# Psychology of Survival



## JackDanielGarrett (Sep 27, 2010)

I recently watch a show by Ray Mears on the Psychology of Survival on YouTube and it made me think. We have "rooms" of long term stored food, we have canned and bought MRE's. We have done what we feel is the right thing to help, provide and protect our families. Some of us a very very well stocked while others are working on it....and that's cool. 

BUT..are WE, or our families mentally ready? Are we strong and confident enough to have them trust and follow what we deem as correct? There is a mind set that may peoples don't have, and I am preaching to the choir...I know. You see it all the time, some call it news, I call it the comic pages. Some people have The Will to live, others don't. Like you can't fix stupid, you also can't show or help them. Those will go first. PatriotNurse, on YouTube, which I think is a very smart person says this, "In case of the balloon going up, people on psych drugs, blood pressure, heart meds and diabetics won't be around." But if you want to live you can, a friend of mine asks his Doc every year for another prescription to fill on his own, doubles the dosage, so he can break the pills in half and now he has 3 years worth. I know they only last about a year, so he does that every year. He is ready to survive.

The will to live has to be planted in you, you have to want it. All your stocks put you ahead of the game. And we all have nutty stocks that are important to us. Shhh...I have 3 sets of ka-bob skewers. Hey, lightweight and I can roast a squirrel on it, or a bug or a rat..etc. See what I mean?
I am not hear to debate anything, I know nothing, so having said that my hope is to make us all think about surviving. Doesn't have to be zombie attacks from drug users in south Fl, anything. Will you and your team pull like evenly yoked oxen together, to achieve the goal of living?

BTW, I still love this forum, you guys rock!
Jack


----------



## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

The proper mind set is the single most important thing you can take into a survival situation. Those weak of heart, or those that lose their sense of humor will be at a great disadvantage. If you let yourself fall into depression you will not have the energy or clear thinking required to survive. I would suggest that most of the members here will do quite well psychologically though some of their loved ones may not fare as well. Someone that has accepted the possibility of a situation and prepared for it is far more likely to adapt and do well than someone that has denied even the potential. Along these lines we have our children practice fire drills at school.


----------



## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

In law enforcement we go through a lot of mental preparedness training. Tactical thinking, desensitizing violence, coping with stress, etc., etc. We lay it on heavy with new and young LEO's to prepare them for the scary and tragic things they will see. But we continue the training so veterans do not become alcoholics, drug abusers or suicidal. It is also very similar to the types of mental training that would benefit something in a post-event world. It always comes down to adaptability and forcing yourself to continue to function even when your mind doesn't want to.


----------



## Turtle (Dec 10, 2009)

I'm certain that Sentry and few others are familiar with Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, but for those who are not:

http://www.killology.com/

I have had the distinct pleasure of attending Lt. Col. Grossman's presentations, and the pleasure of meeting of the gentleman afterwards. He is recognized as one of the top authorities on the warrior mindset, perhaps in the world. Not only that, but he is a great guy. I've read two of his books, and they are both the type of book that you could read many times and pick up something new every time.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

Sentry18 said:


> In law enforcement we go through a lot of mental preparedness training...... It is also very similar to the types of mental training that would benefit something in a post-event world. It always comes down to adaptability and forcing yourself to continue to function even when your mind doesn't want to.


This is a great reason to make friends with some police officers in your area!


----------



## SmokeyNJ (Jun 12, 2013)

Positive attitude, keep busy, and DO NOT do what Bear Grylls does.


----------



## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

JackDanielGarrett said:


> Will you and your team pull like evenly yoked oxen together, to achieve the goal of living?


This is why it's so important to have a whole bunch of "who-you-knows" beforehand. Friends and people you can trust will be entirely necessary for psychological support in hard times.


----------



## Jerry D Young (Jan 28, 2009)

My thoughts on 'The Philosophy of Survival' from my old prep manual. 

