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Sora
Love all, trust a few
Joined: Sep 16, 2006
Age: 20
Posts: 2858
Location: Europe
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 Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 8:35 am Post subject: Emergency situations |
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How do you react to emergency situations?
Is anyone else totally unaffected by emergency situations?
Like, somebody is dying and everybody else is panicking or near tears. And all the while, you are completely calm and can give out orders. You don't feel panicking or emotional turmoil afterwards either. (No delayed reaction.)
I am like that. I do care and am fully aware of the implications and risks, else I wouldn't help.
But I just don't feel panic when an accident happens. I just think it's fascinating and all. Even if somebody is almost dying I don't panic and can calmly structure the situation. If I myself am hurt I don't panic either but am between worry and amusement.
I hate it how others panic even if they can't help it. Those who panic become unreasonable and maybe even a nuisance that prevents adequate help.
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The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it. Terry Pratchett |
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craola
Deinonychus
Joined: Mar 21, 2008
Age: 20
Posts: 342
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:31 am Post subject: |
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I react very much the same as you.
Only two people I know have died. Once was a complete out of the blue shock and he was young, that time I sat down hard when I heard but that was the extent of it, the rest of the time I am so calm.
My mum fell down the stairs when I was about 9 and we thought she had broken her back, everyone was running around like headless chickens and I treated her for shock and made my dad call an ambulance.
When I've tried to kill myself I just sat there while the psych evaluated me talking smiling laughing, they sent me to a psych ward because they thought I was repressing or something.
Up until now everyones said I've been repressing my feelings and burying all the hurt and distress but really I just never felt it. |
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Brainsforbreakfast
Sea Gull
Joined: Mar 05, 2006
Posts: 247
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:59 am Post subject: |
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For some strange reason, I'm always the cool headed one when there's some emergency.
You know, the collected guy that knows what to do and who has to do what when, while everyone else around is freaking and and waiting for someone to take charge.
It's ironic. For most of my life, I'm looked down on, bottom of the social ladder etc.
But when they need someone, I'm suddenly a leader..  |
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grinningcat
Snowy Owl
Joined: May 12, 2008
Posts: 146
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Brainsforbreakfast wrote: | For some strange reason, I'm always the cool headed one when there's some emergency.
You know, the collected guy that knows what to do and who has to do what when, while everyone else around is freaking and and waiting for someone to take charge.
It's ironic. For most of my life, I'm looked down on, bottom of the social ladder etc.
But when they need someone, I'm suddenly a leader.. |
I am musing here, but... maybe its because we systematize rather than empathize that can make some of us better in crisis situations. Emergencies are not a social setting, therefore the pack hierarchy is temporarily destroyed because the rules are gone. Empathizers will fall back on what they know best, which is empathizing, but they get stuck in a loop and therefore may not be capable of carrying forward - they need their alpha for direction. They will readily accept someone who doesn't look like the emergency is that big of a deal, who is making the decisions, who is re-organizing the hierarchy and that person suddenly is elected "alpha".
I know there have been times when people have thrust the mantle of leadership on me, because I was the one not afraid to start giving out orders and getting the job done - as you say, too bad they don't remember that after the crisis is over. 
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cyb0rg
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: Jun 29, 2008
Posts: 56
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 6:41 pm Post subject: Re: Emergency situations |
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| Sora wrote: |
Like, somebody is dying and everybody else is panicking or near tears. And all the while, you are completely calm and can give out orders. You don't feel panicking or emotional turmoil afterwards either. (No delayed reaction.)
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Yes I am like that too! On the other hand I panic going to the supermarket :/ |
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Inventor
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 16, 2007
Posts: 2822
Location: New Orleans
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| Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 11:20 pm Post subject: |
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Same here,
I function calmly when all hell breaks loose, and everyone around looks to me to lead them through. |
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dtoxic
Deinonychus
Joined: Jun 23, 2008
Age: 38
Posts: 313
Location: Boston MA
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| Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:24 am Post subject: |
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Another ditto.
