Extreme behavior: prerequisites for high risk of developing terminus syndrome (analytical literature review)

Background. The quantity of literature sources that define risky behavior as an increasingly important psychological problem of life priorities and values among adolescents and young people has increased recently. In this regard, of par-ticular interest are the factors associated with high-risk behavior and potential threats to life safety, supported by ex-planatory video instructions posted for broadcasting in Internet chats. Objective: to study and analyze the trends in the loss of meaning in life and control over oneself, ignoring adverse consequences in situations of potentially fatal risk, denial of danger, a tendency to humiliating behavior towards others as challenges of modern society. Method. To collect literature data based on evolutionary theory, with comments on psychoactive substance users, seekers of abnormal men-tal experience in Internet portals, the following databases were used: Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Scopus, EMBASE, Cochrane Library. Results. The collection of information materials provided a wealth of factual data on behavioral pat-terns consistent with our proposed concept of terminal syndrome. It is obvious that the existence of a special tendency to self-destruction and exposing oneself and others to reckless and unreasonable risk and violence among adolescents and young people and the urgent need for psychocorrectional work should become one of the main tasks of practical work of psychiatrists and psychologists. Conclusion. Within the framework of the evolutionary development of the psyche and evolutionary psychological mechanisms, the following types of risky behavior are considered: violence, alcoholism, risky sexual behavior, self-harming behavior, body modification through piercing, tattoos, socially dangerous behavior, extreme selfies, harm to health, sensational message about suicide in Internet streams, debt obligations, extreme relief from suffering. These behavior patterns, based on senseless risk-taking and indifference to immediate or long-term con-sequences of threats and serious attempts at self-harm, are widespread among adolescents and young adults and are as-sociated with their inherent personality and age characteristics: arrogance, the desire for self-affirmation and self-elevation above others, a tendency to risk and protest, emotional instability. In the context of the article, terminal syn-drome is understood as final, preagonal, agonal, post-prognostic, extreme, culminating, terminative, limiting, concluding, last.