Section 1: The Philosophy of Survival

Chapter 1: The Will to Survive

The will to survive exists in all of us to one degree or another. It is usually considered a strictly personal reaction to danger. I believe it to be much more complex. Most believe that dying to protect your family, home, country, and ideals is a suppression of the will to survive. I believe it to be an extension of the will to survive to include those things that are important to the person.

My point is less about what a person will do to avoid dying, or what he will die for, but rather what a person will do to prevent harm or death from coming to his family and community.

“If it happens, I hope I die in the first blast! I don’t want to be around during the aftermath.” I have heard this statement often when mention is made of the possibility of being on the receiving end of a nuclear attack. They probably mean it when they say it. From lessons learned from other cases of widespread destruction, the reality of the matter is that if they do not die, their inborn will to survive kicks in. They search for ways for themselves, their families, and their communities to survive.

During the simple “It can’t happen to me” emergencies, calling the proper emergency authorities is usually sufficient to provide the best possible care. Normally, if you need food, water, or medication, you simply go to the grocery store, open a faucet, or visit the pharmacy. These options are not always open to you in a true emergency.

“Why should I spend good money and waste my time preparing? It will never happen, and if it does it will probably kill me anyway.” Those that express this opinion are usually the first ones in line at Red Cross or community emergency supply lines.

I will admit that the system usually works adequately. Unfortunately, when large scale or extreme disasters occur, no governmental or civic functions will remain intact. Under those conditions, the ordinary, law-abiding, church-going citizen patronizes the black market to feed the family and put coats on the backs of his children.

If a parent cannot purchase the items his family needs, even on the black market, then desperation may set in. Since a mother or father will do almost anything to prevent their family from suffering, if the item they need exists, but is not for sale or handout, they will lie, cheat, steal, and yes, even kill, to provide the items they need.



Chapter 2: The Convenience Factor

There is always a chance for a major disaster, as will be shown later, but troublesome, non-life-threatening situations occur with some regularity. The water is off to repair a water main; a storm knocks out the electricity; a heavy snow makes you think twice or three times about going to the store for a can of tomato paste for the spaghetti sauce. These situations are not inherently dangerous, but inconvenient, and with the potential to become dangerous depending on decisions made and actions taken.

Children might enjoy the excitement of a power outage for a few hours, but then get restless without TV, lights, flush toilets, and access to the refrigerator and microwave. Adults are seldom much better, becoming annoyed and upset without the accustomed creature comforts.

All these inconveniences are unnecessary. Most of them can be eliminated with simple preparations, and allow you to live confidently in the midst of the odd minor disaster or circumstance.


Chapter 3: Hoarding versus Storing

One of the toughest obstacles I encounter when suggesting disaster preparedness is the accusation of hoarding. When I suggest keeping a rotating supply of food and fuel, someone usually says, “But that is hoarding!” No, it is not. Making realistic preparations in advance is not hoarding. It is just good common sense.

Hoarding is drawing from a scarce supply more than your fair share to the detriment of others. Storing or Prepping, as we use the term, is storing in times of plenty for use in times of scarcity This means you will not be drawing from already scare supplies when they are needed by others. Prepping is really anti-hording.

Running into the store and grabbing as much of everything you can get your hands on before someone beats you to it, is hoarding. So is holding back supplies that have been pledged to others. If you have agreed to share, and don’t, that is hoarding.

After the hoarding accusation, someone usually pulls the, “It is not fair for some to have much and others to have none” routine. The realities of human nature are that the more people that have made preparations, the less competition there is for the remaining resources of a community. It makes little difference to the grocery store owner if you have six cases of tuna stored in your pantry, or absolutely none. The store will still have the same number of cans of tuna on the shelf when a disaster occurs. If you did not prepare before the disaster you will probably be at the store trying to get your share of tuna before someone else does.

Not only do preparations reduce the competition for available resources, it increases the total resource base of the community. Most people will share what they can with friends, neighbors, and even total strangers who really need help, if they have adequate supplies for their family.


