Every person cannot be completely sure that under certain circumstances he will not find himself in extreme conditions. That is, in the life of each of us a situation may arise when the surrounding reality will differ sharply from our usual everyday life. At the same time, the extreme conditions that arise in an unprepared person will cause a negative state of mind that is not adapted to the presence of stress factors. This, for example, happens when a person spends a long time under water or when a person finds himself in the conditions of the Far North.

What are the extreme conditions?

Man, like all other living organisms on our planet, is able to exist only at a certain temperature, illumination, gravity, humidity, surface height above sea level, radiation intensity, etc. Moreover, all these qualities were developed by nature in the process of human evolution.

When a person finds himself in extreme conditions, he is able to adapt to them. However, this happens only to certain limits. An example would be where people live. As a rule, these are territories located at an altitude not exceeding 3 thousand m above sea level. If a person rises even higher, then he will not be able to live there permanently. His health will begin to deteriorate sharply, various diseases will rapidly develop, which will ultimately lead to his death. The main problem for the body in this case will be an insufficient supply of atmospheric oxygen to the cells.

Among the types of extreme conditions, humidity can be distinguished. Its significant rates are observed in tropical forests. Thickets of trees do not allow the rays of the sun and wind to penetrate here. That is why there is a lot of carbon dioxide, various fumes, odors, microscopic fibers, hairs and scales in the air. Only people of small height and weight were able to adapt to such extreme conditions. This is what distinguishes representatives of the tropical forest tribes.

Another environmental factor that limits human life opportunities is air temperature. We can feel comfortable only within a narrow range of its values. Sudden temperature fluctuations have adverse effects on people's health.

But in addition to extreme natural conditions, a person sometimes has to face critical situations related to his life in society. For example, many people had to endure malnutrition, fear and illness, which caused them deep and sometimes unbearable suffering. This happened during certain periods when slavery and serfdom existed, and world wars broke out.

Adaptation

An extreme situation and extreme conditions in which a person finds himself become the cause of acute mental, physical, and social stress for him. All this poses a threat not only to his well-being, but also to his life. Nevertheless, in stressful situations, a person begins to develop adaptive phenomena to the artificial or natural environment. This allows him to be in conditions that were previously incompatible with life. With full adaptation, a person is able to maintain the possibility of his intellectual activity, behavior appropriate to the current situation, and also continue his family.

Adaptation is a process, the result of which is the acquisition by the body of resistance to certain environmental influences that it previously lacked.

Survival

How adaptable can a person be in extreme conditions? His survival will depend on many factors. The presence or presence of each of them will become a direct characteristic of extreme conditions, the severity of which will have a direct impact on the successful outcome of the case. Thus, some factors in the current situation will contribute to the exit from a critical state, while others, on the contrary, will aggravate the situation of people in danger.

How to survive in extreme conditions? For this, first of all, desire and the will to live are required. This factor is determined not only by a person’s character, but also by his attitude towards people close to him, as well as his obligations to each of them. Anyone who has a great desire to get out of the current situation will do everything he can for this. And in this he will differ from the one who is overcome by complete indifference. More active people will have a much greater chance of survival, even if they find themselves in a situation that at first glance seems hopeless. It is the desire for life that will direct all a person’s feelings and thoughts towards salvation.

Action learning

What contributes to survival in the wild and extreme conditions? One of the main factors leading to salvation is a person’s training in the necessary actions. There are many examples when, for people who know the basic rescue techniques, even if they were injured in emergency situations, everything ended well. A trained person knew how to properly manage the food he had, built a shelter for himself from bad weather, organized the use of signaling devices, and also did not miss every, even the slightest, opportunity for salvation.

But there are other examples when people unprepared for extreme situations died. And this despite the existing opportunity for salvation. The reason for this was their wrong actions. After all, a person’s ability to choose the right survival tactics directly depends on a person’s training.

