Nicholas Italiano in Preparation

Stress Under Fire

Mental Preparation for Emergencies

In This Article

Adrenaline, Cortisol, and the Lizard Brain
Decision Making in the Fog of Stress
Training the Mind
When The Dust Settles
Resilience: The Ultimate Survival Tool
Trauma Responses: The Four Fs
Top 5 Coping Skills for Regulating Stress
Top 5 Recovery Skills After an Emergency
About the Author
Read More From Issue 72

I’ve spent over three decades as a prepper and nearly as long as a therapist, most recently working with first responders. Most of us believe we will not be mentally impacted by emergencies, stress, and survival situations, but stress has a way of surprising you. It’s not a matter of being “tough enough” to not let it affect you. I’ve worked with combat experienced infantry, seasoned first responders, paratroopers, and more in my therapy office. If it were simply a matter of “being strong,” I would not be needed.

I’ve seen firsthand how emergencies don’t just test our gear — they test our bodies and minds. Whether you’re a firefighter racing to a burning building, an EMT arriving at a fatal car accident, or a homesteader facing a natural disaster, stress — and your body’s response to it — is part of the equation.
Prepping isn’t just about stockpiling supplies. It’s about preparing ourselves mentally and emotionally for the storms we know will come. And it is about knowing how to help yourself recover when you have been impacted by stressful events or emergencies.

Adrenaline, Cortisol, and the Lizard Brain

When an emergency hits, your body flips a switch. Adrenaline surges, cortisol floods your system, and your “survival brain” takes over. In my field, we sometimes call the lower part of the brain the “Lizard Brain” because it is very instinctual. It is responsible for controlling involuntary body functions and has a shape that resembles the silhouette of a reptile head. Once the switch is activated here, your thalamus sends emergency signals to your amygdala, resulting in the fight, flight, freeze, fawn response.

When that switch is activated, your heart rate and breathing speed up, you lose some dexterity in your fine motor skills (things like dialing a phone number can become difficult), your gross motor skills become super-strong, your vision narrows, your reactionary processing speed is overclocked and your training, if you had any, usually takes over.

In some cases, this innate process can be helpful, but the trade-off is the loss of some capacity for reasoning and critical thinking. The “lizard brain” is also not great at processing emotions and memories after the event is over, which can lead to long-term issues if not managed properly.
I’ve known firefighters to step off the truck at a fatal accident scene with their bodies already in overdrive. While they are ready to act, their physiology is working against their ability to process the emotional toll of the event. While they may internally view this as their own weakness, the truth is that it is just a biological process they have no control of.

Decision Making in the Fog of Stress

Stress doesn’t just hit the body. It clouds the mind. Memory falters, judgment slips, and emotions run hot.
I’ve worked with law enforcement officers who had to make split-second decisions in life-or-death hostage situations. Even after the danger passed, even when it was a justifiable action to shoot a dangerous suspect who was endangering an innocent hostage, they struggled with replaying the moment, second-guessing themselves and carrying the emotional weight.

For preppers, this matters. In a crisis, you may need to decide whether to bug out or shelter in place, or whether to ration supplies or share with neighbors. If your mind is fogged by stress, those decisions get harder. That’s why practice matters. Drills, scenarios, and even simple “what if” conversations sharpen your mental clarity before the real thing hits. If you have embedded what your response would be to certain emergencies before they happen, and if you practice it again and again, it increases the chances that your training will kick in when the fight, flight, freeze, fawn response is activated.

Training the Mind

We prep our gear, stock our pantries, and sharpen our knives. But how often do we prep our minds? To train our minds, we can practice stress inoculation, mentally, and physically. Some preppers will turn off the power to their home for a few days once per year to practice their responses to “grid down.” For self-defense, range time may not be enough. Practice how to operate when the heart is beating fast by playing airsoft and paintball. Do jumping jacks and sprints, then practice how to draw and clear firearm malfunctions when your heart is sped up. (I recommend you use an airsoft gun for this for safety.)
Learning how to breathe effectively during an emergency can help to re-engage the parasympathetic nervous system (the body’s recovery system) and re-engage the upper part of the brain, the part that is used for critical thinking and recovery.
Practice role-play and gaming out scenarios visually with family. Examples: “If there was a fire and you couldn’t get out of your bedroom through the door, what would you do?” Or “If we all got separated in a storm, where is a local spot where we could all meet back up?”
And don’t underestimate morale items. A warm cup of coffee, a favorite snack, a photo of loved ones, or even music can stabilize the mood in the middle of chaos. Prepping isn’t just beans and bullets; it’s also about morale and mental health.

