Survival - Part Two

Survival of the Mind

Let me start off by saying that I am neither a psychologist nor professional of any degree when it comes to how our minds work.


What you’ll read here is a combination of years of practice and various tit-bits of information I’ve collected in my travels. The knowledge I impart from here on and the skills you develop will become important tools in any survival situation, however the will to live and the manner in which you nourish it will totally depend on you.


A real life survival scenario is stressful, and anyone who tells you otherwise has never been in one. (No, watching your team lose the grand final is not one of those situations!) By being able to recognize the different stresses that occur you’ll not only be able to handle them better but you’ll also be able to gauge how stressed you are which, in turn, will help you even better to survive.

Stress

Stress is a natural state; man would not have survived as long as he has if not for stress, it can manifest physically, emotionally, mentally, and sometimes even spiritually.


It’s normal to experience stress in our everyday lives; imagine driving to work one morning through the usual heavy traffic of your city or town, this time imagine the traffic this morning is heavier than usual. The guy on the radio tells you there’s a three car pile-up on the very road you’re on, you look around to see other drivers getting agitated and impatient, you hear sirens but aren’t sure where they’re coming from. What happens? You start to feel tense, your hands grip the steering wheel a little tighter, and your eyes dart around, perhaps looking for an exit or alternative route.


I’ll say it again; what you’re feeling is completely normal, you do not have anger issues or an anxiety disorder. Then why is it that when you get to work you feel so angry and frustrated before you’ve even seen the workload on your desk? It’s because, as primal inhabitants of the world hundreds of thousands of years ago, those feelings and emotions are what kept you alive to escape predators or to bring down prey to feed your tribe. Yet because you’re unable to release that tension of being in a potentially dangerous situation it stays with you when you arrive at work and winds down slower than evolution has trained it to. Hang on a minute! Traffic jams aren’t a potentially dangerous situation! Really? Tell that to the people involved in the three car pile-up.


Stress is like red wine, moderately it’s good for you, too much of it and you’re in trouble. Some people will try to avoid stress or deflect it in some manner; this isn’t any good for you either because the only way to get rid of stress is to deal with it. An overload of stress can cause anguish which is worse as it interferes with your very being and interrupts your objectives. It can manifest in the following forms:

• Decisions making becomes difficult
• Angry outbursts
• Forgetfulness
• Lethargy
• Constant agonising
• Unsociability
• Shirking responsibilities
• Carelessness

Stress and Stressors

It’s pretty simple; a stressor is the cause to what you experience, which is stress. The brain triggers your “fight or flight” response and, whether you want it to or not, the body steps up to the starting line. Your body prepares for a brief and rapid response:

• It releases reserved fuels to provide a quick energy burst
• Respiration rate increases to supply more oxygen to the blood
• Muscles tense
• Senses become more acute (hearing becomes more sensitive, eyes become big, smell becomes sharper) so that you are more aware of your surroundings
• Your heart rate and blood pressure rises to provide more blood to the muscles.

Stressors don’t give a shit if you’re ready for them or not either. You can overcome one only to instantly be hit with another, they can stack in any order, or they can happen all at once. Only by learning the tell-tale signs of these stressors can you tackle them successfully.

Types of Stress

Environment

Weather can be unpredictable at the best of times and extreme the rest, being unprepared for sudden changes in weather or extended periods in scorching heat or freezing rain can mean the difference between life and death. Knowledge of your environment, your skill-set, and your kit will play a major role in handling any stressful conditions you may encounter.

Fatigue

A number of factors can induce fatigue; the environment, predators, bushfire, avalanche, and other events which may cause you to pack up and move unprepared. Sometimes it’s just the traveling itself, you may not realize you’re fatigued until you stop to make camp. When you’re fatigued you can find it hard to make camp, hunt and gather food, procure water, or even cook a meal.

Hunger and Thirst

Your body can survive three days without water and three weeks without food, but by that time you’ll probably be too weak and lethargic to hunt or gather food. So from day one the stress of needing to procure food and fresh water is upon you, even if you’ve already got a supply of both.

Injury, Illness, and Death

At home, in the bubble of life that is suburbia; an injury or illness is a relative uncomplicated thing. You can go to the doctor, get it treated, by some medicine from a chemist, and lay up until you’re healed without too much fuss. Even death can be handled without too much stress (about stress-free as death causes anyway), as funeral homes, friends and family help you through it all.


However; if you’re alone in the bush then and injury or illness can severely hamper your ability to travel, gather supplies, and hunt. If you’re in a group then these things are slightly easier to handle, but what if someone dies? Not only do you have to take care of the real-world affairs of a corpse, but you have to deal with the loss of a companion, an extra set of hands, and a friend. Blame can get thrown around, you may even blame yourself, and people need to grieve.

