Are we really prepared?

You make good points and those points are exactly why people should read the books, practice the skills and attempt to be prepared. I've seen a good bit of research over the years that suggests that people who attempt to prepare for issues have a shorter adjustment period and a healthier reaction to the situations when they do arise. For instance, it's been proven that people who work out regularly will reach their exercising heart rate 2 to 3 times faster than people who only exercise once a week. It's also been noted that special forces soldiers and emergency response personnel have higher levels of adrenaline ( and reach those levels faster) but for shorter periods than untrained personell when they have to react to a potentially life threatening danger. So, my hypothesis is that training and preparing for the situation will not only make you physically more capable of surviving it will also make you physically ( or physiologically?) more capable of surviving.

David
 
Jim malone said:
But what to do when you realise you are completely alone, with a total collapse of all social structures, with no hope for a quick restoring of basic security or rebuilding of "civilised society"?
Are we as modern humans still capable of carrying this psychological stress?
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I think most people - even those with great survival skills would be dead before psychological stress set in.
Before the industrial revolution life expectancy was under 30.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#Lifespan_variation_over_time

Many people will reply that they can 'live off the land' indefinitely. Let's say that is true - one variable taken care of. So starvation will not kill you but, health issues - simple infections, accidents, wild animals, or other mundane things will get you.
 
Jim malone said:
After studying survival skills for quit some time now, i always feel some very important part of survival is forgotten.
There are few books that speak about the enormous psychological impact surviving a life threathening situation for months on a row has on an individual.
Most books i read have a wealth of information on how to make fire, find food, make shelter etc, but the psychological impact seems to be downplayed in most books.
Are we as human beeings still capable enough to withstand months or years of extreme stress?
When you watch popular series like "Alaska : the final frontier" you quickly see the stress caused by beeing in a short time "modest" survival situation.
I you read books about how people survived long term stays in P.O.W. camp's you see that those you don't expect to survive manage to stay alive while others you thought had the best chance quickly faded away.
I felt the same feeling when i saw "the road". Is it worth surviving in such conditions? How do you stay sane and "human" under those conditions?
Is there a way of training for these situations (apart from SERE) that doesn't make you a psychologically battered individual, or gives you permanent psychological damage? How and why did some individuals resist better to months or years of abuse, fear and deprivation?
Are there good books that adress these problems?
Most of those that survived knew that
a) people were waiting for them
b) a country or a large social group supported them
c) they knew the hardship was temporary.
d) they sometimes had a peer group that supported them enduring the same hardship.
But what to do when you realise you are completely alone, with a total collapse of all social structures, with no hope for a quick restoring of basic security or rebuilding of "civilised society"?
Are we as modern humans still capable of carrying this psychological stress?
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Faith and hope get many people through hardships.
 
There is a book called Deep Survival about this very thing; it is an excellent read. By Lawrence Gonzales.
 
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No one knows how they will handle the situation until they are in it. But knowing what has worked for others in similar situations, as well as knowing some basic survival skills would give a significant psychological boost initially, I would think. Less panicing, less woe-is-me, and more getting to work on surviving. Maybe that means finding water and making a fire, or maybe it just means trying to find a way to signal for help from under the rubble.
 
Great discussion points, Jim, and some well thought out comments.

I believe in physical and mental preparation, training, and a belief in your own capabilities.

Mental strength, however you choose to achieve it, is paramount.

In a survival situation, relying on the hope that "someone" will rescue you is futile.
 
Just the fact that you are prepared, know what to do or have the tools/equipment to do it, counts a lot in a survival situation. It will give you some sort or at least a minimum control over your destiny, and that is very important to keep yourself together. A POW scenario would be much worse then a plain survival situation, because if you're a prisoner you have absolutely no control over your fate.

I think it's the same principle for any stressful situation you can encounter, be it at work, in the bush or whatever, the more prepared you are the better you will deal with the situation. It's like playing cards when you can glimpse at your opponent's hand.
 
There is a book that you left out, its called the Bible and Faith has a lot to do with peoples outlook. Belief in a higher power without question helps one constitution. Also I think a lot depends on the scenario.

Are we talking plane crash in remote area, lost while hunting in remote area, drive off road in snowbank during a blizzard, pow, boat sunk and adrift at sea, or the end all be all break down of civilization for whatever reason?

I think a lot of this correlates directly to the scenario you find yourself in. I can say this if we have a total breakdown of society like if the economy would totally collapse. I think the chaos escalate so rapidly to such an unseen level that very few if any of the civilian massess would be prepared mentally to deal with it. Make no mistake about it the fighting would ensue and it would be for resources and sheer survival, the level of casualties would be mindnumbing as would the rate at which disease would spread given the new unsanitary world we would be thrown into. Think about it, your going to take a generation of iphone toting, anti-biotic eating, if it doesn't work when the switch is flipped its broken go to wal-mart and buy a new one and mom can you turn the ac down its hot in here, people into a world of total and complete carnage. Heck most of these kids an adults are already on some kinda mental meds now. Be it valium, xaxax, ridilin, adarol, lexapro, etc. The ramifications of total and complete breakdown would be unimaginable as peoples entire world and operating system if you will would be fundamentally altered at ever level and this would occur basically overnight and in total 100% of everything would be turned upside down almost instantly.

No one is really prepared for that from a mental standpoint.
 
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I am reading mykel hawks green beret survival book and it has a big chapter dedicated to the mental part of survival..the most important information in the book is in that chapter.

