Sea to Sky Photography sells Discover Wilderness
Survival playing cards with 52 survival strategies and techniques printed on
them. In this deck, the ace of spades is
titled “Survival Basics”; it could also have been titled, “Survival
Psychology”, “It CAN Happen To You” or even “The Seven Deadly Enemies of
Survival”, since these are the lessons that are being taught on this card.
Sea to Sky Photography sells
Discover Wilderness Survival playing cards with 52 survival strategies and
techniques printed on them. In this
deck, the ace of spades is titled “Survival Basics”; it could also have been
titled, “Survival Psychology”, “It CAN Happen To You” or even “The Seven
Deadly Enemies of Survival”, since these are the lessons that are being taught
on this card.
Knowing that, “It CAN
Happen To You”, you can prepare yourself physically, make sure that you have
the proper equipment and mentally prepare yourself by having the necessary
training to use your equipment and deal with any emergencies, before you go
into the wilderness. You should keep in
shape and see a doctor on a regular basis to make sure that you are “expedition
ready” and are physically capable of meeting the challenges you will find in
the backwoods. You should make sure that
you have the proper equipment to survive and enjoy the environment that you
will be exploring. This includes a first
aid kit that is appropriate for the potential medical emergencies that you
might encounter in the backcountry and the Ten Essentials, which should always
be carried on your person. Lastly, you
should ensure that you are mentally prepared for the tasks and situations that
you will find during your trip into the wild, because this will build your
confidence and help you fight your fears and panic. Take classes and read books to learn the techniques
and skills that you will need and then practice them BEFORE you leave
home. Learning new skills, when you have
to get them right the first time, because your life depends upon it, is a
recipe for disaster.
“The Seven Deadly Enemies
of Survival” are a hierarchy of obstacles to your survival, ranked in the order
of importance, which may present themselves singly or in groups. You will have to overcome these enemies, if
you find yourself in a wilderness survival situation. Most people assume in a survival situation,
that their biggest challenge will be a physical or environmental one, but this
is wrong, you and the internal, psychological obstacles of your own fears and
anxieties, your boredom and loneliness are the greatest obstacles that you will
have to overcome to survive. If you fail
to control them, you will panic or you will become depressed, in either case,
you will not survive the emergency. In
addition, the physical or environmental obstacles that you will encounter can
reduce your ability to think rationally, allowing your subconscious fears and
anxieties, your boredom and loneliness to take control of your mind. Again, if this happens, panic and depression will
set in and you will not survive.
1. Fear
and anxiety, whether you become lost or disoriented or encounter a different
emergency in the wilderness your immediate problem will be fear. It is not a sign of weakness to feel fear
during an emergency, in these situations fear is normal. What is important is how you react to fear:
do you panic or do you act rationally.
2. Pain
from an injury is nature’s way of letting you know that something is
wrong. Both pain and illness can make it
difficult to think clearly and make you more susceptible to fear and
panic. Pain from a minor injury can be
ignored if you keep your mind occupied with plans for survival. However, it is important to remember that
injuries, particularly severe ones must be dealt with immediately, as they can
be life threatening or lead to life threatening illnesses or infections
later.
3. Cold
or heat are both greater threats to your survival than it might seem at the
onset of the emergency. Cold
particularly will numb both your body and your mind and lowers your ability to
think and your will to survive. Cold and heat also increases your chance of
suffering ill effects from thirst.
4. Thirst
will dull your thinking, even when your dehydration is not extreme, and being
thirsty increases your sensitivity to fear, pain, cold or heat. As with hunger and pain, thirst can be
ignored short term if you have a strong will to survive and you keep your mind busy.
5. Hunger
will reduce your ability to think clearly, and being hungry will increase your
susceptibility to the weakening effects of fear, pain and cold. Hunger is not critical in the short term, but
it will does a factor in the long term. Just
as with pain and thirst, in the short term, hunger can be overlooked if you
keep busy.
