Adventure Thrills are Addictive

Abstract

People can become addicted to behaviors as well as substances (Marks, 1990; Brown, 1997; Elster, 2000; Ranieri, 2011; Berczik et al., 2012; McNamara and McCabe, 2012; Lichtenstein et al., 2014). Behavioral addictions may have social as well as endocrine components, and may include antisocial activities such as crime and gambling, relatively neutral activities such as videogames and internet use, and positive addictions such as sport and exercise (Lichtenstein et al., 2014). Here I argue that participants in many forms of adventure recreation also experience particularly powerful behavioral addictions. This leads them to devote continually increasing proportions of time and resources to carrying out their preferred activities at higher and higher levels of skill, with higher and higher physical risk.