I’d like to ask what would happen to the brain/mind if two, unrelated but equally massive occurences took place almost simutainuously.
Imagine this: The police arrive at your house to inform you that your whole family has been killed in a road accident. But just as the brain is processing this dreadful news, you see a fully-grown dinosaur plodding down the hight-street.
What would the brain do in order to cope?
Dude.
That is quite the question. Experiments are lacking not from a shortage of dead families but because dinosaurs, especially the really big ones, are in short supply these days. People simulate that type of thing in haunted houses and amusement parks some time and most come out a little battered but ok. I think you are safe in the short term (assuming you can run).
However, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder may develop as a long-term psychiatric condition.
About PTSD:
“Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape. Most survivors of trauma return to normal given a little time. However, some people will have stress reactions that do not go away on their own, or may even get worse over time. These individuals may develope PTSD. People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person’s daily life”
Doubt this has a factual answer as different people will process things differently. Certainly there are examples of people passing out when some overwhelming news hits them and I think that is probably the most extreme result you are likely to see. They’ll wake up a short time later a bit befuddled but probably better able to cope as the reality seeps in a bit more slowly in that state. Some may achieve that brain freeze state at the sight if a mouse in the house while others would need a simultaneous alien invasion and the return of Elvis off their spaceships added to your list to get there. Some probably never would. Different strokes for different folks.
I’d be asking myself, “Self, was it the maryjane or the LSD that got us here?”
If it had any sense, it would respond to the more immediate problem/danger.
Standing frozen in shock when a pack of hungry direwolves have just ripped the intestines from your best friend’s belly is not an evolutionarily successful strategy.
is this not considered “shock”? I mean, a similar but less ridiculous premise might be seeing your own hands chopped off. A rare occurance, but in those cases I believe we go into shock and dont really feel pain or process much at all, the body and mind become numb and your responses are largely autonomic, although you may be concious enough to call out for help as some people are who end up in shock…
I read a news story recently where a railworker had both legs amputated at work. He was conscious and rational long enough to call 911 on his cell phone, although he did tell the operator he thought he had been cut in half…