Acting out of fear can get you into more trouble than the situation you are already in. Fear comes in many forms and levels. The simplest might be fear of insects, spiders and snakes, more intense fear might the instilled fear of heights, public speaking, the unknown, and extreme fear might be the fear of death, injury or pain. The most intense form of fear can completely incapacitate a person. Even though each level of fear elicits a primal reaction, each person will have a different response based on their experiences.
To enhance your likelihood of survival or functioning during a bad event, you must learn how to control your fear. It is not easy and requires significant training and practice to master the process. But it should equally as important as any part of your planning process such as, packing your Get Home Bag, practicing personal protection shooting and being physically fit.
As part of evolution the human brain has developed a very sophisticated means of dealing with fear to enable us to survive. In doomsday preppersmost cases, fear is primal in function and activates our bodies to take the “fight or flight” posture and response. There are many respected people that believe premonition is also a fear response. That your body can feel or anticipate something bad, thus making you feel uncomfortable and having the desire to feel like you need to be on alert. Whether real or perceived, in each of these cases, your body is responding to what it perceives as a threat and your fear response has been activated.
When something instantly scares you, it is easy have a primordial response and over react, respond quickly without thinking and immediately go into a defensive mode. Anyone one of these three primal responses could save your life on the other hand any one of these three responses could injury or kill you too.
Some of the devastating effects of fear are hesitation, confusion and chaos. When those are the first responses to a fearful event, you are at a disadvantage. Even worst these factors can interfere with your ability to analyze the situation, thus it will take longer than normal to regain your thoughts, situational awareness and figure out what is happening. In the interim, you or someone else may become of victim of the circumstance because of your delay in properly responding to the threat.
Let’s explore how fear is managed by the body. (continue reading)