"Tachypsychia"

[Jeff22]

Physical Responses
Also called the "fight or flight" response of the body to an event our mind considers life threatening, tachypsychia is believed to include numerous physical changes.
Adrenaline Reponse
Upon being stimulated by fear or anger, the Adrenal medulla may automatically produce the hormone epinephrine (aka adrenaline) directly into the blood stream. This can have various effects on various bodily systems, including:
-Increased heart rate and blood pressure. It is average for a person's pulse to raise to between 200 and 300 beats per minute (bpm). Increased heart rate (above 250 bpm) can cause fainting, and the body may constrict itself into a fetal position in preperation for a coma.
-Dilation of the bronchial passages, permitting higher absorption of oxygen.
-Dilated pupils to allow more light to enter, and visual exclusion--tunnel vision--occurs, allowing greater focus but resulting in the loss of peripheral vision.
-Release of glucose into the bloodstream, generating extra energy by raising the blood sugar level.

It is common for an individual to experience auditory exclusion or enhancement. It is also common for individuals to experience an increased pain tolerance, loss of color vision, short term memory loss, decreased fine motor skills, decreased communication skills, decreased coordination.

Psychological Reponse
The most common experience during tachypsychia is the feeling that time has either increased or slowed down, brought on by the increased brain activity cause by epinephrine, or the severe decrease in brain activity caused by the "adrenaline dump" occuring after the event.

It is common for individual experiencing tachypsychia to have serious misinterpretations of their surrounding during the events, through a combination of their damaged perception of time, as well as the partial color blindness and tunnel vision. The severe lack of adrenaline after the event can mimic post-traumatic stress disorder, and it is common for the individual to appear extremely emotional and overly tired, regardless of their actual physical exhertion.

It is possible to manage the "adrenaline dump" which occurs after the event, and it is common for people like military soldiers and martial artists to use tachypsychia in order to increase their performance during stressful situations.
Managing adrenaline dump is commonly done using Conditioned Response, to combat and control the effects. Also called Combat Breathing, cycle breathing, or Autogenic breathing, it involves breathing in through the nose to a count of four, holding your breath for a count of four, and exhaling through the mouth for a count of four, and holding that for a count of four, then repeating the four part cycle, breathing deeply, methodically, and filling and emptying the lungs completely with each inhale and exhale.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachypsychia"

[Jeff22]

*"Chemical Cocktai" released by the body:
-Adrenaline
-Cortisol
-Dopamine
*Blood diverts from extremities to large muscles.
-Loss of Dexterity and fine Motor Skills

*Tachypsychia
(distortion in the perception of the passage of time)

*Other Physical Changes:
-Eyes Dilate
-Tunnel Vision
-Auditory Exclusion
--Blood Vessels in Ears dilate

*Nausea
*Time/Space Distortion
-Things Slow Down

*Heart Rate:
-60/80 BPM is Normal
-300 BPM has been recorded
-200 BPM has been recorded sustained

-115-145 BPM is Optimum Combat Performance
-At 145 BPM Complex Motor Skills Go Down
-At 175 BPM Gross Motor Skills Go Down

*Heart Rate of 175 BPM
-Fore Brain Shuts Down and Mid Brain Takes Over
-Mid Brain does only four things: Fight/Flight/Eat/Sex
-Mid Brain sends signal works (NSR)
-All senses but vision shuts down
--(Touch, Taste, Smell, Hearing, ESP??) for perseverance shooting…shoot until it

*Out of 10 Shooters report:
-9 to have auditory exclusion
-2 to hear intensified sounds
-8 to move on auto pilot
-6 to have higher vision of clarity
-1 to experience paralysis
-2 to have memory distortion
-2 to experience the world moving in fast motion
-4 to experience intrusive/distractive thoughts (family, loved ones)
**Same Shooter May Experience More Than One Effect!!!**

Effects on the Shooter:
*Shoot Faster & Less Accurate
*Will Think & Perform Tasks with less Accuracy
*Experience Some or Complete Memory Loss
*Experience Loss of Feeling:
-Pain may or may not be felt
*Denial
*Altered Decision Making Process
*May do things never done or been trained to do

[Jeff22]

1. Tachypsychia (literally: the speed of the mind) -- the distortion of perceived time. In a life-or-death situation, the mind kicks into overdrive, perceiving orders of magnitude more information than is customary. This causes the perception that things are happening in slow motion, even though you -- and your opponent -- are probably moving faster than you ever have. Tachypsychia can also work in reverse ("it all happened so fast"). Ayoob's experiences lead him to observe that the more experienced and highly trained a person is, the more likely that person is to experience tachypsychia. That is, a person who knows that "trouble happens" is less likely to be surprised by it, and more likely to respond with super-heightened awareness. A concrete upshot of tachypsychia is that one should not speak with responding officers on the question of how long an encounter took. Rather, say "officer, he was trying to kill me, and I didn't have time to check my watch."

