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Things that convinced me to change my lifestyle choices for good

7/9/2018

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By Jack Billington
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​When does preparation ever become over-reaction?  In my mind, never.  And my guess is: people who have lost their homes to disasters, lost their loved ones to an epidemic, and lost all they have to tragedies feel the same way. The bottom line is: you have to be prepared to survive.
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The “polar vortex” officially became a thing this year as it turned weather conditions upside down. Epidemics and viruses, threats of war, and economic meltdown — these are some of the occurrences no man could stop from happening.  In June 2012, four million people went without electricity when an unexpected summer storm knocked out power across the mid-Atlantic region.  Hardest hit were the Washington suburbs of Northern Virginia and Maryland.  A storm during the summer? Who would have thought?
 
On that fateful day, I decided to never compromise the safety of my loved ones.  On that day, I decided to be a prepper.  Yes, a prepper — a growing community that gave National Geographic its highest ratings ever. The majority of people who saw the “Doomsday Preppers” series were not very kind, calling preppers crazy and wild-eyed people waiting for the end of the world as we know it.  But the thing about preppers is they don’t wait, they prepare and not just for the apocalypse (as most assume) but for emergencies and occurrences that most people don’t take seriously.
 
However, if you were with my family who huddled in the basement as the storm ripped through our neighborhood, tearing our roofs, slamming windows, and blowing down trees, you would probably understand.  More than 20 people died.
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​Photo 1 via Flickr

​The next day after the storm, temperatures reached triple digits again. The extreme heat was hurting recovery efforts. Our house was damaged, we had no power, supermarkets and shops were mostly closed, and we ran out of food.  During those weeks, I thought: I will never let this happen to my family ever again.
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A Prepper In All Of UsIt dawned on me that I was not alone.  I was not the only one who will do whatever it takes to keep my loved ones safe.  I was not the only one who fights hard to survive.
As many as three million Americans call themselves preppers.  They are regular people who like regular things.  They are professionals, couples, rich and poor, old and young. You could be living next to a prepper and not know it.  They are the new breed of survivalists whose preparedness guide and practices go beyond the norm.

A prepper’s emergency management includes not just a 72-hour survival food kit.  Prepping means sustainability.  Keeping a stockpile of food and artillery, getting survival training, and having an escape plan are among prepper practices that make people cringe and laugh.  But the truth is: there is a prepper in all of us.  Preparing for the future, preparing for simple home emergencies, preparing for hurricanes make everyone preppers.  The difference probably lies not in magnitude but the extent and degree of wanting to survive which transcends beliefs, orientation, and practices.
 
Being A PrepperIt is not easy to be a prepper.  The “Doomsday” series was more like a weekly invitation to laugh at us, “lunatics”.  Some imagine preppers as armed zealots hunkered down in bunkers.  When visitors drop by my house, I still don’t have the courage to show them my own survival kit.  We call them bug-out bags: our own array of disaster swag.  Members of the New York City Preppers Network proudly exhibited them at a church in Washington Heights last year.  They contain: compasses, hand-cranked radios, solar-powered flashlights, fire starters, road maps and pills.  Some preppers tweaked bug-out gear to suit their needs and interests.

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Photo 2 via Flickr

Preppers often have their own checklists and preparedness guides. Prepping seems like a tough practice and the common question is: “where do I start?”  If you are the type that will do everything to protect your family, then prepping should not be a difficult task.  Everything will come naturally with training and practice.  There is no single formula for prepping — emergency survival kits must be patterned with what you and your family need and the training required varies with what specifically you are preparing for.
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However, for beginners to have an idea of what prepping is all about, the basics are food kits, the art of stockpiling food and preserving it, first aid kits and skills, keeping your place warm or cold, locating sources of water and power, and disaster training.
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Preppers And Pop CulturePreppers are an ever-growing community, thanks to television shows, documentaries, movies, businesses and dedicated websites that make the idea of preparing popular and common.  Taking after the National Geographic’s “Doomsday Preppers,” the Discovery Channel launched its own series called “Doomsday Bunkers” and the TV special “Apocalypse Preppers.”