When The Dust Settles

Emergencies don’t end when the sirens fade. The body and mind carry stress long after the event. Nightmares, irritability, fatigue, and even physical aches are common. Learning how to recover is also part of prepping and survival. When I trained in martial arts, my sensei would tell us that recovery after sparring meant that we should be mindful to drink more water, get proper sleep, and to eat healthily. In a genuine emergency, as a trauma therapist, I would encourage you to talk about what happened as soon as it is safe to do so. This helps mitigate how much the event can get emotionally “stuck” for survivors. I tell my first responder patients: “When you talk about an event with me, with your spouse, or with your peer, you are letting it out of your body. It’s less weight to carry to bed.”
For preppers and survivalists, recovery is often overlooked. I think we tend to think “it won’t affect me.” We plan for the event but forget the aftermath. Building recovery into your preparedness plan ensures you can bounce back stronger.

Resilience: The Ultimate Survival Tool

Emergencies will come. Storms will rage. Accidents will happen. But resilience is the survival tool that never runs out. Physical preps like gear and food storage matter. Knowledge-based preps — like skills, training, and mindset — matter, but mental resilience, the ability to bend without breaking, may be the ultimate prep.
As a prepper and trauma therapist, my message is simple: Prepare your body, prepare your gear, but above all, prepare your mind. When the dust settles, resilience is what keeps us standing. I’ve seen first responders mentally and physically recover from some of the worst tragedies imaginable. Part of that survival meant taking the time to practice self-care, learning coping skills, not bottling emotions inside, asking for help when needed, and recognizing that while emergencies can affect us, it doesn’t have to permanently weigh us down. As preppers, we can learn from that. Stock your pantry, yes. But also stock your mind with coping skills, recovery strategies, and morale boosters.

Trauma Responses: The Four Fs

Whenever we believe that we or someone around us could be in danger, there is a chance that our survival mechanisms could trigger. This creates a biochemical response in the body that is somewhat determined by your genetics but can be overridden with training.

FIGHT: Your body chooses to give you the tools to confront the threat with aggression or assertiveness. You will get stronger, louder, more resilient to pain, but at the cost of critical thinking skills.
FLIGHT: Your body gives you the tools to try to escape the threat. You will become faster and probably somewhat quieter, more socially avoidant.
FREEZE: Your body has determined that not acting is the best tactic to avoid the threat. You may freeze and/or emotionally shut down.
FAWN: You will attempt to appease or de-escalate the threat. People-pleasing behaviors, minimizing one’s need to be right are common. Each of these are natural survival mechanisms, and each can be the best option for certain situations. Each has strengths and limitations and can have lingering effects, even after the threat is gone. People can learn to train out of their natural defenses. For example, boot camp, police academy, fire academy, and paramedic school are all to help a person stay out of flight and freeze when they need to be in a state of action (either fight or fawn).

Top 5 Coping Skills for Regulating Stress

Relaxation breathing: In through nose, out through mouth. Slowly, deeply. Pause intentionally between breaths.
Sensory grounding: Take a few seconds to pay attention to your senses. What do you see, smell, hear, taste, and feel? This can break someone out of dissociative moments (flashbacks).
Positive self-talk: Remind yourself that emergencies are temporary and that you can survive.
Bilateral movement: Walking and stretching both sides of the body can help to release tension in the large muscle groups and activate the parasympathetic nervous system.
Humor or distraction: This can help break someone out of fight, flight, freeze, fawn, and re-engage the upper brain.

Top 5 Recovery Skills After an Emergency

Talk it out. Yeah, I know we like to bottle it up. That’s not good for you.
Write it down. This can be in a journal, your phone’s notes section, even ChatGPT.
Give yourself time to sleep. This includes time to wind down before sleep. When we sleep, our brain tries to process the day’s events and file them away as memories.
Remember to eat. Some of us can lose appetite during and after an emergency but try to get some healthy calories in your stomach if you are not nauseous. Water too. Skip the energy drinks and alcohol; these do not count as hydration.
Monitor your mood and sleep for the next few days. If you are feeling anxious, unusually irritable, having nightmares that go beyond a few days, it’s time to talk to someone again. You can start with a peer, a pastor, or your spouse; it doesn’t necessarily have to be a therapist unless symptoms persist beyond a couple weeks.

About the Author

Tom Sarge is a licensed trauma therapist who works with first responders and veterans. He is also a prepper, survivalist, and content creator. He has been featured on numerous podcasts and in print. You can find him on the YouTube Channels Prepping With Sarge and The Official Mental Health Matters Channel.