2. Tunnel Vision -- the mind focuses on the deadly threat to the exclusion of much of one's ordinary peripheral vision. It appears as if one is looking at the threat through a tube (or tunnel, precisely), and it requires conscious effort to see more than a few degrees to the right or left, or up or down. This can be a problem if you're dealing with multiple opponents.

3. Auditory Exclusion -- could also be called "tunnel hearing." Like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion is largely a function of the brain's cortex. That is, the brain has kicked into fight or flight reflex, focusing on the threat and screening out everything extraneous to immediate survival. One is still -- physically -- seeing and hearing as usual, but the brain is screening lots of things out. Tunnel vision and auditory exclus appears larger, therefore closer, often by as much as a 3-to-1 ratio. A man with a knife five yards away appears to be five feet away; .22s look like .44 magnums. You may not hear the officer behind you yelling "don't shoot;" you may not even hear your own shots (rest assured however that 'clickers' will the the loudest sounds you've ever heard). If you experience such physio-psychological aspects in a violent encounter -- and don't recognize them for what they are -- and recount your (distorted) perceptions to police, you can be in world of trouble when your case goes to court.

4. Precognition -- commonly called a "sixth sense" (a good phrase to avoid). Precognition has to do with having seen something so many times that you "see it coming" before the unthreatened observer -- such as a witness -- does. The connection with fight or flight reflex is that, in a deadly threat situation, the mind draws on memory resources that are not typically used. Precognition is a response to a subconsciously perceived queue, and has successfully been used in criminal defense (Miami policeman Luis Alvarez, 1982).

5. Denial Response -- On an otherwise normal day, you get a call out of the blue telling you that your mother has died. Your first response? "No! Mother can't be dead!" Another common example is people yelling "no" at a car that's about to hit them, or hit someone else. Again citing Officer Alvarez, within 30 seconds he went from thinking it was about time for a coffee break, to having blown a person's brains out. His first radio transmission was "my gun went off," not "someone tried to kill me, and I shot him." The implications for the armed citizen are obvious...

6. Amaurosis Fugax (temporary blindness) -- while "visual white out" is relatively rare, what is commonly called "hysterical blindness" is less so. The eyes have seen something so terrifying, the brain refuses to see it anymore. Ayoob observes that this is more likely to happen to the untrained, to those unprepared to deal with potential violence. One concrete upshot of this is that amaurosis fugax often translates into fleeing the scene of the shooting. In almost every court, flight equals guilt. The legal theory is that the person who did right will stand his or her ground to explain as need be; the person who flees does so because there is culpability involved. Again, the implications for the armed citizen are obvious...

7. Psychological Splitting -- the more highly trained a person is, the apt more he or she is to experience this (happened to Ayoob in 1971). When you have trained something to the point that you can do it on autopilot -- coupled with something that triggers fight or flight -- the body moves so fast that the conscious mind can't keep up. This can result in the perception of watching oneself do something. Ayoob counsels that if one experiences this, one is well served not to mention it in the initial debrief to local law enforcement; they may think you're crazy.

8. Excorporation -- out of body experience, the highest manifestation of psychological splitting. This is most commonly seen on operating tables after clinical death, and is often combined with a white tunnel of light (see items 2 and 6 above). It is also seen in gunfights with persons who think they are about to die. Its cause is that survival instinct is taking all the senses into overdrive, into hyper-perception one might say. In this state, the mind can generate 3-D images from sounds and recollected sights. Even when the body is unconscious, the ears still hear and -- if they are open -- the eyes can still see. Even at clinical death, the brain lives for another 8-10 minutes (ask any EMT).