Movies such as “2012,””Contagion” and “World War Z” show viewers that, while fictional, the world is not safe from disasters and epidemics.  Like these movies, preppers do not intend to cast paranoia among people.  They simply remind that complacency has no place in this world.

There are also hundreds of websites and blogs, personal or official that are dedicated to preppers.  Top websites such as SHTF Plan and Survival Blog get as much as 60,000 visits a day combined.
Whether for long-term or short-term emergencies, people seem to be taking action and industries cashing in on preppers are proof of this — from ordinary household items to bug out gear.  The demand has made prepping a multi-billion industry.

Prepping is often seen as overly-dramatic but to me it is nothing but preparing to survive.  It is survival revolution.  No one deserves to feel the pain of losing someone we love or losing everything we worked so hard for.  Prepping is more than just a phenomenon; it is here to stay because danger does not discriminate — it can happen anytime, it can happen to anyone. Preppers are regular people who will do everything to keep themselves and their families alive. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
 
Author’s bio:
Jack is an experienced hunter, shooting & self-defense instructor. On Secretstorages.com, he writes about self-defense knives, security camera systems, surviving in the woods, etc.
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Interview With Author and Vietnam Veteran Gary McGinnis

2/10/2015

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Here is an interview with author and Vietnam veteran Gary McGinnis. In this interview we talk about his book Good for One Ride, which is available online at Amazon.com
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SRB - Tell us about yourself

Gary - I served with the Army in the Tet Offensive in 1968 as a Water Purification Specialist attached to the Infantry. I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder and have received over ten years of therapy regarding war traumas. My perception of the war is drawn from mid-level combat, and prepares the reader to reflect on the psychological and spiritual aspects regarding the fragmentation of self relative to veterans from any war – especially relevant to the wars fought in Iraq and Afghanistan where soldiers have faced IEDs daily.

SRB - Tell us a little about your book.

Gary - “
Good for One Ride” describes the 1968 Tet Offensive experienced by a Combat Engineer Water Purification Specialist. The first person point of view chronicles the gradual psychological fragmentation of self endured by the protagonist, Theo Garrett. The work provides insight into the thoughts and feelings of a soldier whose perception of the war is drawn from mid-level combat exposure, and depicts several warfare traumas without emphasizing the usual gore that often brutalizes the reader. The novel provides interactions between the American combatants who exist in contrasting life styles. There is a balance between narrative and dialogue, sprinkled with humor in this fast-paced work, written intentionally in a direct but sometimes lyrical manner that provides action accompanied by soldiers’ feelings and thoughts, as they face a constant existential surrealism teetering between their longing for survival and their fear of oblivion.


SRB - What's the significance of the book's title?

Gary - Not intending to dispel the reincarnation theory, I have often thought of my life in terms of good for one ride. Irony and sarcasm included. There is nothing good about war. Since I am aware that my life and the lives of my Vietnam veteran friends have been severely affected by trauma, I thought the title would provide the reader a sense that war continues without mercy in the minds and spirits of the combat veterans who do return. I thought of the title in 1989 after receiving a two months supply of bus tokens to go to and from a Veterans Administration’s outpatient post-traumatic-stress-disorder program. Instead of the inscription “good for one ride” the bus tokens read “one adult fare.” Most of the young soldiers, myself included, who were drafted into the war were emotionally undeveloped and basically we were children headed for a death ride in an American foreign policy circus.

SRB - What would you want your readers to take away from your book?

Gary - I intended to show the insanity and surrealism of the Vietnam War by what the protagonist Theo Garrett endured during his mid-level combat tour. The protagonist’s traumatic experience and his thoughts and reactions to those traumas provided a clear message that war dehumanizes man, and depicted how a person gets post-traumatic-stress-disorder. The work showed how suffering from terror possessed the protagonist and rendered him unable to determine reality.  Conveying his thoughts and emotions risked sounding melodramatic, so I handled that carefully.  Merely reporting events could have easily turned the characters into caricatures, and I definitely wanted to avoid that stigma. American soldiers are human beings whose psychological and biological natures are not meant to withstand the constant onslaught of terror and the threat of death.


