The Top 10 Ways to Die in a Long-term Disaster
So here are the cold hard facts. One of these is the way that you are most likely to die when the SHTF, particularly in the event of a long-term grid failure. The good news is, now that you know this, you can take steps to prevent your untimely demise.
- You die of thirst or waterborne illness. Most people have a case of water bottles kicking around, and perhaps a 5 gallon jug for the water cooler. What they don’t have is a gallon a day per person for a long-term emergency. Most people also don’t own a gravity fed, no-power necessary water filtration device with spare parts and extra filters. Most people do not have the skills and knowledge necessary to purify their water without these devices either. Waterborne illness is the number one cause of death after a natural disaster. If just one person handles water and waste incorrectly, this can cause an epidemic of such deadly illnesses as Hepatitis A, viral gastroenteritis, cholera, Shigellosis, typhoid, Diphtheria and polio. The other worry is dehydration. It only takes 3 days for a person to die of thirst. Learn more about the importance of water preparedness HERE. If you’d like information on water preparedness in a print version, check out my book on the subject.
- You die from fantasy-world planning. So many preppers have poorly thought out plans for survival. They think they’ll “live off the land” and hunt, forage, and farm their way through the apocalypse, but they’ve never milked a goat or planted the contents of their seed banks. They don’t understand that gardens and crops can fail for innumerable reasons. They think they’re still in the same physical condition that they were 25 years ago and overestimate their ability to perform physical labor, like chopping wood for the fire. There are hundreds of bad strategies that will get preppers killed (in fact, here are 12 of them), and mostly it boils down to one crucial fact: it’s all a fantasy. They’ve never done ANY of the things that they think they will do for survival, or if they have done them, it was decades ago, when they were younger, fitter, and more resilient. I can tell you right now, if we had to live off of the contents of this year’s drought-stricken, deer-and-gopher-raided garden, we’d last about a week, enjoying salsa by the jarful, but little else.
- You freeze to death. Depending on where you live, you may freeze to death when the power goes out. When temperatures plummet, people will become desperate to get warm, and this will lead to other modes of death such as carbon monoxide poison from improperly vented heat sources and house fires when people use fireplaces or wood stoves that have not been maintained for years. Learn about staying warm during a winter power outage HERE and begin to develop a plan that will keep your family cozy during a long-term scenario.
- You starve to death. Most people only have enough food to see them through until the next grocery trip. Most people go to the grocery store more than once per week. In urban centers, it’s customary to buy your food fresh from the market each day. If disaster strikes and you only have a few days’ worth of food, you are going to be one of those people standing in line for hours, begging FEMA for a bottle of water and an MRE to split amongst your family. Even worse, in an extremely widespread disaster, FEMA won’t be coming at all, and you’ll be on your own, left with only what you have in your home…before it spoils and if you can figure out a way to cook it with no power. Food poisoning, starvation, and malnutrition will be common causes of death. Learn about building a pantry on a budget HERE. To start yourself out with a speedy supply, go HERE for a variety of high quality, non-GMO kits.
- You have an accident involving major trauma. This is something that is difficult to prevent – that’s why they call it an accident. To up your chances of survival, always where the proper protective gear, such as safety goggles and gloves. Secondly, spend some time learning to deal with medical situations. Many communities offer free First Aid courses to get you started. Stock up on books that provide information for times when medical care is not available (this one is the very best in my opinion), and have advanced supplies on hand to deal with injuries.
- You get murdered when raiders or looters come to steal your stuff. Remember the 315 million unprepared Americans? They’re going to be hungry. And the hungrier and more desperate people become, the more dangerous the world is going to be. It’s imperative that you be prepared to defend your home and family from them. If you’re one of those people who says, “I don’t want to live in a world where I have to shoot someone because they’re hungry” you just might get your wish. Because they won’t have a problem shooting you. This is one of the major reasons that preppers must be armed. The danger isn’t just from mobs of strangers. If you tend to talk too much, your friends, extended family, and neighbors just might be the ones to kill you for your supplies.
- You get sick. Without our normal standards of cleanliness and the access to medical care, the likelihood of getting sick increases. Without the access to medical care, the likelihood of that sickness spiraling out of control is exponentially greater. Learn how to treat and manage sickness naturally so that you can get a handle on an illness before it kills you. This book is a fantastic reference, written with the prepper in mind.
- You get an infection. A silly little cut or splinter that we take for granted now could be a death sentence after the SHTF. With the possibility that your hygiene standards may drop and that you’ll be getting a lot dirtier doing physical labor, infection is fairly likely. It’s vital to immediately treat even the most trivial-seeming wound. For treating a wound, I can’t recommend this spray enough. I have used it on all sorts of animal infections that I thought would prove fatal, with 100% positive results. Because of this, we use it on our own wounds as soon as possible, too. That may not always be enough to prevent an infection however, so having the right antibiotics on hand could mean the difference between life and death. (Check out this antibiotic primer by Joe Alton of Dr. Bones fame) Many veterinary antibiotics are identical to those made for humans. You can find them on Amazon and add them to your stockpile.
