Barking Up The Wrong Tree September 18th, 2023 ---------------------------------------------------------------
Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my new book become a bestseller! To check it out, click [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- This Is How To Survive Disaster: 6 Secrets From Research ([Click here]( to read on the blog) You woke up expecting another weekend of binge-watching Netflix and arguing with strangers on the internet. Instead, you were greeted by a massive earthquake. Or a flood. Hurricane. Zombie apocalypse. Or your Roomba stopped humping the sofa leg and led an AI overthrow of humanity. One thing is for certain: youâre not ready for this. Yesterday your biggest fear was sending a text to your boss and having "meeting" autocorrected to "mating." Now you gotta find water and locate food? Cub Scouts was a long time ago. Most people donât know much of anything when it comes to survival. Maybe this sounds like a screed from an insane doomsday prepper â like Iâm writing this from my bunker. No, I havenât gone crazy. But if you think giving a little consideration to the possibility of extreme negative events is silly, I have one question for you: in 2019 did you expect thereâd be a global pandemic the next year? Iâm not sure if the world ends with a bang or a whimper, but there will definitely be a collective âOh, I didnât see that coming.â Weâre not going full paranoia here; weâre just looking at the minimum necessary to be ready for a Black Swan event. Because they do happen. COVID. Hurricane Katrina. 9-11. Heck, I live in Los Angeles and paleoseismologists say [weâre about due]( for a big earthquake. So today Iâm Eric, your Apocalyptic Concierge. Now thinking about every potential danger would be paranoid and this post would be book length. Weâre gonna keep it basic, sane and reasonable. Weâre going to assume the threat is temporary and help is coming. Weâll focus on some minimal prep and emphasize the psychological side of things. Weâll be drawing on a number of sources, primarily Sam Sheridanâs â[The Disaster Diaries: One Man's Quest to Learn Everything Necessary to Survive the Apocalypse.]( Okay, time for the post I hope none of us ever need. Letâs get to it... Be Prepared You have a smoke detector for your house and seatbelts for your car, right? So itâs not a terrible idea to make sure you have a few other basics in case of emergency. Survival Bag One stop shopping for unexpected emergencies. Has the basics like a first aid kit, a compass, a flashlight, etc. Yes, you can get one on [Amazon](. Water Remember the Great Toilet Paper drought of 2020? Exactly. And that was a minor problem. If thereâs a natural disaster, pipes could be broken. So have [extra water](. Might sound silly now but wonât seem as crazy when you're drinking rainwater collected in an old boot. You can go a month without food, but without water youâre dead in 72 hours. Food Trust me, "Post-Apocalyptic Iron Chef" is not a competition you want to participate in. Have some basics stored in the garage or basement. Flour products such as dried pasta will last a few years. Dried rice will keep well for up to a decade. And maybe some coffee. (A world without caffeine isn't a world worth saving.) Medicine If youâre the kind of person who waits until the last minute to refill your prescription medication, uh, might wanna change that habit now. You donât want to be fighting zombies without your insulin or asthma inhaler. A study done in the 1980âs by the FDA tested hundreds of medications and found that 90% of them were effective long past their labeled expiration date. Theyâll last. So always have a few weeks more than you need. Communication Phone and internet? Theyâre toast. Youâll need information so there are [radios]( you can get that are literally charged by cranking them. Very Steampunk. Communicating with family? Well, itâs just like summer camp again. [Walkie-Talkies]( are a good option. And make sure to have some [cyanoacrylate](. Thatâs a fancy word for superglue. Uh, weâll get to why later... Okay, you have the basics stored in your basement. But what happens when you unfortunately need to use them? What Weâll Diplomatically Call âThe Adjustment Periodâ The power grid is down. Water isnât working in the house. Loud noises outside. Thereâs a zombie shambling down the street. Oh, wait, thatâs Gary. He always looks like that. Anyway, whether itâs a tornado or the End of Days, things are clearly NOT GOOD. People will be panicking in the streets! Actually, no. The [research]( shows panic is quite rare. It only happens under specific circumstances, usually when people are trapped, like when thereâs a fire at a concert. In most terrifying situations people donât panic -- they freeze. They shut down. They do nothing. If a natural disaster or âWar of the Worldsâ scenario happens and reality takes a long, undeserved holiday, most people are going to be stunned and overwhelmed. They will be attempting to process something unlike anything they have ever experienced before. Think initial pandemic reaction multiplied by a thousand. You can't remember if it's Tuesday or February. And being stunned â unable to quickly adapt â is really really bad. In his book â[The Survivor: An Anatomy of Life in the Death Camps]( Terrence Des Pres looked at the accounts of hundreds of survivors of the Holocaust and the Soviet Gulags. He found newcomers had the highest death rates. Many of them could not adjust to the new terrible circumstances. They shut down or went into denial and, unwilling to accept the new circumstances, they