SRB - What role does the psychology of survival play in the story?

Gary - Some threats faced by my protagonist originate from unlikely sources. At a young age, he needs to be able to evaluate the intelligence and combat experience of his superiors. Some of their decisions will thrust him into unnecessary combat; his awareness may not be enough to alleviate the threats, but it demands he trust his instincts. In one particular incident, he is ordered by an inexperienced sergeant to drive through a mined road that he would have avoided had he been alone. In another situation, he is under attack in a small American firebase located near a city. The frontal assault takes place on the farthest side of the base away from his position. When the action subsides, there are 20 or more American GIs–including officers–standing and facing the city, completely exposed by the light of flares. Garrett stays in a bunker “feeling” something is wrong, but his best friend in the war badgers him into coming out into the light. There again, he does not trust his instincts. His training has taught him to seek cover, but under social pressure he concedes, and he is immediately faced with a sniper’s round. From “Good for One Ride” the following is the protagonist’s reaction to the sniper’s shot:

“God and war were at opposite poles like pleasure and torture, like prostitutes and the Virgin Mary. Now, they have become one. It happened with a flash of light that I saw. A sniper’s round missed my face and dug into the bunker wall. I felt dread tear my heart with cold scissors. Will it ever mend this unapparent wound? Perhaps it keeps tearing as I go along. Finally, the heart falls from its place and takes a turn down inside my right leg or my left. The skin at the anklebone is strung so tightly there. The blood bursts forth. It fills my boot and sloshes around with every step. I hear it in my sleep and there is no resting place.”

In another trauma, he hears a rocket launched directly upon his position and, instead of staying down, he stands up in terror, seeking another place for cover, as the missile lands not far from him. This example introduces other aspects regarding psychological impediments to survival in a war zone. A few months into the war, huge emotional pressure attacks Garrett’s nervous system and it provokes further his illogical decisions. At some point, training and experience aren’t enough to defuse his reaction to terror, and from that space I emphasize how terror, the fear of future terror, sleep deprivation and the experiencing of many surrealistic traumatic events deconstruct my protagonist’s self. There is a tipping-point in this survival test when Garrett reaches the space where he can no longer try to survive. He’s like an old man who can’t fight and can’t run; he can only continue numb and so devoid of strength that he is unable to see the war. In response to this challenge, his training and his will to live need to kick in, At this crossroad, survival in warfare depends on what is left of his will, the grace given to him and his hope that grace exists.

SRB - You’ve mentioned that you suffer from post-traumatic-stress disorder. Would you describe how you have dealt with your traumas since the war?

