When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes

by Cody Lundin

  Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often thought to only involve combat veterans, but nothing could be further from the truth. PTSD affects hundreds of thousands of people and can be experienced by anyone (research has shown that more females are affected than males) who has undergone or witnessed life-threatening events such as serious accidents, disasters, violent assaults, or war. In fact, 10 percent of the U.S. population has been affected at some point by clinically diagnosable PTSD. In essence, PTSD is a powerful physical and emotional response to reminders of a traumatic event, the effects of which may last for weeks, months, or even years after the initial event.

  People at greater risk for developing symptoms of PTSD are those who were "in the middle" of the disaster itself, had multiple stressors at one time, and/or have a past history of trauma. Recent traumas may also trigger old pain and unresolved fears. Events such as direct threats to life, exposure to grisly deaths or maimed bodies, extreme destruction and loss, lack of family support, and the effects of fatigue, hunger, thirst, and sleep deprivation during an extended catastrophe will hammer a person's ability to function.

  The symptoms of PTSD can occur years after the traumatic event but usually appear within three months after the incident, and fall into three distinct categories: reliving, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Reliving refers to "flashbacks" of the past disaster that come up unexpectedly in a person's life. These flashbacks can be mild or severe and can heavily influence an individual's normal lifestyle. Some flashbacks can be so intense that the person will think they are living through the experience all over again during waking hours. Nightmares are also very common. Avoidance is common in people with PTSD, and they will often avoid building or maintaining close relationships with friends or family. They will also go to tremendous lengths to avoid situations that resemble the initial trauma. People with PTSD may have trouble working out their anger, grief, or fear, which can continue to affect their behavior without their being aware of it. People affected may also become hyperaroused and feel constantly threatened by their initial trauma. They may have trouble remembering information, a difficult time concentrating, and a hard time sleeping. Their "fuse" may be short and they may get angry or reactive with little or no provocation.

  Statistically, half of those with PTSD recover within three months without formal treatment. People who feel they can't regain control of their lives and who have persistent behavioral changes for more than a month should consider seeking professional mental health assistance.

  The Physiological Fear Factory

  "WE CAN BE AFRAID OR WE CAN BE READY, AND AMERICANS ARE NOT AFRAID."

  —FORMER SECRETARY TOM RIDGE, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

  During any traumatic emergency, be it in the backcountry of Idaho or downtown Chicago, you will be scared. Get used to this truth now, and the effects of anxiety and fear will be far less paralyzing when they happen to you and those you love.

  While the body's initial response to fear has saved countless lives since time began, the long-term stress of fear and the damage it does to the human body has been clinically proven for decades.

  * * *

  FIVE FACTORS DICTATING

  THE SEVERITY OF AN SNS

  TOTAL-BODY TAKEOVER

  Severity of the perceived threat

  Time available to respond

  Personal confidence in skills and training

  Level of experience in dealing with the threat

  Amount of physical fatigue combined with present anxiety

  * * *

  When the brain perceives a "threat to survival," the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) goes nuts by immediately releasing loads of stress hormones—called adrenaline or epinephrine—into the circulatory system. This reflex action to stress happens automatically and is virtually uncontrollable. The chemical cocktail is the basis for the body's fight-or-flight mechanism and is characterized by several factors, including an increased heart rate and cardiac output, higher blood pressure, and increased blood sugar. Blood is diverted from organs to the larger muscle groups, resulting in increased strength capabilities and enhanced gross motor skills while the breathing rate accelerates, thereby transporting greater amounts of oxygen to the newly recruited muscle fibers. At the same time, sweating increases to cool the muscles. Minor blood vessels in the arms and legs constrict to reduce bleeding from potential injuries, digestion ceases, and muscle tremors take over. The pupils dilate, reducing depth perception, while axillary muscle performance takes a nosedive, creating blurred vision. And, as if this isn't enough, the field of sight narrows, producing tunnel vision. To a greater or lesser extent, time appears to pass more slowly, called the Tache-psyche effect, allowing for increased reaction time to the perceived emergency.

  Researchers have spent years figuring out why stress deteriorates performance in combat soldiers, ultimately linking an elevated heart rate to the poor execution of fine and complex motor skills. They found that a heart rate of 115 beats per minute or faster severely compromised fine motor skills. When the heart rate exceeded 145 beats per minute, complex motor skills began to suffer. In contrast, in times of high stress, gross motor skills were relatively unaffected! That's one more reason to keep your family's preparedness plan and the items you choose to store simple in design.

  Once the physiological chaos begins, the SNS rules the body with an iron fist, controlling all voluntary and involuntary systems until the survival threat has been eliminated, personal performance takes a dump, or the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) regains control. The more freaked out you or your family members become, the more the SNS takes over your world. Before busting down the door in the middle of the night, police officers on a raid routinely experience low levels of SNS activity, resulting in increased heart rate and respiration, muscle tremors, and a heightened sense of anxiety. Being rushed by a hungry, one-eyed, one-armed flying purple people eater and its pet Zygot, however, will cause very high levels of SNS action due to the qualities of in-your-face potential death coupled with decreased response time. Such circumstances cause extreme failure of the body's visual, cognitive, and motor-control systems.

