Need advice from the older generation of ATS.

I am still a youth, only 16. I visit ATS frequently and have found a great deal of knowledge and information. I believe that my generation is very dependent on the system and have a lack of survival skills. I strive to be open to others opinions and beliefs and not be selfish and self-absorbed like many of my peers. While I try I will admit that sometimes I fail.

While I don't believe a disaster will definitely happen I do know that it is a possibility. An economic crash seems like a possibility right now and I will admit it has me worried. I live with my mother and she is skilled in making ends meet and dealing with extraordinary situations in the past so I highly respect her. While I despise the fact I do feel I am dependent on the luxurious lifestyle that the middle class has (in terms of receiving necessities and living in a comfortable environment). While I know that picking up a book is the best way to learn survival skills my question is how can I cope mentally with an abolishment of our societal system, if that were to happen.

I believe the older generations were much more accustomed to hard conditions as they weren't part of the "everyone gets a trophy age". Has any member ever experienced a harsh situation out of your comfort zone? I want to be able to prepare myself to deal with a disaster if it were to occur. Right now I am focused on studying hard in school and getting good grades but today it struck me that there is much more aspects to life that my generation has not had to experience resulting in a lack of preparation.

I apologize if this is a stupid or hard to answer question and I hope that this is the appropriate forum.

Reply to post by vendettent

I'm not sure exactly how to answer this, but I will try my best. Perhaps you can rephrase the question if you're not getting answers youre looking for.... One thing that comes to mind is dealing with panic. Thats not something a book can teach you. And in a bad situation your body will want to panic. So you have to keep control and think, think, think. Always keep your wits about you. Youre going to panic even in your sleep with nightmares and every moment will seem horrible. Preparing mentally is just as important as preparing in every other way. Thats the only thing I can think to add. Others will be able to add much more I'm sure :-)


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

reply to post by vendettent


If one is to prepare, he must actually try it and see how it goes and it's peaceful and still and my backyard is forest and it's wonderful and it's the material things that hold you back from returning to nature. If everyone did this and leave the machines of the material world the world would replenish her self but sadly we have been conditioned not to survive. the material world is the cause of this unbalance and earth can't support it.

In 1981, I was a 17 yr old serving 3 years in jail and convinced that that old fruitbat Ronald Reagan was going to start a world conflict before I got out. At the time, the inner cities of my country were being torn apart by riots and the whole world appeared to be disappearing down the crapper to my 17 yr old mind. 33 years later, it's still here, and so am I.. older and a little bit wiser. If I'd started prepping the day I got out, I'd still be waiting for the sthtf, and would likely be a frustrated, paranoid wreck by now.

Tl;dr - life's too short to waste it worrying about the End Times.

Keep on living. Go to school. Work. Save your $$ for retirement.
Have a bug out bag ready. Keep your eyes open and listen to everything happening.
That way, if 'it' happens .. it won't be as big of a shock to your system.

My only teotwawki advice - .. panic makes people stupid and it kills.
Stay calm.

reply to post by vendettent


I just wanted to let you know that your post has given me a little bit more faith in your generation.

I hope there are more like you instead of more "everyone-wins-and-gets-a-trophy" types.

reply to post by vendettent
My advice to you is that if you've never tried camping it is never too late to start! 8 years ago a hurricane complete with 7 tornadoes roared through my town- taking electricity with it for over a month. It was not a hardship for my family and friends (other than loss of property) because we were all used to camping out without modern conveniences. For most of the families around here it was like an extended family camp out, but with clean up work to fill the time. For those few that had no camping experience it was a nightmare, and they traveled hundreds of miles to find accommodations that were more to their liking.

reply to post by vendettent


You sound very intelligent and balanced for your years. ATS has a wonderful Survival forum, full of interesting information. A lot of it is quite practical, and addresses some of your concerns. It's also great reading. You can learn so much about how we lived in the past, and how to utilize some of those skills in everyday life.

Don't fret over so much. We'll all still be here tomorrow, and the days after that. I'm 62...I plan on being here for a long time to come.

Link to Survival Forum. You are welcome to u2u me with any questions...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Des

reply to post by vendettent

If you've seen my posting, you know I've had a real diverse life experience. I sure had my share of bad times before I started driving a truck at 21. People can tell you to learn to build fire with sticks or read the sun and stars for time and navigation in natural environments. Reading Topographic maps ...knowing what you can eat and feel good vs. eat and die is also something many will throw in.

All of that is excellent advice too. I'll add one other thing for practicals. Start collecting everything from the net for instructions on what you don't know how to do but may need to in a disaster. Save it all to PDF and learn how if you don't know. Almost any electronic device currently in use can open PDF files. It's as universal as it gets without the simplistic format of a text file.

That's not what matters the most though and I really thought a bit here before replying. I'm thinking back to those times I lived through. Details aren't important because specifics don't matter and that's the point.

The best thing you can do is mentally prepare to be fluid, adapt to whatever comes and roll with the good, bad and ugly as it may come. Learn to compartmentalize things like emotion and hurt...longing...or self doubt.


The closest I came in my life to dying on the streets happened in Denver in 1993. It wasn't some street punk or cops or bad food, and given what I was into at the time, it should have been all three and more.It was the crushing emotional defeat of loss of someone I loved dearly and always will, to some degree.

I didn't know then, how to stuff that crap in a box and lock it down until I could crack the lid open and deal with it, a bite at a time in private. The distraction from survival almost meant I didn't. Those are my words of wisdom, if they can be called that and no refunds on my two cents.

Grats on thinking this way. SO FEW even start thinking about it until the lights go out or it's far too late to DO anything meaningful but fight to stay breathing. I think those are the folks that hit casualty lists first or become followers to anything willing to supply comfort.