Mental condition

It turns out that his behavior in extreme conditions is also important for a person. Sometimes, when faced with a difficult situation, people simply cannot assess it correctly in order to take the necessary actions to save themselves. Only 12-25% of those who find themselves in extreme conditions are able to meaningfully do everything for their salvation from the first minutes. The reaction of everyone else to the environment has varying degrees of adequacy, ranging from complete prostration and lethargy to hysteria. And only after a certain time, most of these people return to their normal state. After this, they are involved in actions to save themselves. If in a group of people who find themselves in an extreme situation there are those who are prepared and able to support their fellow sufferers with jokes and deeds, then the time for normalization of the general psychological state of the group is significantly accelerated.

Physical training

Survival in the wild and extreme conditions will require a lot of strength from a person. If he is physically well prepared, then unfavorable conditions will be tolerated much easier. For example, such a person will be able to travel long distances, and generally have a much greater chance of ending up at home.

His fellow sufferer finds himself in a worse situation and quickly loses his strength. A physically strong group member is able to help his comrades and increase the chances of survival for everyone.

Special equipment

A kit for survival in extreme conditions will also increase your chances of rescue. It should include:

• emergency food supply;
• means of communication and signaling;
• windproof matches;
• knife in sheath;
• a skein of fishing line;
• magnifying glass;
• first aid kit;
• Bowl;
• a skein of brightly colored rope 25 m long;
• Bowl.

Windproof matches will be needed to light a fire, scare away predatory animals, cauterize the poisonous bites of snakes and spiders, and also build additional lighting for yourself.

The most important tool in an emergency will be a knife. But if it is not there, such a tool can be made from a piece of wood, a sharp stone or other available material.

You can use a magnifying glass to light a fire. And if you break off a small piece from it, the remaining part will make a cutting surface or an excellent scraper.

As for the skein of fishing line, in an extreme situation it can be used quite widely. For example, it is useful for building a shelter, repairing shoes and clothes. Various plants, etc. can be hung on it to dry.

A brightly colored rope will be needed in the most difficult situations. It is used to construct an identification mark, which must be noticed by the search team.

The first aid kit of special equipment must be equipped with aspirin and iodine, activated carbon, Streptocide and Phthalazol. What are all these funds needed for? For example, "Streptocide" is useful for open wounds. Tablets of this product are crushed to a powder and applied to the injured area. Aspirin is needed as an antipyretic drug. It is placed under the tongue and left there until completely dissolved. Phthalazole will be needed in case of stomach upset. It is used no more than three times during the day, one tablet at a time. For acute diseases, the dose is doubled. Activated charcoal will also help with stomach upset. Taking it will remove from the body the bacteria that caused the disease.

A bowl included in the special equipment is required for eating. However, it will be possible to sharpen one of the edges. It will replace the knife if it is missing. In addition, the bowl can be used as a tool for digging work. You can store various small things in it.

Injuries

Sometimes action in extreme conditions should be aimed at providing immediate medical assistance to victims. This often happens during accidents. But in the future, it is important to continue to monitor the situation and stop any actions that could lead to poisoning or injury, bites from poisonous insects and animals, as well as colds. After all, someone who becomes helpless loses many opportunities for salvation, while complicating conditions for the entire group and reducing its mobility. Because of this, it is important that people are able to provide emergency medical care and know how to prevent illness and injury.

Taking into account the geographical and climatic features of the area

These factors are taken into account when drawing up survival tactics and planning rescue actions. In this case, you will need to take into account the presence of drinking sources and water obstacles, terrain, temperature and humidity, precipitation intensity, composition of flora and fauna, as well as the level of solar radiation.

Knowing the composition and power of all these natural factors, it will be possible to take effective protective measures, building the right plan to save people in distress.

Risk factors

The main enemies of a person in an emergency situation are survival stressors. the negative impact of which can negatively affect the entire process of salvation. But beyond that, they spur people on, forcing them to take action and make quick decisions.

Risk factors in extreme conditions are thirst and hunger, heat and cold, overwork, fear and loneliness. Sometimes these include diseases, natural disasters, as well as conflicting and incorrect relationships that develop in a group of people in distress.

So, based on all of the above, we can conclude that in order to be saved in an extreme situation, a person must have skills, abilities and a clear head. Let's take a closer look at the importance and sources of finding the most needed resources.

Food and water

A person cannot live without these resources. That is why one of the areas of rescue action should be to search for water and food. There are many methods for this. They have been invented by people over many centuries through trial and error.

