I’m a Leaper and a Barker. Once back in HS my girlfriend and I were waiting on a bus and a purse snatcher grabbed this old ladies purse. I didn’t even think, I chased him down tackled him and returned the ladies purse. The guy ran off.
A couple of years ago, the apartment building we lived in caught fire. It started in the garage. After evacuating my family I organized the other residents in getting the building vacated.
I get that weird “calm” thing come over me and pretty much go forth with a myopic resolve. Later on I very well may re-evaluate, ponder and question but for some strange reason when faced with a crisis, the inclination to act decisively just seems to outweigh every other consideration.
My coolness under stress varies, to put it mildly. Once, when driving in a right-hand lane in a business district on US-1, I saw a motorcyclist a couple of lanes over to the left take a tumble and roll on the pavement before I lost my visual bead on him (he was in my peripheral vision to begin with, and I was looking to peel off into the nearest parking lot, slowing down as fast as possible but still going way too fast). The terrifying thing running through my mind as I ran back along the highway to the point of the accident was that a car was bearing down on the guy – following too closely, really – and I was afraid that the guy was already a mash of roadkill. Somehow, the car driver managed to avoid the 'cyclist, who was already up, brushing himself off, and retrieving his bike when I got near enough for him to hear me yelling if he was okay. He actually gave me a big “thumbs up,” the hot dog.
Flash forward many years later… I’m at work, feeling a bit peckish, so I wander over to the corporate cafeteria (which was closed and empty), and see a mouse walking along a counter near where the trays get returned… and let out a scream. A real, Fay Wray-worthy shriek. Two guys from back in the food-prep area come running out, primed to deal with, no doubt, an assault-with-a-deadly-weapon/rape/murder in progress, and I shakily explain that I saw a mouse. The look of bewilderment and disgust on their faces was, in retrospect, priceless. :o
It woill be interesting to see what happens when I have kids. I’m calm, cool and collected in a crisis now, but maybe when I hve kids, I’ll be your opposite and just stand there blubbering “Somebody save my boy!” (Or girl.)
I’m generally a very thoughtful, low-key guy and that seems to carry through in times of crisis. For example, about ten years ago I was cooking dinner and the toaster oven caught fire. Without missing a beat I picked up a dishtowel, ran it under the faucet, and calmly tossed it over the oven. Afterwards I was kind of amazed at having come up with that solution on the fly.
Other times I’ve responded similarly:
Picking up a baseball bat and running out the front door in response to cries for help out in the street.
Jumping out of my car and running to help a motorcyclist who had smashed into another car.
Giving CPR to a guy suffering a heart attack in the midst of a group of panicking family members.
I’ve never been in a situation where my own life was in immediate danger. Hopefully I never will, but if I am I hope I keep my cool as well as I have in other crises.
I don’t know. I’ve never really had to deal with a major crisis. In all the smaller crises in my life I’ve remained calm and known what to do, and I think it’d probably be the same in a major crisis, but I just don’t know for sure.
Add me to this list. Excellent description. I’ve been there more times than I’d care.
My wife once asked me, after one such episode, weren’t you scared? Well, shit ya, I was. I just wasn’t panicked.
I’m not sure that having kids makes a person better able to handle a crisis.
My sister lives in a multi-building apartment complex, and is friendly with a family that lives behind her building. One day she looked out the window to see smoke pouring out of their apartment. Sis’ SO ran out the door to the other apartment, Sis on his tail. When she got there everyone was outside, except her SO… and the 8 month old baby. Her SO ran into the burning apartment because this woman forgot to save her baby. And she has 3 kids, the oldest of whom is ten, so you’d think by now she’d be used to emergencies and better able to deal with them.
The baby was fine, and Sis’ SO put out the rather bad kitchen fire with a fire extinguisher (which the woman had run past and completely ignored in her attempt to save her own ass).
I wonder if the people who don’t act are afraid to do so, because they’re worried that they might make the wrong decision and make things worse. I guess that might be partly because some people, for instance, have neer seen a bad wound, and will freak out at the sight of blood without being able to analyze the situation. Or maybe the brain just shuts down? In the other thread someone described it as the “flight” part of fight or flight, but with nowhere to go.
I always pause for a moment to assess the situation, like others have said. It may only be 2 seconds, but it gives you the chance to take stock of things. For example, with the stabbing, there were 3 victims, all of whom are very good friends of mine. All 3 had gotten stabbed in extremities, so the major danger was blood loss (as opposed to, say, stomach wounds with the danger of waste and acids leaking into the body), and EMTs wouldn’t be able to do much more than we would (apply pressure, etc). So I decided to drive to the hospital rather than call an ambulance because money was an issue for all involved. One actually tried to refuse treatment because she couldn’t afford it.
Most of my friends are action types, too, which is actually how they got stabbed in the first place. Crazy guy goes after someone with a knife, and what do we do? Wrestle him to the ground and try to subdue him. Eh, 3 people with flesh wounds is better than 1 dead guy with multiple stab wounds to the chest.
