I was surprised - almost shocked - with the recent thread about airline travel, and got to thinking about Fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of fear itself.

A major component of fear is a lack of experience. I recently listened to a tirade by a relative about what a "filthy, graffiti-ridden mess" the New York Subways are, and how "Dangerous" New York is because of all the "rampant crime". Now, if you have ridden the subways in the last 20 years, you know - from first hand experience - that the graffiti problem was eradicated long ago.

And you also would know that New York is one of the safest cities in America. It's not even on the list of dangerous cities anymore, and hasn't been for years:
http://www.morganquitno.com/xcit06pop.htm

But this isn't jsut about New York or Air Travel. I've posted here before, but for some reason it seems that today I need to say it loud and clear - your mind is your best survival tool, and experiences reduce your fear OR they can give you a proper validation of your fears.

Let me give you an example. When I was training to become a firefighter, we did a burn building drill on a hot August day. It was one of the first times I had been in fire, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise, it's pretty awful. The steam is the part I hate, you feel it right through your gloves, especially when you're crawling in the wet soot. After about 4 straight hours in turnout gear, going an and out of the fire, my heart rate shot up to 188, and I started to pass out. It was heatstroke, I rolled out of school that day in an ambulance with an IV and a heart monitor.
When I went back to the burn building the next time, it was just as hot...but having experienced the fire, I was able to pace myself, think and keep cool - mentally - and to identify the real hazards in the fire, while trying to filter out the irrelevant noise. In recent years I've been reminded that I need to take a similar view of things when it comes to people, places, cultures and situations. When I am afraid of something, 90% of the time it's because I've not experienced it before, and at that point, I try very hard to remember that what I'm afraid of is NOT what is about to happen or what I'm about to do, it's that I'm afraid that I don't know what will happen or what to do. And surprisingly if you hold your fear off to the side and treat it as this thing that's a reaction to your inexperience, you can either let your inexperience feed your fear, or you can overwhelm fear with experience.
One last fire company story, kind of a sad one. A long while ago, I was at one of my first "messy" car wrecks. In this case, a guy hit a tree at 40+ miles per hour, was not wearing a seatbelt, and for some reason, he had a set of barbells in the back seat, which smashed into him from behind. The physical trauma was tremendous. I was ordered to do patient assessment, "Check if he's breathing" was the simple order. I couldn't tell where his face was, there was so much trauma and blood, and I was scared of what I was seeing. But then, I realized that there was something more important than my fear, and that was that the guy WAS ALIVE and we needed to get him out. "Breathing and a Pulse!" I shouted and then we got a BP (something absurd like 70/50 and falling), and we got the guy out. From that moment on my fear of those situations was replaced with a fear that's more real and valid - my fear is based on if we mess up and the person in the wreck dies, or we get hurt by an exploding airbag. But the fear of the gore and the trauma, that's not as big factor anymore. It's not pleasant, don't get me wrong, but it's expected. We all look the same after a bad car wreck.

So, this long pre-coffee ramble is a bit of advice to all of you who are equipped for Armageddon and being lost in the woods or trapped in a "big city" but unwilling to actually go into the woods or a go to a distant city or country. Don't let fear rule your day. Don't let the unknown become an enemy, because eventually, all that will be left to you are your familiar fears of the unknown, which thrive in a mind that has no new experiences.

Don't be equipped because you're afraid of what could happen, be equipped so you can enjoy life!

Good point. Fear of the unknown is, in my opinion, much bigger than some imagined "bad thing." When I first got into law enforcement, I was worried about my first fatal T/C, my first felony stop, my first fight on the side of some freeway, my first flare pattern in the middle of the El Segundo curve, etc etc etc. And as I experience each one, without any hesitation or shivers as it happened, I discovered that I was somehow already equipped to handle each one rapidly and properly. Don't know if was my training, experience (I was a whopping 25 years old), the fear of looking bad in front of my peers and the public, or just blind dumb luck. After a very short (in my estimation) time, I was able to handle whatever came up without any problems whatsoever. I don't recall feeling anything like fear since 1971. I do have a healty respect for a lot of things, and try to maintain a high level of awareness where ever I happen to be, because I know that bad things can happen in an instant, but fear? Nope.