In order to find water in the wild, you can use several methods. Among them:

• discover a body of water;
• apply a filtration or condensation method;
• extract from underground;
• collect rainwater.

There are also many methods for finding food in the wild. The simplest of them is collecting edible vegetables and fruits, berries, larvae, insects and mushrooms. A more difficult way is fishing and hunting. For example, you can set traps and traps, and also use fishing rods or weapons.

It is worth keeping in mind that if water and food are not found, the situation will worsen significantly. The body will begin to weaken. After all, a person can live only 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. In the absence of these resources, a person faces salvation in conditions of extreme survival. And here a lot will depend on his mood.

Motivation

It has already been said above that in extreme situations a person must be strong in spirit and strive for salvation. After all, sometimes the struggle also occurs within people in distress. The one who emerges victorious in it will certainly be saved. Where can you find a source for your motivation? He is locked in thoughts about loved ones. It is after such thoughts that unprecedented energy appears and a second wind opens.

In addition, the path to salvation should consist of many easily achievable goals. You should not set global goals for yourself. The stories of many survivors confirm this.

Additional actions

In most cases, food, nutrition and motivation are enough to survive in an extreme situation. But if a person finds himself in unfavorable and harsh climatic conditions, then he will need to take care of some other things.

For example, those who find themselves in an extreme situation in winter in the northern territory of Russia will need to find or build a shelter for themselves. Indeed, in these zones the temperature sometimes drops to 50 degrees below zero.

The next task is to make fire. It will allow you to warm up and become a source of confidence in the future.

In such a situation, rescue will certainly require equipment consisting of clothing and hunting accessories, as well as means of transportation.

Extreme sports areas

Physical exercise is very beneficial for a person. Some people come to sports because they want to look good, while others come to get a boost of energy. However, recently there are more and more fans of extreme sports. This direction allows you to get a decent dose of adrenaline.

What types of extreme sports are represented? The most dangerous of them are:

1. Kitesurfing. This is a young sport that is currently rapidly gaining popularity. The movement in it is produced under the influence of traction created by a kite, which is held by a person.
2. Parkour. This sport is the art of overcoming obstacles in the form of elements of architectural structures such as walls, stairs, parapets, etc.
3. Streetlagging. It is a downhill race in a prone position on a long skateboard.
4. Rafting. This sport is rafting on mountain rivers, during which it is necessary to pass artificial and natural obstacles.
5. Diving. This is scuba diving, during which a person puts on special equipment that allows him to stay under water from a few minutes to twelve or more hours.
6. Taming the bull. This type of extreme sport is more commonly known as rodeo. It involves cowboys riding bareback on a wild horse, taming it, lassoing or riding bulls.

Sometimes those who want to get a dose of adrenaline go to extreme driving courses.

Here you can learn:

• perform extreme braking on a slippery road;
• drive on sand, off-road or in shallow rivers;
• overcome all kinds of obstacles;
• go down steep slopes.

Extreme driving courses at any school are divided into several levels, each of which is more difficult than the previous one.

INTRODUCTION

Today, anyone can find themselves in an extreme situation at any time: explosions, fires, sudden threats directed at you or your loved ones, natural disasters, catastrophes, and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, many such phenomena have quietly become part of our lives. And all this has a noticeable impact on our behavior, on our psyche.

Today, newspapers are filled with information about offenses and crimes. The abundance of such information gives rise to a feeling of fear and powerlessness in an unprepared person. When such information accumulates so much that it threatens to paralyze all activity, the defense mechanism of the human psyche is triggered. The acuity of perception of frightening information is lost and fear is replaced by indifference. A person ceases to be afraid, but not because of the consciousness of his own strength, but because he has lost his normal reaction to really existing threats. It is clear that neither a person overwhelmed by fear nor a person indifferent to danger is able to act effectively. Fear is largely due to the unknown, so in order to maintain composure in the face of danger, it is important to understand that there are no insurmountable forces, that a collision with danger can be avoided or, at least, the negative consequences of this collision can be significantly reduced. To avoid becoming a victim of crime, you must have a clear understanding of your advantages over criminals. In order to make a more or less correct decision in an extreme situation that has arisen, it is necessary, as far as possible, to understand exactly what situation you find yourself in: assess the situation itself, assess your opponent (enemy), calm down and choose a tactic of behavior. And only then act according to the circumstances.

