When lost, a major psvcholog-
ical factor is fear. Fear is a
very normal reaction for anv man
faced with an emrgency situation.
Fear influences man's behavior and
his chances for survival. There is
no advantage in avoiding fear hv
denving the existence of danger.
The most important point here is
that fear should be accepted as a
perfectly normal reaction rather
than a shameful one. How the in-
dividual will react to fear denends
more on himself than on the sit-
uation. Tt is not always the
pyvsically strong or “happy-go-lucky”
person who most effectively handles
fear. Timid or anxious individuals
may respond more coolly with the
situation.

THE SEVEN ENEMIES

There are seven enemtes of
survival that immediately take
effect. Once fear and panic set in
then follow vain, cold, thirst,
hunger, fatigue, horedom and Jon-
eliness. These seven enemies mav
attack singly or in teams. Thev
are more dangerous than thev look
and their effects should be known
and met. Owing to familiarity,
these enemies are ant to be ignored
however, psvchological reactéons
to these enemies tend to contrib-
ute to panic.

Pain:
ie een eeesinemiall

Pain is Nature's wav of mak-
ing you pay attention to something
that is wrong with vou. But nat-

ure also has ways of holding off
pain if vou are too husv doing some-

thing else to pay attention to the
injurv right then. In the survival
situation, pain, hunger, etc,.mav go
unnoticed if the individual's mind
is occunted with plans for survival.
Should he forget those plans his
chances are very poor. The noint
most important is that a snecial
effort must he made to keep hopes up

and to keep working for survival. On

the other hand, once piven into,pain
will weaken the drive to survive.
Pain can get the hest of vou if vou
let it, even if it isn't serious or
prolonged.

Page 7

Cold:

Cold is much greater threat to
survival than it sounds. Tt not
only lowers vour ability to think,
but also tends to lower your will
to do anvthing but get warm again.
Cold is an insidious enemv: at the
same time, it numhs the mind and the
body and the will to survive. Bes
cause ft is hard to move and vou want
to sleep, vou can forget vour goal
-...to survive.

Thirst:

Thirst is another enemv of

survival. Even when thirst is not

extreme, it can dull your mind.
But, as with pain and cold, thirst
can he forgotten if the will to sur-
vive is strong enough. Tt is also
important to remember not to un-
necessarilv deprive oneself of water.
Serious dhvdration mav occur in a
survival situation even when there
is njlentv of water availahle.

Hunger:

Hunger, as thirst, is danger-
ous in the survival situation he-
cause of the effects it can have on
the mind. Primarilv in lessening
the individuals ahilitv for rational
thought. Roth hunger and thirst
also increase the tndividual's sus-
centibilitv to the weakenine effects
of cold, vain and fear.

Fatigue:

Because tt is almost imnossible
to avoid some degree of fatigue in
the survival situation, it is nec-
essarv to understand tts effects
and so allow for them. Even a verv

moderate amount of fatigue can re-

duce mental abilitv. Vatigue can
make the individual careless- it he-
comes increasingly easv to adopt the
feeling of just not caring. This is
one of the biggest dangers in sur-
vival. Manv people mistakenly think
that fatieue and enerev exnenditure
are directlv related. This confused
Notion mav be responsible for manv
deaths in survival] situations. Cer-
tainly there is a real danger of
Over-exertion, hut fatigue mav