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Imagine that the apocalypse arrives: the Earth is about to undergo a mbadive solar storm; an asteroid is about to strike our planet of origin; or a supervolcan is erupting, sending mbadive amounts of ash into the atmosphere.
How will you react?
Would you be the leader? Or who cares for everyone? Or the person who just closed in disbelief?
It's often very difficult for us to predict how we will react to extreme adversity, said Sandy McFarlane, director of the Center for Traumatic Stress Studies at Adelaide University who has worked in the field of trauma for: four decades.
And that's because the type of stress we experience in our daily lives is very different from what we might encounter in a life-and-death situation.
"The language and our imagination are very weak to anticipate the reality of these survival challenges," said Professor McFarlane.
"Often, people have not really been able to create a real scenario in their minds that they can practice, so that when they arrive in a place of extreme horror or afraid, they do not have a directory, a way to understand or deal with where they are. "
Even people who have been well trained for difficult situations may actually be disorganized in the face of an extreme challenge.
So let's take a look at some of our common stress responses.
Fly, fight or freeze
If you have the misfortune to find yourself in an apocalyptic situation, you may be unable to choose the appropriate type of action.
"People often panic because they can not choose what to do," said Professor McFarlane.
This can be a problem because choosing a plan of action allows you to focus.
Sometimes fleeing a threat makes sense. We call it the answer of theft: react with fear to a situation and retreat to a safe place.
But this answer is not always useful, especially if you are in a position of responsibility or leadership.
"If people are in a role where they have to act decisively, for example to protect members of the public, if they are overwhelmed by the fear of withdrawing from the situation, they will run away," he said. Professor McFarlane. I said.
"This is where an individual's decision-making processes and ability to organize their environment are broken down and the only solution is to escape."
Another way to handle fear is to try to fight the threat.
This is a very instinctive response, said Professor McFarlane.
In some cases, it can work well. Trained soldiers often explain how their greatest fear awaits the start of a battle. Once they have embarked on the battle and they have been able to use their skills, they feel a certain calmness.
In other cases, the combat response may lead people to react inappropriately, for example in the event of a threat of extreme aggression, said Professor McFarlane.
Freezing – being physically unable to move and literally frozen by fear – is another common way for us to respond to extreme stress.
It's a clbadic animal world too: prey often lie down when they are pursued, in the hope that the predator will miss them.
In extreme situations, this can lead people to disbadociate themselves from a situation, such as Kirsten Dunst's character in the movie Melancholia, which becomes catatonic in the approach of a rogue planet that is s & # 39; Approaching the Earth.
"Some people may lose their memory and behave very automatically in times of extreme stress that are not particularly well directed or determined," said Professor McFarlane.
Leaders and followers
Some people are able to remain remarkably lucid in extreme situations and feel they can contain and control any threat.
Those of us who can do this are better able to control how our body responds to acute stress. This is what is called your physiological arousal, for example when your heart starts to wrap or you have shortness of breath.
One of the most remarkable examples of this phenomenon is the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, said Professor McFarlane.
Armstrong has maintained extreme self-control in difficult and life-threatening situations, and his ability to do so is one of the reasons for the first successful landing of the moon.
People who can cope well with difficult situations often make excellent leaders.
According to Professor McFarlane, they are often very close to each other and can often join a group, because they can not only see the circumstances in which they are but also use the group in which they are.
Ensuring that others are doing well, or supporting leaders by baduming more subordinate roles are other ways to cope with extreme situations.
Focusing on people rather than the outside threat allows them to avoid the problems of the circumstances in which they find themselves, said Professor McFarlane.
And supporting those who are potentially better able to cope with the threat can help them – and the group – survive.
Our brains under stress
Our body releases three different hormones when we are facing a stressful situation: adrenaline, norepinephrine, and then, very shortly after, cortisol, said neuroscientist Lila Landowski of the University of Tasmania.
These three hormones affect different parts of the body.
The first part affected is our amygdala, which is the part of our brain that treats emotions, said Dr. Landowski.
It is the part of the brain that governs our most basic survival instincts and our immediate reactions to things.
"This part of the brain is actually activated even before we have the chance to think about what we are facing, even before we think about the situation we are facing," said Dr. Landowski.
It's the amygdala that will then give instructions to other parts of the body, to tell us to run away or freeze or whatever our reaction.
The problem in today's modern world is that many people face constant or chronic stress and that their brains are still in survival mode.
"In chronic stress, you lose the ability to use much of your prefrontal cortex," Dr. Landowski said.
"You have less decision-making skills, you have trouble judging, you have a lot of difficulty putting yourself in the shoes of others and understanding their perspective."
And that does not bode well for people's ability to react rationally in an apocalyptic situation.
"They could be reactive and visceral and not make the most appropriate decisions and not really think rationally." What will be the best for me or for the population? "Said Dr. Landowski.
"They will have a less clear view of what will improve their surroundings, they will be more egocentric."
Thrillseekers can do better in an apocalypse
Challenge yourself to manage your fear – whether skydiving or practicing hand-to-hand or other thrilling activity – can put you in a better position to deal with an apocalyptic situation.
This is because you have already put yourself in a similar situation before, basically training yourself to handle your fear.
"Your body is almost asking the question" Have I ever felt like that before? ", Said Professor McFarlane.
"And in this situation, he can really use all the behaviors previously used in this type of environment."
However, everyone has the potential to arrive at a situation in which it does not function optimally, said Professor McFarlane.
He thinks that people do not often anticipate how much fear can affect your decision-making ability.
However, research shows that if you are taught to monitor and understand how your body reacts in a training situation, you will get better performance in the face of reality.
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