I'm wondering... how do you train someone to stay cool in a difficult situation? How do you train someone to think while they are panicking? Is it possible? Or are there some people who are just never going to be able to function while in a panic?
This is another situation where I am aware that I can't think clearly when seriously stressed or panicked. I try. I slow down my breathing. I do what I can to minimize the effects of the stress, but I really don't think well. And I'm just not sure how I can fix that.
Took trapeze lessons a couple of years ago. The adrenaline flow was so huge that it seriously impaired my ability to hear, to move, etc. Much less to think coherently. The nausea was as close as I've ever come to upchucking without doing so. It also completely drained my blood sugar reserves so that for a 2 hour $75 session, I could only jump off that platform about 3 times before I was unable to climb the ladder again. LOL! Then it pissed me off that I could not control my fear any better than that. There was a net, I was roped up six ways from sunday with a safety belt on. It was safe, but my primal fear thing just was not listening to logic. I ended up taking beta blockers to put the squeeze on the adrenal gland so I could function. That experience taught me that I could act in spite of fear. But it didn't teach me how to think and reason in the face of panic.
When I was a brand new diver, I once experienced unexpected panic. But because I had a plan and followed it, there was a very good outcome. I got to feel panic and not be injured. We were diving off a pontoon boat. My mom was fishing on one side of the boat and we were diving off the other side. She got her hook caught in one of the anchor ropes. I came up pretty empty... well, pegged actually. She asked me to go get her hook. I reasoned that I'd be right on the anchor rope and could just haul myself up if I ran out of air. And in a worse case scenario, it was only about 25 feet of water; I'd just drop my gear and surface. So I went after her hook. Just after I freed it, I ran out of air. My eyes got big as saucers as the panic hit, then I followed my plan and hauled my ass up that rope. I consider that experience a very good one in that I know what panic feels like and what it does to me.
How do you train someone to think when they're panicked? How do you stay calm in a life and death situation when the adrenaline is surging thru your body?
For people who have this level of anxiety the only way to do it is repetition. Exposure and repetition to the tasks required in a rescue situation, such that they are very comfortable performing those tasks. Just like diving, it takes getting used to, then you add these kinds of rescue skills and drill drill drill until they are second nature.