Gary - Dealing with the after effects from the war required a strong will to survive, and this statement is unfortunately supported by the fact that many Vietnam veterans have committed suicide since the war. To some extent, the American culture restricted me from seeking medical help until I consistently could no longer operate in a work environment without incident. Americans see themselves as strong and independent and able to endure suffering without help, especially help that is psychiatric in nature. The mental, physical and emotional pain emanating from nightmares, flashbacks, hyper-vigilance, anxiety attacks, suicidal ideation and the huge loss of sleep–to name a few side effects–forced me, in 1984, to seek a psychologist outside of the Veterans Administration (VA). I took a Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory Test and scored negatively off the charts in every component. The psychologist sent me to a psychiatrist who misdiagnosed me as manic depressive and prescribed Lithium and Elavil, the effects of which increased my weight from 170 pounds to 230 pounds. In 1989, I endured a VA post-traumatic-stress program where the head of the program, a counseling psychologist “flooded” me. Just prior to the flooding, I wrote a narrative describing a trauma, after which the psychologist took me into a small room, applied bio-feedback tabs to the outside of my head and chest, and then slowly recounted the trauma audibly until either the grief and terror energy trapped inside me got released or became further impacted. In my case, trapped energy pumped out of my mouth in nine chugs which I heard inside me like an air compressor recharging. I continued to work full-time a couple years later, and in 1995 I suffered heart pain which drove me into therapy, fortunately with a competent PhD therapist contracted by the VA. The first two years of that therapy threw me into terror night and day. I had quit Lithium and Elavil by myself, and the VA put me on benzodiazepine tranquilizers and hypnotics to help me sleep. But after taking four tranquilizers and two 10-milligram pills of Zolpidem each night, I would awake within an hour or so, completely dominated by terror and unable to fall sleep again. Also, during that period of time I suffered from colitis. It’s amazing how much endurance I needed to survive that onslaught, and the amount of self awareness I needed to protect myself further from countless psychiatrists and their prescriptions, to include the likes of Haldol, Thorazine, Remeron, and Loxapine. I calibrated each medication and never took the full amount prescribed until I knew precisely how I would react to the lower doses. The real therapy lasted for over 10 years, and it gave me clear insight regarding the reenactments often triggered. Anyone facing similar combat reactions would benefit from working in counseling therapy, but one should expect a few trials before finding a real effective professional therapist.

SRB - Based on your experience, what advice would you give our readers on how to mentally prepare for a survival or a dangerous situation?

Gary - I have answered most of this question throughout the interview, but I will summarize some of it. Realize that my approach to this interview involves survival responses faced by a mid-level combat survivor. In other words, I did not pursue the enemy like Infantrymen, but dealt with the war that pursued me. I’ve mentioned that a soldier at this level needs to trust his instincts and never take anything for granted. I would watch everything and everybody connected to the Vietnamese. There was no telling who was who, and no exact determination ever existed. When I worked alone two miles from the Infantry, I feared the enemy would sneak up on me while I slept, so I put soda pop cans under tarps and under grass that I had spread around my point, and I slept in different places every night. I made friends with Vietnamese children who often supplied me with more information than Army intelligence. Granted, Army intelligence never communicated with me, so I took the matter into my own hands. The kids would come to me after an attack on my position and they would tell me, “VC come tonight, you stay at my house.” So, I’d pack up my weapon and rounds and head over to see the family, and depending on where they existed, they might have risked retaliation from the enemy. During attacks on small firebases, I handled the situations apart from the other American combatants connected to other units, and I was often alone. I did not expect any different scenario and I understood this GI sociology. It was imperative that I clean my weapon often. Too many soldiers faced the enemy with rounds jammed inside their weapons. I’ve mentioned that officers sometimes made judgments that were not sound, and there existed an element of revenge in their decisions. This also applied to non- commissioned officers–sergeants, who for one reason or another sent me to field positions where I was accompanied by the weakest and most unstable platoon member. Survival depended upon recognizing and sizing up anyone sent to accompany me. I had to run people off my point whom I had seen frozen during other attacks. I mean they were unable to respond and they became dangerous to those of us preparing. Oddly enough, sometimes, if I were facing attack, a platoon sergeant who resented me would actually look for me to side with him, and I looked for him as well. It paid dividends to make friends with my superiors, especially the First Sergeant, and to avoid conversation or interaction with officers who could expose me to traumatic situations. There is nothing glamorous about war, and the only time I thought I showed courage was when I responded to an attack while others stayed inside bunkers. But shortly after that, another incident would occur and I would have a cowardly reaction. Survival depended on my flexibility to erase self-condemnation and to continue facing the unknown.


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Survival Mindset: Prepare to Survive Mentally

1/13/2015

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By Survival Ready Blog Team
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Your mission in a survival situation is to stay alive. As you can see in our post Survival Mind Tricks: Understanding Psychological Reactions, you are going to experience an assortment of thoughts and emotions. These can work for you, or they can work to your downfall. Fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, guilt, depression, and loneliness are all possible reactions to the many stresses common to survival. These reactions, when controlled in a healthy way, help to increase a soldier's likelihood of surviving. They prompt the would be survivor to pay more attention in training, to fight back when scared, to take actions that ensure sustenance and security, to keep faith, and to strive against large odds. 