- You die because you are fat and/or out of shape. If the Zombies approached and you found yourself outnumbered, are you fit enough to run away? What if you had to bug out across the mountains? Would your heart hold up to the steep climb? Would your knees hold up to the descent? What if you add a 50 pound backpack? Now is the time to get yourself in shape. Most Americans lead fairly sedentary lives, sitting down to a desk all day for work. It’s not something you can fix overnight, so now is the time to increase your fitness. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for the family members who will have to wait for you while you huff and puff. They’ll be killed when you slow them down. The road to fitness can start easily. If you can walk, you can improve your fitness level dramatically. This article discusses how to start out slowly and then build up your endurance and this PDF book will help you to reach a healthy body weight.
- You die when you daily medication runs out. This one is tougher to prevent. You can extend life expectancy by stockpiling medication but if the crisis outlasts your supply, there is a limit to what you can do. Who can forget the heartbreaking story of the diabetic girl in the book One Second After? Don’t underestimate the difficulty for some of going without psychiatric drugs. Depending on the drug, withdrawal can be horrific, particularly if they have not been able to slowly wean themselves off. Some conditions,when untreated, can cause the sufferer to lose touch with reality and suffer a psychotic break, making them dangerous to themselves and others. Depending on the medication you require, there are sometimes natural alternatives and dietary tweaks that can help. Some existing conditions can be managed better now through lifestyle changes, which will increase your chances for survival later. For example, if you suffer from Type 2 Diabetes and are significantly overweight, improving your diet and losing weight now can reduce your dependence on daily medication in many cases. Keep in mind that some medications are okay after the expiration dates, while others can be deadly. (Learn more about pharmaceutical expiration dates HERE.) Learn everything you can about your medical condition and figure out a plan ahead of time.
Source: Here’s How You’ll Die When The SHTF (And How To Prevent Your Untimely Demise) | Zero Hedge
Ten Things You Need To Know To Overcome OCD
By experienced psychologist Fred Penzel, Ph.D.
I have been actively involved in the treatment of OCD since 1982 and have treated over 850 cases of the disorder. During that time, I have come to many valuable understandings that I believe are important tools for anyone planning to take on this disorder. Putting together this type of list always seems arbitrary in terms of what to include, but suffice it to say, however, it is presented, there is a certain body of information that can make anyone’s attempts at recovery more effective.
Some of these points may seem obvious, but it has always struck me as remarkable how little of this information my new patients, who are otherwise intelligent and informed people, are seen to possess coming into therapy.
You may not like some of the things on this list, as they may not be what you wish to hear. You don’t have to like them. However, if you wish to change, you will need to accept them. The concepts of change and acceptance go hand-in-hand and define each other. There are some things you will be able to change, and some you will have to accept. It is important to discriminate between the two, so as to not end up misdirecting your efforts.
My list is as follows:
1. OCD is chronic
This means it is like having asthma or diabetes. You can get it under control and become recovered but, at the present time, there is no cure. It is a potential that will always be there in the background, even if it is no longer affecting your life. The current thinking is that it is probably genetic in origin, and not within our current reach to treat at that level. The things you will have to do to treat it really control, and if you don’t learn to effectively make use of them throughout your life, you will run the risk of relapse. This means that if you don’t use the tools provided in cognitive/behavioral therapy or if you stop taking your medication (in most cases) you will soon find yourself hemmed in by symptoms once again.
2. Two of the main features of OCD are doubt and guilt
While it is not understood why this is so, these are considered hallmarks of the disorder. Unless you understand these, you cannot understand OCD. In the 19th century, OCD was known as the “doubting disease.” OCD can make a sufferer doubt even the most basic things about themselves, others, or the world they live in. I have seen patients doubt their sexuality, their sanity, their perceptions, whether or not they are responsible for the safety of total strangers, the likelihood that they will become murderers, etc. I have even seen patients have doubts about whether they were actually alive or not. Doubt is one of the more maddening qualities of OCD. It can override even the keenest intelligence. It is a doubt that cannot be quenched. It is doubt raised to the highest power. It is what causes sufferers to check things hundreds of times, or to ask endless questions of themselves or others. Even when an answer is found, it may only stick for several minutes, only to slip away as if it was never there. Only when sufferers recognize the futility of trying to resolve this doubt, can they begin to make progress.
