How to act in panic situations?
Services with experience in collective panic situations advise the following steps:
a) Identify panic triggers and define “weak zones” that are susceptible to panic.
b) Act as soon as possible, calmly and collectedly. De-dramatize the situation and thus eliminate the feeling of helplessness.
c) Embrace all elements of the situation, which contributes to a sense of security in an affective sense. This means creating a picture of security, for example, engaging services specialized in such crisis situations, implementing and respecting regulations that ensure the normal flow of necessary activities.
All research shows that the best prevention of panic, both collective and individual, is timely information. Problems should not be concealed or dramatized. Preparatory exercises ensure the creation of appropriate reflex actions. Adopting a positive behavior pattern in situations of fear is achieved through daily practice. m. This is a ongoing work focused on practicing reactions in situations of risk, on developing reflexive responses that can be activated at any moment, enabling us to react in an appropriate manner. Inner peace and composure should not be left to improvisation.
Facing difficulties, for example, Napoleon constantly walked while dictating letters, thus releasing tension. Physical exercises can be of great help, but it seems that imagination is an essential function that mediates in stress relief. It transports us to another dimension of reality where doors that were closed to reason are opened.
Great sports champions do not win solely thanks to the strength of their muscles, but above all thanks to the positive images they have built to overcome pain, whether permanent or occasional. The first thing we must learn is to win from within, morally, and everything else is just a consequence of internal achievement. This leads to strengthening our defense against exposure to years of panic.
Panic arises from feelings of guilt, fatalism, and superstition. Willpower, imagination, and belief are the psychological functions that mediate and enable what we can call the exercise of the spirit of victory and thus build positive solutions.
One ideal, one foundation of belief that connects us to the structure of the cosmos itself, will make possible the openness and freshness of spirit that frees us from our own egocentric narrowness, the matrix of all our panics. More than mere technique or recipe, it is necessary to live an ideal that allows the renewal and strengthening of the sense and importance we attach to other people, as well as love for nature. This is a return to the feeling of trust that gives birth to the ability to build our own affirmation.
People who lived in the past were probably no better than modern humans. If we are impressed by their resilience and resilience in the face of disasters, it is because they collectively possessed the idea. The sense of community and their internal needs were not solely material and transient.
The reason why society and the world today are no longer capable of change is not because nothing should be changed, but rather due to accumulated resignation and paralysis in the face of fear. One could even argue that panic is corroding the structure of today’s societies more than any other material or economic factor. Professor Enrico L. Quarantelli defines panic as a particular type of societal disorganization and personal breakdown.
Emotional fragility is the primary cause of individual or collective vulnerability to panic. Individuals who are not susceptible to panic are exceptions and represent a rare curiosity. Fear of the past, more than fear of what the future holds, is a consequence of poorly integrated experiences.
The Panic Cycle
The cycle of panic development, as described by M. Wolfenstein, can help us understand why it is beneficial to participate in a worthwhile project that is not solely about ourselves.
Panic phases:
1) Confrontation phase
Surprise, disorientation caused by a real or imaginary feeling of excessive vulnerability. The more convinced we are that we are far from a crisis situation (“disasters only happen to others”), the more vulnerable we are.
In this case, the biggest enemy is excessive self-protection to which we are prone, unreality, isolation from danger, resignation that we show towards flaws and wrong decisions. The psychological reaction is surprise. We are convinced that all responsibility and blame come from outside, from others, when the truth is that inner peace and balance can come from within ourselves and depend solely on us.
Withdrawing into ourselves causes a feeling of isolation in which we drown in the belief that we are unable to help anyone else. Vulnerability and the intensity of the earthquake in the midst of an extreme situation are directly proportional to egocentrism.
2) Reaction phase
The victim is inhibited and loses the sense of initiative. Their behavior is conditioned by a state of shock, a sort of stu by becoming aware of the situation and the inability to appropriately confront it.
Behavior occurs in sequences, which is a characteristic of zombie-like states: the connection between somatic (physical) and intellectual activity is lost. Affectivity has blocked the relationship between the body and the psyche, leading to loss of consciousness.
In short, the ability to concentrate is lost, and a centrifugal psychological effect occurs.
3) Restoration phase
In this phase, the fear of fear is born. This is a state in which a person refuses to accept the idea that they should have reacted in any way, or they are convinced that they didn’t do so due to their inability to confront an extreme situation. It is a kind of frustration and feeling of guilt, from which an irrational fear further arises: a deep impression that a catastrophic event can repeat itself at any moment.
Paradoxically, the fear of fear arises from subsequent intellectualization of the experienced event and the difficulty of accepting a new way of behaving that would be achieved in Integration of fear of fear into a positively valued experience.
Panic is a reaction phenomenon that can occur in anyone, but it is not inevitable, it can be overcome thanks to appropriate psychological preparation.
Using the example of earthquakes, we can see obvious population differences in the behavior of Mexicans and Japanese. During a major earthquake in Mexico City, there were many casualties solely due to panic. When an earthquake of the same intensity hit Tokyo, nobody succumbed to panic, not even the TV presenter who calmly continued hosting the show.
This leads to the conclusion that panic is not an inherent component of individual spirit. It is a consequence of lack of information. From this emerge all those disturbing rumors and false beliefs. The lack of preparation for facing danger provokes an epidemic that seeks a suitable ground for spreading.
We can control panic fear if we consciously focus on some external object that represents a stimulus of encouragement. The feeling of inclusion, allows for taking risks. For example, when a mother saves her son in danger, she finds strength within herself that she may have never awakened if it hadn’t been for the external stimulus (her son). Similarly, military commanders know very well how important it is to instill a symbolic and affective value of the flag in the soldiers’ consciousness. All great encouragement of courage has been based on symbolic and imaginary values that transcend all personal and material boundaries.
It is important to always retain the positive essence of the events we have experienced. We must give meaning to our losses and suffering by transforming them into a positive experience that can restore confidence in ourselves and in life in general. Blaming fate for our failures leads to nothing. Such behavior deeply weakens our life potentials.
The first phase we mentioned points to the need for awakening attention. The second phase speaks to the need for establishing strong concentration of life energy, and the third phase Alive to the awakening of imagination as a possibility of restructuring our representational system.
Imagination is the ability to establish a relationship with reality, it establishes a connection between visible and invisible reality through the process of symbolization.
Our deficiencies (courage, dynamism, principles…) are not necessarily obstacles if we bear in mind the fact that thanks to imagination, we can create a new reality that will strengthen our defense and give us the courage that was initially lacking. This is the learning of building an inner state that does not depend on circumstances, the development of our secret garden that operates regeneratively and is the starting point of our decisions.
To conclude, the essential point of motivation to overcome the fear of fear lies in understanding our inner state, which needs to remain untouched by all external, situational, positive or negative factors that are essentially just changeable circumstances.