Isolation

Even if you’re someone who enjoys their own company, the sudden onset of a survival situation makes one realize how much we rely on those around us. With that safety net no longer there the stress of isolation, if left unchecked, can grow and form into fear.

Uncertainty and Control Issues

Some people need all of the information available before they can begin to work through a problem. In the bush uncertainty rules us unless we’re thoroughly familiar with our environment, you can hunt/camp in the same forest for years until you discover one day that a pack of wolves have moved into the area to claim it as their own. Suddenly everything you thought you knew about the area has changed and you’re uncertain as to where safety can be found.


These are just a few stressors that you can face in the field; what you find stressful someone else may not, and vice versa. The knowledge you develop, how you use that knowledge, practical training, and experience will all help you deal with stress. At the end of the day it’s up to you to retain the will to live to utilise the tools you have. What you want to do here is not to avoid stress but to work through it so that you can face your situation and move on.

Reactions to Stress

Stress can manifest in several forms, for centuries this stress has been a warning to man, and he has responded and adapted accordingly. He may not have got it right every single time but he obviously did well enough for you to be reading this.

Anger and Frustration

Frustration is when we are beaten time and time again whilst trying to achieve an objective. Since Murphy’s Law is not purely restricted to Murphy himself we will, at one stage or another, fail and get frustrated. It is this repeated failure that gives birth to anger, and any subsequent failures can fuel that anger. Pretty soon you’re so angry and frustrated that no matter what you try to do you will fail because you lack the clarity and patience to get even the simplest of tasks done.

Anxiety

Anxiety is heavily associated with stress, as is fear, yet it too is a totally natural emotion. It’s the cold sweat, pulse-racing, hard-to-breathe physical symptoms. It’s your thoughts telling you you’ll never make it. It’s your emotions reacting to your thoughts and driving you downward in a spiral of confusion and chaos. It’s also the kick-start that urges us to react to the danger and successfully make our way through the ordeal.

Depression

Sometimes the act of survival can get you down, especially if we try and fail a few times, that’s okay if these thoughts give you the energy to keep going. However if you’re already frustrated and getting angry, then you try something else that doesn’t work which makes you more frustrated and angrier, then this vicious cycle will continue until you are physically too exhausted to go on. This is that dangerous time when depression can set in. Soon your thoughts are telling you how hopeless you and your situation is, and you begin to believe them, after that you begin to question your will to live, this is the most dangerous time of all.

Fear

If we believe that our physical, emotional, or mental well-being is under threat we can succumb to the most immobilizing reaction to stress there is, fear. It may not be the worst reaction to a stressor but it can literally immobilize you. It is the ability to foresee the reaction in an adverse situation that will help you to remain in control throughout.

You vs. Stress

As you can see there is a lot involved when it comes to stress, professionals have written entire books on the subject, I’m sure! Whether you’re facing a hostile environment, fatigue, hunger, thirst, injury, illness, death, uncertainty, or isolation, you’ll run into at least one of the aforementioned reactions. And perhaps one or two that I’ve missed. The trick is to be mindful of stressors before they grow and attack you, this way they’re smaller and easier to manage.

Get to know You!

Take some time to discover the inner you, your strengths, your weaknesses, and work on those you think make you a stronger and better individual. Ask your friends and family to help you, discuss you and what makes you who you are.

Anticipate Fears

What scares you the most? Before you even step out into the field confront your fears so that if you happen to be faced with them in an uncontrollable environment, they are easier to handle. When you are in the field be aware, without being paranoid, about potential hazards.

Keep it Real!

See your situation for what it is, not for what you want it to be, and remind yourself what’s at stake. "Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."

Practice, practice, practice!

You can’t play the piano by reading a book, you must practice, and practice, and then practice some more. Start off at home in the back yard; lighting a camp fire, building a shelter, packing your kit effectively, procuring water, and so on. Move on to lighting a fire in the rain, building a shelter on a windy day, etc. Gradually make your training more and more realistic so that when faced with a real survival condition it isn’t as daunting.

Breathe!

An anxiety attack is simply the body receiving too much oxygen and that oxygen overwhelming the natural balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide. By breathing into a paper bag you’re recalling some of your carbon dioxide to regain balance.

It is also a good idea to learn some meditation and relaxation techniques. Whether you need them or not, practice them daily so that they become second nature.


Time management is import as you have fewer conveniences in the field and therefore have to do a lot more for yourself. You do not want to be cooking at one a.m. because of poor time management skills.


So that's stress in a (fairly big) nutshell. Hopefully it can act as a jump off point for you to investigate further, and I hope that stress never gets the better of you.