6. Fatigue
is almost impossible to avoid in survival situations, since your ability to sleep
or rest will be limited and your limited food supply will not keep your body
fully fueled. Even a mild amount of
fatigue can reduce your strength, coordination, judgement and your ability to
think rationally. Fatigue is likely to
increase your chance of injury and the effects of fear, boredom and
hopelessness. By making a plan and
prioritizing the necessary survival tasks, you can find ways to work smarter
and reduce your energy expenditures, or by sleeping and resting when that is
the most important task to accomplish, you can reduce fatigue.
7. Boredom,
loneliness, hopelessness or depression, are less immediate problems and can
creep into your mind slowly, as the emergency continues, possibly when an
expected event doesn’t happen, or when you are alone. These are difficult obstacles to overcome and
will dull your thinking and make you want to give up. Just as with fatigue, creating and sticking
to a plan for survival, identifying and prioritizing necessary tasks and
keeping busy with those tasks, will keep you from growing bored or
depressed.
It is important to
remember that fear, anxiety, boredom and depression can be controlled by using
the S.T.O.P. acronym (Sit down, Think, Organize, Plan, prioritize and act). The steps outlined in this acronym will help
you control your subconscious fears by bringing your conscious mind to the
forefront as you sit, think, organize your supplies and resources and create a
plan for survival. Afterwards, keeping
busy with this plan will keep your conscious mind in control and will prevent
boredom and depression, as well as keeping your subconscious fears and
anxieties at bay.
The physical or external
enemies of survival can be conquered by using the “Rule of Threes”. This rule
is useful as a planning tool, which helps you prioritize which of the deadly
enemies of survival are the most critical to your survival at any moment. The “Rule
of Threes” states that you cannot survive for more than 3 Minutes without air or with severe
bleeding. You cannot survive for more
than 3 Hours without shelter from a
harsh environment, whether it is hot or cold, or you are in cold or icy water. You cannot survive for more than 3 Days without water, but you can
survive for 3 Weeks without food. These rules assume that the rules above them have
already been met, for example, if you have a large quantity of water, yet are
bleeding severely, according to the three-minute rule, the most important task
at that moment, is to stop the bleeding.
If you accept that it can
happen to you and you prepare before you enter the wilderness, you will reduce
your chance of having an emergency. In
the event of an emergency in the backwoods, by planning and prioritizing
survival tasks, you can take positive steps forward towards your survival,
build your confidence, stay busy, keep your mind occupied, and fight fear,
panic, boredom and depression.
Therefore, if you do end up in an emergency stay calm, make rational
decisions, hope for the best but prepare for the worst and adopt the Marine
Corp slogan of “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome”, these suggestions, the acronym S.T.O.P. and the “Rule of Threes” will help you to deal with any physical or mental
hardships that you might encounter.
Sources:
Department of the Air
Force, Survival Training Edition, AF Manual 64-3, [US Government Printing
Office, Washington DC August 15, 1969] p 1.1 - 1.15 https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qaea-Z580phmhBGIWOpEb9sVNVKFl2eMbPyfv7ki4p2Zoy6cs7h1CmdXQI0ydjG07PWu6RRNYLtLVCYuecTw2NN4WTAEhAOzNk4TNnzUHc7kP7tsTOrDJ3VK9NEK-NneCrLSICyuWFBMNPcX5ktcJp_VvkWOiUDKjo0k-2FChV7srDVmZ9PH_OOSrcXbuyb5IIy2fCYgUQoVWwECShqfJU9zjSSbvFyxx_xE8Rtx_HUmvwls2pzM2AWkIUgXEGChXtpZx3Mo, (accessed April 16, 2018)
Province
of British Columbia, Wilderness Survival, [Information Division, Ministry of
Forests, Victoria, B. C., March 1978] p 8 - 11
Dwight R. Schuh, Modern
Survival, Outdoor Gear and Savvy to Bring You Back Alive, [David McKay and
Company, New York, NY, 1979] p. 46-51
No comments:
Post a Comment