When the survivor cannot control these reactions in a healthy way, they can bring him to a standstill. Instead of rallying his internal resources, the survivor listens to his internal fears. This survivor experiences psychological defeat long before he physically succumbs. Remember, survival is natural to everyone; being unexpectedly thrust into the life and death struggle of survival is not. Don't be afraid of your "natural reactions to this unnatural situation." Prepare yourself to rule over these reactions so they serve your ultimate interest--staying alive.

It involves preparation to ensure that your reactions in a survival setting are productive, not destructive. The challenge of survival has produced countless examples of heroism, courage, and self-sacrifice. These are the qualities it can bring out in you if you have prepared yourself. Below are a few tips to help prepare yourself psychologically for survival. Through studying this manual and attending survival training you can develop the survival attitude.


Know Yourself
Through training, family, and friends take the time to discover who you are on the inside. Strengthen your stronger qualities and develop the areas that you know are necessary to survive.

Anticipate Fears
Don't pretend that you will have no fears. Begin thinking about what would frighten you the most if forced to survive alone. Train in those areas of concern to you. The goal is not to eliminate the fear, but to build confidence in your ability to function despite your fears.

Be Realistic
Don't be afraid to make an honest appraisal of situations. See circumstances as they are, not as you want them to be. Keep your hopes and expectations within the estimate of the situation. When you go into a survival setting with unrealistic expectations, you may be laying the groundwork for bitter disappointment. Follow the adage, "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst." It is much easier to adjust to pleasant surprises about one's unexpected good fortunes than to be upset by one's unexpected harsh circumstances.

Adopt a Positive Attitude
Learn to see the potential good in everything. Looking for the good not only boosts morale, it also is excellent for exercising your imagination and creativity.

Remind Yourself What Is at Stake
Remember, failure to prepare yourself psychologically to cope with survival leads to reactions such as depression, carelessness, inattention, loss of confidence, poor decision making, and giving up before the body gives in. At stake is your life and the lives of others who are depending on you to do your share.

Train
Through military training and life experiences, begin today to prepare yourself to cope with the rigors of survival. Demonstrating your skills in training will give you the confidence to call upon them should the need arise. Remember, the more realistic the training, the less overwhelming an actual survival setting will be.

Learn Stress Management Techniques
People under stress have a potential to panic if they are not well-trained and not prepared psychologically to face whatever the circumstances may be. While we often cannot control the survival circumstances in which we find ourselves, it is within our ability to control our response to those circumstances. Learning stress management techniques can enhance significantly your capability to remain calm and focused as you work to keep yourself and others alive. A few good techniques to develop include relaxation skills, time management skills, assertiveness skills, and cognitive restructuring skills (the ability to control how you view a situation).

Remember, "the will to survive" can also be considered to be "the refusal to give up."
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The Psychology of Survival

1/13/2015

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By Survival Ready Blog Team
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It takes much more than the knowledge and skills to build shelters, get food, make fires, and travel without the aid of standard navigational devices to live successfully through a survival situation. Some people with little or no survival training have managed to survive life-threatening circumstances. Some people with survival training have not used their skills and died. A key ingredient in any survival situation is the mental attitude of the individual(s) involved. Having survival skills is important; having the will to survive is essential. Without a desk to survive, acquired skills serve little purpose and invaluable knowledge goes to waste.

There is a psychology to survival. The survivor in a survival environment faces many stresses that ultimately impact on his mind. These stresses can produce thoughts and emotions that, if poorly understood, can transform a confident, well-trained survivor into an indecisive, ineffective individual with questionable ability to survive. Thus, every survivor must be aware of and be able to recognize those stresses commonly associated with survival. Additionally, it is imperative that survivors be aware of their reactions to the wide variety of stresses associated with survival. This chapter will identify and explain the nature of stress, the stresses of survival, and those internal reactions survivors will naturally experience when faced with the stresses of a real-world survival situation. The knowledge you, the survivor, gain from this chapter and other chapters in this manual, will prepare you to come through the toughest times alive.

