Man has been able to survive many shifts in his environment throughout the centuries. His ability to
adapt physically and mentally to survival stress in an ever-changing world kept him alive while many other species gradually died off.
The same survival mechanisms that kept our forefathers alive can help keep us alive as well! However, these survival mechanisms that can help us can also work against us if we don’t understand and anticipate their presence.
It is not surprising that the average person will have strong psychological and physiological reactions in a survival situation.
Let’s examine some of the internal reactions you and anyone with you might experience.
Natural Reactions to Stress in a Survival Situation
Fear
Fear is our emotional response to dangerous circumstances that we believe have the potential to cause death, injury, or illness. This harm is not just limited to physical damage; the threat to one’s emotional and mental well-being can generate fear as well.
For anyone trying to survive, fear can have a positive function if it encourages us to be cautious in situations where recklessness could result in injury. Unfortunately, fear can also immobilize a person. It can cause him to become so frightened that he fails to perform activities essential for survival.
Most of us will have some degree of fear when placed in unfamiliar surroundings under adverse conditions. There is no shame in this! Everyone must train himself not to be overcome by his fears. Ideally, through realistic training, we can acquire the knowledge and skills needed to increase our confidence and thereby manage our fears.
Anxiety
Associated with fear is anxiety. Because it is natural for us to be afraid, it is also natural for us to
experience anxiety.
Anxiety can be an uneasy, apprehensive feeling we get when faced with dangerous situations (physical, mental, and emotional). When used in a healthy way, anxiety urges us to act to end, or at least master, the dangers that threaten our existence. If we were never anxious, there would be little
motivation to make changes in our lives.
Anyone in a survival setting reduces his anxiety by performing those tasks that will ensure his coming through the ordeal alive. As he reduces his anxiety, he is also bringing under control the source of that anxiety — his fears. In this form, anxiety is good; however, anxiety can also have a devastating impact.
Anxiety can overwhelm any man to the point where he becomes easily confused and has difficulty thinking. Once this happens, it becomes more and more difficult to make good judgments and sound decisions. To survive, he must learn techniques to calm his anxieties and keep them in the range where they help, not hurt.
Anger & Frustration
Frustration arises when a person is continually thwarted in his attempts to reach a goal. The goal of
survival is to stay alive until you can reach help or until help can reach you. To achieve this goal in a survival situation, you’ll be forced to complete some tasks with minimal resources. It is inevitable, in trying to do these tasks, that something will go wrong; that something will happen beyond your control; and that with one’s life at stake, every mistake is magnified in terms of its importance. Thus, sooner or later, you will have to cope with frustration when you run into trouble.
One outgrowth of this frustration is anger. There are many events in a survival situation that can frustrate or anger even the calmest among us. Getting lost, damaged or forgotten equipment, the weather, inhospitable terrain, and physical limitations are just a few sources of frustration and anger.
Frustration and anger encourage impulsive reactions, irrational behavior, poorly thought-out decisions, and, in some instances, an “I quit” attitude (people sometimes avoid doing something they can’t master). If you can harness and properly channel the emotional intensity associated with anger and frustration, you can productively act as you answer the challenges of survival.
If you do not properly focus your angry feelings, you can waste much energy in activities that do little to further either your chances of survival or the chances of those around you.
Depression
It would be a rare person indeed who would not get sad, at least momentarily, when faced with the privations of survival stress. As this sadness deepens, we label the feeling “depression.”
Depression is closely linked with frustration and anger. The frustrated person becomes more and more angry as he fails to reach his goals. If the anger does not help the person to succeed, then the frustration level goes even higher.
A destructive cycle between anger and frustration continues until the person becomes worn down physically, emotionally, and mentally. When a person reaches this point, he starts to give up, and his focus shifts from “What can I do” to “There is nothing I can do.“
Depression is an expression of this hopeless, helpless feeling. There is nothing wrong with being sad as you temporarily think about your loved ones and remember what life is like back in “civilization” or “the world.” Such thoughts, in fact, can give you the desire to try harder and live one more day. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to sink into a depressed state, then it can sap all your energy and, more important, your will to survive. It is imperative that you continue to resist succumbing to depression.
Loneliness & Boredom
Man is a social animal. This means we, as human beings, enjoy the company of others. Very few people want to be alone all the time! But, as you are aware, there is a distinct chance of isolation in a major survival setting. This is not bad.
Loneliness and boredom can bring to the surface qualities you thought only others had. The extent of your imagination and creativity may surprise you. When required to do so, you may discover some hidden talents and abilities. Most of all, you may tap into a reservoir of inner strength and fortitude you never knew you had.
Conversely, loneliness and boredom can be another source of depression. As you try to make it alone, or with others, under immense survival stress you must find ways to keep your mind productively occupied. Additionally, you must develop a degree of self-sufficiency. You must have faith in your capability to “go it alone.”
Guilt
The living who abandon their chance to survive accomplish nothing. Such an act would be the greatest tragedy.
The circumstances leading to your being in a survival setting are sometimes dramatic and tragic. It may be the result of an accident or SHTF/grid-down situation where there was a loss of life. Perhaps you were the only, or one of only a few, survivors.
While naturally relieved to be alive, you simultaneously may be mourning the deaths of others who were less fortunate. It is not uncommon for survivors to feel guilty about being spared from death while others were not. This feeling, when used in a positive way, has encouraged people to try harder to survive with the belief they were allowed to live for some greater purpose in life.
Sometimes, survivors tried to stay alive so that they could carry on the work of those killed. Whatever reason you give yourself, do not let guilt prevent you from living. The living who abandon their chance to survive accomplish nothing. Such an act would be the greatest tragedy.