To be honest, nothing can really truly prepare one's mind for a disaster scenario (ie: tornado, earthquake, SHTF, etc) because there's just no way of knowing how something's going to play out.

But I find that by learning and doing various preparations, it actually does somewhat prepare your mind at the same time because you're learning survival skills, thus building up self confidence and know-how. You've already started this process just by the simple fact that you've recognized how most kids your age are too absorbed in their own little worlds and completely clueless to basic life skills.

As Flyer stated, be awake and aware of what's going on in the world and around you. But don't allow yourself to become obsessed with unfounded fears of things that may or may not ever happen.

At your age, I think a good starting point would be to take up gardening, assuming your mom would be game for you to dig up a small backyard garden plot area. If not, you can always start a little window garden. It's a rewarding hobby, and you get to eat the fruits of your hard labour. You can also take all those excess veggies and learn how to do canning and preserving... ultimately saving money for you and your mom on the grocery bills.

Just remember to live your life planning for a future, don't spend it planning for a disaster. Find a healthy balance between the two and this will naturally develop your mental ability to properly handle a surprise scenario, should it ever happen.

Your "only" 16,... dont waste your youth worrying bout the bad things that might happen.

Live for today and enjoy it, while learning to be able to take care of yourself.

The world today is just as harsh for one to survive in,.. already.

Tomorrow and tomorrow after,... will happen anyway.

16, I dont know if you are old enough to watch the movie "The Road".
It is a bleak glimps of a tomorrow gone sour. And it is a harsh example of how little you need to survive in.


Just dont forget,...enjoy today. It is much nicer than wasting it fretting the worst tomorrow.

reply to post by vendettent


What your writing isn't stupid but learn to grow your own grub, stock up if you have too, learn a few tricks that might help you in the tough times but there is one thing you shouldn't do and thats worry yourself and lose focus of what you are also doing right now... Learn the other things around your schooling if you have the time. I'm sure there is a lot more that could be said but I'm sure someone would of touched upon them by now also. Keep working hard bud.

Originally posted by GMan420
reply to post by vendettent

 

I just wanted to let you know that your post has given me a little bit more faith in your generation.

I hope there are more like you instead of more "everyone-wins-and-gets-a-trophy" types.

I have to agree with you on that. Hes got a very old head on young shoulders. OP, your sixteen and your thinking like this. As the boy scouts say "be prepared", but dont stop living your life,(thats me not the boyscouts) and as flyers said, panic costs lives.

reply to post by vendettent


Yes the real old folks might be able to help.

Originally posted by GMan420
reply to post by vendettent

 

I just wanted to let you know that your post has given me a little bit more faith in your generation.

I hope there are more like you instead of more "everyone-wins-and-gets-a-trophy" types.

You took the words out of my mouth. I wanted to write something similar but couldn't find the right words

Originally posted by zonetripper2065
reply to post by vendettent

 

Yes the real old folks might be able to help.

What's that sonny? Real old folks might smell?

Your gonna have to type louder. My hearing aid is out.

Believe in yourself.

Find something bigger than yourself to believe in.

Prepare for the worst, enjoy the best but remember - the things that will knock you for a loop no preparing will change which leads you right back to believe in yourself and find something bigger than yourself to believe in and so on and so on...

peace

I read the thread title and instantly wondered... Am I old enough to qualify?

I had a little taste of disaster last summer. A popup storm spawned a tornado and power was knocked out for some for up to a month. Ours was on within a week, so I felt lucky. It was a pretty big deal, there was a huge area involved and the Red Cross even made an appearance.

Anyway.. we were horribly unprepared, so we learned a huge lesson and started prepping for the future. Not like 'doomsday' prepping, just sensible like storing extra food, water and supplies.

In the aftermath of the storm, people were forced to go out of state to get gas, water, food, coolers, ice, etc.

Being a little prepared gives you peace of mind.

I don't know if there is a surefire way to be mentally prepared. I think that the more you prepare physically, the more mentally prepared you will be just because of the thought and research that goes into it.

You suggested your own solution - get outside of your comfort zone. It takes years to learn survival skills to the point of being able to go off naked in to the wilderness and survive. How do I know? I've been learning these skills for over 30 years and would still have many difficulties that I might not be able to overcome. I don't say this to discourage you from learning, you can learn a few basics in a weekend of intensive training. It's the long -term skills that require much more time and effort.

Here are your priorities in a survival situation:
Mental attitude
Shelter
Water

People can go many days, even weeks without food but only a few days without water and perhaps only a few hours if you cannot create shelter to insulate yourself from the cold and rain. Take all your camping gear with you for a weekend and find out what items you can do without - can you make a shelter / start a fire and purify water / hide your camp so others won't stumble upon it? Then expand in to learning to make tools, set snares, clean an animal, process the fur, make cordage from plants or animal sinew, etc.

Get yourself a copy of Wilderness survival by Tom Brown Jr. and the Peterson's Field Guide to Wild Edible plants. For less than $30 you can have nearly all the essential knowledge to survive an extended stay in the wild. Also take a class if you can afford it and can find a teacher who is worth the money spent.

Stashing away some extra food, medications, cold weather clothes, vegetable seeds and toiletries might be a good idea as well. Not every survival situation means you're out in the wild, for many it happens right where you live (think Sandy or Katrina).

Cheers,
ATA

Eta: Begin thinking in terms of what are your true "needs" vs "wants". You'll quickly realize we spend most of our time worrying about things that are not essential to your survival.

Your 16, still young enough to join the boy scouts or the Civil Air Patrol Cadet Program. They can teach you camping, survival skills, outdoorskills, etc. CAP cadets can go on summer camps on military bases, with programs just for them. Great programs.