Posted: 7/16/2010 8:37:41 AM EDT
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How do train to react to sudden fear?
For many years now my family has been engaged in causal fear training. The purpose of this is to try and build up a tolerance / reaction to sudden fear. Basically, this is done by hiding or sneaking up on someone and try to scare them. This is done randomly so not to create a pattern. It had been several months since somebody did this to me. Last week I had two incidences. One was non intentional the other was planned. 1) Non-intentional: My dad is on vacation. I go over to his house at dusk to check for packages, check doors, etc. The house is dark and as I’m checking doors, someone taps on the front door window from inside. I jump back and yell “WHAT”. It turns out it my wife was inside dropping off the mail… Humm… Not exactly a Navy SEAL reaction on my part. 2) Intentional: Late dusk to dark. One of my sons and I are out looking for the cat (yote’s in the yard daily right now). We have an Aspen grove and are walking down the trail. I’m in the lead. I hear a growl and bark, then, something jumps right in front of me. I think – ‘crap a yote’ and jump back a little. My son behind me then screams like a little girl. The scream behind me scares the crap out of me and I yell out “WHAT” again. Turns out son #2 in hiding in the bushes. Again, not the cool under fire response I would hope to have… What motivated me to write this is a video I saw this morning. It shows an officer in a routine traffic stop that gets the crap scared out him but reacts in a very quick and effective manor. I think my problem is that I have been letting my guard down lately. I’m really walking around in condition white and not taking the situation very seriously. What is the point of ‘checking doors’ if you are not prepared for someone breaking in and being inside? IE: doing it in condition white… Anybody else doing something like this and how do you react? I have never NOT been frightened but sometimes react better than the incidents described above. Here is the video for reference - Police shooting |
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Good topic. Consider this a tag.
Personally, I've been involved in physical altercations, been shot at 3 different times, and had suspects run from me. When it surprises me, I revert back to my training. Having a good training background keeps the fear out of the forefront of my mind and gives me something else to focus on. As far as being startled from time to time, it still happens. I think it's a natural reaction. 
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I don't think that you are creating the responses that you want. You all playing jokes on each other is teaching you to not respond because it is always some family member playing the game.
IMHO you would do better to drill that any "wrong" thing gets lit up with a flashlight, or muzzle swept. Stop the game before you have a blue on blue accident. After you then patrol for the yotes ready to fire them up. The best scare response I have seen was the youtube of the guy being interviewed then someone jumps up from a trash can in a gorilla suit to scare the guy; the guy turns and knocks gorilla suit out, then looks surprised. |
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The History Channel's documentary The Brain addresses this problem. It has a segment in which the US DOD is experimenting in fear control. They have put a lot of what they've learned into the Special Forces training.
The DVD is very interesting; the 'fear control' part is one of several segments. |
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I sort have this ingrained, it's just part of my natural inclination I guess. Basically of the "fight or flight" response my "flight" gene seems to be broken.
First, I'm very aware. I tend not to get surprised simply because I'm aware of my surroundings and generally can anticipate what happens next. When I open doors or round corners I expect there to be someone behind it, so I'm not surprised to find them. When I do get surprised, my first reaction is always aggressive and violent. I'll give you two examples: When my wife was in labor (40 hours of labor) I was with her almost the whole time. I was awake almost the whole time too. Somewhere around 30 of the labor (and near to 40 hours of wakefulness) I left the hospital with my bro-in-law, and my niece and nephew for a quick trip to the store to get some juice to smuggle in to my wife. (the sis in law was with her) Anyway, my niece sneaks off and hides in a clothes rack at the Target we were shopping, and due to being tired I didn't notice. As I walk past she jumps out at me and scares me, and my first, unthinking reaction was to reach out and grab her by the throat. I realized what was going on before I squeezed of did any damage, but my natural reaction was to attack through the threat and not to retreat. Another incident happened when I was stationed in Thailand, and was at a local bar. While standing at the urinal doing my business a set of hands reaches up and starts massaging my shoulders. I spun with an elbow strike to whoever was behind me, who was only saved by the partitions between the urinals catching my elbow before it hit HIM. (yeah, freaky) I damn near tore the partition off the wall I hit it so hard. In my Krav Maga class we do similar things as well. Students stand with the eyes closed, while other students randomly apply chokes, grabs, headlocks or other things to them. You have to react appropriately to the attack. We do a gauntlet as well, walking past a row of hanging heavy bags with students hiding behind, some random number of which will jump out and attack you. This takes place in a darkened room, so visibility is very limited as well. |
