When All Hell Breaks Loose (10 page)
Read When All Hell Breaks Loose Online
Authors: Cody Lundin
PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OF FEAR
It's a lot of work for the body to maintain such an intense state of alert. At the end of the crisis, the PNS demands attention and the physiological payback commences in the form of feeling amazingly exhausted on all levels. But there's more. An urban survival situation is a
continuous
roller coaster of ups and downs, thus the hapless survivor is a slave to repeated chemical cocktails of intense adrenaline spikes and their PNS paybacks. Bit by bit, the body's once-natural and useful response to danger starts to chemically wear the survivor down, pitching the person into a state of immense physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. In summary, human beings have three primary survival systems: visual, cognitive processing, and motorskill performance. Under stress, all three go to hell in a handbasket.
The physiological responses to fear can be broken down into four crucial factors for the survivor:
1
Fear inhibits your metabolic process
. Your body produces heat by digesting the calories in the foods you eat. If this is impaired, your body has a harder time regulating its core temperature in your frigid living room when the gas heat shuts off. Thus, the onset of hypothermia or low body temperature can manifest much more rapidly. By metabolizing food, your body creates energy that can be used to create a warmer microclimate in your home, help a neighbor gather and split firewood, or dig a sanitation trench in the backyard.2
Fear impairs your circulation
. Basic first-aid training stresses the importance of the ABCs (airway, breathing, and circulation). Your circulatory system is how your body feeds itself, delivers oxygen to cells, eliminates waste products, and keeps itself warm and cool. In cold temperatures, blood flow is the primary means by which your body maintains its peripheral temperature, which is automatically restricted by the SNS's response to stress. Compromising circulation puts your odds for living into a serious tailspin in both hot and cold climates. In addition, your circulatory system may already be impaired due to dehydration.3
Fear impairs your good judgment
. Good judgment is your number one tool for preventing or dealing with a survival predicament in the first place.
Poor judgment calls, without a doubt, are the hallmark of every single fatality during an emergency
. Occurrences such as auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, irrational behavior, freezing in place, and the inability to think clearly have all been observed as by-products of survival stress. Do all you can to chill out and calm yourself and your family, redirecting your energies away from the fear factors.4
Fear impairs your fine and complex motor skills
. Although these phenomena have been observed and documented for hundreds of years, and formally studied since the late 1800s, there is very little understanding by researchers as to why stress deteriorates performance.
There are three generic classifications of motor movements or skills involving coordinated action from your body. They are
gross, fine
, and
complex motor skills
. Gross motor movements signify action involving the larger muscle groups of the body, such as the arms and legs. Running, jumping, pushing, pulling, and punching are some examples. Fine motor skills involve some type of "hand-eye" coordination, such as threading a needle or using a cell phone. Complex motor skills comprise a whole string or series of motor movements, such as performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or changing a tire. The problem lays in the fact that fine and complex motor skills deteriorate rapidly under stress. Highly detailed activities, such as striking and lighting a paper match in the wind to ignite a camping stove, become nearly impossible to perform under psychological pressure and the physiological flow of adrenaline, rendering all but the simplest of tasks out of the question. Once the proverbial bullets start to fly, the survivor stops thinking with his or her forebrain, the part that makes us human, and instead depends on the "mid" or mammalian brain, the primitive part of the brain that's unrecognizable from that of an animal.
In contrast, gross motor skills are performed very well under extreme stress and are easier and quicker to learn, often taking just a few minutes of practice to begin forming a motor pattern. For this reason and others, purchase or make survival gear that is simple in design—gear that can be operated using gross motor movements. For example, pay a few extra bucks when purchasing a camping stove and get the model with the push button or turn-dial spark lighter instead of having to fumble with a match. If the spark lighter wears out or breaks, you can still use a match to light the stove. Unfortunately, much survival training ignores this fundamental truth by continuing to promote complex, detail-oriented skills and behaviors that have little application in a real-life emergency. These training mistakes are many times responsible for a person's failure to use what he or she has learned when faced with a scary situation.
It's long been a cliche that fear kills, and now you know why. Knowledge and practice is power. The more training you have dealing with situations that could jeopardize your family's life, the more efficient you'll act if placed within that situation.
Helpful Hints for Dealing with and Controlling Fear
Reading other people's true survival stories is all the proof you'll need that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Throughout history, people have dealt with and surmounted virtually every possible fear imagined. For optimal results in the field or the city, work at cultivating the following tips until the behavior becomes a natural, automatic reaction.
Controlling Fear in Yourself
Be prepared
. Accept the fact that a survival situation could, in fact, happen to you and your family and plan accordingly. Aside from physical practice, being prepared involves advanced planning, cooperating and communicating with loved ones, mental and physical conditioning, discipline, and an intimate understanding of the emergency gear you propose to have on hand.
Accepting that a deadly scenario could happen is not enough. Learn all that you can about urban survival and what your body can endure. Recognize and understand what your reactions to fear will be. Practicing skills builds confidence and strengthens a "can do" attitude regarding your tribe's ability to survive.
. When you're afraid, take a step back from the fear and just notice it. Ignore the urge to analyze, judge, criticize, evaluate, or try to figure it out. Stepping back provides emotional space and reduces much of the charge around the fear energy.
. Learn to recognize the early warning signs of dangerous situations. Gain knowledge to reduce the perceived threat of the unknown.
. Conserving energy as a survivor is key, yet do all that you can to make your situation more comfortable, reducing difficulties that encourage fear. Staying busy keeps the mind off fearful circumstances and gives you a sense that you're in control of your destiny.
. Stick to the known facts by separating the real from the imagined.
. Prepare yourself to think and act instinctively, like an animal, without judgment over your actions. In a sense, if you can't beat fear, join it. Formulate plans B, C, and D before they're needed but don't become attached to any of them.
. Even when talking to yourself, strive to use positive "I AM" statements, such as, "I AM going to make it out of here with my family" and "I AM going to be rescued."
. Keep things in perspective and focus your attention firmly upon the goal of keeping you and your family alive and safe until rescued.
. Whether you're currently walking upon a spiritual path or not, it's never too late to start.
. Kind humor transforms crummy attitudes.
. If you need to get out of dodge to avoid the full brunt of a disaster, do so. No possession is worth more than your life or the lives of those you love.