9. State of Fugue -- somnambulant, zombie-like state. Seen occasionally.

10. Cognitive Dissonance -- or confusion, is more common. Common manifestations include remembering things out of sequence, trivial things looming large in the mind immediately after the incident, and important things being lost to short-term memory immediately after the incident. For example, after a shooting, a thing that really sticks in your mind is that you ripped a hole in your clothes in drawing your pistol. You mention this to the police ("damn, I tore my slacks" [and somebody else is laying there dead]). Certain sub-humans with dorsal fins under their pinstripes might bring such a thing up in court as a "proof" of your cold-heartedness (Ayoob recounts a case where it did). In reality what you've manifested is a type of denial response, a proof of innocence in its own right. Cognitive dissonance can be one of the mind's ways of saying "no, I didn't just come within 5 seconds of being dead, that didn't happen to me." EMTs see this when they witness colleagues telling jokes and laughing at the site of a gruesome traffic accident. They're not hard-hearted; they are crushed by what they've had to look at.
________________________________________
The net effect of all this is that one is well-advised not to recount things in detail to LEOs immediately after a violent encounter. The perceptions of the victim (you) may well be warped, and passing them along to police will ill-serve the cause of justice. It sometimes takes time to sort things out. How many shots did you fire? I don't know; I didn't count. How close was the assailant? Close enough to kill me. What did you say to him? Words to the effect of ... something along the lines of ... How long did it take? I don't know; I didn't check my watch. Give yourself some time to sort things out before you recount them in detail to police. One does this not to "beat the rap," but to help make sure that justice is done. When you do tell it to the police in detail, let it be what really happened, not just how it seemed to you in the first moments after you survived a deadly encounter.
________________________________________

[Jeff22]

Psycho-Physiological Responses to Danger:

Under normal, non-stressful conditions, the body is under the control of the parasympathetic nervous system. Under conditions of stress or danger, the body switches to the control of the sympathetic nervous system. This happens when the cerebral cortex in the brain senses danger, and sends out nerve impulses along the sympathetic branch of the body’s nervous system. These nerve impulses cause a number of specific effects, including:

 accelerated heart rate
 increased blood pressure
 increased blood flow to large muscle groups
 increased muscular tension in the lower back, neck, and shoulders
 increased respiration
 increased audio and visual perception
 decreased sensitivity to pain
 increased blood sugar, which increases short-term energy
 stimulated adrenaline secretion

All these effects are expressions of body alarm reaction – increased pulse, blood pressure and respiration, plus the instant supercharge of a massive adrenaline dump. Body alarm reaction finds its highest expression in the fight or flight reflex, and the associated changes in body function are sometimes called fight or flight syndrome (and sometimes referred to as “gunfighter stress reaction”).

The fight or flight reflex was first quantified and systematically studied in the early 1900s by Dr. Walter Cannon of Harvard University Medical School. Fight or flight reflex manifests itself in effects such as a period of increased strength (followed by a precipitous drop); imperviousness to pain, increased speed, a gross decline in fine motor skills, and trembling in the extremities. Strength goes way up, and dexterity goes way down.

[oldbillthundercheif]

Jesus, are you cutting and pasting all of this from wikipedia or are you using other, more credible sources as well?

If so, you need to cite those as well. You are obviously just dumping all this info from somewhere.

[brickeyee]

It is one of those things that occur under great stress, but not always as part of the complete fight/flight response.

I worked as a paramedic many years ago and experienced it in any number of cases.
Fine motor skills really count in IV starting and I never had a problem there, despite all the other things going on.

In one incident I could remember EXACTLY how many arterial blood spurts occurred while I worked to get a tourniquet on the victims leg.
The right thigh was cut deeply and the femoral was damaged.

Even the ER doc was astounded I could tell him.
The number was 6 by the way.

I have also experienced it in a couple of auto accidents riding in cars, both as driver and passenger.

[workinwifdakids]

I'm constantly running through if/then scenarios in my mind, all the time.

I guess that's why every time life-threatening has happened (a handful), my eyesight goes pure white, my hearing goes dead, and I have no recollection of having done anything.

I just 'wake up,' if that's the term, having done 'it,' whatever 'it' was. I suspect that any action longer than 30 seconds would see me come out of this zombie state, but I can't know until that happens.

[Jeff22]

In answer to oldbillthunderchief's question -- some of that info did indeed come from Wikipedia, some of the info came from an article by Massad Ayoob, some of it came from my notes from LFI-1 (Judicious use of Deadly Force), some of it came from a class I took from John Farnam, and some from a firearms instructor update I went to a couple of years ago.