Chapter 4: Chance and Random Occurrence

Another argument I often run into when suggesting disaster preparations is that no matter what preparations you may make, there is still a chance you will be killed or injured. That is quite true. I will never deny it. If you are at “ground zero”, you are going to die, but most people will not even be in a targeted city. Even then, the missile may malfunction, or just plain miss the target.

You live a hundred miles from a target. You have food for a year, means to obtain more, a fallout shelter, and more, but the missile meant for that target a hundred miles away lands a hundred miles short. You’ve done everything right, but you still wind up dead. Still, the odds are heavily in your favor that this will not happen. 

The reverse is also true. The poor homeless person that has been living in a drain pipe when the warheads start going off, has his grocery cart full of scavenged items, because he never knows where his next meal is coming from. He’s in a Protection Factor 100 (PF 100) shelter, and can live for two weeks on what he has, since he’s used to getting by on the minimum.

You never know exactly what will happen. However, there is a wide range of possibilities between nothing happening and your death. You can definitely reduce the possibility of death from most disasters and greatly increase your chances of comfort and survival after the disaster actually occurs.

You should consider something else, as well. What about your family if you are killed or injured? Should they suffer just because you thought you might die and did not want to make preparations? If you do die, without making preparations, they are even worse off, since you are not around to help provide for them. If you are injured, not only must they fend for themselves, they must also care for you.

Many elderly and disadvantaged people are afraid they will be useless after a disaster due to age or physical problems. If they can help others with their preparations, who in turn help them, they will have made a worthwhile contribution to the community, rather than becoming a burden upon it. It may well be the finest possible inheritance you can leave your children and grandchildren in any case. 
 
Chapter 5: Cost Considerations

This chapter is about more than just money. It includes money, of course, but also the psychological costs of your preparations.

It would be nice to be in the position to go out and buy exactly what you want for your emergency preparations, all at once. That simply is not possible for most of us. You must weigh all the factors and then decide how much you can spend to achieve your aims over whatever period of time you decide is best for your circumstances.

However, the psychological costs are just as important. If worrying about a gun in the house keeps you awake every night, or the thought of the neighbors laughing behind your back about you having a fallout shelter bothers you, you are probably better off not taking these precautions. The point is, know yourself and your feelings. Making all the preparations in the world are useless if you become so uncomfortable and worrisome that you run your family off and wind up in the hospital with ulcers.

Make what preparations are comfortable to you in both monetary and psychological costs. Read all you can about the subject. Do not take my advice and recommendations, or anyone else’s, blindly. Study, evaluate, and try out all practical possibilities and select those that fit your personal financial and psychological needs.

You must make decisions, preferably beforehand, concerning the legalities of some survival preparations that described in this text. Many government laws hold no moral authority and are ripe for misuse.

Do you report all your gold and silver holdings? Do you get amateur, CB and Business Band radio licenses or bootleg on those frequencies? Do you register all your guns or hold them illegally? Do you report all your provisions and stocks to the martial law officials knowing that much of what you have accumulated will be taken to provide for others you might prefer not to help?

These are serious questions that only you should answer. I am not advocating breaking the law. I am trying to point out options. This book is about options. Again, I cannot stress this strongly enough. Do what is within you financial and psychological comfort zone.

Chapter 6: Life Styles

It matters little to spend a fortune on emergency preparations if you allow them to deteriorate, or have them locked away out of reach, or go out blindly without thinking of the consequences during a riot or some other trouble. You will have spent the money and the preparations will turn out to be of no value.

You should adjust your lifestyle to reduce the chance of trouble. This usually does not entail drastic change. The primary adjustment is being aware of the consequences of all your actions and the effects that external events have on your life.

