Focus Question: “The moment that the first shells whistle over and the air is rent with the explosions there is suddenly in our veins…heightening alertness…The body with one bound is in full readiness.”

Essential Question: Is there a limit to how long your body can take all the adrenaline rush until it can’t anymore?

Adrenaline rushes occur when you’re suddenly scared or surprised. Naturally, it would last up to an hour, but soldiers constantly fight for their lives on battlefields for weeks and months. If a battle lasts nonstop for hours, how do soldiers have enough adrenaline to carry them through? I believe adrenaline rushes last for a short period, but can occur frequently. That period between adrenaline rushes can give them a little break, allowing them to continue fighting. 

But you can’t control adrenaline, it controls you. It takes over a soldier’s entire body, sharpens his senses, and raises his alertness. To stay in an adrenaline rush, a soldier would need to be in constant fear and as long as he is, his adrenaline rush can last forever. This may depend on certain people; some might get used to the daily bombing and shells whistling in the air. His adrenaline rush is gone when this happens, and he can experience the aftermath. 

In an adrenaline rush, your heart rate increases, blood pumps throughout your body, and every energy left in your body is being used. However, this can only go on for so long. Your body requires fuel to produce enough energy to keep up with this constant adrenaline rush. This is when life and death come into play. As long as you’re alive, your body has energy. A constant adrenaline rush would take over and use up anything left in your body to carry you through a battlefield. Once it uses up all the fuel in your body, your body will start to collapse, and the aftermath will result in death.