The Emotional Effects of a Collapse: How It Feels to be a Survivor readylifestyle.com/emotional-effects-of-a-collapse/ Joe Ready

The Emotional Effects of a Collapse Trying to prepare soldiers to handle the stress of combat is something that militaries through the ages have tried to master, but it isn’t something that can be done easily. The emotional effects of a collapse are just as difficult to prepare for. The old mentality of simply “being hard” or “sucking it up” isn’t the answer to being able to cope with traumatic stress. We’ve learned this the hard way over and over in the military. The key to really preparing for the hardships associated with a collapse is understanding the emotions that you’ll experience and knowing that it’s completely normal.

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The emotional and physiological stresses that we feel during a dangerous or potentially dangerous event are how we’ve evolved to survive those situations. They are the body’s way of heightening our senses and reflexes and focusing us on what is important. During the event, things that aren’t essential to survival fade to the background putting the threat into focus. After the event, we sometimes dwell on those experiences and memories. This makes us learn from those experiences and helps us to react in a more efficient way the next time we experience a similar event. This is all normal. Please take the time to read through J.G. Martinez‘ experiences during the recent economic collapse in Venezuela. While you’re reading the article, pay attention to his emotions. Everything that he’s experiencing is normal, and would most likely be similar to how you can expect to react in a similar situation. Knowing this can help you recognize these same emotions in yourself and deal with them in a constructive way.

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I decided to write this article, the first of a series of several similar that will be posted because I am experiencing these days a huge emotional mix. I am not embarrassed in any way for this, I am a normal person, I have feelings and emotions like everyone else, and until not long ago I had a home, a job, and a conventional, peaceful life like perhaps many of you are enjoying right now. As a former oil worker, one learns to control emotions, because being in this business, a bad decision in the field if there is danger present, could cost one’s life. Or someone else’s. This said, when we made the decision (as a family we discuss all this of course) and, once my salary stopped being useful for three weeks worth of food, we decided that was the inflection point. After 14 years in one of the most profitable industries in the world (except in Venezuela), I was left with nothing in my bank account. The hyperinflation ate away all the little money that was there. The next step, fleeing to a foreign country (yes, I had savings in hard currency) and trying to find some stability was relatively easy, as my sister-in-law and mother-in-law were already here, and they had some space. So I started a small business (mainly private lectures) just to meet the ends, and it became more or less profitable. A phone call every two days to home, to speak with my family, and long, newspaper-like emails, social networks sometimes. (We decided to not disclose my departure because of OPSEC). Source: Anxiety, Anguish, Anger: How It Really Feels to Survive a Collapse thumbnail courtesy of theorganicprepper.com You can read our other post-collapse and SHTF articles here.

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