Precisely. In the middle of a crisis, I usually feel like I have ice water for blood. A few times, I’ve done really crazy-dangerous things in this state–the threat-assessment part of my brain just shrugged and said, “Screw it. It’s worth it.” Afterwards, I may sit down and shake for an hour. I suppose I save my hysterics until I have time for them.
I’m not usually an organizer in crisis. I shove people out of the way. I act, rather than barking orders, unless it’s for something that’s simply physically impossible for me to do alone.
Aside: I’m told that I sound nothing like myself when I do speak in a crisis. My normal voice is very soft and fairly high-pitched; when I speak in emergency-mode, it turns into what a friend of mine calls “the God-voice”. I don’t remember anything like that myself, but it’s apparently pretty dramatic.
If I’m lucky I just freeze up and stand there gaping. If I’m unlucky I hyperventilate, pass out, vomit, shake violently, sob hysterically, and so forth.
I’m not much use in scary situations.
I don’t think there’s anything definable about it, because I’ve gone both ways.
I’ve done the Heimlich on three people who were choking – twice it happened in restaurants where I ran all the way across the room before anyone else in the place had even gotten out of their seats.
But other times I’ve been completely frozen in my tracks. Even when the rational part of my brain was screaming what to do, the rest of me simply couldn’t do anything.
Yeah, I’m an either/or, myself. In general, I tend to react first, think later, and apparently I’m pretty damn bossy when in action-heroine mode, barking orders at everyone and shoving non-useful people out of the way. As soon as a situation is under control, though, I go quickly and thoroughly to pieces. There have been enough times that I’ve run around in a circle yelling, “what to do, what to do?” though that I don’t think I can be counted on all the time.
And I will disclaimer all the above with this: I don’t think any of the emergencies I have had to deal with were exceptionally frightening or life-threatening, so I honestly have no idea which way I would go in that case.
Yes?
In the emergencies I’ve been in, I’ve tended to get unemotional and ice-cold analytical and just do what needs to be done, often with a grin on my face (sort of like your laughing, Terrorcotta - mine is smiling). It’s a strange feeling - I’m aware that there is danger, but it’s not relevant at the moment - all that matters is what needs to be done.
With me, I am right there, in the middle, scared as hell, but in charge of the situation, giving orders and acting.
Scared but not panicking, as some one else said. I feel detached afterwards as if the person who acted was not me, but some one who took over for a minute. And they were scared and calm, and I get the adrenaline rush, after the emergency is done.
I think Boy Scout training is responsible for the me that appears then, and goes away after. I wish he would stay, I like how he handles my life.
I’m the same as you. I just act and remain quite calm, do what needs to be done and I’m very level-headed. People have commented on how relaxed I’ve been in sticky situations.
Hours later when my brain has time to think about what happened, I get weird.
Depends. If I’m in a situation where I know what needs to be done I’ll do it straight off. If I’m out of my depth, I will do nothing so as not to make things worse.
There’s an undeniable benefit from training which the fire service, ambulance, and hazmat experience have bestowed upon me. Autopilot guides you to assess, prioritize, delegate, and act. Afterwards, you sit back, have a long pull on a cold one, and say to yourself, Shiiiiiit! That could have gone all kinds of sideways ugly!"
I’m neither a freezer nor a leaper.
I’m not strong; I’m not tough; I have no medical training. I can’t break up a fight or assist in a car accident. What I do is stay out of the immediate crisis, and if necessary and possible, work on the perimeter.
Two examples: When I worked closing shift in a diner, there was an altercation between two of regulars. Someone else broke it up while I went around to the handful of other customers, assuring them it would be okay, and if they wanted to move to the dining room, or have me wrap their food to go, I would take care of that. I’m not sure that anyone would have freaked or gotten drawn into a free-for-all, but you never know.
And once I was in a museum when an elderly man collapsed. Someone else did CPR and a guard called 911. What I did was station myself at the door facing the main entrance, and divert people around the room. “Guy having heart attack; EMTs coming through; be over in a few minutes. No, he’s okay; EMTs coming through.” Again, I’m not sure there would have been a bottleneck, but you never know.
And sometimes the decision is binary. Once, on my own, I saw a rattlesnake. I have no memory of how I got to the other side of the creek, but if I’d had shaky legs, I would been in the creek: those stepping stones were tricky. Another time, with two children, not my own, I saw a scorpion. Their shirts were a little bit stretched out of shape afterwards, but otherwise they were fine.
I tend to think of my role in emergencies as “get out of the way and let the experts do their thing.” I’m not here to be a hero; I’m here to be a helper. I wouldn’t know what orders to bark, but I do know what to say to a crying lost child. That’s my role.
Some kind of ninja you’ll make! Can you imagine Sho Kosugi curling up and blubbering when confronted by the mysterious evil Masked Ninja?