Fight or Flight
The Fight or Flight Response
When I'm having a seizure and I get too much adrenaline - the fight or flight "chemicals" kick in. This is why I'm on beta-blockers. The beta blockers are used to help fight off these chemicals. Everyone has these chemicals. It's how our bodies respond to certain situations, mainly stressful ones or if we feel threatened. It's basically like, combat mode.
When the amygdala recognizes a threat, or anything that causes stress, it signals the brain and the nervous system to get the body ready to either fight or run. Either way, the body will need extra blood and oxygen in the muscles.
First, the hypothalamus stimulates the autonomic nervous system to slow down the gastrointestinal system and speeds up the cardiovascular system. It also gets the pituitary gland to go to work: The pituary increases blood pressure and adrenocorticotropic hormone to get the adrenal gland going, and thyroid stimulating hormone to get the thyroid stimulated. The thyroid gland increases your metabolism. The adrenal gland releases glucocorticoids to stimulate the pancreas to increase blood sugar, as well as about 30 stress hormones, including epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (noradrenaline) to stimulate heart rate, white blood cell count, oxygen level, and clotting agents.
Other bodily responses: surface capillaries shut down, sexual function stops, pupils expand (vision as well as hearing can become more acute). The immune system temporarily shuts down. At times, an emergency evacuation of the bowels gets rid of excess weight.
Now the body is ready to fight, or flee.
During this time I am usually in the middle of a seizure and I cannot hear, see, respond, or anything at all. I'm crawling, fighting, fleeing, and it usually takes more than two people to even try to control me during this time. The adrenaline totally just takes over and you have no control over what you are doing. People just try to help me not to hurt myself until it's over.