Mental preparation for a survival situation

[myright]

Here's a topic that I've been thinking about.

I've been reading over a lot of threads here and we are all pretty confident in our abilities during a survival situation or in our ability to learn new skills in preparation for a survival situation. We buy gear, take classes, practice, practice some more, post here, etc.

What do we do in order to prepare ourselves mentally to endure one of the most stressful situations most of us could ever face in our lives, a true life or death survival situation??

I like to think that I would be calm in the face of stress and tense situations since that is how I was trained in the military, but the fact is I have have not been in the situation and do not know in 100% certainty how I will react.

Some things come to mind....

I have a torn disc in my back and suffer chronic pain from it. In my day-to-day life I have learned to manage very well with this pain and have worked VERY hard to minimize it, but this will, no doubt, weigh on my emotions heavily during a survival situation.

Both Les Stroud always mentions the blues, being lonely, etc.

What are the things we all can think about to prepare ourselves for the mental anguish associated with these situations should we ever be in one?

 

[siguy]

i suppose in some ways i am lucky in that i don't mind being alone for long periods of time and i find that i have trouble coming up with reasons to be stressed...

i know that in a survival situation i'm going to seek companionship because i have a tendency to want to have someone to double check my decisions, but i like to think i will be able to make do alone anyways.

i also know that in a survival situation i will likely have alot on my mind and my judgement will probably be clouded, but i also know that i constantly work towards deadening panic and stress in myself. many people that i know joke about how i lack emotions, but i really am just working on controlling my response to them, not eliminating them.

also, a calm demeanor (acted or real) in a group survival situation can help set you apart as someone that can be depended on and counted on for a sound decision. in the case of most of the members here, that is a good thing, as it would put a prepared individual in charge instead of someone that is stressing and not thinking logically.

 

[myright]

Simon - Great point!

Denial is something we would all have to work to identify quickly and work to overcome quickly.

Once we are able to recognize our weaknesses and work on a plan to overcome them we will be heading in the right direction.

 

[sasha]

80% of survival is in the head... One good reason to carry some tea and a way to boil water. When i got lost a few years ago. Instead of walking around i found a tree trunk and relaxed figured out what i would do if the worst happens. Which was sleeping outside.. Then started to look around and figured out a way out.. Been told that my main problem is lack of emotions. So i guess its not always as bad as people say about me...


Sasha

 

[gadgetgeek]

I've found that having to be calm for someone else is way easier than for ones own self. for example, while hiking back down a smallish mountain, we lost the trail, my two hiking partners both women about my age that were from more urban settings came very close to panic. to help their fears, I described to them all of the equipment I'd brought (knife matches, compass etc) and in that process I was able to realize that we were quite well prepared, even though none of us were really dressed for how cold it was, and I remained calm enough for all three of us, which became very important when we had to cross a patch of open bare rock at a decent angle, and I was able to talk them across.
One thing to also think about is how do you react when little things go "wrong" like running out of fuel, having a mechanical breakdown, or simply being stuck in traffic. do you start to freak out about whats going wrong, do you attempt to get out of the situation by reacting making things worse, or do you stop, fix the problem/ re-plan and move on. survival is just like everyday, just more extreme, and with more personal consequences.

I think that the hardest thing for us guys is changing the survival plan. we want our first plan to work, so we tend to run it all the way into the ground trying to make it happen instead of realizing that we need to change to match the conditions. ie, keeping walking believing that we can make it out long after it was time to quit and make a shelter. also knowing how you react to stress and how that will effect others. I know that under stress I loose the ability to listen, and I also know that once I feel like someone who should be leading me is in over their head, I shut them off completely, and ignore them. Even if they are 90% right, that 10% means I won't follow, which may mean I end up in greater trouble. I don't try to get people to follow me in a group, but I know which ones will, and I'll look after them, the rest are on their own to find their own leader. found all that out on a "little" trip involving a cave that wasn't supposed to be full of ice, and a very close brush with severe hypothermia. and to feed my ego, my gut call had been right all day, and I made the decision that I'm convinced kept two of us on the trip alive. we were just not ready for it, everyone else was, and kept pushing. holy crap what a ramble, hope the point gets there though.

 

[SouthernCross]

G'day myright

.....

What do we do in order to prepare ourselves mentally to endure one of the most stressful situations most of us could ever face in our lives, a true life or death survival situation?? .....


What are the things we all can think about to prepare ourselves for the mental anguish associated with these situations should we ever be in one?

Personally I believe the single greatest preparation any one can have is to spend time in the environments (ie wilderness) and situations (eg fishing/hunting/bushwalking) in which a genuine "survival situation" can occur.

