Adrenal response

[jinasphinx]

I'm on this mailing list for women swordfighters in the SCA. And on it someone recently asserted that when the fight-or-flight reaction is triggered, men "freak out" and take a while to calm down. Whereas women start calm (or maybe it was get calm very quickly), but then after the event is over, we have the freakout (crying). I haven't heard this before; is this from a study, or widely known in sports?

([Edit:] I thought everyone, male or female, felt like crap when they come down off the adrenaline, because you've just used up your entire supply of adrenaline for the day.)

I tried doing a web search but all I keep finding is that damn tend-and-befriend study.

Comments

More anecdotal evidence...

[ssandv.livejournal.com]

Go figure.

I've done some form of strenuous physical activity since I was probably 8, and I actually feel *better* at the tail end than I do at the start. I can be so exhausted I can barely stand without shaking, and it feels *good*. I've never experienced anything like the urge to cry you're talking about. That ranges from downhill skiing (yes, when I do it, it's strenuous :) ), to distance running, to cycling, to ultimate frisbee, to SCA fighting, and the feeling is independent of what I was doing, depending only on how hard I do it.

Re: More anecdotal evidence...

[jinasphinx.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting. Did any of this physical activity trigger your fight-or-flight response? (In case you're not familiar with it, you'd have effects like heart pounding in your mouth, time slowing down, tunnel vision or seeing through a red haze, lack of fine motor control, and muffled hearing.)