One small example: Be aware of the fact that when the electricity is off, the gasoline stations cannot pump fuel unless they have an emergency generator, which most do not. Therefore, when you hear the National Weather Service, local radio station, or TV station forecasting severe thunderstorms, it is only prudent to have your vehicle filled with fuel before the storm hits and possibly knocks out the electrical power and the availability of gasoline.

That is a physical example. Most of the things you must do are simply attitude changes. Know the trouble spots around your area. If you travel, plan your trips to avoid as many potential or actual problem areas along your route as possible. Use your communications equipment to stay in touch with your family and keep track of events occurring locally, nationally, and globally.

Get professional training in those subjects you cannot teach yourself effectively. Do not just have the equipment. Use it. Close your shutters during storms. Practice with your weapons occasionally. Rotate food stocks periodically by obtaining replacements and using the old items in your regular meal planning. Run emergency drills every so often to remain familiar with them. Think out all the possible consequences when you plan to do something out of the ordinary.

Activate and use your contingency plans during minor emergencies like strikes, blackouts, and storms. Do not wait until something real happens before you use your equipment, supplies, and knowledge. It is easy to forget how to effectively operate your equipment when not using it regularly. During an actual emergency, tension, fatigue, and fear make it many times more difficult to operate effectively. Familiarity with the equipment can help overcome these problems.

Get into, and stay in, good physical shape. Try to reduce your dependence on doctors and medications. Develop a good relationship with your doctor, dentist, and pharmacist to get advice for medical kits, prescription medications, and expedient medical methods.

Learn to conserve energy, water, and other resources that are likely to be in short supply during an emergency. Have contingency plans for when you are away from home and for when the children are away at school or events. Teach everyone in the household how to handle any weapons you have or, at the very least, how not to use them.

Encourage local and state emergency preparedness projects. After all, the stronger the community, the more you can depend on their help if needed. Reduce your dependence on those commercially produced products which may be difficult to find in hard times. Try a few practice meals from your emergency food stocks, since while their use is not difficult, they can be different from your normal foods and may take some getting used to. This also helps you find trouble spots in the food plan and correct them.

Never stop learning. Continue to research all aspects of being prepared. Read prep websites, and particularly prep forums. New information and new points of view are posted regularly.

The point of all these activities is to get into the habit of living a prepared lifestyle. Then when, not if, something happens, (unless it is The Big One), it will simply be another day in the life of a well-prepared family.


Chapter 7: Secrecy & Operational Security

It matters little if you have made extensive preparations for your family’s survival if everyone knows about it and comes knocking on your door. After handing out material to those who need it, confiscation by the military, and attempts by armed raiders to take what remains, you have nothing left and your family will starve.

The fewer who know that you have resources which are in short supply, the more secure you are. Undoubtedly, it is impossible to keep your disaster preparations completely secret. But be selective about who knows how extensive they are. Even if a few people know you have some water stored for emergencies, they need not know how much. To people who are thirsty, two or three gallons of water would seem like a great deal.

Close friends and relatives could probably be told much more. However, unless they agree with you and make preparations of some kind themselves, those people tend to either brag or scoff about your preparations whenever the subject comes up in a group. They mean no harm, but the seed can be planted and grow to come back to haunt you later. Later in the manual, I explain a good way to help overcome the damage of too many people knowing you have made preparations.

One easy way to keep your preparations as quiet as possible is to pay cash for everything and get a cash ticket, rather than a ticket with your name and address on it. This may be difficult sometimes, but do it wherever possible, especially for really critical items.

Credit card and mail order purchases have extensive documentation. If the authorities check on purchases of certain classes of materials at stores they have got you if you used a credit card or time payment. And the government has been known to use this tactic before. If some things must be bought on credit, try to buy less important items, or things that can be used immediately. You do not necessarily have to use them immediately, but if it is plausible that you could have, you do at least have an excuse to not produce them if asked to do so.

