Mental Shock

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Story #1
Last year 49 tornadoes struck our state in one day to say the least everyone knew someone who had suffered. We were on scene as a family in under 30 minutes working to help some friends. We began the task of collecting, planning and accessing within minutes. We worked until dark when the authorities told us we had to leave. The homeowner was going to stay put so we transferred supplies from the truck and bags to him as most of his stuff was damaged, lost or just gone like his roof. We noticed we couldn't find the wife. We located her in the roofless bedroom frantically scrubbing and cleaning and actually she had done a fantastic job on a 4x4 foot area. She was commited that it had to happen before dark and was refusing to leave until the whole bedroom was clean.
Story #2
As a Soldier I encountered a wreck of other Soldiers and one had an arm that was bent at a 90 degree un-natural angle and had 1/2 of a skillcraft pen stuck in his cheek with a constant blood flow out of it. "How bad is the HUMVVE Sarge?" How about we get you back to base. "Why? I'm ok!"
Story #3
Christmas Eve, a wreck in which a 6 yr old girl is partially decapitated on the top portion of her head. The scene is worked, I'm off and out of pocket until 4 hrs later when I receive a call at 2am from another Officer who I considered a friend. He got off shift and went to get out of his unit to go enjoy Christmas with his family, including a girl the same age, in a few hours. The issue was his feet were stuck to the floorboard. He didn't remember spilling his soda while responding and then discovered it was coagulated blood holding him in place from the girl. He leaves his driveway goes back into town parks and calls in tears, screams and babbling.
Story #4
Tried to perform CPR and lost. I later threw up into a trash can and then looked at another trash can in the room and utterly destroyed it beyond recognition with my hands and feet.

So what do all these have in common. Mental shock. The breakdown of the mind after a traumatic event causing un-normal actions or reactions. EVERYONE has a breaking point and it will be reached at different times for different reasons and the reaction will be different.

So why is this important and what does it have to do with survival and preparedness?
During SHTF events no matter the size, scope or cause we will all react differently. Some will make it thru the event to only later fall apart, some will fall before things really get bad. Knowing the people around you and yourself will make the difference in how you act, react, assign tasks, and assist in the healing to get back to "normalcy" the final goal.

How do you treat it. First off I'm no Doctor, just have some life experiences. There is no cookie cutter pattern of what to do. One thing I know for sure is SOMETHING has to be done and fast. If someone reaches out to you then they need calm, solid, firm but reassuring talk and alot of listening as they sort it out in their minds. They don't need blame, negativity, criticism or sly remarks. Laughter is ok after a point but only after the hump is crossed over in their minds. They don't need a D.I. mentality telling them what a ...... they are though it may take a firm or rude awakening to snap them back into the world.

As Soldiers return we understand PTSD more and more with each war it seems. Just because the initial stress is overcome things don't always just go away and left unchecked and not fully dealt with they will reoccur for sure and even then it may not heal. Be prepared to deal with that issue as well.

Sorry no coolio gear or tacticalness blackout stuff in this post folks.

Story #1, The wife divorced the husband within days, stress related
Story #2 All recovered fully
Story #3 The Officer retired and still had issues
Story #4 I still whip an occasional trash can but they usually have it coming LOL no seriously GTG but I know Mr Control lost it that night because he didn't win. Gods will, not mine, I'm slow on the uptake sometimes.

[EX121]

Good post. It's important for those around everyone to watch for signs of stress. They don't have to be the classic, screaming & yelling, they could be just a little bit of extra sleeplessness, or sleeping too much, a bit 'grumpier' or caustic with close loved ones. Maybe and extra shot of alcohol (these are all after the event). It's important for those around the person to watch and help. The help doesn't need to be a full on 'group' mental health session, but it does help to have a talk with all of those involved. Sometimes just describing what happend and knowint that others found it disturbing is benifical.
From my own expeience of trying cpr on a 3y/o involved in a roll over crash, to several body recoveries as part of SAR duties I know it helped me. In SAR we have a Critical Stress debrief after every messy mission.
I think the days of telling someone to "suck it up buttercup" are over.
In a PAW sitiuation in my be enough to let everyone know that they are not the only ones feeling the fear, etc and work through it together.
(My wife's a mental health professional trained in Critical Stress Mangement.

[JUSTIFIED]

As someone who did not serve in the military, law enforcement, medical profession or anything else that would put me in most of these situations I can only imagine the stress level and the post event issues you guys/gals and others deal with. I just finished reading "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell. I already had incredible respect for our military folks but after reading that book my respect level went from incredible to reverent! It was a graphic, tough read...and one of the best books I've ever read.