A few weeks ago the campground we are "working" in had the biggest wood chipper I have ever seen (this thing will chew up a 12" diameter log at high speed). My wife and I were both feeding wood into it as fast as we could drag it up, the young male seasonal worker at the park was supposed to be helping, but he was sooo afraid of that thing he only fed one piece into it all day, spent the rest of the day just staring at it from 100 ft away, almost visibly shaking. He apparently has not learned to overcome his fears yet...

Good stories. Training and practice, I say. Learn it (whatever "it" is) when you're not under the tremendous stress of an actual event.

Some First Aid classes are taught using 'practice' scenarios --OK, you walk into a room and you see a person with a bleeding ...etc. A great way to apply those skills.

Teacher

"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
--- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933
(For those weak in history, he was talking about the Great Depression.)

Sue

Those Roosevelt boys were good for all kinds of great quotes...

I'm not afraid of New York. I'm afraid of Washington, DC. I've been there many times and, even though I carry a firearm, residents there cannot. Nor can they own one in their own home (capguns excepted, although I don;t think they can be manufactured anymore because someone complained that they make a loud noise).

Yes, I'm afraid of that city. Where else do you get the gift of an accelerated crime rate by the simple act of banning legal ownership of weapons?

Why am I afraid? Because the novel idea (started in 1976) of becoming famous (We have the highest crime rate per capita anywhere the world over!! We are number 1 ! Look at us!!!) could spread to other cities and, eventually, entire states.

Other than that, I'm only afraid of fires.

Everyone in their right mind is afraid of Washington D.C., for one reason or another. I understand that it and Chicago have the highest crime rates in the U.S. Both have restrictive gun-control laws. There must be a connection...

Sue

Chicago may have "restrictive gun-control" laws but DC doesn't. It has the "You will not own a gun" law. The connection, as you already know, is that criminals love those kinds of laws. Soon, they'll be loving the "You will not own a knife" law. And after that will come the "You will not own land" law. [yawn]

AHHHH come on I read a great speach once that talked about how people not having guns would make things safer and make it easier for the police to protect the population. It was writtten by a Time magazines man of the year, and you know Time magazine could never be wrong, and Adolf Hitler would never have lied, I mean look how he protected the german citizens.

Well, fear is a part of our existence. I would say that fear can be categorized as rational and irrational. Rational fear is for the most part a good thing. It generates a healthy and necessary aversion to harm and allows for reason to benefit our learning where experience alone would be a bit counterproductive. Having a healthy fear of wild critters keeps some of us from wandering around in bear country without suitable precautions. While I was in Iraq, rational fear kept me alert and aware of my surroundings and thinking about what to do if... Irrational fear would've paralyzed me, made me do stupid things, and ultimately I would not have lasted as long as I did.

One trip I took to Taji I was on the threshold from rational to irrational. I managed to keep my nerve. When the security group cmdr asked if I was scared, I said yes, but I was still willing to go. Fortunately nothing happened, but it can be a bit rough driving in all that traffic and dodging the big "potholes" from earlier car bombs. Especially when I was 200 meters from one getting popped in front of me a while before, with all the passengers in the primary vehicle getting killed.

I stayed alert, but every time traffic slowed us to a crawl, or we went through a checkpoint, I got exceedingly nervous. Was it warranted, well, there wasn't much I could do about it if someone popped us once we were out the gate, so taking all that adrenaline probably didn't do a great deal for my health. It did give me some perspective later on, and make me think about what is really important in life. Now, everyday I am not in Baghdad is a good day. I tell people when it gets rough here at work (Denver, Manhattan, Phoenix, Brisbane) that at least nobody is shooting at me or trying to blow me up, which is a really good thing.

Now when I got caught out in the parking lot one day during a rocket attack, the adrenaline did help me outrun a couple young marines. Of course, I needed the oxygen bottle once I got to the bunker, and the marines had something to talk about for the day, and I had to go back afterwards and pick up all the junk that fell out of my pockets, but at least I learned when I have to, I still have the hustle in me...