The purpose of this work is to determine the complexity of working in extreme conditions.

The object of work in this work is journalists.

Subject: readiness to work in extreme conditions.

Study the theoretical aspects of extreme situations

Identify the degree of training in the work of journalists

THE CONCEPT OF EXTREME CONDITIONS

Extreme conditions concept

In modern research, there are several approaches to understanding extreme conditions and their components. The analysis made it possible to identify several approaches to determining extreme conditions:

1. Extreme conditions are equal to emergency situations, classified according to the nature of the impact of the external environment.

2. Extreme conditions that require physiological or mental stress (similar to the concept of stress by G. Selye).

3. Extreme conditions as a “person in a situation” system, where the conditions of influence of the external environment and the individual are considered as an integral system.

Ts.P. Korolenko refers to extreme conditions as those that “are on the verge of tolerance and have a high ability to disrupt adaptation.” He included extreme natural influences among them: temperature, wind, electromagnetic fluctuations, atmospheric pressure, as well as other influences that put the body on the brink of tolerance. A.P. Avtsyn, E.E. Koenig highlight the concept of extreme situations as extraordinary in terms of possible adverse effects on the human body. As V.I. writes in his book. Lebedev, as a result of the popularization of G. Selye’s theory of stress, a tendency arose to classify as “extreme conditions” all situations in which stress of physiological or mental processes is required. With this point of view, he notes, “one cannot fully agree, since the line separating ordinary living conditions from changed ones becomes blurry and indefinite.” We encounter tension and stress in everyday life quite often. For example, during physical work, when solving a number of problem situations, etc., stress is not only normal, but even a necessary condition of human life and activity.

He considers the boundary separating ordinary conditions from extreme ones to be those situations in which, under the influence of psychogenic (i.e., actualizing mental reactions) factors, psychophysiological and socio-psychological mechanisms, having exhausted their reserve capabilities, can no longer provide adequate reflection and regulatory human activity. In other words, when the adaptive barrier is destroyed, dynamic stereotypes in the central nervous system are “broken,” and mental maladjustment or crisis occurs.

Therefore, under the extreme situation V.I. Lebedev proposes to understand the change in environmental conditions around a person that occurs over a short period of time and leads him to a personal threshold of adaptation. After all, it is precisely the achievement of a personal adaptation threshold that puts a person on the brink of danger to his life and health.

Extreme conditions are also characterized by altered afferentation, information structure, socio-psychological restrictions and the presence of a risk factor. A person is affected by seven main psychogenic factors: monotony, altered spatial and temporal structures, restrictions on personally significant information, loneliness, group isolation (information exhaustion of communication partners, constant publicity, etc.) and a threat to life.

In the process of adaptation to extreme conditions, it is customary to distinguish the following stages, characterized by a change in emotional states and the appearance of unusual mental phenomena: preparatory, initial mental stress, acute mental reactions of entry, mental readaptation, final mental stress, acute mental reactions of exit and readaptation. In the genesis of unusual mental states, anticipation in a situation of information uncertainty is clearly traced (the stage of initial mental stress and the final stage); breakdown of the functional systems of analyzers formed during ontogenesis or a long stay in extreme conditions, disruption of the flow of mental processes and changes in the system of relations and relationships (the stage of acute mental reactions of entry and exit), active activity of the individual in developing protective (compensatory) reactions in response to the impact of psychogenic factors (readaptation stage) or the restoration of previous response stereotypes (readaptation stage).

With an increase in the time spent in changed conditions and severe exposure to psychogenic factors, as well as with insufficiently high neuropsychic stability and the absence of preventive measures, the stage of readaptation is replaced by a stage of deep mental changes, characterized by the development of neuropsychic disorders. Between the stages of readaptation and profound mental changes, there is an intermediate stage of unstable mental activity, characterized by the appearance of prepathological conditions. These are conditions that have not yet been isolated into strictly defined nosological forms of neuropsychiatric diseases, which allows us to consider them within the framework of a psychological norm. Research in the field of extreme psychology is aimed at improving psychological selection and psychological training for working in unusual living conditions, as well as developing measures to protect against the traumatic effects of psychogenic factors.

