the psychology of surviving
Wareagle just mentioned starting a new thread on this and I was composing a response and thought "yeah, there's probably a lot of thoughts about this"
I'm amazed at the stories I've read, seen and heard over the years of people surviving extraordinarily traumatic situations. Usually people who were unprepared and untrained as well. Situations from natural disasters, being lost in forests or mountains or blizzards, urban disasters, criminal and terrorist attacks, and often with debilitating or life-threatening injuries. So often, it seems like the refusal to give in, the will to live is what kept people going. In many cases I've heard that thoughts of loved ones were the motivation people needed or simply seeing that no one else was taking control of a situation, so the person did. There's been tons of stuff published on informal or natural leadership. I'm sure people would have done better with some level of training, obviously.
I was involved in a car accident once where another car hit a SUV hard enough that it flew across the road and hit my car. Luckily, I was uninjured but had to crawl very gingerly through a broken window to get out. I walked away and sat down on the curb to sort of collect myself, the entire intersection was filled with wreckage and the guy in the SUV and a passenger in the car that caused it were injured slightly. One motorist got out of his car, attended to the injured until the EMT's arrived and directed traffic, all very professionally, until the police arrived. Then he came over and checked on me. He did an awesome job of assessing the needs and addressing the situation. He must have had some kind of training, but by the time the police were done with me, I never got a chance to ask him or thank him, he'd moved on. But, I'd love to hear other people's perspectives here
preservation of the species
Can we agree that preservation of the species might be instinctual, volwest? Hence develops the sense for self-preservation and the need/desire to procreate? I'm just firing them out here. I wonder if at some level the male black widow knows what he's in for? Or just thinks "wow, look at the legs on that one!" and starts flirting her up.
I am neither a philosopher nor a psychologist, I'm a social misfit, just ask Sarge.
Go Wolfpack
no surprise, I'm confused
Quote:
Originally Posted by
volwest
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Preserving the species is not an instinct, and self-preservation is not to be mistaken with self-duplication. A need is not a desire, and a desire is not an intention , and procreation has to do with tensions within and not the species needs.So this will, is like a stick, at one end we have "live"...and at another we have "die", both are part of the same stick.
That little tadpole surviving the millions of others swimming their way in there, isn't something instinctual? I don't know man, what's instinct? Look at white tail deer, very overpopulated across north america now because so many predators have been wiped out by man, but they're still rutting and breeding every fall....desire? instinct to procreate? I'm just playing devil's advocate here, but if someone has the answer, lay it on me. The continuum of life--death is something I agree with volwest, I'm just looking for more answers.
the ants go marching one by one hurrah hurrah...
Most human wars are "territorial" in that they've started with someone having something someone else wanted. We often mask it with the excuse that my God's better than your God or some other lame-o thing, but that's basically my comparison with the ants.
I wanted to add something else to this discussion (which I am enjoying mightily by the way!) as part of the "psychology" of surviving. We have other posts here about the benefits/risks of either bugging out or bunkering down. If we were in the direst of survival situations, societal collapse because of natural disaster or war, and we choose to bunker down, then what?
What is human nature in that situation? I'm not trying to criticize anyone's plan or viewpoint here, but just for instance one of our newest wolfpack members has a plan where his family gathers at his place and it becomes essentially an armed compound. So, who agrees? and...what about people who are strangers and show up pleading for help? Not threatening, pleading. If you show up at my door and have a sick or injured person and I have medical aid, I will feel compelled to help. If you show up hungry, I will feel compelled to share food, that's my personal nature. But what if "you" start numbering in the dozens, or hundreds? I don't have my answers yet, but I'd like to hear some of your thoughts....{are we having fun yet?}
what do I do about the hernia?
That I got lifting this thread off DEET's chest....sorry about that DEET, I'll try to lighten up a bit:)
Resuscitating this thread
I know this thread's old, but I think it'll live with a bit of CPR... Let's look at it from a slightly different point of view: as going into a crisis.
Anatomy of a crisis
When we are faced with a crisis, we usually go through a few phases. If we understand the phases we may be able to function better and get through it relatively unscathed.
Phase 1: the triggering event
Before the triggering event, we’re in control of ourselves and behave the way we do in everyday life. When the triggering event impacts us, we recognise it as a crisis. The best strategy for handling this stage is to avoid the trigger entirely. This calls for planning, trying to anticipate stressors and what could go wrong, and doing your best to develop strategies that will negate or minimise those possibilities.
Phase 2: escalation
If, despite our careful planning and gazing into our crystal ball, something goes wrong and we’re precipitated into a crisis, we enter the escalation phase. This is when we recognise that we’re in a stressful situation and we react with some or all of the following:
• Shock
• Disbelief
• Confusion
• Difficulty in deciding
• Forgetfulness
• Worry
• Fear
• Anger
• Time slowing down
• Numbness
• Helplessness
• Feeling that we should be doing more
These feelings often escalate in intensity until we enter the crisis phase. To increase your chances of survival, it would be ideal to recognise that you’ve entered the escalation phase and that it could lead to you entering crisis phase. How? Knowing this sequence, i.e., that escalation will follow a triggering event, should help you recognise that your reactions will escalate to a crisis point. So once a triggering event occurs, keep a lookout for escalating reactions and focus on calming yourself. The best way to do this is to engage one or more of your senses.
Do your best to stop the cycle here. If you enter the crisis phase, you won’t be of much use to yourself or anyone else. It will most likely worsen the situation. Working out your most viable options will happen when you are in control of yourself and don’t enter the crisis phase.
Phase 3: crisis
In this phase our stress increases. Our hearts beat faster. Our motor skills and our perceptual abilities diminish. We can’t respond until the threat is identified, but because we lose the ability to process information, we begin to lose control of ourselves, reacting irrationally. Each of our selves is affected: the extent to which each is affected depends on the severity and duration of the event.
Emotional: we may experience fear, grief, anger, despair, sadness, numbness, and generalised anxiety disorder.
Mental: we may experience impaired concentration & decision-making, impaired memory, disbelief, worry, denial, flashbacks, and tunnel vision.
Physical: we may experience fatigue, insomnia, cardiovascular strain, hyper-arousal, general health problems, headaches, decreased appetite, nonspecific distress, and Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms (MUPS).
Spiritual: we may experience aggression, isolation, hopelessness, disassociation, panic, and a lack of confidence.
Familial and social: we may experience increased relational conflict, social withdrawal, impaired performance, over-protectiveness, abandonment, and rejection.
If you couldn’t stop yourself from entering this phase, do your best to recognise that you're in the crisis phase. Do whatever it takes to calm down, making sure that you're in a safe place. Don’t decide on a course of action at this stage; unless of course you don’t have the luxury of time.
Phase 4: recovery
Once the stressor is gone (or its immediacy lessens, or we manage to regain self-control), if we survive the crisis, we begin to calm down, regain control of ourselves and a semblance of our usual behaviour returns, but remain fragile. We become more rational and may experience forms of relief or anger, possibly even exhilaration.
This is another phase where we could try to work out our options. Be aware that your emotions may still be dominating your decisions in this phase.
Phase 5: crash
Once recovery is complete, we may move into a “crash” phase. We tend to display below-normal activity levels, requiring time to physically recover and mentally process the event. Long term effects could include Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), grief and anger.
