Do You Panic in a Crisis?

You are A O K. You respond in an emergency, do something to solve it and THEN you shake. Imagine if you started shaking first and then did nothing.

I'm the girl you want around in a crisis. I'm totally calm and focused. Car accident, choking baby, fire, whatever, I actually get more calm the more serious the crisis. Later, and we are talking hours later, I sometimes freak out, but in the moment I'm able to do whatever needs doing.
My husband, on the other hand, tends to lose his mind...

No, actually that is when I am at my best.
In "99, we had an armed robbery/home invasion. I know my calmness was part of what saved us all from being shot.
I had a stroke and was very calm. I also had to have open heart surgery to fix the hole in my heart that caused the stroke. I watched ER the night before where they showed a real open heart surgery. When they stuck the paddles in to start the heart back up, I jumped up off the couch and said excitedly to my husband, "That's what will happen to me tomorrow!" I looked over and saw that he was white as a sheet and thought he was going to pass out. (God had let me know I was going to be ok, but my husband said God didn't tell him!)
I also remain calm when others around me get very angry.
Some people have told me I am too self-controlled. But the Bible says we are to be self-controlled and to be anxious for nothing.
I did panic when I found out I had lung cancer. My mother had recently passed away from it. But when I went to a specialist, I found out it was a much less dangerous kind.

Im ok during.. but once things start to mellow out that's when I loose it.

one time my son had his shoe lace stuck on the pedal of his bike. I was walking over to help him and as I was in reach he fell over and the handle bar cut his cheek and cut his nostral in half on his nose. I was ok, got a rag and had him put pressure on it, went over to see if my mom would come with and my dad starting saying he didn't need stitches. Seen a friend walk by ( she is a peds nurse) and she looked at it and then she opened the cut to see how deep it was... next thing I know I woke up in the street with the amblance crew giving me oxygen. Yup I passed out from the blood shooting out. Being in a small town they still dont let that one pass...

there has been many times with my kids when they get hurt I get them to where they are ok and no longer hurting and fixed up or in the care of a Dr and I loose it. Thankfully that is the only time I have passed out... but the number of times I have came close to it is too many times to count.

We were on a family vacation and at a rest area, I was probably about 10. A lot of people were there, it was a really nice, scenic park for travelers. All of a sudden, a diesel came crashing through and rolled on it's side. The truck driver was badly injured and bleeding, and the truck was smoking and leaking gas.

Noone did anything, not a single person. There were over 20 adults there. So, my mom ordered two men to carefully get him out of the truck bed.

She had him lying on the ground and attended to his wounds. she was shouting orders, "You, get a blanket!" "You bring me water!" "You, call 911", "You, bring me towels!" "You get me a first aid kit."

I've studied disaster response and this is a typical scenario. Most people freeze. One person usually comes to action either b/c they feel compelled to due to adrenaline, or because they see that no one else will rise as a leader. People start to snap out of it once they see others beginning to help. Since watching my mom do that, I have make a conscious choice to be prepared, which has helped me a few times in the past in emergencies.

I usually do just fine in a crisis. I have been in a few car accidents and have witnessed one as well. BUT 3 years ago my husband and 2 daughters and I were on a pontoon boat on a very large lake. It was a beautiful, sunny, calm day - no wind at all. So we headed out to this small island so we could swim and explore a bit. An hour later we got back on the boat and as we came around the corner of the island, the waves were huge! The wind had picked up to what we later learned was 65 mph! Now, I've been on the ocean and I can tell you these lake waves were bigger than a lot of the ocean waves I have seen. Water was coming in the boat and the pontoon was literally tipping. I grabbed our two daughters and stuck them in the safest part of the boat and told them to hold on to this pole held up the boat canopy. My husband was telling me to calm down, but I literally started freaking out and yelling and crying, "We're gonna die, we're gonna drown, all of us." My husbands eyes were as big as quarters and he started to cry too. The wind and waves were pushing the boat into the side of the island that was edged with huge, sharp rocks, so I told him to try to get back to the side of the island that was calm. We eventually got back there, got off the boat and thankfully I had my cell phone and called 911. The operator said to stay where we were and that someone would be out to get us with a different boat. She said this happens a few times a year because the lake is so huge and the wind is known to pick up at a moments notice in the area.

Needless to say I will never ride in a boat on a large lake ever again!!! When we got back to land I seriously sat on the ground and cried. I still can't believe I panicked like that, I am usually very calm and collected.

I'm good in a crisis, but once it's over I'm a wreck. That's not to say that my anxiety isn't through the roof the whole time, though. I can just outwardly control it, is all. And I try to channel it into appropriate and proactive actions and behavior.