Calibre Press also has some info on this topic that they present in their "Street Survival" Seminars, in particular dealing with physical changes one would experience as heart rate increases. (I believe it's somebody else's research)

Back in the early 1980s, the term "Tachepsychia" was commonly misused to refer to the whole "fight or flight syndrome"/"body alarm reaction" changes that the body goes through in moments of crisis. In actuality, it means changes in the perception of the flow of time.

I'll bet most adults have experienced tachepsychia -- probably NOT in the context of a confrontation, but in situations like a car accident or near accident.

I've always wondered, is tachepsychia more prevelent in those cases where there is a split second to recognize the danger, as opposed to a sudden incident, or vice versa?

I can only remember two incidents I've been involved in as a cop where time seemed to slow down. I more clearly remember a couple of almost-car accidents where events definately happened in slow motion.

(To be fair, I have to state that I've never worked as an LEO in a place where gun or knife calls are a real frequent occurance -- we get one once in a while, and it's a big adventure. I suspect that if you worked in Chicago or LA or someplace, calls like that would get to seem fairly "routine")

[oldbillthundercheif]

Nice sources.

Why did you cite wikipedia and not mention the good stuff?

[Lurper]

As usual, wikipedia's info is less than totally accurate.
Tachypsychia is not a part of the fight or flight reaction. Not completely understood yet, it is almost a state of mind. You do not have to be facing a life or death situation to experience it and you can train your mind to reach the state where you can allow it (not make it) to happen.

Here is an excerpt from Michael Clarkson's "Competitive Fire":

Getting to the Twilight Zone
Sometimes, when calming and concentration techniques merge with an athlete’s high arousal (is this what we should be calling an optimal experience?), a slow-motion effect is reported, and the action seems to slow way down - a sort of tachypsychia. Full-blown tachypsychia (defined in chapter 3) may be the most difficult of the arousal zone states to summon. At its height, it’s certainly the most fleeting. Maybe that’s why, when many athletes are asked how they get there, they just shrug their shoulders like basketball player Reggie Miller and say, "You don’t come to the zone, the zone comes to you." But there is evidence to suggest otherwise. Like other positive facets of the psycho/adrenaline system, it seems to kick in at optimal arousal - the point at which the athlete has reached harmony of the mind-body-hormonal triangle. That’s the state the Japanese call "ki" and the Tibetans "lunggom." It’s directly related to intense concentration, visualization, and perhaps hypnosis. "We may be able to harness it," says John Krystal, associate professor of medicine at Yale University. "It’s similar to inducing a trance and it’s under the control of the adrenaline system." To get to tachypsychia, the athlete may need to reach the highest "workable" level of the mind-body alarm system. Whereas extra speed and strength kick in during a two- or a three-alarm reaction, tachypsychia seems to require a four- or five. When an athlete who has reached optimal concentration is suddenly faced with a crisis stage of competition - bingo - the dopamine and noradrenaline arrive to give momentum to a situation that’s already there, some biochemists believe. These wonder hormones seem to always attach themselves to the direction of momentum the athlete is headed. (Those chemicals were found in large quantity in a study of British racing drivers who were concentrating hard and achieving good results.) Of course, when they’re pumped into the blood of a competitor who is concentrating poorly or is anxious or fearful, the opposite - choke and poor performance - can occur.

As in other peak performances, anger is often a key quotient, as long as it is channeled optimally, and with confidence. When he’s playing poorly, Doug Flutie - now in the NFL after years of great success in the CFL - gets mad at himself and takes command of a game. That’s when tachypsychia often appears. In a 1994 CFL game, he got mad at an opponent who stepped on his arm. "After that, the whole game in front of me slowed down for a while and my concentration became superior," he recalls. "Suddenly I had more time to react to what the defense was doing and my adrenaline levels seemed way up, but I didn’t let them get out of hand." Flutie added that he saves those emotional bursts for the latter stages of a game. "I can’t hold that concentration level for 60 minutes. I wish I could bottle it, though." Such moments not only give Flutie more energy, but more desire to win, he added. "It keeps your morale up, knowing you have the ability to bring on those powers."