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Quoted:
I sort have this ingrained, it's just part of my natural inclination I guess. Basically of the "fight or flight" response my "flight" gene seems to be broken. First, I'm very aware. I tend not to get surprised simply because I'm aware of my surroundings and generally can anticipate what happens next. When I open doors or round corners I expect there to be someone behind it, so I'm not surprised to find them. When I do get surprised, my first reaction is always aggressive and violent. I'll give you two examples: When my wife was in labor (40 hours of labor) I was with her almost the whole time. I was awake almost the whole time too. Somewhere around 30 of the labor (and near to 40 hours of wakefulness) I left the hospital with my bro-in-law, and my niece and nephew for a quick trip to the store to get some juice to smuggle in to my wife. (the sis in law was with her) Anyway, my niece sneaks off and hides in a clothes rack at the Target we were shopping, and due to being tired I didn't notice. As I walk past she jumps out at me and scares me, and my first, unthinking reaction was to reach out and grab her by the throat. I realized what was going on before I squeezed of did any damage, but my natural reaction was to attack through the threat and not to retreat. Another incident happened when I was stationed in Thailand, and was at a local bar. While standing at the urinal doing my business a set of hands reaches up and starts massaging my shoulders. I spun with an elbow strike to whoever was behind me, who was only saved by the partitions between the urinals catching my elbow before it hit HIM. (yeah, freaky) I damn near tore the partition off the wall I hit it so hard. In my Krav Maga class we do similar things as well. Students stand with the eyes closed, while other students randomly apply chokes, grabs, headlocks or other things to them. You have to react appropriately to the attack. We do a gauntlet as well, walking past a row of hanging heavy bags with students hiding behind, some random number of which will jump out and attack you. This takes place in a darkened room, so visibility is very limited as well. Very interesting about the KM training. 
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snip In my Krav Maga class we do similar things as well. Students stand with the eyes closed, while other students randomly apply chokes, grabs, headlocks or other things to them. You have to react appropriately to the attack. We do a gauntlet as well, walking past a row of hanging heavy bags with students hiding behind, some random number of which will jump out and attack you. This takes place in a darkened room, so visibility is very limited as well. Very interesting about the KM training. We did some other really cool drills too. Lots of multi-attacker stuff, fighting to your feet when 5-6 people are holding you down with pads, turn out the lights and fight with strobes going off, fight thru a doorway, etc... We did carjack/kidnap defense using real vehicles and mock weapons, all sorts of cool stuff. It's definitely 'reality based training'. |
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Isn't all martial training basically fear training? When the brain turns off, the little guys in the reflex ready room see the light go off and jump into action, performing those things the muscles and nerves have been trained to do.
There was a story in Bill Jordan's "No Second Place Winner," regarding a cross border gunfight. After dawn, when the contrabandistas had withdrawn and the Border Patrol agents were returning to station, an officer noticed that his left front pants pocket was full of empty brass. He realized that, because, during training, he always unloaded his empty weapon and put the brass in that pocket for later reloading, he'd been unconsciously doing it all night long during a protracted gunfight. We humans are great pattern recognizers. It's ingrained into the genes. Practice hard and for varied threats, and by the time you even realize you're scared, your body will have done what you told it earlier needed to be done in that situation. |
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Quoted: How do train to react to sudden fear? For many years now my family has been engaged in causal fear training. The purpose of this is to try and build up a tolerance / reaction to sudden fear. Basically, this is done by hiding or sneaking up on someone and try to scare them. This is done randomly so not to create a pattern. I bet you have an understanding among the participants about proper times and places, yes? Surprising family does not always go as planned. From earlier this week in my state: 71-year-old man mistakes grandson for an intruder and shoots him July 12, 2010 9:24 AM GOLD BEACH, Ore. –– A 22-year-old man is in critical condition today, after being accidentally shot by his own grandfather, the Curry County Sheriff's department said in a news release. It happened at early Sunday morning, when Arthur Harkey, 71, of Gold Beach, told police he "heard a noise in the hallway" and grabbed his gun. Police say, when he walked into the hallway, he was startled by "figure in the hallway," and fired his weapon. That figure in the hallway was his grandson, Raymond Murray, who lives in the home. Murray suffered a gunshot wound to the stomach and was flown to Bay Area Hospital in Coos Bay, where he's in critical condition. Harkey called 911 as soon as he realized he shot his own grandson. The Curry County Sheriff's department is still investigating the shooting. |
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I don't know how you can train out "the fear of the unknown".