I don't really have a choice. A lot of people around me just aren't good in crisis situations. There have been a couple of times where I haven't had an immediate reaction because I needed a moment to assess things, and other people who are good in a crisis reacted first, but I don't know if that's a bad thing or not.

I NEVER panic DURING a crisis. Once it's handled though, I'm the one who's shaking and crying in the shower!

I really, really think one of the MOST important things you can do as a parent is to keep it together-- no panicking in front of the kid! Your panic feeds theirs and makes everything worse.

I panic all the time and Im spooked by my own shadow - I really dont know what has caused me to be so jumpy and paniced but I cant help it

From the time that I was a little girl , my dad drilled into me to not panic. When I was about 6 or 7 my dad , parents divorced at the time, the mechanic was doing something with a car battery , it exploded, I was the only there to help. He gave me very specific instructions and I followed them. If I had panicked he wouldn't have his eyesight today.
I do not panic in a crisis. nothing good happens when you panic in a crisis.
now afterwards , the emotion from it all might overwhelm me . But during no that's one of my rules. DON'T PANIC.

No I do not. I spring in to action. A half hour after the crisis, THEN I fall apart and panic about all the stuff that could've happened.

Overall - seems like most here can handle pretty much whatever might come - GO GALS!

For the most part, handle stuff pretty well - even when have had to give instructions over the phone and telling kids I WILL BE THERE (tornado back in 96 - luckily it jumped our neighborhood).

Dgd that I'm raising had broken her arm at daycare - had my mom go get her out of there so no kids would bump it (poor daycare lady was beside herself) while I waited to find her mother (before I had custody). Thought I was going to have to toss mom out of there before I lost it on her and her mouth - like this had upset her plans or something! Oh well, I pretty much handled it all after that - so much so that the nurse told me to hold little gal when they cut the cast off!

Sitting in chair at salon, youngest got a piece of candy from the lady - no problem - and he was just walking back to the other room where a little tv was ... he stopped and just knew that candy was in the throat - got up from the chair and a couple slaps to the back dislodged the candy. I go back and sit down but the lady doing my hair that night wasn't in too good a shape for several minutes!

Ages ago, my brother would crash into the support poles or such in the basement and end up needing stitches. Well, let's just say, he was never a calm child for that! So, one morning trying to get my own breakfast, I cut index finger pretty deep - bleeding, ick! But, based on brother's screaming before, no way I wanted to wake up parents cause I'd have to get stitiches! So got paper towels or such, and clamped down on that finger until it quit -- sure got lucky there as it sealed back up w/o any problems!

Now the time my oldest (in h/s then) had a concussion and the local children's ER docs were not paying any attention, I was getting TICKED! They told me I was overprotective or such??? GRRR! They weren't in there long enough to learn his name - the stupid c-collar they put on was so loose he turned it sideways! The poor gal that drew blood to be checked (yeah I know it was a drug test since the pee test was clean - blood was too) ... she got an earful as she was the one that was in the room the longest - but they got that stupid collar off after I said if there ends up being a problem, they'd be talking to my attorney! Those stupid female docs that night didn't even have the 'balls' to come back in there - sent the intern in with the release papers - noting a head injury (ya think!!!).

I'm normally not one to panic, it's the aftermath that gets me. What comes to mind first is being robbed when I was a restaurant manager. The guy asked for a manager and then told me to take him to the safe. One of the cooks mentioned that he thought it was strange that the guy was following me to the office but that my face didn't show signs of distress so he didn't think much of it. After I gave him the money and the guy left I totally broke down and had the cashiers call the police.

The most recent incident I totally went into panic mode first. I went outside to take out the garbage, my 3 year old was inside. As soon as I went outside I heard the door slam and immediately thought "what if it were to lock behind me, that would be my worst nightmare". So I go back to open the door and guess what, it's locked. My daughter locked the door. All I could think about was my 3 year old in the house alone. I start freaking out telling her to open the door and then she starts crying saying she can't open the door. I'm running around the whole house trying to open the windows, I run to the back door and comtemplate breaking one of the little windows in the french door, meanwhile praying, "God, please help me out here". So then I force myself to calm down, I tell my daughter "please go to the front door and turn the little thing in the door just like you did a little while age, please" So I go back to the front door, turn the knob and it's unlocked. Such a big relief! I will never walk out the door without my keys again!

So, yeah, I know what you mean about the first 3 minutes. It's hard to get out of that mode once you're in it.

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I'm also a totally calm during the crisis person. Then I get a bit shaky and cry afterward. My older son had a dozen set of stitches growing up (seriously!) After the 2nd set, it was look at hubby and say calmly "are you going with him to the ER, or staying here with the girls?". Good thing he broke me in easy because when my daughter was 16 she and I were walking and she collapsed. Not a soul around, just me. Massive heart attack and I was in charge. Yeah, it took me 24 hours before I fell apart on that one!