To all who serve in some form of public service, military or otherwise I can only say with all my heart.....THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, YOUR SACRIFICE AND YOUR FAMILY'S SACRIFICE!

[1Admin]

Sometimes it's something just as simple as anticipating a strike from someone you know can really really hit hard. Like he hit you so hard you thought you miscarriaged.... only your not pregnant and not a chick....


Had to deal with the "fear" of it coming and the tension it caused. The tension can create more damage/hurt.

I've been hit "more than a few" times by more than a few people. I knew this guy was no joke and someone just told me, this wasn't going to be an easy hit. Took a while for it to leave after the fact....

"Hey man, what did you do last weekend?"

Paid for a seminar where I got my arse kicked six ways to Sunday.... But it was good cause I learned a lot of my weaknesses...

"Huh?" ;)

1admin- always learning and studying the attributes of violence......

[WiseOwl]

As someone who did not serve in the military, law enforcement, medical profession or anything else that would put me in most of these situations I can only imagine the stress level and the post event issues you guys/gals and others deal with. I just finished reading "Lone Survivor" by Marcus Luttrell. I already had incredible respect for our military folks but after reading that book my respect level went from incredible to reverent! It was a graphic, tough read...and one of the best books I've ever read.

To all who serve in some form of public service, military or otherwise I can only say with all my heart.....THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, YOUR SACRIFICE AND YOUR FAMILY'S SACRIFICE!

I am with you on this. I have no experience or experienced anything like this. I always think mentally that I will be able to handle a situation to get through it but who knows? I would hope that my mind would take over my emotions and assist me in getting whatever job done or help whoever out. Super Focus. Can that be possible, mental toughness to overcome something like this?

[WiseOwl]

Sometimes it's something just as simple as anticipating a strike from someone you know can really really hit hard. Like he hit you so hard you thought you miscarriaged.... only your not pregnant and not a chick....


Had to deal with the "fear" of it coming and the tension it caused. The tension can create more damage/hurt.

I've been hit "more than a few" times by more than a few people. I knew this guy was no joke and someone just told me, this wasn't going to be an easy hit. Took a while for it to leave after the fact....

"Hey man, what did you do last weekend?"

Paid for a seminar where I got my arse kicked six ways to Sunday.... But it was good cause I learned a lot of my weaknesses...

"Huh?" ;)

1admin- always learning and studying the attributes of violence......

This made me chuckle. I once was "scufflin" with this big arse dude and he rared back and I thought my head was about to come off. I had no way to block and knew I was going to have to take it. I tensed up so much that when his haymaker steroid punch hit me like a sack of muffin mix, I fell over because of my tensing up....lol

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I am with you on this. I have no experience or experienced anything like this. I always think mentally that I will be able to handle a situation to get through it but who knows? I would hope that my mind would take over my emotions and assist me in getting whatever job done or help whoever out. Super Focus. Can that be possible, mental toughness to overcome something like this?

Training will overcome alot of it and get you thru the tasking and allow you to focus. The afterwards will be dealt with by the mind and that is where my issue came in. I've killed but the thought of losing a complete stranger bothered me to such a degree that i had a violent outburst. There are alot of men out there that do things that are needed and it appears that it doesnt bother them because they have your "Super Focus" but at some point they will deal with issues and that is when it may become an issue. Doesnt have to be a huge issue, it might just look like a bad day just like me whiping the can and then life was normal again but it will happen so think on it ahead of time

[JUSTIFIED]

Very true. That's the purpose of focusing on drill after drill after drill. It's hammered into you so hard you act automatically. A preacher I've enjoyed for several years often says, "repeat, repeat, repeat!" If you hear the lesson enough you will eventually understand and remember it.

I know I just need to peruse the site more but has anybody talked about bugging out options? We're actively looking for an alternative place.

[Hidden Agenda]

Again, stress related issues are an often overlooked area the "preppers" fail to prep for. Thank you Matt for starting this thread.

I know that CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training has been brought up before as a good source of basic and free first aid and emergency preparedness training, but how many folks know that Disaster Psychology is a part of that training? I'm posting the link to the CERT training materials at the bottom of this post. It's free information that could help and covers a fairly broad variety of topics, such as;

The disaster and post-disaster emotional environment for victims and rescuers.