  Additional problems surface when one realizes the body's physiological response to extreme stress and the PNS payback occur as a result of the demands placed upon it. The SNS mobilizes body resources to deal with the perceived survival scenario. It is the body's "physiological warrior," instantly heading to the front lines for battle regardless of your opinion. The PNS deals with your body's digestive system and its recuperative processes. It is the physiological equivalent of the body's nurturing caretaker, accomplishing everyday tasks for the present and future.

  When your body is subjected to stress, the natural balance between the two nervous systems goes down the tubes and the physiological warrior starts to raise hell (fight-or-flight mechanism). As the body's energy is redirected to ensure its survival, its caretaker is thrown into battle as well and nonessential PNS activities suddenly take a dump, sometimes literally. As a result of PNS shutdown, thousands of World War II veterans admitted to urinating or defecating in their pants during combat operations.

  A: Constricted Minor Blood Vessels

  B: Dilated Pupils

  C: Increased Breathing Rate

  D: Increased Sweating

  E: Increased Heart Rate Dumps Adrenaline into Circulatory System

  F: Digestion Ceases

  G: Loss of Bowel Control

  H: Blood Diverted to Larger Muscle Groups

  * * *

  PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FEAR FACTORS

  While the reactions to fear and stress or anxiety are largely the same, anxiety is usually not as intense as fear and persists for a longer length of time, leading up to a specific threat or fear. For example, listening to an emergency radio broadcast of an approaching tornado will stress you out and make you anxious. Feeling your house shake violently down to its foundation when it strikes will cause fear.

  Physical symptoms of fear:


  Increased heart rate

  Shortness of breath

  Tightness in chest and throat

  Dry mouth, higher-pitched voice, stammering

  Increased muscular tension, trembling, and weakness

  Sweaty palms, hands, soles of the feet, and armpits

  Dilated pupils

  Butterflies in the stomach (hollowness), feeling faint, and nausea

  Oversensitivity to noise

  Psychological symptoms of fear:

  Shock, numbness, denial, helplessness

  Confusion, forgetfulness, and the inability to concentrate

  Irritability, hostility or passivity, stupor

  Talkativeness leading to speechlessness

  Restlessness

  Panic, flight

  Feelings of unreality, social withdrawal, and depersonalization

  Sadness, crying, sighing

  Auditory and visual hallucinations

  Disrupted sleep and appetite

  * * *

  PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OF FEAR

  It's a lot of work for the body to maintain such an intense state of alert. At the end of the crisis, the PNS demands attention and the physiological payback commences in the form of feeling amazingly exhausted on all levels. But there's more. An urban survival situation is a continuous roller coaster of ups and downs, thus the hapless survivor is a slave to repeated chemical cocktails of intense adrenaline spikes and their PNS paybacks. Bit by bit, the body's once-natural and useful response to danger starts to chemically wear the survivor down, pitching the person into a state of immense physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion. In summary, human beings have three primary survival systems: visual, cognitive processing, and motorskill performance. Under stress, all three go to hell in a handbasket.

  The physiological responses to fear can be broken down into four crucial factors for the survivor:

  1 Fear inhibits your metabolic process. Your body produces heat by digesting the calories in the foods you eat. If this is impaired, your body has a harder time regulating its core temperature in your frigid living room when the gas heat shuts off. Thus, the onset of hypothermia or low body temperature can manifest much more rapidly. By metabolizing food, your body creates energy that can be used to create a warmer microclimate in your home, help a neighbor gather and split firewood, or dig a sanitation trench in the backyard.

  2 Fear impairs your circulation. Basic first-aid training stresses the importance of the ABCs (airway, breathing, and circulation). Your circulatory system is how your body feeds itself, delivers oxygen to cells, eliminates waste products, and keeps itself warm and cool. In cold temperatures, blood flow is the primary means by which your body maintains its peripheral temperature, which is automatically restricted by the SNS's response to stress. Compromising circulation puts your odds for living into a serious tailspin in both hot and cold climates. In addition, your circulatory system may already be impaired due to dehydration.

  3 Fear impairs your good judgment. Good judgment is your number one tool for preventing or dealing with a survival predicament in the first place. Poor judgment calls, without a doubt, are the hallmark of every single fatality during an emergency. Occurrences such as auditory exclusion, tunnel vision, irrational behavior, freezing in place, and the inability to think clearly have all been observed as by-products of survival stress. Do all you can to chill out and calm yourself and your family, redirecting your energies away from the fear factors.

