Really good posts. I don’t really have answers to offer. Selco speaks truthfully as far as I see it and I don’t really have anything to add when it comes to trust vs not trust. I can only offer my perspective from my experiences.
For this post, baptism of fire = active, sustained, life threatening situation to you and/or your loved ones beyond your control, not of your design or out of the left field, that you cannot easily escape from. Be it SHTF, societal collapse, extreme civil unrest/war or war. A car accident, your favorite aunt B. passing away, getting mugged, getting bitten by something or someone, breaking you arm in football practice, filing taxes, not getting that pony you were promised as a teenager doesn’t count. While most likely traumatic, that is not baptism of fire that I mean. If someone is trying to kill you, that counts. I mean pucker factor 10+.
1. No one can ever predict with any certainty or reliability how you or any one else will react to their first baptism of fire, ever…no one
2. No one will ever be fully prepared for their first baptism of fire, ever…no one. People can act extraordinary and bizarre in those situations, good and bad.
3. After the first baptism of fire ones’ outlook on life and ones’ self is forever and permanently altered. Your old self exists no longer.
4. If anyone claims different to #3, they suffer from PTSD, are a liar or are a psychopath. Give it time and you’ll know the answer if you know the person, whether it’s the day after or decades after. Psychopaths don’t seem to change nor seem too affected. (seriously and that is a whole other topic)
5. Loner types will have the roughest time all around and take the longest time to get back to some semblance of a normal self. And I do mean semblance. The experience of baptisms of fire will always be with that person whether they talk about it or not.
7. Those with genuine support from friends, family or otherwise will fair far better in the long run and most probably quicker, though not always. No guarantees ever.
8. Truly getting back to “normal” can take a very long time, maybe a lifetime.
9. a “normal” or “recovered” person will avoid purposely putting themselves in that kind position again, ever, nor wish it upon anyone and will avoid it if at all possible. Basically directly proportional to their own experience to their own baptism of fire.
As an aside, my experiences from areas of operations (front lines);
-Everyone smokes even if they’re ardent non smokers back home.
-Everyone drinks or wants to drink even if they’re ardent non drinkers back home
-Everyone finds religion/faith/spirituality even if they’re atheists/agnostic back home.
And finally, a large part of the world has had first hand experience with war on their soil or homeland that they themselves or close family members experienced. They also have it in their memory or shared family/national/cultural memory. North Americans do not.
By far the best chances go to those who have true support from friends, family and even like minded folks in any scenario, especially a SHTF scenario.
I don’t think you can ever mitigate the risk of a bad apple in the mix. You can only be prepared for it and luck is absolutely a factor in anything. But loner types are stepping into a known risk let alone the unknown risks that will surely arise.
I recommenced to do your due diligence and trust your gut and build a support group/community. Again, Selco has written about it.
All the best.