Happy Halloween and welcome to the show. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero judgment.

We'll use the best of psychology to help you be happy, healthy, and most importantly, yourself.

I scream, you scream, we all, well, we love to scream. From Edgar Allan Poe to Nightmare on Elm Street, we've frightened ourselves on purpose for centuries.

This week, in honor of Halloween, here are four reasons we love to feel fear.

Reason number one, fight or flight. We love to feel fear.

Reason number one, fight or flight creates a natural high.

So your brain, understandably, likes to keep you safe.

So when your brain perceives danger, whether an intruder on your porch or Freddie

Kruger on your TV, your amygdala sets off a cascade of reactions. So your

amygdala is the part of the brain responsible for sounding the alarm and when we perceive

danger it activates the sympathetic nervous system and instructs your adrenal glands to

release stress hormones including adrenaline and cortisol.

The result, your heart races, your eyes widen to better see the danger, digestion slows,

and blood diverts to your large muscle groups so you can either run for your life or fight tooth and claw.

However, when your brain knows you're actually safe, like when the haunted house boogie man jumps out from around the corner, that adrenaline, along with

dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter, can give you a natural high.

And individuals differ in their reactions to this hormone cascade.

A 2008 study found that having fewer dopamine receptors available in the brain

went along with greater novelty seeking. So folks with fewer receptors seek out adventure,

either in relatively safe ways like horror movies or adventure sports or in

potentially less safe ways like experimenting with drugs or driving recklessly.

And these differences account for why you might find bungee jumping thrilling, while I might say no thanks.

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