Tachypsychia doesn’t last long - from a few seconds at it’s most intense to a few minutes in a more watered-down form. The great athletes know how to strive for it at the turning point of a match. And remember - it’s important not to confuse various types of peak performance zones. This short-term state seems only vaguely related to long-term zones, such as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. In between are many other mind-body "flow" states, lasting a whole game or through several competitions.
Former tennis great and Olympic women’s coach Billie Jean King calls tachypsychia the perfect emotion. She tries to bring it on as often as possible by focus, relaxation, and using cue words such as "Go!" during the turning point of a competition.

She explains: If a match gets close, I slow down my rituals. If I bounce the ball twice before serving, I’ll bounce it slowly, or repeat the ritual, bouncing it four times, exaggerating. I make absolutely sure I have total clarity, acuteness, focus. I try to visualize where I’m going to hit my serve . . . It’s an exercise in total commitment -technical and visual. I go through all this before I start. Then I feel the adrenaline flowing (like many athletes, she may be misinformed about the type of hormone she refers to, but the spirit of her words seems accurate), and I know the moment has come. "Go!" I say to myself, and I commit myself. You’re totally involved in the moment.

When King synchronizes such moments, the ball starts to look bigger to her and slows down as it comes at her off her opponent’s racket.

Some athletes are born with a big advantage: their hormonal and concentration systems are set up differently, says cardiologist Arnold Fox. They are allowed to take in greater detail, and perhaps are offered more room in time, because their visual and hormonal systems are different, and/or are better developed. It’s been said that Ted Williams could see the seams on a 100-mph fastball, although part of that was his intense concentration of pitchers’ habits while he was sitting in the on-deck circle.

"We know that people who are able to ’flow’ have a greater ability than others to screen out irrelevant information," says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. "It could be the way their brain is put together, but I think it’s something that people can learn through technique."

Part of the problem is that it is the term is often misused and misunderstood - particularly outside of the sports psychology/hypnotherapy communities.

[pax]

Lurper,

You keep saying that it's not part of the fight or flight reaction, but even the source you just cited says it is:

To get to tachypsychia, the athlete may need to reach the highest "workable" level of the mind-body alarm system.

The mind-body alarm system = the body's adrenal system response to stress, sometimes called the fight or flight reaction.

There are a lot of different psysio-psychological factors that can occur during a body alarm reaction. These are just different ways the body and mind work together under stress. Tachypsychia is one manifestation, tunnel vision another, auditory exclusion another, visual distortions another, a sensation of being super-powerful another, and there are many more. All of these things can arrive together, or they can each be experienced separately in the absence of the others. Whether they arrive separately or together, even if only one happens, they are all manifestations of the same basic physical reaction -- the adrenal system kicking into overdrive.

Getting into the zone does not happen in the absence of stress. That whole passage you quoted was discussing just how much stress, and what type of stress, was necessary to activate the "zone" response. Even top athletes, highly familiar with the phenomena, cannot always summon the zone; perhaps that is because the response depends heavily upon some sort of physical reaction beforehand, like an adrenal response? ("Get mad." Why would getting mad make a difference?) Conversely, even someone who has never been there before can experience it when the stress hormones suddenly dump.

Tachypsychia is part and parcel of the fight or flight response, and can't really be separated from it. The athletes you quoted were all describing ways of upping their stress levels at critical moments, thus enabling the body's fight or flight response so that they could deliberately obtain time distortion effects.

pax

[Lurper]

Tachypsychia can and does happen independently of the fight or flight response. If it didn't, you could not experience it outside of a crisis situation. The similarity is in the assumed chemical causes. During a crisis, you may experience several other phenomena like tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, inability to focus concentration, etc.. Tachypsychia occurs seperately from all of those. In fact, it is the antithesis of some. When you experience it, you typically will not necessarily have any of the other phenomena (athletes for example). During tachypsychia you have crystal clarity and focus without tunnel vision (some describe it as "hyper-awareness"), auditory exclusion or shaking. Most will tell you that they felt calm and focused, no shaking, no inability to focus.

Getting in the zone or allowing tachypsychia to happen can and does occur in the absence of "stress" (depending on your definition). Some define competition as "stress". Tachypsychia occurs when your mind is in an altered state. You achieve an altered state through relaxation, hypnosis or by pushing your conscious mind aside and letting the subconscious take over. That's why you cannot say "I'm experiencing tachypsychia right now". You are aware it is occuring, but the minute you consciously acknowledge it, it ends. The mind can be trained to get into the state where you can allow tachypsychia to happen through meditation, relaxation or hypnosis. Like many other athletes and hypnotherapists, I use key word phrases to help relax, focus concentration and get my mind into the state where tachypsychia will occur. I don't need to feel fear or anger for it to happen. I don't need to be in a crisis confrontation. I simply need to (in the words of J. Michael Plaxco): "put your mind in neutral".