  4 Fear impairs your fine and complex motor skills. Although these phenomena have been observed and documented for hundreds of years, and formally studied since the late 1800s, there is very little understanding by researchers as to why stress deteriorates performance.

  There are three generic classifications of motor movements or skills involving coordinated action from your body. They are gross, fine, and complex motor skills. Gross motor movements signify action involving the larger muscle groups of the body, such as the arms and legs. Running, jumping, pushing, pulling, and punching are some examples. Fine motor skills involve some type of "hand-eye" coordination, such as threading a needle or using a cell phone. Complex motor skills comprise a whole string or series of motor movements, such as performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or changing a tire. The problem lays in the fact that fine and complex motor skills deteriorate rapidly under stress. Highly detailed activities, such as striking and lighting a paper match in the wind to ignite a camping stove, become nearly impossible to perform under psychological pressure and the physiological flow of adrenaline, rendering all but the simplest of tasks out of the question. Once the proverbial bullets start to fly, the survivor stops thinking with his or her forebrain, the part that makes us human, and instead depends on the "mid" or mammalian brain, the primitive part of the brain that's unrecognizable from that of an animal.

  In contrast, gross motor skills are performed very well under extreme stress and are easier and quicker to learn, often taking just a few minutes of practice to begin forming a motor pattern. For this reason and others, purchase or make survival gear that is simple in design—gear that can be operated using gross motor movements. For example, pay a few extra bucks when purchasing a camping stove and get the model with the push button or turn-dial spark lighter instead of having to fumble with a match. If the spark lighter wears out or breaks, you can still use a match to light the stove. Unfortunately, much survival training ignores this fundamental truth by continuing to promote complex, detail-oriented skills and behaviors that have little application in a real-life emergency. These training mistakes are many times responsible for a person's failure to use what he or she has learned when faced with a scary situation.

  It's long been a cliche that fear kills, and now you know why. Knowledge and practice is power. The more training you have dealing with situations that could jeopardize your family's life, the more efficient you'll act if placed within that situation.

  Helpful Hints for Dealing with and Controlling Fear

  Reading other people's true survival stories is all the proof you'll need that when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Throughout history, people have dealt with and surmounted virtually every possible fear imagined. For optimal results in the field or the city, work at cultivating the following tips until the behavior becomes a natural, automatic reaction.

  Controlling Fear in Yourself

  Be prepared. Accept the fact that a survival situation could, in fact, happen to you and your family and plan accordingly. Aside from physical practice, being prepared involves advanced planning, cooperating and communicating with loved ones, mental and physical conditioning, discipline, and an intimate understanding of the emergency gear you propose to have on hand.

  Get the family together and train! Accepting that a deadly scenario could happen is not enough. Learn all that you can about urban survival and what your body can endure. Recognize and understand what your reactions to fear will be. Practicing skills builds confidence and strengthens a "can do" attitude regarding your tribe's ability to survive.

  Don't run from fear. When you're afraid, take a step back from the fear and just notice it. Ignore the urge to analyze, judge, criticize, evaluate, or try to figure it out. Stepping back provides emotional space and reduces much of the charge around the fear energy.

  Stay aware of your surroundings. Learn to recognize the early warning signs of dangerous situations. Gain knowledge to reduce the perceived threat of the unknown.

  Stay constructively busy. Conserving energy as a survivor is key, yet do all that you can to make your situation more comfortable, reducing difficulties that encourage fear. Staying busy keeps the mind off fearful circumstances and gives you a sense that you're in control of your destiny.

  Keep your imagination in check. Stick to the known facts by separating the real from the imagined.

  Adapt to your surroundings. Prepare yourself to think and act instinctively, like an animal, without judgment over your actions. In a sense, if yo
u can't beat fear, join it. Formulate plans B, C, and D before they're needed but don't become attached to any of them.

  Discipline yourself to think positively. Even when talking to yourself, strive to use positive "I AM" statements, such as, "I AM going to make it out of here with my family" and "I AM going to be rescued."

  Adopt a positive survival attitude. Keep things in perspective and focus your attention firmly upon the goal of keeping you and your family alive and safe until rescued.

  Ask for help. Whether you're currently walking upon a spiritual path or not, it's never too late to start.

  Use humor. Kind humor transforms crummy attitudes.

  Remember your survival priorities. If you need to get out of dodge to avoid the full brunt of a disaster, do so. No possession is worth more than your life or the lives of those you love.

  Controlling Fear in Others

  Be a positive example. Maintain a calm presence and keep control, even if you feel out of control; inspire courage, hope, faith, and the willingness to keep trying. This is especially important around kids.

  Maintain discipline. Work toward finding and maintaining order and harmony within your family and throughout your neighborhood in a gentle yet firm manner. Search out people's strengths and assign them focused tasks to assist the group. Giving people things to do lessens feelings of helplessness and takes their mind away from the current situation, while giving them a sense of control regarding their destiny.