Staying Calm Under Stress

[Murican]

Hello all, this is a question for mostly QP's, but anyone is welcome to answer. SF guys are reputed for staying calm under stress, you guys are known to produce higher levels of Neuropeptide Y under pressure. The question(s) are:
-How do you keep calm under stress?
-Do you keep calm under all kinds of stress? E.g. arguing with wife, adjusting to civilian life, vs being in combat
-Where and/or when did you develop such a quality? Before or after training?
-Are you normally a calm person? Have you ever lashed out or lost your cool, became worried, nervous or angry, EVER? lol

Thanks!

[1stindoor]

I would say it's an attribute that's developed over a long period of time and experience. The things that used to cause stress when you're younger don't bother you as you get older. Good judgment comes from experience...and a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

[Go Devil]

^^^^^ Everything 1stindoor stated.
...and maintaining a keen focus on the objective while assessing, assimilating/rejecting incoming and outgoing stimuli.

[JJ_BPK]

Agreed with what has been stated,,

Besides being a self learned and self refined personal reflex,
being CALM is somewhat genetic. (not to be conflated as clam, :])

Genetic as in the nature of the individual,
not as a inherited DNA trait.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

Agreed with what has been stated,,

Besides being a self learned and self refined personal reflex,
being CLAM is somewhat genetic.

Genetic as in the nature of the individual,
not as a inherited DNA trait.

I don't think anyone was talking about being a "CLAM".

TR

[Sigaba]

A related discussion from June 2008.

http://professionalsoldiers.com/foru...ad.php?t=18721

A discussion from October 2008.

http://professionalsoldiers.com/foru...ad.php?t=20029

[doctom54]

Originally Posted by 1stindoor

I would say it's an attribute that's developed over a long period of time and experience. The things that used to cause stress when you're younger don't bother you as you get older. Good judgment comes from experience...and a lot of experience comes from bad judgment.

I concur

[miclo18d]

The more realistic the training the more it seems like training when it happens.

For medical training you want fake blood squirting in your face and loud sounds going off around you trying to distract you.

For shooting, nothing like a shoot house with real door charges and live ammo to get the blood pumping with a simple scenario that keeps getting changed every few minutes to keep you thinking, the odds getting worse as you go or your time on obj keeps getting cut. The Mogidishu Mile type training is good as you just are exhausted the whole time and have to keep moving. No stopping, no time outs, lots of wounded to carry, a million angles, and the bad guys are every where!

Through all of this you must be physically fit as well as mentally prepared. Peak physical condition keeps your heart rate controllable once that initial rush happens. The fight or flight reaction can be controlled. When the real thing happens you almost think it's boring in comparison...almost! Nothing like bullets flying back at you to get that pucker factor increased by A thousand!!!

But even that gets familiar when it's happened enough times. The more often it happens the more accustomed you are to it. If you are getting shot at once a week you get batter at it than if it only happens once a month or once a deployment.same with wounds. The more you see the easier it is to deal with the next one.

I know these examples relate to combat, but the same principles apply to roller coasters and sky diving, or being in an ER or an inflight emergency.

[Murican]

I want to thank every one of y'all so much for responding to my posts. Team Sergeant, I already ordered that book from Amazon for 4 bucks, can't wait to read it.

UWOA, lol Adderall's cool, but I seem to be getting similar results through mindfulness meditation, I'll try that first then see, maybe I'll even try Addium when all fails.

Just today I was unexpectedly and challenged to a fight by a local gang member while sitting in my car, he asked me to give him my money, first thing I did was instinctively unbuckle my seat belt in case I needed the mobility. I was weirdly excited and wanted to fight, but I calmly and politely told him not tonight, then he threatened to pull a gun on me and quickly pointed his finger at me, I flinched, but remained calm. I kept telling him I didn't have any money, and I was ready to kick open the door and go crazy on him at any second. Eventually I said I gotta go, pointing towards the McDonald's I was trying to get to, and maybe sensing that I was confident or whatever he went away.