didnât respond appropriately enough to survive. Who handled it best? Oddly enough, criminals did. They experienced less denial in this new world because they were used to breaking the rules. They didnât cling to how life âshouldâ work and they adapted. Thatâs cold comfort but thereâs a lesson here: immediately after disaster strikes, denial is deadly. The quicker you accept the âforce majeureâ nature of the current situation, the better youâll do. The next step is to take action. The key question to be asking yourself is: What do I need to do next? Is everyone you love safe? Do we have adequate shelter? Can you get to your supplies? How can you reach help? So you havenât fallen prey to denial. Great. But there will be challenges -- and fear will be waiting next to each one. How do you deal with it? Breathing Under extreme stress itâs been documented that some people arenât even able to call emergency services. Sam spoke to a paramedic who said it was common for people to have to ask a neighbor to call 911 because their hands were shaking too much to dial three numbers. Fear. How do you beat it when itâs not just thoughts in your head but your body is literally quaking? The groundbreaking, monumental secret is⦠inhaling and exhaling. Earth-shattering, I know. You canât politely ask your adrenaline levels to drop. You can have a back and forth with thoughts in your head but negotiating with your physiology is a lot harder. But there is one way: breathing. Fear alters your breathing but the system is bidirectional. Breathing can also alter your fear. Use a technique known as âcombat breathing.â Breathe in for a count of four, hold, breathe out for a count of four. Do this cycle four times. Repeat if necessary. Okay, youâre adjusting. But what about those you love? Communicate You might adapt quickly and escape denial but the people with you may not. They may just go emotionally numb. Or, even worse, they may dissociate and experience perceptual distortions. Police officers in shootouts have reported that they thought their gun malfunctioned because they literally didnât hear it go off. The moment was so stressful that they werenât really âthere.â No time to get your therapy license. This is the mental equivalent of battlefield surgery. Messy but we need to get them stable and functional again ASAP. Four things to focus on:
- Validate: Theyâre scared and arguing with them isnât going to help. Get them talking. Be understanding. âI hear what you are saying, and it is as terrible as you say.â
- Build A Narrative: They canât think straight enough to comprehend whatâs happening. Walk them through what you know and what has occurred so that it starts to click. Establish cause and effect, a sense of time and meaning.
- A Feeling Of Control: Once the narrative starts to sink in, help them make sense of it. Give the chaotic world a sense of order. Remind them they have agency. The situation is not good but there are things we can do.
- Future Focus: Theyâre going to dwell on the difficulties. To stop the spiraling, do what you did for yourself: get them focused on what they need to do next. Confidently establish a plan and get moving.
So whatâs the number one most important thing when dealing with epic catastrophe? The thing the movies donât discuss nearly enough? DO. NOT. GET. INJURED. In your current situation âFirst Aidâ is more like âOnly Aid.â Prevention is your only option for serious injuries. But what if someone you love gets hurt? First -- and this is all too often neglected -- assess the scene. Do not rush to help just yet, as difficult as that may be to do. This is not normal life. Debris falling from a damaged building hit them? Well, it might hit you too. Rule Number One: donât make more victims. Assess the scene, establish what occurred and make sure itâs safe to approach. Second: if theyâre unconscious check the ABCâs: airway, breathing, circulation. In that order. No obstructions to their breathing? Are they taking in air? This is why EMTâs love screaming babies â âOkay, we know the airway is clear.â Then check circulation. Is there a pulse? Are they bleeding? CPR can help with drowning victims or someone who has been electrocuted. Bad news is, in your current situation thatâs about it. CPR is not terribly effective in general and without an ambulance on its way, someone with no pulse is unlikely to make it. Even The American Heart Association âconcedes that resuscitation without advanced life support (such as defibrillation and intravenous medications) is extremely unlikely to be successful.â If they are breathing and have a pulse, put them in âthe recovery position.â This is to prevent their tongue, blood or other fluids from blocking their airway. Hereâs a [video](. If theyâre bleeding, apply pressure for 20 minutes to allow the body to clot. Hereâs a very very important thing: aggressively clean that wound. Even in hospitals, most people die from infection. Hit it with 2 percent iodine solution or alcohol. A metric ton of antibiotics wonât do squat if the injury is dirty. Okay, hereâs where the superglue glue comes in. If you donât have needle and thread, and donât know how to do stitches, well⦠Push the lips of the wound together, apply superglue and hold until it seals. Might sound crazy but cyanoacrylate was actually used for just this purpose during the Vietnam War. Note: if red streaks start emanating from the injury, this means their body is fighting infection â and losing. Soon it will become systemic. They need antibiotics ASAP. Obviously, Iâm not a doctor and canât cover all the injuries that might occur after the meteor hits your city. For a more thorough treatment of emergency medicine in difficult circumstances check out â[Where There Is No Doctor.]