[Lurper]

To be more accurate Pax, some of the sources cited say that. Not all. There have always been two camps when it comes to these topics.
The "old school":
These are the ones who say that these are autonomic resposes that cannot be controlled, are caused by chemicals and we are at the mercy of our body. They are the ones who search for a chemical solution. They ignore the mental aspect (while acknowledging the brain controls the body) and look elsewhere even though science does not know what 90% of our brain does. Any evidence that disagrees with their findings is dismissed as "new age", b.s. or simple anecdotal evidence without value. They typically are not athletes or mental health professionals.

The "new school":
The ones who say that the mind controls everything, so learn to control the mind. They will tell you that we are not at the mercy of our bodies or autonomic responses (more and more evidence supports this). They are typically athletes, entrepreneurs, mental health professionals and will tell you that the only limitations you have are those you impose on yourself. Unfortunately since this is so outside of the box for the conventional thinkers, back in the 80's this group was lumped in with the "new agers", granola eating tree huggers, freaks, etc. In spite of the fact that by that time, the US olympic teams and some of the best athletes were starting to use mental training techniques like visualization, hypnosis and self-hypnosis. In fairness, there are some whackos in this camp just like there are fascists in the other.

The third (and largest) camp are those who don't know, don't care or don't have a clue.


The reality is that you control your reactions, you are not a slave to them (guess you know what camp I'm in). The way you control them is through mental training. There are countless studies that support that. Why do you think dry firing is so effective? The reason is because to your mind the mechanics are the same as live firing. The US olympic teams and NASA have done studies on visualization that show that the same electronic impulses occur when you visualize an activity that occur when you actually perform the activity. There was a study at Arizona State University where researches could predict where a bullet hit based on the shooter's brain wave patterns. You achieve peak performance when you are in these states of consciousness. That's also where tachypsychia occurs. It doesn't take fear or stress. Just focus and relaxation.

[pax]

Hmmm, I guess I don't fall into any of your three camps.

My position is very simple: the mind and the body work together. Everything is hitched to everything else.

Sometimes the body is in the driver's seat. When the body is in the driver's seat, any or all of the altered mental states can occur -- up to and including tachypsychia. Some of the altered mental states are good ones, some are ungood, but in these cases the body is jacking the mind around. It's a survival reflex that often works.

Sometimes the mind is in the driver's seat. You put your mind into the right framework, and then you deliberately manufacture the emotions that lead to an increased adrenal response when you need it. You start with highly focused attention (which is yet another mental state that sometimes arrives as a physical, reflex response to extreme stress). Then you add what your cited article called a "crisis stage of competition." The presence of the crisis causes an increase in the adrenal response, and the increased adrenal response gives momentum to the highly focused state that was already beginning to occur, kicking you into the zone.

In any case, all of this sometimes happens -- in fact, it most often happens -- without any attempt to make it happen at all. It's nifty cool that people can deliberately induce the survival response in order to win competitions. But as you point out yourself, that's still pretty rare. The survival response is most often experienced by people who have no idea how to induce it deliberately, and it is most often experienced non-voluntarily by people who need to know that it is a completely natural, normal response to extreme stress.

More than that: it would be a shame if someone experienced an altered mental state as part of the survival response, but did not realize that was what they were experiencing, and either fought against the response or allowed it to distract them from doing what they needed to do in order to survive.

When you tell folks that their minds are in the driver's seat, I think it would probably be really good to admit that sometimes these same altered mental states happen unexpectedly in moments of extreme stress. Otherwise, you're loaning credence to the idea that the normal human adrenal response is something to be fought against as an alien invader, instead of welcomed as the naturally occurring survival reflex that it is.

pax

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by Lurperless

than totally accurate...Tachypsychia is not a part of the fight or flight reaction. Not completely understood yet, it is almost a state of mind.

This is correct. And remarkably difficult to treat at the far end of the spectrum.

Briefly, the brain uses about 20 different chemicals/compounds in its normal function. Right know, doctors recognize changes and alterations in two of them.

