An Addiction of Their Own

Adrenaline junkies. Explain.
'Rush' is an episode I don't like. Not because it's particularly bad. It's not a strong episode, but not the worst. Just don't understand the need for speed.
Tried Speed once. In celebration of the handing in of the BA Dissertation. Ended up puking in a back alley of Preston. Went home immediately after.
I find I have little sympathy for those who die doing adrenaline fueled stuff. Alexander Polli was an adrenaline junkieand died. Natalia Malchanova, considered one of freediving's greats, never surfaced. I get the fact they went out doing what they loved. Fair dues for that. I should die while teaching poetry. Same thing!
Early in the course, we must discuss Alison Hargreaves and I use her to jolt my female Muslim students out of their lethargy. The question is whether a mother of two young children should have put the mountain first. It's a good question. I can pretty much tell which female students will pass the exam from this one question -  from the second unit of a two year course.
In that same Unit we must discuss extreme sports. And we usually discover that those who participate are not deserving of sympathy when their life is curtailed because of their 'sport'. However much it might make the media sit up and pay attention, putting one's life at risk for a 'sport' that could so easily, and so often does, take one's life, is remarkably uninteresting.
Extreme sportists do nothing but look for the next big thrill. They are not heroes and should not be held up by the media as any kind of role model. We do not need our young people growing up believing that the 'rush' is everything.
'Rush' gives us an adrenaline junkie who is willing to kill others, even his father, if he hadn't been stopped.
I wouldn't think that, by nature, adrenaline junkies are killers. Still, it wasn't just her own life that Alison Hargreaves damaged. I have a degree of understanding of Hargreaves. A woman achieving what she accomplished? Who wouldn't feel for her?
'Rush' warns us that, for its own sake, it isn't worth the cost. Steve Irwin was an adrenaline junkie and died. At least he sought to teach.
But the junkie is a victim of their own addiction. There's nothing tragic in that. Just human weakness.

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