( This is the book recommended by the World Health Organization for aid workers in remote areas. What else do we need to do before help arrives? This one may be a bit surprising... Maintain Dignity Sounds fluffy, but it really matters. In Terrence Des Presâs [book]( about survival during the Holocaust and the Gulags, he says, âFailure to wash was the iron law of the camps.â People who didnât do it died. But this has nothing to do with hygiene... It was the clearest sign they had given up the fight. When they stopped caring about being clean, it usually meant they had stopped caring about much at all. You wear pants during Zoom calls (most of the time, anyway) because it makes you feel professional. You wake up and take a shower because the ritual not only cleans you but makes you feel ready to go. And whatever rituals make you feel you have dignity, that you have some control, are not just useful in disaster scenarios, theyâre essential. Once you lose your dignity, the next thing to go is hope. You stop trying. And in a world where your next-door neighbor is now undead and screaming for brains, giving up is not an option. Alrighty. You, me and the other three people left on earth have learned a lot. Time to round it up and discover the single biggest secret to survival after catastrophe... Sum Up Hereâs how to survive disasterâ¦
- Be Prepared: No, a seventh viewing of "Mad Max: Fury Road" doesnât count. Get some basic supplies and throw them in a closet. You donât need to know how to make a crossbow out of dental floss and a spatula, but having water and a flashlight isnât paranoid -- itâs sensible.
- âThe Adjustment Periodâ: Transitioning from a somewhat functional society to a catastrophic hellscape is, well, a bit of a mood dampener. People wonât be panicking; theyâll be in shock. Denial is dangerous. Accept the situation and ask, âWhat do I need to do next?â
- Breathing: Fear is like the pumpkin spice latte of emotions: overhyped, omnipresent, and just a little bit nauseating. Breathe in for a count of four, hold, breathe out for a count of four. Do this cycle four times.
- Communicate: Others may be in shock. Get them talking. Validate, build a narrative, give them a feeling of control, and focus on the future.
- Do. Not. Get. Injured.: If you thought dealing with a health insurance company before the apocalypse was hard, do I have news for you. Reality survival shows donât show people staying safe and minimizing caloric expenditure because thatâs boring. But itâs a great idea.
- Maintain Your Dignity: Itâs the emotional duct tape of the psyche. Do whatever rituals give you a feeling of professionalism and control. People who donât maintain their dignity donât last.
The biggest myth about disaster scenarios is that it becomes âevery man for himself.â We think of those Black Friday incidents where a midwestern grandma armbars a teenager for the last discounted toaster. But thatâs not what happens. People arenât shoving each other into ditches to get the last can of SpaghettiOs, theyâre helping each other. Research conclusively shows this. When Hurricane Katrina first hit, we heard horror stories about looting, murder and chaos. But those stories werenât true. After the incident, what did Captain Marlon Defillo, the New Orleans Police Departmentâs commander of public affairs, have to say? âThe vast majority of people [looting] were taking food and water to live. There were no killings, not one murder. No bullet holes were found in the fuselage of any rescue helicopter.â As I wrote about in my book, â[Plays Well With Others]( when a crisis strikes there are always more people headed toward it than away from it. The vast majority of us rush to help one another. When faced with our potential end credits, we don't turn life into a Mad Max wasteland. Instead, it's more like a very sweaty, frightened episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." So seek help and give help. We naturally form communities and never is this more true â or more necessary -- than when disaster strikes. The good news? Youâre not experiencing a disaster right now. Your current life probably seems a lot better than when we started this post. So be grateful. Itâs not early 2020 (or far worse.) Youâve got it pretty good. And the above scenarios are unlikely. But if things do go wrong... Now youâre ready. ***If you are one of those lovely people who bought "Plays Well With Others" please leave a review on Amazon [here](. Thanks!*** Email Extras Findings from around the internet... + Want to know the behavior patterns of people who achieve significant weight loss? Click [here](. + Want to know an easy way to reduce your chance of getting cancer? Click [here](. + Want to know if opposites really attract? Click [here](. + Miss my prior post? Here you go: [How To Get The Best Sleep Of Your Life: Six Secrets From Research](. + Want to know what will make your kids more resilient? Click [here](. + You read to the end of the email. This means you've survived. I'm happy to share my canned goods -- and I'd like to thank you for reading. Okay, enough doom and disaster talk; it's Crackerjack time: If you've ever considered adding something to Wikipedia, you might want to check out their "List of really, really, really stupid article ideas that you really, really, really should not create." To check it out, click [here](.
Thanks for reading!
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