As a patient is treated with meds from these two groups, dramatic changes occur in the levels of the other 18, and they don't know why--or how to effectively modulate them to treat certain conditions. One med elevates of diminishes levels, another med does just the reverse, or a mixed response.

So, a psychiatrist might experiment on several meds, even a cocktail. And since a "ramp up" requires about six weeks to effectively observe a positive theraputic level, the patient goes through a rollercoaster of emotions.

It is not surprsing that during the instantaneous chemical dump of an attack a combatant endures numerous changes in perceptions as well as dexterity.

My advice is to learn and investigate stress as it relates to defense just like you would do research on any other aspect of safety and security.

Oh, and never play cards with a bipolar. It's far too easy to take your money.

[ragwd]

Gee guys, I appreciate all the definitions. Very educational! I think we all agree to what it is to one degree or another and the difference in definition is moot. We all know what it is but as to my original question

"What can you do to combat these symptoms? The only answer I have heard so far is training, training and more training so that when you are in a real life situation and "Tachypsychia" starts to set in you naturally revert back to your training, hopefully. But are there any drills in particular that actually help with the "Tachypsychia".

It seems only repeated actual experience is the real training. I am neither LE or Military, so for me thats not gonna happen. I hope. Sparring.....well unfortunately I grew up in poverty in the inner city so I have had my share of hand to hand dealing with neighborhood thugs and my share of bar fights, that always got my heart rate and rapid breathing and stressfull but I never experience the deer in the headlights phenomenon. And the deep regular breathing sounds as a excellent idea, but if you can remember to do that, then you probably are not experiencing tachypsychia. Maybe a good way to train so you might revert back to it when your responses become automatic. Hogdog, would love to go hog hunting, sounds very stressful and just the thing to stimulate the effects tachypsychia. I have heard that the military has exercises such as live fire while crawling. That would be stressfull! So I guess I am asking how did the military or LE prepare you to handle the stress. I guess I will take up sky diving and stock car driving to get use to handling stress.

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by ragwd

"What can you do to combat these symptoms?...Maybe a good way to train so you might revert back to it when your responses become automatic.

I also believe that training for an automatic response is the best idea.

As I suffered through a painful ramp up, my doctor told me to ride it out. He explained that the modulating a brain chemical dosage the size of a head of a pin could have a Green Beret hiding under his bed begging for his life.

If you think about it, sometime in your life you've a guy resembling Barney Fife attack a much larger guy so fiercely that it takes several people to restrain him.

Believe me, no one can predict just how this chemical dump will effect them. In fact, you cannot predict your response even if you have experienced it before.

[Lurper]

ragwd
My answer would be that you don't want to train to combat it (IMO, it is a good thing). Train to focus your concentration. There are many different techniques you can use, the most effective would be hypnosis or self-hypnosis and/or visualization. If you train your mind (using key trigger words for example), you will eventually be able to turn your focus on & off at will. Read Lanny Basham's book, sports psyching, Plaxco's book, Clarkson's book, there are thousands out there. I have cds available and there are countless sources out there if you look around.

More than that: it would be a shame if someone experienced an altered mental state as part of the survival response, but did not realize that was what they were experiencing, and either fought against the response or allowed it to distract them from doing what they needed to do in order to survive.

Anyone who has experienced it will tell you that you cannot consciously realize it. It occurs when your subconscious mind pushes your conscious mind out of the way. When you have a conscious thought (or you hear the little voice in your head), your conscious mind is in control. When your conscious mind is in control, you won't experience tachypsychia.

When you tell folks that their minds are in the driver's seat, I think it would probably be really good to admit that sometimes these same altered mental states happen unexpectedly in moments of extreme stress. Otherwise, you're loaning credence to the idea that the normal human adrenal response is something to be fought against as an alien invader, instead of welcomed as the naturally occurring survival reflex that it is.

We'll have to agree to disagree. Nothing happens in your body independent of the mind/brain. No chemicals are released, no reactions, no response. Everything that happens starts with a signal from the brain. There is no such thing as a normal response without a trigger from the brain. Adrenaline for example, has no mind of its own, it cannot release into your system without the brain telling it to. It is fair and accurate to say that the states happen unexpectedly, but it isn't accurate to say that you need extreme stress to induce them. Nor is it accurate to say that it is a natural survival reflex that cannot be controlled.