I've done martial arts for many years, and when you get surprised by something, my natural reaction is to either turn my face, or throw my hands up to cover my face. I think training for the fear of the known is possibly harder. I can't honestly say what's worse: the "oh crap what was that, that just jumped out at me", or the "oh crap, these three dudes are gonna try to kick my teeth in".... I think when things jump out at you you take a natural defense orientation, or your natural "fight or flight" kicks in. When you have time to choose fight or flight is much harder. I think it's some how related to having to make multiple processes with a brain that is being quickly depleated of blood. |
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I don't know how you can train out "the fear of the unknown". I've done martial arts for many years, and when you get surprised by something, my natural reaction is to either turn my face, or throw my hands up to cover my face. I think training for the fear of the known is possibly harder. I can't honestly say what's worse: the "oh crap what was that, that just jumped out at me", or the "oh crap, these three dudes are gonna try to kick my teeth in".... I think when things jump out at you you take a natural defense orientation, or your natural "fight or flight" kicks in. When you have time to choose fight or flight is much harder. I think it's some how related to having to make multiple processes with a brain that is being quickly depleated of blood. If you react aggressively in training, you will react aggressively for real. While you may be expecting something to happen, train so that you don't know precisely what or when it will hit you, as I described above. When the time comes for real, you'll react the same way without having to think of it. |
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Military time or some of the really good martial arts classes are what I think it takes. I work corrections and while I am better at this sort of thing it is by no means something I feel confident about. As far as having friends and family pop out on you, that sounds like training to fail. You are always thinking it might be a friend instead of a possable threat and that is bad. You want to identify the target before you pull the trigger but wondering if it is a relative surprising you vs. a threat trying to harm you is not where you want your brain to be. One reason I let friends and family know I have a ccw permit and carry now and then is because I want them to never play games and try to sneak up on me and pretend to mug me or something similar. You have to practice being surprised and reacting how you wish to react to learn this stuff and do it. On the surface it might sound good to randomly have friends and family test your readiness status but I just don't see it being a good habit to get into since I want to react to a possable threat like it is a threat and not like it is just a test. |
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This whole thread makes me think of Peter Sellers in the old Pink Panther movies as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau!
He always instructed his oriental butler Kato to attack him at any moment when he least expected it so he could maintain his "top notch" hand to hand combat skills. This usually ended after the two of the beat the crap out of each other and destroyed pretty much everything in his apartment, with Kato getting bashed in head and rammed into a TV or through a window (often in slow motion) 
Hilarious! Hire Kato - problem solved! As to the OP original question, I think some of it is attitude - you have to have that attitude of not freaking out when placed in a stressful situation. That said, I think having some actual experience successfully dealing with situations that would completely freak out 99% the normal population helps. As other have pointed out - combat experience would pretty much take care of that. I would think (never been in combat). Me - I used to skydive - have 2000+ jumps, was an instructor, etc. One of the scariest things I have done was make my first jump, but eventually if you continue, you learn to focus on the task at hand and not become paralyzed with fear in a potentially life threatening situation. I think participating in some sport where you are required to function at a high level while under stress would help. Skydiving, rock climbing, base jumping, white water kayaking, drag racing top fuel dragsters or getting shot at in combat all good. 
Martial arts training or even getting your private pilots license is probably somewhat good... Sparring with Mike Tyson or current MMA champ - very good! although probably not recommended...
Ping pong, checkers, having people jump out at you from closets - not so much... 
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I don't know how you can train out "the fear of the unknown". I've done martial arts for many years, and when you get surprised by something, my natural reaction is to either turn my face, or throw my hands up to cover my face. I think training for the fear of the known is possibly harder. I can't honestly say what's worse: the "oh crap what was that, that just jumped out at me", or the "oh crap, these three dudes are gonna try to kick my teeth in".... I think when things jump out at you you take a natural defense orientation, or your natural "fight or flight" kicks in. When you have time to choose fight or flight is much harder. I think it's some how related to having to make multiple processes with a brain that is being quickly depleted of blood. If you react aggressively in training, you will react aggressively for real. While you may be expecting something to happen, train so that you don't know precisely what or when it will hit you, as I described above. When the time comes for real, you'll react the same way without having to think of it. Yaish you are very correct. TobyLazur it is called Fear inoculation and has been used by SOCOM training forces for some time now. In the old days (and now I may be dating myself) an "Event" was manufactured to see how the prospective candidate behaved in the moment fight or flight kicked in. If you ran to the sound of the gun fire so to speak you got a check in the go column. This was done during the initial interview. Any martial art that is combat based and not for "Sport" can give you the edge but like most things for most people there are those that seem to be born to it. and I leave you with this on that note. "Out of every 100 men, ten shouldn't even be there, Eighty are just targets, Nine are the real fighters, and we are lucky to have them, for they make the battle. Ah, but the one, One is a warrior, And he will bring the others back." - Heraclitus This is so true. |
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Training, practice and preparation. War game scenarios often. When some thing happens you have a conditioned response that does not require a lot of thought.
The Big Army does this by using their Battle Drills. Most of us have done this. For instance, what do you do when you hear your door being smashed in at 0 dark thirty? |