Mental Preparedness

**Pal334** · 11-03-2009, 09:10 PM

I just saw this on the Discovery Channel and thought it would be useful

http://dsc.discovery.com/survival/ho....htmlPreparing Yourself

.Your mission as a person in a survival situation is to stay alive. As you can see, 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 person's likelihood of surviving. They prompt the survivor to pay more attention in training, to fight back when scared, to take actions that ensure sustenance and security, to keep faith with his companions 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 person listens to his internal fears. This individual 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 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."

**oldsoldier** · 11-03-2009, 10:29 PM

Originally Posted by wildWoman

Maybe setting up a situation where they experience what it is like to be lost?

We could just ask 2D2K.... Ken says he's alway's that way

**nell67** · 11-03-2009, 10:38 PM

Yesterday,I had to help the lump tend to brush fires on a friends property,but had to leave him alone while I picked up the daughter and dropped her off at work (she currently does not have a car),and just after leaving her,I get a text from him,that his blood sugar is dropping,can I bring him some peanut butter?

I keep soe inmy pack I keep in my truck,because my sugar drops from time to time,and the peanut butter works very well to stabilize sugar levels,if you get it in time,buthe was twenty five minutes away in another county,and the friends had had to leave so no help there.I made it there in 12 minutes,al the way there,I made mental notes of the steps I would take to minimize time elapse getting to where he was and get his sugar back up.My friend was back,and waiting on me when I made it to their property,she asked questions as I jumped out and ran to the back and grabbed my pack,pulled cookies,mints,and a couple of cokes out of my truck and stuffed them ito the pack,and headed in his direction.

After it was over,and he was feeling better,she said I was like a robot when I got out of the truck,and was impressed when I told her that all the way there I had mentally pictured where everthing was in my truck I might need,and had mapped out what order to grab them to minimize time.

On the way,I hit a squirrel,sorry Ken,it was an accident r.i.p mr squirrel.And a dog.and while running down the hill to where the lump was,I lost the sole off my hiking boot....it wasn't even loose up to that point.

The lump is diabetic,but he has lost over 96 pounds over the past year,and it is sending his sugar in the opposite direction ,he has switched from 4 insulin shots per day,to 1 pill per day,and it seems that that is still too much.Gonna have to get him some glucose pills to carry in his lunch box,along with peanutbutter .

**Pal334** · 11-04-2009, 05:52 AM

THats a good example of how some people react. Focusing on the problem, and reacting. Kind of rough on the wildlife though

**cowgirlup** · 11-04-2009, 10:19 AM

I try to use situations that come up to make people think.
Saturday night the power went out while he was making a pizza for dinner. And my husband who gets wound up easliy went into "must have electricity" mode. His electrician friend has been promising for a year to install a switch for the generator but that hasn't happened. Long story short. DH was all worked up and blew up the kitchen TV. I got him to stop with the breaker box and told him I could finish dinner in the wood stove.

As he sat there he said "Some Survivalist I am. Five minutes without electricity and I fell apart. LOL!" So we had a good discussion about it. Part of his issue was the pizza in the oven. I asked him if he had even considered that he could cook it in the wood stove. It was a good opportunity to discuss a real situation where maybe the power would never be back on.

**trax** · 11-04-2009, 12:22 PM

Originally Posted by Pal334

...... Kind of rough on the wildlife though

It's kind of what she does.

**Pal334** · 11-04-2009, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by trax

It's kind of what she does.

I amconvinced that I won't mess with her

**Ole WV Coot** · 11-04-2009, 03:39 PM

If you haven't been a situation when TSHTF you can try and prepare for it but if you ain't so scared you want to wet your pants or run just anywhere you haven't been there. Maybe you can train & prepare for a long time but I wouldn't try to perdict your actions nor would I perdict mine under a situation that I've been under before. Even working at 50 I could climb a high pole several times with no problem then go back, look at it and be afraid altho I had been up it several times that day. Comes down to same situation, different time, different reaction and no guarantee of how you will react.