The guilt is another excruciating part of the disorder. It is rather easy to make people with OCD feel guilty about most anything, as many of them already have a surplus of it. They often feel responsible for things that no one would ever take upon themselves
3. Although you can resist performing a compulsion, you cannot refuse to think an obsessive thought
Obsessions are biochemically generated mental events that seem to resemble one’s own real thoughts, but aren’t. One of my patients used to refer to them as “My synthetic thoughts.” They are as counterfeit bills are to real ones, or as wax fruit is to real fruit. As biochemical events, they cannot simply be shut off at will. Studies in thought suppression have shown that the more you try to not think about something, the more you will end up thinking about it paradoxically. The real trick to dealing with obsessions I like to tell my patients is, “If you want to think about it less, think about it more.” Neither can you run from or avoid the fears resulting from your obsessions. Fear, too, originates in the mind, and in order to recover, it is important to accept that there is no escape. Fears must be confronted. People with OCD do not stay with the things they fear long enough to learn the truth–that is, that their fears are unjustified and that the anxiety would have gone away anyway on its own, without a compulsion or neutralizing activity.
4. Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy is the best form of treatment for OCD
Cognitive/Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is considered to be the best form of treatment for OCD. OCD is believed to be a genetically-based problem with behavioral components, and not psychological in origin. Ordinary talk therapy will, therefore, not be of much help. Reviewing past events in your life, or trying to figure out where your parents went wrong in raising you have never been shown to relieve the symptoms of OCD. Other forms of behavioral treatment, such as relaxation training or thought-stopping (snapping a rubber band against your wrist and saying the word “Stop” to yourself when you get an obsessive thought) are likewise unhelpful. The type of behavioral therapy shown to be most effective for OCD is known as Exposure and Response Prevention (E&RP).
E&RP consists of gradually confronting your fearful thoughts and situations while resisting the performing of compulsions. The goal is to stay with whatever makes you anxious so that you will develop a tolerance for the thought or the situation, and learn that, if you take no protective measures, nothing at all will happen. People with OCD do not stay long enough in feared situations to learn the truth. I try to get my patients to stay with fearful things to the point where a kind of fatigue with the subject sets in. Our goal is to wear the thought out. I tell them, “You cant be bored and scared at the same time.” Compulsions, too, are part of the system and must be eliminated for the recovery process to occur. There are two things that tend to sustain compulsions. One is that by doing them, the sufferer is only further convinced of the reality of their obsessions, and is then driven to do more compulsions. The other is that habit also keeps some people doing compulsions, sometimes long after the point of doing them is forgotten. The cognitive component of CBT teaches you to question the probability of your fears actually coming true (always very low or practically nil), and to challenge their underlying logic (always irrational and sometimes even bizarre).
5. While medication is a help, it is not a complete treatment in itself
It is human nature to always want quick, easy, and simple solutions to life’s problems. While everyone with OCD would like there to be a magical medicinal bullet to take away their symptoms, there really is no such thing at this time. Meds are not the “perfect” treatment; however, they are a “pretty good” treatment. Generally speaking, if you can get a reduction in your symptoms of from 60 to 70 percent, it is considered a good result. Of course, there are always those few who can say that their symptoms were completely relieved by a particular drug. They are the exception rather than the rule. People are always asking me, “What is the best drug for OCD?” My answer is, “The one that works best for you.” I have a saying about meds: “Everything works for somebody, but nothing works for everybody.” Just because a particular drug worked for someone you know, does not mean that it will work for you.
Relying solely on meds most likely means that all your symptoms will not be relieved and that you will always be vulnerable to a substantial relapse if you discontinue them. Discontinuation studies (where those who have only had meds agreed to give them up) have demonstrated extremely high rates of relapse. This is because drugs are not a cure, but are rather a control. Even where they are working well, when you stop taking them, your chemistry will soon revert (usually within a few weeks) to its former unhealthy state. Meds are extremely useful as part of a comprehensive treatment together with CBT. They should, in fact, be regarded as a tool to help you to do therapy. They give you an edge by reducing levels of obsession and anxiety. While those with mild OCD can frequently recover without the use of meds, the majority of sufferers will need them in order to be successful. One unfortunate problem with meds is the stigma attached to them. Having to use them does not mean that you are weaker than others, only that this is what your particular chemistry requires for you to be successful. You cant always fight your own brain chemistry unaided. Using psychiatric drugs also does not mean that you are “crazy.” People with OCD are not crazy, delusional, or disoriented. When relieved of their symptoms, they are just as functional as anyone.
6. You cannot and should not depend upon the help of others to manage your anxiety or to get well
To begin with, and most obviously, you are always with you. If you come to depend upon others to manage your anxiety by reassuring you, answering your questions, touching things for you, or taking part in your rituals, what will you do when they are not around? My guess is that you will likely be immobilized and helpless. The same is true if you only work on your therapy homework when others are nagging or reminding you. No one can want you to recover more than you do. If your motivation is so poor that you cannot get going on your own (assuming that you are not also suffering from an untreated case of depression), then you will have learned nothing about what it takes to recover from OCD. As mentioned at the beginning, since OCD is chronic, you will have to learn to manage it throughout your life. Since you can find yourself on your own at any point, unpredictably, you will always need to be fully independent in managing it.
