What It Takes To Survive

I survived being a throw away teenager with no support of any kind from my parents. I did horrible things to survive. Sometimes I feel shame over this and sometimes I admire myself - how in the world did I survive? Some situations were life & death situations. Now that I am almost 50, earned a college degree and have a happy home with friends. I sometimes view my old self like a person I do not know entirely. Street smarts are great but I don't recommend getting street creed to improve your personality.

Here is to all the survivors out there - teenagers, homeless and others who were only told they were nothing and would never be nothing. We survived and thrived.

I am lucky to grab Newsweek today in the gym and to read this article!

We are capable of what we believe. I learned about the mental aspects of survival from my friend Al Siebert. I've known Dr. Siebert for nearly two decades. HIs recent work on resiliency which sprang from his investigations of the survivor personality are providing a pathway to stronger leadership in both the public and private sectors of the USA. His indefatigable approach in the face of health battles that would consume some of us are simply incredible. Google him for a glimpse of a survivor who shares knowledge based on research and first hand experience.

I find this article to be fascinating from many angles. I teach ethics and the virtue of Courage is the ability to "do the right thing in the right amount at the right time". This seems to describe well the persons in the 10% who get identified as "lucky". Perhaps, as the article suggests, there is a way to practice virtue by observing others responses to crises and know what to do.

There is another question that arises for me which is this: is there a gender-difference? My husband and I discussed this at length and while he is the "rational" one, he trusts me to know better how to respond in a crisis. Why? Perhaps mothering is a good training for this. Ethicist Hilde Lindemann calls this "preemptive thinking" where mothers must anticipate dangers and have thought them through. Women/mothers tend to have more reality to process and don't have the razor focus that some occupations value (whether for male or female employees). I'd love to know if research shows any survival advantage for women.

And so it is we should become aware of potential hazardsfrom terrorists: like smallpox from a carcass. We are not being vaccinated for the pox but trust the WHO. King Ramsses the V says otherwise and HERD IMMUNITY {www.poxstumper.com } shows the 80% mind set waiting to be swept away
CCN,MD

Interesting article. I tend to believe that if it's your time, it's your time and you're immortal until that time arrives. And then I think of that old Albert Brooks/Meryl Streep movie, "Defending Your Life", lol, and then I wonder how many lives each of us has lived...

"Deep Survival: Who lives, who dies, and why" The best book out there on survival psychology by Lawrence Gonzales. If you find this topic interesting - do yourself a favor and read his book.

"Deep Survival: Who lives, Who dies and Why?" Absolutely the best book out there on survival psychology by Lawrence Gonzales. Truly fascinating.

It was 1994, six day after my son was born 5 weeks premature. At 2:30 AM I needed to go to the bathroom (or so I thought) As I got out of bed the room began to spin, not round and round, but over the top. I fell backwrds onto the bed and began to shake so hard that the bed was moving. That's when the little voice in my head went off..."Hey stupid, your dying, DO SOMETHING." Well after my brother-in-law got me to the hospital, and after I had a heart attack in the Emergency room I came to find out I had survived an abdominal anurism. I had nearly blead out at home and the final tally was I had lost a total of 12 pints of blood, including the 2 pints they gave me at the hospital. The only reason I can think of for not dying is because my son needed me. I never panicked, or was scared, and there was no pain, but it was all in slow motion.

"Why do some people live and others die?"

Answer: All people ultimately die.

"Why do a few stay calm and collected under extreme pressure when others panic and unravel? How do some bounce back from adversity while others collapse and surrender?"

Answer: A mixture of genetics (nature) and upbringing (nuture).

You're welcome.

My wife and I and five others survived a plane crash in the Bering Sea, 144 miles south of the Arctic Circle after nearly one hour in 36-degree water. We lost one engine at 7,000'; the other at 3,500'; plowed into the ocean at 95 MPH. All seven of us lived. Some of us experienced post-trauma stress; others didn't. That varied with each person's personality and "wiring system". We had no live jackets or rafts, but we hung on to empty 5-gal gas cans that were in the plane. www.TheRescueStory.com tells about the event. Dave A

Ben what was she worried about? Quote "... librarian was anxious...". It should read "... librarian was eager...".

Newsweek,

Is there a way to access the photos online that were in the print version? There was a picture of a woman on the Hudson River USAir flight in the magazine, but I can't find it here? Can you help? Thanks,

P

A very interesting article, but his methodology has many scientific flaws. The newspaper test, for instance - if given such a task as counting the pictures, I would probably suspect some sort of trick and would most likely start from the back of the paper and work forward. This doesn't make me "not open to different possibilities" - quite the opposite, in fact!

http://www.HalfBakedLunatic.com

ON the whole I find, Non- religious people luckier than Religious people. One reads almost daily of people getting crushed to death in stampedes at Hidu festivals in India and in Mecca during Haj. Recently a church roof fell on the congregation killing more than ten!!

One cannot judge whether one is lucky or not until the end of life. Most sweep ticket millionaires have ended bankrupt.
Before the Madoff exposure, most investors considered themselves luck. I was unlucky not to get a job once and the lucky chap who was over the moon about landing the SR post went house hunting and met with an accident a few days later and died.

A businessman friend of mine always boasted how lucky he is and how he makes money with every deal. I wished I was that lucky. later I found out that he has got played out by con artists more number of times than I ever had. Then one day I met his assistant at the local police station -- I was there because some guy bumped my car from behind -- and she seem to be familiar with the procedures and seem to knew several policeman on duty. Curios, I asked her how she knew all these people - She said her boss, my friend that is, usually have several car accidents a month, that she practically lives in the police station. Then I knew another characteristic of lucky people - they lie about their luck all the time!!

God had a hand in this man's survival on nineeleven. Talk about faith and miricles, this guy is the ultimate survivor. Ignore the introduction by Alex and hear his story afterward. OMG I am humbled and stunned. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4380137365762802294

Growing up, Mom always taught us that bad things happen for good reasons and to learn from them.

God never closes one door withour opening another, it may take awhile to find the open door but it's there.

AND The few minutes you save here will be lost further up the road, so you might as will take your time now.

Preatty good things to live by.

Great article; Especially the discussion of "normalcy bias" that causes people to react poorly in emergencies. Part of us just don't ackowledge that it is an emergency. This is undoubtedly made worse by a herd mentality, where we don't want to stand out in the crowd and later be ridiculed if the situation turns out to not be an emergency after all. If you are in a situation where your internal alarms are going off, risk the embarassment of taking action. The author calls the life lost in the Asian tsunami "unavoidable", but I vividly recall seeing footage of tourists gathered on the beach to watch the increasingly larger waves that preceeded the main wave. Only when the main wave became visible did they futily try to escape. It is noteworthy that this footage was filmed by other tourists on upper floors of a beachside hotel who were wise enough to get the heck off the beach.