I mean it's not really a real "stress situation" by all of your standards, and I didn't feel the "time slowing down" sort of thing, but I did stay calm and did everything in a slow manner instinctively to not agitate the guy. I would've probably been nervous if I didn't have any martial arts training at all, that and trusting my ability to give all I got if I need to in order to defend myself.

Miclo18D, it's what I admire about you guys: the constant training and real life experience you go through. For my job, our initial training is 7.5 weeks, which includes evacuations, medical, firefighting, and security, then we get about 2 days of refresher training every year that includes mostly drills and scenario exercises. I would love to have more training, but most of my coworkers seems to hate it or don't take it seriously. I mean you sort of understand when we only get to use our training once in a while, but still. In my spare time I like to visualize emergency scenarios in my head, and take volunteer self defense training classes with the air marshalls whenever they arise.

[UWOA (RIP)]

Originally Posted by Murican

UWOA, lol Adderall's cool, but I seem to be getting similar results through mindfulness meditation, I'll try that first then see, maybe I'll even try Addium when all fails.

You need to pay more attention to detail, Sinjefe said that, not me.

.

[Red Flag 1]

It is amazing what injecting a small bit of humor can do to bring everyone down a notch or two.

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Murican

Hello all, this is a question for mostly QP's, but anyone is welcome to answer. SF guys are reputed for staying calm under stress, you guys are known to produce higher levels of Neuropeptide Y under pressure. The question(s) are:
-How do you keep calm under stress?
-Do you keep calm under all kinds of stress? E.g. arguing with wife, adjusting to civilian life, vs being in combat
-Where and/or when did you develop such a quality? Before or after training?
-Are you normally a calm person? Have you ever lashed out or lost your cool, became worried, nervous or angry, EVER? lol

Thanks!

And why it was moved to "General Discussions".

[bailaviborita]

SF guys are reputed for staying calm under stress, you guys are known to produce higher levels of Neuropeptide Y under pressure. The question(s) are:
-How do you keep calm under stress?
-Do you keep calm under all kinds of stress? E.g. arguing with wife, adjusting to civilian life, vs being in combat

"SF guys" are much like any other population group- there is a wide variation between them and how they cope and they all change. Not too long ago a former SF Command CG wigged out and left a group of retired American officers in a riot situation in a foreign country. He wasn't like that when he was on a team--- but, like all humans- he changed. I've heard we are QPs, able to work with indigs, and courageous- where have you heard we are more likely to remain clam under stress? If we are- it is probably because those who are less likely to remain calm are weeded out through the pipeline.

What reference do you have for "produce higher levels of Neuropeptide Y under pressure"?

I'd say people- no matter their branch or area of work- handle stress differently. To put all SF guys in one bag and say "this is how we handle stress" is not realistic. Oh- and I did mention people change, too, didn't I?

Some SF guys- just like other humans- can handle urban combat but can't handle the wife yelling. Others like being in a hide and putting their feces in bags. I have never known any one SF guy who can handle all types of stress equally well- everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Being on a team wherein everyone has different strengths and weaknesses makes us what we are- not individual He-men...

Last 2 questions: "you" is going to get you individual answers- and that is because it is dependent on the person. What we look for is a team that can handle most stressful situations as a team- with different individuals stepping up depending on the situation. There is no such thing as a perfect "operator"--- those people exist only in the movies...

[CryptKeeper]

I thought I 'd share some of what I've discovered on this topic, so here you go:


http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/...ad.php?t=10561


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10807963

RESULTS: Plasma NPY levels were significantly increased compared to baseline following interrogations and were significantly higher in Special Forces soldiers, compared to non-Special Forces soldiers. NPY elicited by interrogation stress was significantly correlated to the subjects' behavior during interrogations and tended to be negatively correlated to symptoms of reported dissociation. Twenty-four hours after the conclusion of survival training, NPY had returned to baseline in Special Forces soldiers, but remained significantly lower than baseline values in non-Special Forces soldiers. NPY was positively correlated with both cortisol and behavioral performance under stress. NPY was negatively related to psychological symptoms of dissociation.

I’ve also attached some relevant PDF’s that should be of some interest for those wanting to know more on the topic.

[Box]

This one time, in band camp........