[/caption]If you know me at all, you know that I love, love, love Halloween! There have only been two times in my life when I've missed trick-or-treating. Once was in high school in an ultimate, effective grounding situation. I won't get into what trouble I got into all those years ago, but I will say that it totally broke my heart to not be able to trick-or-treat OR go to the big rivalry game in football that Friday evening with my friends. The other time I skipped out on scoring some free candy was last year when we were out of the country. This means that when my friends were hanging out at bars on Halloween nights in college, I was hitting up the local well-to-dos and getting huge bags full of chocolate. Yes, that's my weakness.
I could go on forever on my love of dressing up, getting candy, watching scary movies, and mingling with other costumed weirdos on this day, but I have a question to present to you-
Can someone really be scared to death?
I was watching Sorority Row on Lifetime earlier and it got me thinking about this very thing. I decided to do a little research on the topic and I wasn't very surprised with what I found. In short, YES! one can absolutely be scared to death. Although extremely rare, Dr. Martin A. Samuels says, "some people do have the potential to suddenly drop dead from fright." According to this sudden death expert, the phenomenon "has to do with our normal fight or flight response." Our bodies prepare by pumping adrenaline in and causing the heart rate to elevate. Muscles tense, digestion slows, and the surge of adrenaline can cause problems in the major organs in some individuals (Reference here).
This is the point that my nervous system starts getting all outta whack because of my lingering PTSD from an undergraduate class in neuropsych. Kidding, of course. I was bloody brilliant in that class, too. Anyway, I do recall studying synapses and the various neurotransmitters that flow through these. According to this source, copious amounts of the neurotransmitter, adrenaline, can be toxic to our visceral (internal) organs.
There you have it, folks- It's completely feasible to drop dead from fright so in the words of Antoine Dodson you may want to "hide yo kids, hide yo wife, and hide yo husbands cuz" they all very well may be susceptible to being scared to death!