If you operate on a continuing loan situation normally, and many people do, try to avoid listing your emergency equipment as collateral. Either borrow enough on other household items, or use the loan for everyday items and use your cash for emergency supplies. I cannot recommend borrowing heavily for emergency equipment and supplies. For, despite popular literature disaster scenarios, it is not too likely you could get away with buying on time and credit card, and taking out large loans just before an emergency. Primarily because, unlike most of the disaster novels, in reality, the disaster ends and things return to more or less normal, including debt collections.

Try to spread out the purchases you make to several stores, in more than one town or area if possible. This reduces the chance of anyone noticing that you are making extensive preparations. It also is a good idea to make any credit card or time payment purchases at these out of town stores to make it a little harder to trace back to you.

There is one exception to this rule. There are a few stores and mail order establishments specializing in survival supplies who maintain records for only the minimum amount of time, or who deal in cash only, with no names or records wherever possible. The risks are much smaller if you do business with such establishments.


Just my opinion.


----------



## Navajo (Mar 4, 2013)

A couple of thoughts, by far not as detailed as some of you.

When I went Iraq as a civilian contractor setting up the Baghdad city government I saw a few things that I try to share with people.

1) get you mind made up ahead of time of what you will be facing...in that case it was possible death, not just a possible fire fight, but also, rocket and motar attacks maybe IED's. Some guys showed up all macho and first attack they were crying and screaming and if possible they left the next flight out. Prepare your mind for the reality you are going into , not some fantasy idea from some TV show you saw once.

2) Practice, practice, practice...

This means not only camping, to learn how to live primitive, but also, do stuff around your house as a "hobby" grow a garden, can some food, hunt, process your own game, eat a variety of things you have grow and killed....learn what is edible in your environment and eat them!

3)Make your peace with God....I will live forever, death is no big deal...if you don't have that worked out ahead of time...your will not do so well as you slowly realize death is a very real possibility



4) DON'T PANIC 


5) know where your towel is


----------



## JackDanielGarrett (Sep 27, 2010)

I was raised LEO/military and the things my Dad taught me then, I still carry today, included how to treat people in an emergency. 

But I wonder...is it the training that gives you the will to carry on, or is in you already? The worker in India that was trapped for like 13 day in the building collapse. She lived on dried fruit and water that was nearby. The climber that got his arm crushed and he cut it off with his pocket knife. Was that training or a very strong will to continue? Training is #1, you can tote more in your brain than on your back, so I am not downplaying experience. Many of you military folks probably saw weakness in basic training, some people couldn't handle it..it was way too much for them.

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Jack


----------



## MDsapper (Mar 12, 2013)

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
Jack[/QUOTE]

what does'nt kill me had better run


----------



## Mr_Practical (Oct 27, 2011)

Mental preparedness isn't just about thinking "can I" or thinking "what will I..." You can "think" all you want but what it really comes down to is acting out your plans. Having a set time to bug out or having a bug out location means nothing with out the WILL to act it out and practice. Having a weekly dry run or practice session with the family prepares the mind. We are creatures of habit and we love familiarity.


----------



## Navajo (Mar 4, 2013)

I forgot to add this under the pracrice practice , practice part..

By doing this you build "muscle memory" making a fire, making a shelter, gather game...these are things you should be able to do without taking your eyes off the world around you, if you have to focus on simple task, you will not be paying attention to the world around you...and you will not be able to quickly do something when you need to do something quickly...say a storm is coming up, you need shelter quickly, someone gets hurt and you need fire for warmth, or sterile tools quickly, what if you are on the run and kill some game, processing it quickly without reading a book would be necessary to your survival.

cleaning a rifle...there is a reason the military expects the very best to be able to do this in the dark.... what if your rifle breaks down or gets jammed and the only time you have taken it apart is on a bench with a manual in front of you??? you your loved ones are captured and then what???

Do you know how do simple task without reading instructions concentrate effort?

And with all this practice comes....CONFIDENCE! You will know you have the ability to survive... cause you have been doing it.


----------



## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

Develop a keen sense of black humor !


----------

