psychological survival

[wareagle69]

what i have begun to notice, is how i react to situations in everyday life.after reading gino ferri "survival in the bush" and cody lundins "98.6"
they both delve into the psychological aspects of survival, i have picked these two books because (1) i used to live in northern az hense codys book and i currently live in northern ontario, ginos area. anyhow, i was sitting in this river two days ago(same river i am doing my water purification test on see thread) about neck deep watching my dogs swim about having fun on a warm summers day when i felt what seemed like a nibble on my leg.

heres the point of this topic how did i control my mind? was it a fish,was it a passing piece of debris was it a snake was it a snapping turtle, so many possibilities, fear of the unknown... got me thinking about a special i had watched on bears and the attacks last year by the same bear on four differnt ocassions which left one women dead and also the bear.

whats that noise? was it a bear a squrriel my dog? all these things play on your mind ordinarily enough. now add the stress of a survival situation.

i am well trained (at least in my mind) in primitive skills but all that doesn't mean squat if you cannot control your mind, now i have learned breathing techniques in sniper school and know how to control my mind(most of the time) but other times it does get away from me sooo...

does anyone else care to share when they have been scared or spooked, how did it affect their situation in or out of the bush....

i have been in combat, rode bulls professionally and even done some cage fighting. but sometimes in the dark of the woods your mind will seriously play with you.

i know allot of you take pride in your skills, but lets delve into the place that exsists in all of us.

thanks for your time

wareagle69

[FVR]

You mean, how do you handle getting spooked. I've been spooked, last time was on Hanging Rock mnt. Coming off the mountain, in the dark. Something was watching me, could have been a bear, probably was.

I just talk myself down when this happens, losing control does not help.

This has worked a few times. I had an accident last Oct., split second, can't go straight as I would have t boned the idiot driver who stoped crossing a 4 lane, can't go right as there was another car in the same predicament, have to hit the brakes, go left and hit the median.

Hit the median, flew over the median, airborn Camry, skidded across two lanes of oncoming traffic and stopped at the curb.

You need to know where you are in the Universe at all times, this and a little luck goes a long way.

I remember what my grandpop told me when I was a kid. In the dark, most won't be able to see you and wild animals don't want to be around you.

[spiritman]

When my brother and I first realized we were lost we were both on the edge of losing it. We frantically looked around to try and establish some sense of where we were and seeing nothing familiar we had a hard time just holding still. I tried to remember anything I could DO and it was HARD. I was so stressed I couldn't think of anything. We sat down, then something magical happened, just by sitting down for a minute we relaxed and settled down and thought things out. We decided to stay put and wait because we knew we weren't all that far from where we were supposed to be. We would need food water and shelter and a way to be spotted. So we fished in the creek (tickling) and had roasted trout and wild raspberries. Made ourselves a semi comfy lean to, and made three fires in a triangle. (which is rough to maintain btw) We did good I think, even enjoyed ourselves before we were found.

[FVR]

I was in Panama in 84, we had a patrol of 4 Marines and a boot Lt. We were running a little behind on making the rendezvous, the boot Lt. took command and that is where we really went wrong.

I will be first to say, it was my squad, I take resp. for the screw-up. I should have spoken up but I was a boot Cpl at the time.

He decided to use landmarks for land nav., Duhh, idiot. The date on the map we were using was 1956, yeh, landmarks change evey year, how about 2.5 decades.

It was pitch black, you could not see your hand in front of your face, we had just come out of waist deep water and I noticed that we were climbing. Around midnight, this looney was trying to make his way down a slight ravine. I did take charge at that point, told the men to bed down for the night, wrap up in your poncho's. I gave out the last of my water as I was the only guy who brought two canteens and iodine tablets. I had plenty of water for myself and shared.

We were not scared (yeh) as there was 5 of us, we were spooked. I mean lost in the jungle, triple tree canopy, dark as dark can be, with a Lt who was an idiot.