A Look at Stress
Before we can understand our psychological reactions in a survival setting, it is helpful to first know a little bit about stress.

Stress is not a disease that you cure and eliminate. Instead, it is a condition we all experience. Stress can be described as our reaction to pressure. It is the name given to the experience we have as we physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually respond to life's tensions.
 
Need for Stress
We need stress because it has many positive benefits. Stress provides us with challenges; it gives us chances to learn about our values and strengths. Stress can show our ability to handle pressure without breaking; it tests our adaptability and flexibility; it can stimulate us to do our best. Because we usually do not consider unimportant events stressful, stress can also be an excellent indicator of the significance we attach to an event--in other words, it highlights what is important to us.

We need to have some stress in our lives, but too much of anything can be bad. The goal is to have stress, but not an excess of it. Too much stress can take its toll on people and organizations. Too much stress leads to distress. Distress causes an uncomfortable tension that we try to escape and, preferably, avoid. Listed below are a few of the common signs of distress you may find in your fellow survivors or yourself when faced with too much stress: 

• Difficulty making decisions.
• Angry outbursts.
• Forgetfulness.
• Low energy level.
• Constant worrying.
• Propensity for mistakes.
• Thoughts about death or suicide.
• Trouble getting along with others.
• Withdrawing from others.
• Hiding from responsibilities.
• Carelessness.

As you can see, stress can be constructive or destructive. It can encourage or discourage, move us along or stop us dead in our tracks, and make life meaningful or seemingly meaningless. Stress can inspire you to operate successfully and perform at your maximum efficiency in a survival situation. It can also cause you to panic and forget all your training. Key to your survival is your ability to manage the inevitable stresses you will encounter. The survivor is the survivor who works with his stresses instead of letting his stresses work on him.



Survival Stressors
Any event can lead to stress and, as everyone has experienced, events don't always come one at a time. Often, stressful events occur simultaneously. These events are not stress, but they produce it and are called "stressors." Stressors are the obvious cause while stress is the response. Once the body recognizes the presence of a stressor, it then begins to act to protect itself.

In response to a stressor, the body prepares either to "fight or flee." This preparation involves an internal SOS sent throughout the body. As the body responds to this SOS, several actions take place. The body releases stored fuels (sugar and fats) to provide quick energy; breathing rate increases to supply more oxygen to the blood; muscle tension increases to prepare for action; blood clotting mechanisms are activated to reduce bleeding from cuts; senses become more acute (hearing becomes more sensitive, eyes become big, smell becomes sharper) so that you are more aware of your surrounding and heart rate and blood pressure rise to provide more blood to the muscles. This protective posture lets a person cope with potential dangers; however, a person cannot maintain such a level of alertness indefinitely.

Stressors are not courteous; one stressor does not leave because another one arrives. Stressors add up. The cumulative effect of minor stressors can be a major distress if they all happen too close together. As the body's resistance to stress wears down and the sources of stress continue (or increase), eventually a state of exhaustion arrives. At this point, the ability to resist stress or use it in a positive way gives out and signs of distress appear. Anticipating stressors and developing strategies to cope with them are two ingredients in the effective management of stress. It is therefore essential that the survivor in a survival setting be aware of the types of stressors he will encounter. Let's take a look at a few of these.

Injury, Illness, or Death
Injury, illness, and death are real possibilities a survivor has to face. Perhaps nothing is more stressful than being alone in an unfamiliar environment where you could die from hostile action, an accident, or from eating something lethal. Illness and injury can also add to stress by limiting your ability to maneuver, get food and drink, find shelter, and defend yourself. Even if illness and injury don't lead to death, they add to stress through the pain and discomfort they generate. It is only by con-trolling the stress associated with the vulnerability to injury, illness, and death that a survivor can have the courage to take the risks associated with survival tasks.
 