7. The goal of any good treatment is to teach you to become your own therapist
In line with the last point, good Cognitive/Behavioral treatment should aim to give you the tools necessary to manage your symptoms effectively. As therapy progresses, the responsibility for directing your treatment should gradually shift from your therapist to you. Whereas the therapist may start out by giving you assignments designed to help you face and overcome your fears, you should eventually learn to spot difficult situations on your own and give yourself challenging homework to do. This will then be a model for how you will need to handle things throughout your life.
8. You cannot rely upon your own intuition in deciding how to deal with OCD
In using your intuition to deal with what obsessions may be telling you, there is one thing you can always count on: it will always lead you in the wrong direction. It is only natural to want to escape or avoid that which makes you fearful. It’s instinctive. It really amazes me how common this is. This may be fine when faced by a vicious dog or an angry mugger but, since the fear in OCD results from recurring thoughts inside your head, it cannot be escaped from. The momentary escape from fear that compulsions give fools people into relying upon them. While compulsions start out as a solution, they soon become the main problem itself as they begin taking over your life. People with OCD never stay with what they fear long enough to find out that what they fear isn’t true. Only by doing the opposite of what instinct tells you will you be able to find this out.
9. Getting recovered takes time
How long does it take? As long as is necessary for a given individual. Speaking from experience, I would say that the average uncomplicated case of OCD takes from about six to twelve months to be successfully completed. If symptoms are severe, if the person works at a slow pace, or if other problems are also present, it can take longer. Also, some people need to work on the rehabilitation of their lives after the OCD is brought under control. Long-term OCD can take a heavy toll on a persons ability to live. It may have been a long time since they have socialized, held a job, or doing everyday household chores, etc. Some people have never done these things. Returning to these activities may add to the time it takes to finish treatment.
However long it takes, it is crucial to see the process through to the finish. There is no such thing as being “partially recovered.” Those who believe they can take on only those symptoms they feel comfortable facing soon find themselves back at square one. Untreated symptoms have a way of expanding to fill the space left by those that have been relieved. When explaining this to my patients, I liken it to getting surgery for cancer. I ask them, “Would you want the surgeon to remove it all, or leave some of it behind?” Or, put another way, it is not a game you can simply drop out of midway with your winnings and expect to keep them.
10. Relapse is a potential risk that must be guarded against
It has always been a favorite saying of mine that, “Getting well is 50 percent of the job, and staying well is the other 50 percent.” We have actually come full-circle back to Point #1, which tells us that OCD is chronic. This tells us that although there is no cure, you can successfully recover and live a life no different from other people. Once a person gets to the point of recovery, there are several things that must be observed if they are to stay that way. As mentioned in Point #7, the goal of proper therapy is to teach people to become their own therapists. It gives them the tools to accomplish this. One of these tools is the knowledge that feared situations can no longer be avoided. The overall operating principle is that obsessions must therefore always be confronted immediately, and all compulsions must be resisted. When people are seen to relapse, it is usually because they avoided an obsessive fear which then got out of hand because they went on to perform compulsions. Another cause can be an individual believing that they were cured and stopping their medication without telling anyone. Unfortunately, the brain doesn’t repair itself while on medications, and so when drugs are withdrawn, the chemistry reverts to its former dysfunctional state. Finally, some people may have fully completed their treatment, but have neglected to tell their therapist about all of their symptoms, or else they did not go as far as they needed to in confronting and overcoming the things they did work on. In pursuing treatment for OCD, it is vital to go the distance in tackling all of your symptoms, so as to be prepared for whatever you may encounter in the future.
It is vital to remember that no one is perfect, nor can anyone recover perfectly. Even in well-maintained recoveries, people can occasionally slip up and forget what they are supposed to be doing. Luckily, there is always another chance to re-expose yourself and so, rather than a person beating themselves up and putting themselves down, they can soon regain their balance if they immediately get back on track by turning again and facing that which is feared, and then not doing compulsions.
Finally, because health is the result of living in a state of balance, it is extremely important, post-therapy, to live a balanced life, with enough sleep, proper diet and exercise, social relationships, and productive work of some type.
Fred Penzel, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist who has specialized in the treatment of OCD and related disorders since 1982. He is the executive director of Western Suffolk Psychological Services in Huntington, Long Island, New York, a private treatment group specializing in OCD and obsessive-compulsive related problems, and is a founding member of the OCF Science Advisory Board. More of Fred’s work can be found on his website. Dr. Penzel is the author of “Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders: A Complete Guide To Getting Well And Staying Well,” a self-help book covering OCD and other obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorders.