Avoiding Panic In An Emergency

It is human to get into panic when one is faced with emergency. Unfortunately panic aggravates any situation. A cool mind is half the cure. Whenever there was a situation that came under the category of emergency we always contacted this person who was coolness personified.
There are so many pages on the Net that can guide how one can handle an emergency. A systematic approach is what is called for.
Have you handled a situation of emergency and how did you go about it?

 

Panic is the most dreaded word in times of crisis. It can worsen the situation. There was this story of an old neighbor who had a big tree beside his house. When a typhoon hit the place and felled the tree, the old man panicked. And the more he felt his panic, the more he panicked until there was palpitation which caused more panic. To make the story short, he suffered a heart attack and died. And it's all because of panic. Presence of mind is an eseential element in survival that's why the earthquake drill is being conducted here to condition the minds of the public such that panic will be avoided when the big earthquake comes along.

 

Ihave experienced many situations that could cause one to panic. In one instance, a group of robbers came to our home and started as if to push my door. I heard one of them ask, 'Where is that pistol?' I was in bed and in a panicky situation. Their intention was to warn me not to come out to rescue our neighbors who they planned to attack to demand cash. It could have been tragic was I to react irrationally.

 

I panic many times during emergencies. My heart beats faster as I felt scared that I'm not in control of my situation. My thoughts and actions doesn't match that I thought I was running fast to get help but in reality I was just running slow and my feet barely can't go far while feeling exhausted until someone saw me and get help for me. Since that day, I tried to learn to be calm in emergency situation although still feeling nervous.

 

Am glad you did a self analysis and sought for help. You need to calm down and breath effortlessly. But for your case, you need psychosocial support (PSS). Or maybe you should stay at the triage stage. Avoid the scene of accident. That way you will be more In control.

 

When panic takes over nothing is done right. The mind stops working while the heart works over time - what a dreadful combination. It is better to take some deep breaths and do nothing for a few moments.

 

That is a great piece of advice but if you can elaborate a bit and tell us what the secret is to get that composure at the time of a crisis situation.

 

What was your contribution to help your neighbours? Did you call them and alert them? Good you did not risk your life by opening the door. These robbers were indeed smart.

 

Experience they say is the best teacher as you realised what panic did to you. Honestly panic only multiplies problems. Even when a person is sick if the sickness if taken calmly doctors say it gets cured faster.

 

Small as it may seem, deep breathing gives us time to think and it is also good for our health in general. You must have also heard about counting 10 before taking any action. These small ideas go a long way in sorting out big issues.

 

Right. Us people tend to get panicked at some point when emergencies occur. But I myself don't do that. I keep a calm and relaxed mind so that I can always think carefully and thoroughly. It is hard to make decisions or judgments when our mind is clouded with panic thoughts.

 

If panic or anxiety your not going to think clearly. First you need to learn to recognize the signs that you are starting to let panic or anxiety take over your mind and body. I’ve had to help people having anxiety attack and people panicking from a asthma attack. You might need to help coach someone’s
Breezing to allow them to slow their breezing and communicate with voice or actions. In the instance with asthma attack they were full blown panic and had to keep very calm and help them control there breathing so they could finally physically point to where their inhaler was.
The big thing is after learning to recognize if you or someone else is panicking you need to learn techniques to slow your breathing and keep control over body and mind.

 

Many many years ago when I was a teen we took a vacation on the big island of Hawaii. One day with our family at the beach I put on a set of flippers and a mask and went out in the ocean. I wanted to see how far straight out I could swim.

Suddenly I felt myself being quickly moved sideways...parallel to the beach and rapidly. I tried to swim back against the forces pulling me sideways. For a moment I panicked and tried to swim and paddle faster against these forces. It was useless as I was being pulled rapidly sideways to the beach.

I took a moment to think it through and decided to swim with the forces moving me parallel to the beach and slowly turn in towards the beach. This worked and soon I was back on dry land. Mind you now....I was way down current from where I went in ...but I consider this a valuable life lesson and one for which I have never forgotten.

In my occupation and working on Submarines ...you learn quickly not to panic when you have to work and accomplish a job in a very tight hole. You even learn at times to obtain, modify, or adjust a tool/tools to work in that tight hole.

One thing which will make matters worse in such situations is to panic and lose it. The holes are so tight there is no room for panic. No where to go...no where to panic...it is often so tight a space.

This experience working on submarines in tight places has paid dividends in accomplishing tasks in tight places which would verily frustrate many people.

It was the same when years ago I bought a tree climbing outfit...belt, and spurs to cut down three trees from up in them...as they were so tall.

Again...no room or time to panic when you are up there. You are seriously committed and panic will not help you ...it will only make matters worse..and much more dangerous.

When you do hard and dangerous work...panic is not the way to go. It takes training and discipline not to panic.

For those who know about panic and have mastered it to a point...with discipline ...I salute you .



Watcherchris

Not an Ishmaelite

 

Panic is what you experience when something happens that caught you totally unprepared and you are suddenly forced to make too many very important decisions under pressure and in a BIG hurry. You don't have anything planned and don't know enough about the situation yet to make immediat good decisions so you just freak out. This isn't cowardice, stupidity or weakness; it is just human nature and when the conscious mind fails the subconscious takes over. Your various glands flood your bloodstream with all sorts of chemicals and all sorts of physical changes happen in a flash. At this point you have been taken over by your fight or flight instincts and this isn't a thinking process. Your bowels and bladder may turn lose. You may become stronger than you ever imagined, you move faster but not necessarily in the best directions and you may become virtually unable to feel or experience pain.

The down side of this is that you will abandon your baby to a predator, may in fear run first away from a fire and then back into it. You have totally given up on your upper brain functions. This condition can be so extreme that after you have escaped you may die from a relatively minor wound. This is call dying of shock or scared to death and it is real.

The way to avoid this is to make plans and practice them. This is why schools have fire drills. In the even of a fire the kids have a pre planned response that they are familiar with. The more drills that they experience the less likely they are to panic and do things that are incredibly stupid. The military is BIG on drills that will send men to their various battle stations in a hurry with minimal confusion. They do it over and over until it is almost instinct.

I make a tactical assessment every time I enter a building. I want to know where the exits are and what possible shelters the building itself might offer. When I board a plane I know exactly how many rows of seats are between me and the various exit hatches. I like to play the "what if" games and if I have nothing else going I will look around and sort of rough out a plan to deal with various possible problems. I've been doing this for so long that I can't imagine anything short of some sort of alien with a sleep ray gun catching me without some sort of preformed plan.

I have experienced tornadoes, hurricane, violence, fires, car crashes and health issues and have only experienced that shaky panic feeling AFTER the situation was handled and over. Fear is the mind killer. Force yourself to THINK before things happen and then pull those thoughts out to help you deal with the unexpected.

 

Panic is a direct result of Fear!
Replace fear with Anger and Determination

Sadly panic and the victim mentality go together

 

I don't think that it is purely the fear. I have been in situations where I was definitely feeling fear but never panicked. I think panic happens when you are afraid and don't know or even have a clue what you should do. Since you don't KNOW what to do your mind goes into a circuitous cycle where you don't know what to do and just cycle into a mindless blur. Only a crazy person doesn't have fear. A brave person is not someone that is fearless rather it is someone that deals with their fear and functions anyway.

Fear that you can't control marks you as a victim to any and all predators. I guess that I was raised in a time when boys were forced to face and deal with their fears. I was whipped more than once for running from a bully. It seemed mean at the time but he was right. When I stood my ground, faced my fears and fought, the bullies stopped messing with me. It didn't make me not fear guys that were bigger than me but I learned to hide my fear and make sure that picking on me was no fun. I didn't win all the fights but they left me in peace pretty fast once I stopped running. If you accept your fear and don't let it rule you you can use it to motivate you and make you stronger. I agree, if you make me afraid it is going to piss me off and I am all fight and NO flight. Turn that fear into anger and ACT on it.

 

Short and sweet...(Yes, I CAN be brief!!!) To avoid panic, plan ahead, focus on what you CAN do in the situation, deal with the immediate problem first and then let the rest follow. Prioritize! You can't effectively do two things at the same time.

 

I have witnessed individual panic several times. There was an accident at a shop I worked at where I man was cut pretty bad on his leg. One guy that was beside him NO KIDDING fainted. Another first ran away screaming then ran back screaming "Oh MY GOD!!" He did this several times. I knelt down beside the guy put pressure on the cut after making sure he didn't have an open artery, told him he was ok and going to have a cool scar and that was about all. I stayed with him until the ambulance got there. He was fine and back at work in about a week or so.

The cut was long but not especially deep. Had he cut an artery my response might have been a little different depending on how bad his blood loss was. The idiot that kept running back and forth at one point wanted to put a tourniquet on the leg. So stupid!!

LOL, I was a Boy Scout and took the "always be prepared" to an extreme. When you work in a place with lots of heavy moving machinery you really should have a basic knowledge of first aid. This was a machine shop in a shipyard. Lots of bumps, bruises, burns, cuts and dings!

 

The best way to avoid a panic situation is training your survival skills in a simulate a critical scenario. I went for some simulating camps and Life supports training camps. I will recommend that

 

I don't know Lone Wolf I've seen people panic into a near catatonic state all alone when they didn't know what to do and there was nobody there to help them or tell them what to do.

 

My in laws good friend years ago went hunting in a secluded area on a float plane with a pilot and another guy who were all very well experienced outdoorsmen. The weather in the mountains up here is very unpredictable and they ended up crashing the plane into a narrow ravine. The pilot was killed on impact and my in laws friend had a broken back and couldn’t move. The other man who had Lived through survival situations before went into a full blown panic and just ran around with no control over his body. He eventually went into a comatose state of mind and survival went out the window for him. Luckily a plane flying over was able to pick up their emergency signal and the armed forces sar techs were able to save them. My in laws friend had no lasting paralysis from the broke back and the other man had no serious injuries.
Really shows how experienced people can panic as this man had been in survival situations before and still had no control.

 

I think that everyone has a breaking point. Panic is often the only possible reaction for someone that is normally a take charge and deal with it person when they are confronted with a situation that they can't fix or improve on. Their helplessness is intolerable to them.

 

I've never panicked, however I've seen too much and now my emotions are non-standard. People think that there is something wrong with me.

 

I believe that the best way to combat panic is knowledge and practice. If your prepared your less likely to panic and take control. People fear what they don't know and understand and fear leads to panic so one has to know as much as they can and understand how it works to not panic.
That's how it worked with my first aid training I kept going over what I learned after the classes were all finished and when it came time to use that knowledge I was ready. Sure i was scared but i didn't succumb to panic.
So learn what you can a practice so it's fresh and ready to be used.
You wouldn't cut wood with a dull blade so why would you let your knowledge and skills dull.?