There is no doubt that, at some point in your life, you have experienced or will experience a major crisis. This can be anything from a major natural disaster, to a mass shooting, to getting stuck in your car in the middle of winter for hours on end and not knowing how long you will be there. The moral of the story is that disaster and crisis will most likely find you at some point in your life.

Knowing ahead of time how you, and the people around you, will most likely react can literally mean the difference between life and death for you and your loved ones. After all, isn't that why we prep? To make sure we can make it through what life throws at us? I know it's why I do it. A big part of that is mental preparation, and it's an area that many people overlook.

The CDC and the psychology of a crisis.

The CDC released a document (the latest update back in 2019), about how people respond in a crisis situation and some of the best ways to work through it. The 16-page PDF titled "CERC: Crisis + Emergency Risk Communication" covers 5 main sections.

-How people process information during a crisis

-Mental states in a crisis

-Behaviors in a crisis

-Negative vicarious rehearsal (a fancy way of saying the people who are experiencing the negative psychological affects, and feel as if they need the same aid as those who actually experienced the crisis.)

-and addressing psychology in the CERC Rhythm

Regardless of your thoughts about the CDC, there's some good and applicable information here. If you have the time, I highly recommend reading the whole document. I'll go over the important bits in this article, though.