Steps that rescuers can take to relieve their own stress and that of other disaster survivors.

Disaster Trauma

Team Well-Being

Working with Survivors’ Trauma

POSSIBLE PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

POSSIBLE PHYSIOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS

WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR OWN STRESS

REDUCE STRESS DURING THE INCIDENT

CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS DEBRIEFING (CISD)

Working with Survivors’ Trauma


Here's the link: http://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/training_mat.shtm

[monkeybird]

Having worked in the Emergency Department as an R.N. for many years, I can tell you that even the calmest most professional provider has stress. The key to maintaining mental health is learning how to handle it.

Stress is cumulative, and while everyone copes in different ways, it essential to accept that everyone has stress - everyone. Females will usually talk about it. Males however, try to be the strong silent type. Males see it as weakness to give in to it. Unfortunately, these people suffer the most and will eventually break.

The stress on children of traumatic events can be life changing. Parents need to be aware that even if the child seems unaware, they are not. Take measures to talk to your children about what going on and the changes happening in their life.

http://helpguide.org/mental/stress_m...ief_coping.htm as with this link there are hundreds of sources for people to learn how to manage stress.

Matt's right. Planning for stress is essential.

[Grinnan Barrett]

The woman cleaning the bedroom when the roof is gone reminds me of a lot of people out there. When real stress hits they just tune out. I have a family member who cannot take stress at all. When a loved one was having a heart attack she started to clean the house. Eventually the body on the floor causes her to make a phone call to me to see what to do. this is something you need to consider when you look at group dynamics in a SHTF event. People with that kind of disposition may not make it and you need to be prepared to deal with it. I used to clean up murder scenes with a buddy of mine. Paid really well because it takes a lot to look at carnage. the last one we did was where a friend of ours was killed by an ax murderer. He had chased her around the house cutting her up. Not a fun time cleaning up that place. It was one thing to clean up a scene of a person you do not know but another to do it for a friends family. Tough even on us. Until you have seen someone killed in front of you do not think you know what it is like. Good post. GB

[rice paddy daddy]

Training will overcome alot of it and get you thru the tasking and allow you to focus. The afterwards will be dealt with by the mind and that is where my issue came in. I've killed but the thought of losing a complete stranger bothered me to such a degree that i had a violent outburst. There are alot of men out there that do things that are needed and it appears that it doesnt bother them because they have your "Super Focus" but at some point they will deal with issues and that is when it may become an issue. Doesnt have to be a huge issue, it might just look like a bad day just like me whiping the can and then life was normal again but it will happen so think on it ahead of time

Matt, your first post will make people think (I hope). Good post!
This next post I quoted was the first thing I thought of after reading your OP.
I was fortunate to have been trained by the US Army, but many will not have that experience.
I found that when confronted with total chaos, life or death, that my mind reverted to training and I did things without much hesitation. That "super focus", you called it.
It's later that the stress came for me, that's why its called POST traumatic stress disorder. The VA helped me out with that.
I don't know what the answer is for civilians. I don't know what training is available.
It may sound strange, but I've felt for a long time that God truly Blessed me for allowing me to experience (and survive) the Army and Vietnam. I don't ask "why", I just say "thanks."

[nakattack]

sometimes though training won't make a difference, there are some people who just can't handle the stress of life or death situations and freeze.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

Matt, your first post will make people think (I hope). Good post!
This next post I quoted was the first thing I thought of after reading your OP.
I was fortunate to have been trained by the US Army, but many will not have that experience.
I found that when confronted with total chaos, life or death, that my mind reverted to training and I did things without much hesitation. That "super focus", you called it.
It's later that the stress came for me, that's why its called POST traumatic stress disorder. The VA helped me out with that.
I don't know what the answer is for civilians. I don't know what training is available.
It may sound strange, but I've felt for a long time that God truly Blessed me for allowing me to experience (and survive) the Army and Vietnam. I don't ask "why", I just say "thanks."

Glad you jumped in, I was hopeful

[rice paddy daddy]

Your point is sound. No one knows what he/she will do until the situation arises. Stress training is very beneficial. I personally found that after I get over the initial fear of a given situation a calmness sets in. And I have been tested in regular life as well.
Everyone will be tested at some point in their life, many times, actually. Your child is injured and needs help, your dog got loose and hit by a car.
Dramatic, end-of-the-world situations may never happen in one's lifetime, but smaller ones will - it's the nature of life.
Pay attention and learn from each situation.