The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes - and Why

by Amanda Ripley

Laughter—or silence—is a classic manifestation of denial, as is delay.

Asencio responded like most people, the chemistry of his blood literally changed so that it would be able to coagulate more easily. At the same time, his blood vessels constricted so that he would bleed less if he got hurt. His blood pressure and his heart rate shot up. And a slew of hormones—in particular cortisol and adrenaline—surged through his system, giving his gross-motor muscles a sort of bionic boost. (The hormones are so powerful that, after a life-or-death situation, many people report having an odd, chemical taste in their mouths.)

This curious sense of aloofness, called “dissociation,” can feel subtle. In a study of 115 police officers involved in serious shootings, 90 percent reported having some kind of dissociative symptom—from numbing to a loss of awareness to memory problems.

Alexis Artwohl: “I looked over, drawn to the sudden mayhem, and was puzzled to see beer cans slowly floating through the air past my face. What was even more puzzling was that they had the word Federal printed on the bottom. They turned out to be the shell casings ejected by the officer who was firing next to me.”

“The single strongest [weapon] is a mental plan of what you’ll do in a certain crisis. And an absolute commitment to do it, by God, if the crisis comes to pass.”

For the human heart, the strain of a crisis can be far more deadly than the actual threat. That’s why more firefighters die from heart attacks and strokes than from fires.

Resilience is a precious skill. People who have it tend to also have three underlying advantages: a belief that they can influence life events; a tendency to find meaningful purpose in life’s turmoil; and a conviction that they can learn from both positive and negative experiences.

As I explain in more detail in the chapter on fear, the breath is the only reliable bridge between the conscious mind and the subconscious.