Its and oxy moron...Our ancestors lived in the wilderness..it was an everday thing, they hunted for food, had wild gardens where they gathered vegies, stream and lakes where they fished...they were very succesful. These days, we study, read and practice "just in case" we have to live like that for 1 to 30 + days in the wilderness.

If everything went to sh*t, no power, no gas for cars blah blah blah, the modern city dweller would be S.O.L.! We can train and educate ourselves all we want, but the truth is, once we figured out that this would indefinetly be a way of life,anxiety and stress would overcome most people. Imagine your knife getting dull and not being able to sharpen it, what happens when your ax handle breaks? Or how about when your small child is crying because he or she is hungry and all you have left out of your doomsday supply is water? What then? What now?

What we prepair for is minor details, compared to the big picture.We live on gifted time.
 
MikeC said:
There is a book that you left out, its called the Bible and Faith has a lot to do with peoples outlook. Belief in a higher power without question helps one constitution. Also I think a lot depends on the scenario.

Are we talking plane crash in remote area, lost while hunting in remote area, drive off road in snowbank during a blizzard, pow, boat sunk and adrift at sea, or the end all be all break down of civilization for whatever reason?

I think a lot of this correlates directly to the scenario you find yourself in. I can say this if we have a total breakdown of society like if the economy would totally collapse. I think the chaos escalate so rapidly to such an unseen level that very few if any of the civilian massess would be prepared mentally to deal with it. Make no mistake about it the fighting would ensue and it would be for resources and sheer survival, the level of casualties would be mindnumbing as would the rate at which disease would spread given the new unsanitary world we would be thrown into. Think about it, your going to take a generation of iphone toting, anti-biotic eating, if it doesn't work when the switch is flipped its broken go to wal-mart and buy a new one and mom can you turn the ac down its hot in here, people into a world of total and complete carnage. Heck most of these kids an adults are already on some kinda mental meds now. Be it valium, xaxax, ridilin, adarol, lexapro, etc. The ramifications of total and complete breakdown would be unimaginable as peoples entire world and operating system if you will would be fundamentally altered at ever level and this would occur basically overnight and in total 100% of everything would be turned upside down almost instantly.

No one is really prepared for that from a mental standpoint.
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Good post:thumbup:
 
the only way to prepare yourself psychologically is to put your self in situations that stress you psychologically. Obviously one would want to do this with trained people standing by.

for example, our army used to (dont know if they still do, perhaps Fonly can chime in) "kidnap" recruits, blindfold them, strip them and tie them up and put them in cold cement cells for days on end. No food, no water, mild torture, fire hose sprayings, endless lights and noise etc etc. It was to prepare them in case of capture.

thats just one example......

actually this gives me one hell of an idea for a business. Preparing people psychologically for the wilderness by exposing them to controlled wilderness scenarios and breaking them down, in a well staffed and safety backed up setting.............
 
Good post.

Most people in today's society don't know how common things work anymore - how to fix your car, broken light switch, etc. We live in a service/computer society where a small group of people fix/manufactuer things and the majority consumes.

Most of our everyday items are built overseas. Computer technology has made common everyday items too complicated to fix, you just buy a new one if it breaks.

Living a comfortable, easy life does have the draw back of making it harder to survive when the going gets tough.

Alot of the politic's we see today are the result of a generation of young people that have never had it tough. Everything is easy, money is king, constant comunication via cellphones, texting and e-mail are a way of life.

Mindset, being prepared, practicing skills to gain confidence, thinking under stress all contribute to an individuals survival in an extreme situation.

If you don't make good decisions and think, you typically don't make it without a lot of luck.
 
dextersp1 said:
I think most people - even those with great survival skills would be dead before psychological stress set in.
Before the industrial revolution life expectancy was under 30.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy#Lifespan_variation_over_time

Many people will reply that they can 'live off the land' indefinitely. Let's say that is true - one variable taken care of. So starvation will not kill you but, health issues - simple infections, accidents, wild animals, or other mundane things will get you.
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" A pre-20th century individual who lived past the teenage years could expect to live to an age comparable to the life expectancy of today."

That is from your own source. Most statistics on life expectancy are heavily weighted by child mortality rates.

Matt
 
I think the short answer is, Hell no. But it doesn't hurt to cultivate some advantages through our "hobbies."
 
A good example of what happens when the support society is gone is the experience of those Pilgrim Father who landed at Plymouth Rock. They were religious dissenters who left a society they no longer believed in to start a new one in a new world.

Unfortunately, they weren't wilderness-trained and they didn't organize their society well to take advantage of what skills they did have. So many of them starved to death.

It takes more than faith and it takes more than will. Survival begins with skills and only once you've assured your food and shelter can you allow yourself the luxury of worrying and planning for the future.
 
Oakietree said:
" A pre-20th century individual who lived past the teenage years could expect to live to an age comparable to the life expectancy of today."

That is from your own source. Most statistics on life expectancy are heavily weighted by child mortality rates.

Matt
Click to expand...

Good point. My guess is that pre-20th century teenager knew a lot about what it took to survive.
 
The Air Force SERE manual stresses the will to survive and the mental aspects of SERE moreso than anything. I thought they did an exceptional job in that aspect. Their training reflects it too, it's more about mental preparedness, common sense and the lengths you are willing to go to survive than it is about actual techniques and skills.
 
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++ on deep survival, it's great, and I would also suggest the air force survival handbook, it's got a great section on the psychological aspects of survival....I kinda seen the book in one of Kemsat's pics and ordered it myself!!!!!!:eek:
 
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