Uncertainly and Lack of Control
Some people have trouble operating in settings where everything is not clear-cut. The only guarantee in a survival situation is that nothing is guaranteed. It can be extremely stressful operating on limited information in a setting where you have limited control of your surroundings. This uncertainty and lack of control also add to the stress of being ill, injured, or killed.

Environment
Even under the most ideal circumstances, nature is quite formidable. In survival, a survivor will have to contend with the stressors of weather, terrain, and the variety of creatures inhabiting an area. Heat, cold, rain, winds, mountains, swamps, deserts, insects, dangerous reptiles, and other animals are just a few of the challenges awaiting the survivor working to survive. Depending on how a survivor handles the stress of his environment, his surroundings can be either a source of food and protection or can be a cause of extreme discomfort leading to injury, illness, or death.
 
Hunger and Thirst
Without food and water a person will weaken and eventually die. Thus, getting and preserving food and water takes on increasing importance as the length of time in a survival setting increases. For a survivor used to having his provisions issued, foraging can be a big source of stress.

Fatigue
Forcing yourself to continue surviving is not easy as you grow more tired. It is possible to become so fatigued that the act of just staying awake is stressful in itself.

Isolation
There are some advantages to facing adversity with others. As survivors we learn individual skills, but we train to function as part of a team. Although we, as survivors, complain about higher headquarters, we become used to the information and guidance it provides, especially during times of confusion. Being in contact with others also provides a greater sense of security and a feeling someone is available to help if problems occur. A significant stressor in survival situations is that often a person or team has to rely solely on its own resources.

The survival stressors mentioned in this section are by no means the only ones you may face. Remember, what is stressful to one person may not be stressful to another. Your experiences, training, personal outlook on life, physical and mental conditioning, and level of self-confidence contribute to what you will find stressful in a survival environment. The object is not to avoid stress, but rather to manage the stressors of survival and make them work for you.

We now have a general knowledge of stress and the stressors common to survival; the next step is to examine our reactions to the stressors we may face. In this post "
Survival Mindset: Prepare to Survive Mentally" we go over how you can prepare yourself to deal with these stressors.
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Survival Mind Tricks: Understanding Psychological Reactions

1/13/2015

1 Comment

 
By Survival Ready Blog Team
Man has been able to survive many shifts in his environment throughout the centuries. His ability to adapt physically and mentally to a changing world kept him alive while other species around him gradually died off. The same survival mechanisms that kept our forefathers alive can help keep us alive as well! However, these survival mechanisms that can help us can also work against us if we don't understand and anticipate their presence.

It is not surprising that the average person will have some psychological reactions in a survival situation. We will now examine some of the major internal reactions you and anyone with you might experience with the survival stressors addressed in our post “The Psychology of Survival”. Let's begin.

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Fear
Fear is our emotional response to dangerous circumstances that we believe have the potential to cause death, injury, or illness. This harm is not just limited to physical damage; the threat to one's emotional and mental well-being can generate fear as well. For the person trying to survive, fear can have a positive function if it encourages him to be cautious in situations where recklessness could result in injury. Unfortunately, fear can also immobilize a person. It can cause him to become so frightened that he fails to perform activities essential for survival. Most people will have some degree of fear when placed in unfamiliar surroundings under adverse conditions. There is no shame in this! Each survivor must train himself not to be overcome by his fears. Ideally, through realistic training, we can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to increase our confidence and thereby manage our fears.