If you routinely spend extended periods in these circumstances without carrying the "kitchen sink", then IMO when the real "survival situation" occurs, its not out of the norm and as such no reason to panic. Just my opinion



Kind regards
Mick

 

[Elen]

What do we do in order to prepare ourselves mentally to endure one of the most stressful situations most of us could ever face in our lives, a true life or death survival situation??

What are the things we all can think about to prepare ourselves for the mental anguish associated with these situations should we ever be in one?

I don't think I actually do anything, anymore to mentally prepare for survival situations. I do not see a need, and you can in fact take these things farther than is healthy - I've seen that happen to some guys.

Arguably the best way is to actually be in a survival situation. Experience is a harsh teacher but a good one. I've found the military a decently good place to both prepare for a survival situation and actually get into one. Been there, done that. Any further mental hardening might be considering going from a survival mindset to a suicidal one. And I find the older you get, the less interested you are in staying alive at any cost and the less afraid you are of the fact that you're going to go some day, and it doesn't really matter that much when. I'm not sure whether that's supposed to be sad, a natural progression in a man's life or even both.

It's easier to train the body than the mind for something that is extremely dangerous, I find. You won't be entirely sure what happens until when it actually happens, perhaps not even if you have been there before. I wish I had any reasonable advice, but I really don't. I could talk about maintaining a level head and stopping to think all day long, but how to actually prepare for doing that is much more difficult. Practice - get in situations that, if not actually life threatening, are stressful and demanding physically and psychologically.

 

[myright]

I don't think I actually do anything, anymore to mentally prepare for survival situations. I do not see a need, and you can in fact take these things farther than is healthy - I've seen that happen to some guys.

Arguably the best way is to actually be in a survival situation. Experience is a harsh teacher but a good one. I've found the military a decently good place to both prepare for a survival situation and actually get into one. Been there, done that. Any further mental hardening might be considering going from a survival mindset to a suicidal one. And I find the older you get, the less interested you are in staying alive at any cost and the less afraid you are of the fact that you're going to go some day, and it doesn't really matter that much when. I'm not sure whether that's supposed to be sad, a natural progression in a man's life or even both.

It's easier to train the body than the mind for something that is extremely dangerous, I find. You won't be entirely sure what happens until when it actually happens, perhaps not even if you have been there before. I wish I had any reasonable advice, but I really don't. I could talk about maintaining a level head and stopping to think all day long, but how to actually prepare for doing that is much more difficult. Practice - get in situations that, if not actually life threatening, are stressful and demanding physically and psychologically.

You make a very good point. A lot of that comes down to personal attitude and how people carry themselves in their every day life.

It's really hard to just "let go" and let the situations come to you in order challenge your reactions and learn from them. Most people I know are planners and will go into a tailspin if their life deviates from their "plan"

 

[myright]

G'day myright


Personally I believe the single greatest preparation any one can have is to spend time in the environments (ie wilderness) and situations (eg fishing/hunting/bushwalking) in which a genuine "survival situation" can occur.

If you routinely spend extended periods in these circumstances without carrying the "kitchen sink", then IMO when the real "survival situation" occurs, its not out of the norm and as such no reason to panic. Just my opinion


Kind regards
Mick

Hey Mick - What's up bro?

Preparing to suppress that "panic" reaction is crucial. I find it difficult to do since I am one of those people that have to force myself to live in the moment and not focus on "what ifs".

 

[akennedy73]

this is a really good book on what happens to the brain in survival situations

http://www.amazon.com/Deep-Survival-Who-Lives-Dies/dp/0393326152

one of the most interesting things to me is how beautiful everything becomes in extremely dangerous/threatening situations - colors become brighter, everything is just saturated with amazing beauty. i've only experienced it once myself during an urban riot - seeing broken storefronts, burning vehicles, riot cops, tear gas, etc. isn't normally beautiful but it sure did look beautiful to me that day. In the book Deep Survival they think the phenomenon of finding your surroundings to be extraordinarily beautiful during survival situations may be the brain's way of gathering more information. We enjoy looking at beautiful things and by doing so during a survival situation we may gain info that helps to see us through. It's apparently a common experience for people in survival situations.

anyways, Deep Survival is a great book - it's not a how-to manual on psychologically preparing yourself for a survival situation but it does give a good map of what the brain does in a survival situation which you can use to navigate and/or prepare yourself for both the pitfalls and benefits that your brain will give you when your life is on the line.

 

[wildmike]

It is all the practice and working with our equipment which makes us able to be mentaly prepared for such situations.

Due to my over familiarity with living through such situations I no longer panic. My response has become a constant inventory of what I have on hand and then I just start to accumulate what I need as I move along.

Mental preparedness comes through constantly training yourself to live in a survival mindset.