Next morning we were awake right at the slightes light. The Lt 5 hours prev. had decided to go down a little rockface. IDIOT! Stupid **** was on a ledge, ah, we were about 150' up on a mnt. Against the Lt's orders, got the radio oper. to call us in as lost, gave our last known coord. and waited. When we heard the helo, we sent up smoke, they dropped the ropes and we were out of there.

I caught a little bit of crap for that, but our squad next time out, each man had two canteens and a handful of iodine tablets.

Oh yeh, and we left the Lt back at the barracks.

We were not lost, just misguided. LOL.

[Fog_Harbor]

I've been spooked plenty of times. I usually get through it simply by telling myself that I'm just spooked, and I'm being silly. It seems to work for me.

When I get truly scared, I tend to ignore what I'm scared of (if it's yet unseen). But let's face it - when it comes to fight or flight, you rarely have a choice in the outcome.

That's where training comes in, and a constant game, not of 'what if?', but "If ___________ happens, I will ______________" You train your mind through scenarios. You train your body through repitition.

[Sarge47]

I was in Panama in 84, we had a patrol of 4 Marines and a boot Lt. We were running a little behind on making the rendezvous, the boot Lt. took command and that is where we really went wrong.

I will be first to say, it was my squad, I take resp. for the screw-up. I should have spoken up but I was a boot Cpl at the time.

He decided to use landmarks for land nav., Duhh, idiot. The date on the map we were using was 1956, yeh, landmarks change evey year, how about 2.5 decades.

It was pitch black, you could not see your hand in front of your face, we had just come out of waist deep water and I noticed that we were climbing. Around midnight, this looney was trying to make his way down a slight ravine. I did take charge at that point, told the men to bed down for the night, wrap up in your poncho's. I gave out the last of my water as I was the only guy who brought two canteens and iodine tablets. I had plenty of water for myself and shared.

We were not scared (yeh) as there was 5 of us, we were spooked. I mean lost in the jungle, triple tree canopy, dark as dark can be, with a Lt who was an idiot.

Next morning we were awake right at the slightes light. The Lt 5 hours prev. had decided to go down a little rockface. IDIOT! Stupid **** was on a ledge, ah, we were about 150' up on a mnt. Against the Lt's orders, got the radio oper. to call us in as lost, gave our last known coord. and waited. When we heard the helo, we sent up smoke, they dropped the ropes and we were out of there.

I caught a little bit of crap for that, but our squad next time out, each man had two canteens and a handful of iodine tablets.

Oh yeh, and we left the Lt back at the barracks.

We were not lost, just misguided. LOL.

Wow! A Loony Louie, or is that "L.T.". What will they think of next?:D

[trax]

I got lost really badly once when I was about 9 years old. By then I had my own .22 and used to go tramping around in the bush all day long. What really frightened me that time was I realized it would be a long long time before anyone came looking just because my family was accustomed to me doing just that. I got into some really thick bush, got "turned around" so to speak and couldn't maintain my sense of direction. Panic started to set in and I started thrashing around in the bush and I realized I was making it worse for myself. I sat down and forced myself to calm the heck down and started out by marking where I was and then heading out and back to that spot, trail marking all the way, until I found high ground, scrambled up that and found a familiar trail. I never even told my Mom because I figured that would be the end of my solo forays.

I've had a few emergency type situations etc that were brought up in other threads, and I'm lucky in that I've always (since then) managed to stay calm in the worst situations and think my way through it. One of the scariest event I recall was a few years ago when I was out paddling with my kid and I came around an island on this big lake and all of a sudden I was in this weird choppy water, there must be opposing currents meeting there or something, big waves, then eddies, big waves again, etc. It was like being in a rapids with no warning. Almost spilled the canoe, but we managed to paddle through it. I agree with the statement about training the mind with scenarios and the body with repitition, that's well said.

Go Wolfpack!

[FVR]

Yup, nothing worse than a boot luey.