast at processing threat. I've seen the
process thousands of times from behind the walls in ScareHouse_
someone screams and jumps and then immediately starts laughing
and smiling. It's amazing to observe. I'm really interested to see
where our boundaries are in terms of when and how we really know
or feel we're safe.