Hey all I just came across an emergency situation irl that I felt useless in because of how slowly I was thinking. Basically it was someone getting an epileptic seizure and I had the info in my head for what to do but I did end up freezing a bit before I did anything. Really didn’t like it. The person is fine now but if I had reacted faster, we might have been able to prevent a couple problems.
I’ve been in other emergencies before where I had to call the shots but I guess I want to think faster and keep it consistent at a higher level, and I want to improve on it for future scenarios, but what can I do to do that?
Edit: Just wanted to say thanks for everyone’s replies, I’ll be looking into a routine to acclimate myself with these kinds of situations
Exposure and repetition through low stakes practice.
When you are out and about, think about what you would do if x happened to y at the moment you’re there. Standing in line behind an older person and suddenly they collapse? Be observant and notice if they seemed stressed, swaying, or uneven on their feet; be ready to slow their fall—place them into the recovery position and point to someone and say “YOU, call [emergency service number]”.
There are many aspects and many levels of preparedness. Decide up front to what extent you will be involved.
Look no further than the world’s militaries for this. They drill drill drill until soldiers react automatically without having to think about how they will react in a hostile situation. Its not enough to learn what to do once if you want a fast response.
Protein breakfast, stay hydrated, avoid sugar due to crashes. Also sounds like anxiety so exercise, treatment for that, etc
There are two aspects to being prepared and actionable:
- Action knowledge/confidence in knowledge
- Not being surprised into freezing/shock
You can lessen your surprise through:
- Experience
- Practice situations for automatism/intuitive reaction
- Consciously playing it in your head
Like playing physical actions in your head before executing them improves how you do them, playing situations through in your head can prepare you/your mind-space for them.
The majority of effort for emergency preparedness is repetition so you don’t have to think about it. Understanding is good too, but in a lot of cases you shouldn’t be taking action based on speed if you don’t know the right thing.
For example, it is generally better to just make sure someone having a seizure has room and isn’t going to fall off something. Things like sticking stuff in their mouth like in the movies is a terrible idea that makes the situation worse, so not acting is actually better than acting most of the time in the case of seizures.
As a counterexample choking requires immediate and correct actions. Some things will expel the object and others will get it stuck in a harder to expel location, so bboth time and foreknowledge is important.
All you can do is learn about the right things to do, such as taking a first aid class, and practicing them so you don’t need to think about what to do.