Lessons in Survival

[jkm_101_fso]

Interesting study by Yale Doctor: the science of stress applied to the military. Studies conducted on Soldiers at Bragg, and Sailors at Panama City.

Lessons In Survival
The science that explains why elite military forces bounce back faster than the rest of us.
By Ben Sherwood, NEWSWEEK

In a laboratory, it's extremely difficult to study why some people are better at bouncing back than others because it's so hard to simulate the real stresses and strains of life. Scientists can show people scary pictures or movies to trigger their reactions and measure how they recover, but it's hardly the same as a mugger in an alley or a grizzly bear on a hiking trail. Dr. Andy Morgan of Yale Medical School set out to find a real-world laboratory where he could watch people under incredible stress in reasonably controlled conditions.

He ended up in southeastern North Carolina at Fort Bragg, home of the Army's elite Airborne and Special Forces. This is where the Army's renowned survival school is located. It's also where they believe in something called stress inoculation. Like vaccines, a small challenge or dose of a virus in your system prepares and defends you against a bigger challenge. In other words, they expose you to pressure and suffering in training so you'll build up your immunity. It's a kind of classic psychological conditioning: the more shocks to your system, the more you're able to withstand.

Morgan's research—the first of its kind—produced some fascinating findings about who does the best job resisting the interrogators and who stays focused and clearheaded despite the uncontrollable fear. Morgan looked at two different groups going through this training: regular Army troops like infantrymen, and elite Special Forces soldiers, who are known to be especially "stress hardy" or cool under pressure.

Complete Article here

[Ken White]

More proof that my proposal that physiological and / or psychological testing need to be a part of the Army entrance criteria is correct. Why accept those who will have problems...

LINK.

Yeah, I know -- I can hear the ACLU now.

Seriously, though it might seem discriminatory -- and would certainly be challenged by a number of people (the majority of whom would have no desire whatsoever to serve) -- it would actually be of benefit to those not accepted from the standpoint of saving them from stress related injury (physical or emotional) or death (due to failure to cope)...

[SethB]

Can characteristics change over time or with training/experience?

Malcolm Nance used the term "stress inoculation," which would imply that people who were exposed to stress would become better able to cope.

Is that realistic?

[Ken White]

applied.

With a caveat -- my 'yes' is mostly correct but there both exceptions to whom it does not apply and varying degrees of improvement between individuals. IOW, like all other 'inoculations' it won't work on a few people and everyone develops a different 'fill' level. It also, either genetically or immersion therapy induced is not necessarily permanent.

There is no way, I believe, at this time to predict with any reliability when any person may suddenly reach his or her fill level and snap. Certainly there are clues and some are more obvious than others -- some are ragingly apparent and easily predicted -- but frequently, a seemingly innocuous and unexpected thing can trigger a failure or a breakdown in some tough folks.

All that based on my observation and not on an ounce of Psychological or Physiological education...

[Ron Humphrey]

The part that bother's me is when that last addendum always shows up

EX

Mr Aikins said his next goal was to identify mental exercises or drugs that could protect people from high levels of stress. Guardian News & Media

I can just see it now, Well that one tested really low but hey we can fix that;
Pep em up{neuropeptide Y} and he/she'll be good to go

Just to be clear, I honestly think research like this can and will help us find better ways to approach soldiering it just seems to follow that when the final determinations are made by those who actually put such things in place, the tendency seems to follow the aforementioned pattern.

[Uboat509]

These studies have been around for years but it has never been really established if it is the type of training that SF does that inoculates them to stress or if SF just attracts people who have a certain natural resistance to stress or some combination there of. Based on my experience, I tend to believe the latter.

SFC W