I have always been proud of my ability to forestall emotional reactions. I have no patience with hysteria, even at the micro scale. I don't mean to gender-bash but I have far more examples of women engaging in this behavior than men - unless the men felt it and concealed it, whereas I did not feel it at all. Several times after a near-miss type of accident a woman has seemed unable to cope, putting her hands to her face and moaning "We could have been killed!" Whereas I was over it the second after it happened, and pleased there were no casualties. "But we could have been killed!" Yeah, but we weren't - so why cry now?
My whole mentality is about never being surprised. I trust my five senses; they've served me well, so why would I disbelieve what I perceive? Yes, those two cars just crashed pretty hard. It happens. I'll call 911 on my cell as I hurry to the spot and see if anybody needs help I'm qualified to provide. What good does it do to flail and yell "Oh my God!"?
"But we could have been killed!" |
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plainlyordinary
Emu Egg
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Joined: Feb 16, 2007
Posts: 7
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 3:08 am Post subject: |
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| handling emergencies are definitely situations in which i excel. i don't attach emotion to my reasoning or decision-making. |
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jrknothead
News Junkie
Joined: Aug 04, 2007
Age: 42
Posts: 1110
Location: Tampa Bay, Florida USA
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:33 am Post subject: |
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My toaster caught fire today and almost set the kitchen on fire... I unplugged the toaster, and covered the flames with a pizza box until they went out... then I had my breakfast, with plain bread instead of toast... didn't faze me in the least, even though letting it burn half a minute longer might have set the whole house ablaze...
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Johnson68
Raven
Joined: Aug 07, 2008
Age: 18
Posts: 111
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:46 am Post subject: |
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I'm usually pretty calm in emergency situations.
Last year I went motorbike riding with a mate of mine.
And we were merging from the out of the bushland onto the road.
We continued to look for traffic but there was nothing there and then we
began merging onto the road and my friend clipped the front of a semi trailer.
He died on impact, and the sight was horrific and I should have been flipping out.
But I still reacted calmly and phoned the ambulance and everything else.
It's the same whenever I break some form of bone in my body, most of the time
I don't even feel the break happen until someone points out that my arm looks broken or something.  |
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ChristinaCSB
Toucan
Joined: Jul 23, 2007
Age: 23
Posts: 263
Location: Lakewood, Ohio
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:19 pm Post subject: |
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| I freak out very easily, enough said. |
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blamo
Raven
Joined: Aug 12, 2008
Age: 44
Posts: 111
Location: Island of Misfit Toys
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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I worked as an EMT on an ambulance (my dad's) for a short time, I sucked at it. I guess it was because I simply didn't care one wit for people. I knew the tech part, just never got emotional or cared too much. But I was one calm Mutha at a car crash.
"That hurts *Yawn* yeah, it looks like it might"
" We probably won't know what's wrong with you until after the autopsy"
Alright, the second one was a joke. |
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Callista
Phoenix
Joined: Feb 04, 2006
Age: 25
Posts: 1663
Location: Central USA
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:18 pm Post subject: |
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Better be. Wouldn't have cared how much I was hurting, I would've punched the EMT that said that!
I'm almost as calm in an emergency as I am usually. That is probably because I handle many minor things that my mind marks as "emergency" when other people wouldn't. Any social situation, any unexpected event, any difficult task gets the same reaction. A life of constantly dealing with "crisis" means that I'm not all that much fazed when my cooking bursts into flames or a tornado decides to stalk my neighborhood. I guess if they got me on a bad day I'd have a meltdown, but then, forced social contact on a bad day will do that. Just haven't got enough brain left, sometimes.
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JetLag
Phoenix
Joined: Aug 08, 2008
Age: 59
Posts: 622
Location: California
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| Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 9:50 pm Post subject: |
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| I don't react so well to emergencies. For me, emergencies mean that a change has occurred, and change is one thing that I always have reacted unfavorably to. |
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Raaf
Butterfly
Joined: Sep 03, 2008
Posts: 10
Location: Southwest Ontario, Canada (originally the Netherlands)
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| Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 1:09 am Post subject: Re: Emergency situations |
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| In a way, I will loose my nerve in an emergency sitution though I am not the one screaming, vomiting, or spacing out. If I have to deal with the situation myself, I force myself to keep my cool and manage, although it is hard for me to think straight. Afterwards, I feel the (I think) adrenaline (or is that cortisol?... whatever) rush through my body, sometimes for hours, which makes me feel exhausted and sick. |
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