It's not just me who tells people that, there are countless sports psychologists, psychiatrists, hypnotherapists, athletes, researchers and others who all say the same thing. There is volumes and volumes of research that support the contention that you can train to overcome what some say are processes that we can't control.

In my experience (23+ years) there is no "crisis stage" of competition, nor does it take stress or the need to manufacture the feelings necessary. That was the way some of those quoted in the article described it. In fact preparation is for me and the clients I have worked with just the opposite. It involves being relaxed, focusing your concentration, clearing your mind and allowing your subconscious to take over.

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by Lurper

There is volumes and volumes of research that support the contention that you can train to overcome what some say are processes that we can't control.

This is where you and I have to agree to disagree.

The only people I know of who espouse this theory are Scientologists. If there was a process where I could control my bipolar syndrome I would certainly be using it. In fact, I know of no such study that uses bio-feedback with any success on my side of the line except anxiety.

Of course, a good back-rub from a foxy blonde lady accomplishes about the same thing.

I am unable to control my serotonin levels. As a slow cycler (one full top to bottom joy ride takes two years), your theory would suggest that I can perceive, apply theory and adjust microscopic synapse function between boutons angstrum to angstrum. Good luck with that.

In a similar fashion, your subject would have to perceive, apply theory, adjust and receive a benefit during an agressor's attack during the 21-foot rule.

Yikes, neither my Harley or my best pick-up line moves that fast!

This no-drug theory comes and goes. Brooke Shields got admonished by Tom Cruise to embrace this philosophy for post partum depression. I believe I might as well swing a chicken over my head and chant for rain. These are serious conditions with painful results affecting health, marriage and jobs. It is too risky to trust to a garage mechanic how doesn't have to care for the siufferer.

And I certainly wouldn't suggest theories like this for good guys facing loaded guns.

[Lurper]

Tourist,
That's because you are trying to apply sports psychology to bipolar disorder. They are not the same. It is not scientology, it is not a philosophy, it is a proven fact. Many of the top athletes in the world use visualization, hypnosis, self-hypnosis, relaxation and meditation to train their minds. While there may be some hypnosis, bio-feedback treatments for bipolar disorder, it is outside of my area.

[Raytracer]

I think the best way for a civilian to train under stress and potentially experience tachypsychia for themself is through "force on force" training, preferrably with simunitions.

I'll also throw this observation out there regarding the perception of time: I've been shooting IPSC and IDPA for nearly a year now and I recently noticed an odd phenomenon. From my perspective, stages take longer and I'm shooting slower and noticing more details during the stage. However, my times are getting shorter so I'm actually moving faster.

Induced low-grade tachypsychia? I can think of non critical times when this would be very handy. And perhaps even more so, times when the reverse would be desirable!

Originally Posted by Albert Einstein

"When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity."

Joe

[The Tourist]

Originally Posted by Lurper

They are not the same

Sure they are. Identical. Serotonin is serotonin. Your body cannot discern the difference between an actual chemical adjustment in your psysche' and the screaming meemies I so often enjoy.

It's zero-dark-thirty at your casa. You hear and intense bump. It's a cat.

It's zero-dark-thirty at your casa. You hear and intense bump. It's Freddie Kruger.

Big difference.

Salt is salt. We enjoy it with margaritas, not so much with armpits.

[Jeff22]

Sometimes I really enjoy the discussions we get into on TFL . . .

Lurper has made the point in a couple of similar discussions that some of the effects of body alarm reaction/tachepsychia can be reduced through proper training. (the idea of pre-event "stress innoculaton"). I suspect that's often true.

What's hard to figure are all the variables . . .

Sports psychology may have some principles that are applicable in this realm.

Experience probably also has a lot to do with it. I've never been in a shooting incident, but about once or twice a year I get into a high speed vehicle pursuit. I don't get that excited about it now, but I CLEARLY remember my first one (on a bitter cold night in March of 1984) and I got pretty excited during that one.

[GlockJockey]

One of the best things about this forum is that you can learn the answers to questions that you didn't even know you should ask. Great information!

[Jeff22]

http://www.personalprotectionsystems...tyarticles.htm

http://www.lwcbooks.com/articles/anatomy.html

Either link will take you to the article "The Anatomy Of Fear and How It Relates To Survival Skills Training" by Darren Laur

The article deals with the physical effects of the Survival Stress Reaction, specifically with heart rate escalation & performance deterioration.