Anxiety
Associated with fear is anxiety. Because it is natural for us to be afraid, it is also natural for us to experience anxiety. Anxiety can be an uneasy, apprehensive feeling we get when faced with dangerous situations (physical, mental, and emotional). When used in a healthy way, anxiety urges us to act to end, or at least master, the dangers that threaten our existence. If we were never anxious, there would be little motivation to make changes in our lives. The survivor in a survival setting reduces his anxiety by performing those tasks that will ensure his coming through the ordeal alive. As he reduces his anxiety, the survivor is also bringing under control the source of that anxiety--his fears. In this form, anxiety is good; however, anxiety can also have a devastating impact. Anxiety can overwhelm a survivor to the point where he becomes easily confused and has difficulty thinking. Once this happens, it becomes more and more difficult for him to make good judgments and sound decisions. To survive, the survivor must learn techniques to calm his anxieties and keep them in the range where they help, not hurt.

Anger and Frustration
Frustration arises when a person is continually thwarted in his attempts to reach a goal. The goal of survival is to stay alive until you can reach help or until help can reach you. To achieve this goal, the survivor must complete some tasks with minimal resources. It is inevitable, in trying to do these tasks, that something will go wrong; that something will happen beyond the survivor's control; and that with one's life at stake, every mistake is magnified in terms of its importance. Thus, sooner or later, survivors will have to cope with frustration when a few of their plans run into trouble. One outgrowth of this frustration is anger. There are many events in a survival situation that can frustrate or anger a survivor. Getting lost, damaged or forgotten equipment, the weather, inhospitable terrain, enemy patrols, and physical limitations are just a few sources of frustration and anger. Frustration and anger encourage impulsive reactions, irrational behavior, poorly thought-out decisions, and, in some instances, an "I quit" attitude (people sometimes avoid doing something they can't master). If the survivor can harness and properly channel the emotional intensity associated with anger and frustration, he can productively act as he answers the challenges of survival. If the survivor does not properly focus his angry feelings, he can waste much energy in activities that do little to further either his chances of survival or the chances of those around him.

Depression
It would be a rare person indeed who would not get sad, at least momentarily, when faced with the privations of survival. As this sadness deepens, we label the feeling "depression." Depression is closely linked with frustration and anger. The frustrated person becomes more and more angry as he fails to reach his goals. If the anger does not help the person to succeed, then the frustration level goes even higher. A destructive cycle between anger and frustration continues until the person becomes worn down physically, emotionally, and mentally. When a person reaches this point, he starts to give up, and his focus shifts from "What can I do" to "There is nothing I can do." Depression is an expression of this hopeless, helpless feeling.

There is nothing wrong with being sad as you temporarily think about your loved ones and remember what life is like back in "civilization" or "the world." Such thoughts, in fact, can give you the desire to try harder and live one more day. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to sink into a depressed state, then it can sap all your energy and, more important, your will to survive. It is imperative that each survivor resist succumbing to depression.


Loneliness and Boredom
Man is a social animal. This means we, as human beings, enjoy the company of others. Very few people want to be alone all the time! As you are aware, there is a distinct chance of isolation in a survival setting. This is not bad. Loneliness and boredom can bring to the surface qualities you thought only others had. The extent of your imagination and creativity may surprise you. When required to do so, you may discover some hidden talents and abilities. Most of all, you may tap into a reservoir of inner strength and fortitude you never knew you had. Conversely, loneliness and boredom can be another source of depression. As a survivor surviving alone, or with others, you must find ways to keep your mind productively occupied. Additionally, you must develop a degree of selfsufficiency. You must have faith in your capability to "go it alone."


Guilt
The circumstances leading to your being in a survival setting are sometimes dramatic and tragic. It may be the result of an accident or military mission where there was a loss of life. Perhaps you were the only, or one of a few, survivors. While naturally relieved to be alive, you simultaneously may be mourning the deaths of others who were less fortunate. It is not uncommon for survivors to feel guilty about being spared from death while others were not. This feeling, when used in a positive way, has encouraged people to try harder to survive with the belief they were allowed to live for some greater purpose in life. Sometimes, survivors tried to stay alive so that they could carry on the work of those killed. Whatever reason you give yourself, do not let guilt feelings prevent you from living. The living who abandon their chance to survive accomplish nothing. Such an act would be the greatest tragedy.

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