There are several types of extreme situations:

1) objectively extreme situations (difficulties and dangers in them come from the external environment and arise objectively for a person);

2) potentially extreme situations (danger is expressed as a hidden threat);

3) personally provoked extreme situations (the danger is generated by the person himself, his intentional or erroneous choice, behavior);

4) imaginary extreme situations (not dangerous, threatening situations).

In addition to the situations of A.M. Stolyarenko identifies groups of psychogenic risk factors: extreme material and environmental factors, social and environmental factors, substantive elements of activity as an extreme factor, organizational and operational elements of activity that act as extreme factors. P.A. Korchemny identifies risk factors such as:

1) external factors - macrospace;

2) level of management;

3) subjective extreme factors.

Based on the subject and object of our research, we will focus on the main distinctive features of the above conditions, i.e., on what is typical for the activities of internal affairs bodies. Emergency incidents and circumstances (situations) create special (extreme) conditions, during which the content of the tasks performed changes significantly (and sometimes radically), and there is a need to use new approaches to assessing the mutual influence of extreme situations and the subject of the activity.

Consequently, the concept of “conditions”, in addition to elements of the situation, includes an activity aspect, which distinguishes “conditions” from the concept of “situation”, which has a meaning neutral in relation to activity.

A.N. Leontyev warned “against understanding human activity as a relationship that exists between a person and the society opposing him. For a person, society supposedly constitutes only the external environment to which he is forced to adapt in order not to be unadapted and to survive. This misses the main thing - that in In society, a person finds not just external conditions to which he must adapt his activities, but that these social conditions themselves carry within themselves the motives and goals of his activity, its means and methods; in a word, that society produces the activities of the individuals who form it.

In this study, attention is focused on the nature of the changes that an individual’s self-image undergoes under extreme conditions that fall within the boundaries of the psychological norm for altered conditions of existence. These situations, according to A.M. Stolyarenko, can be classified as a system-structural and a system-functional model, in which a person acts in functional integrity with an extreme situation.

Thus, the system-structural model of an extreme situation from the point of view of the systems approach is considered as a special external-internal system “a person in a situation”. This system is characterized by deep functional integrity, and human behavior is an integral, systemic product of its functioning. One of the main characteristics in the “person-situation” system in the “person” component is his self-image. The structure of the situation includes:

Situational components (extreme conditions); personal components (self-image);

Activity components (intentions and behavior).

In the system-functional model of extreme situations, a person in a situation acts as a single system “person in a situation.” A person’s psychological involvement in a situation can be associated with a number of psychological phenomena: a person’s understanding and assessment of the situation and its individual factors; assessing the significance of the situation and attitude towards it; motivation for activity in a situation; mobilization; adequacy of decisions, behavior and actions; mental state of a person; active manifestation of self-regulation by the individual.

The interaction of structural components is characterized by cause-and-effect dependencies (functional models).

A.N. Stolyarenko identifies the following types of functional models: the dynamics of the “person in a situation” system proceeds as a unity of situational, personal and behavioral structural components; environmental factors determine personal and behavioral ones; personal factors play a determining role in relation to the situational, and as a consequence, human behavioral reactions (personal mediation of the objective characteristics of the system occurs). In any situation, a person manifests himself as an individual, the details of the situation and private circumstances are subordinate to him.

This model can be described in the concept of the meta-individual world by L.Ya. Dorfman and can serve as a new polysystemic basis for understanding the specifics of a subject’s activity in extreme conditions. Concept by L.Ya. Dorfman allows "to bridge the gap between the ontological essences of individuality and objects of the world." The personality and the surrounding world interact as a holistic entity, on the one hand, and as a subsystem, on the other. According to his concept of the meta-individual world, “the field of interactions of an individual with the objects of his world is quite wide and can take place both at the pole of individuality and at the pole of objects of his world.

The uniqueness of interactions at the pole of the objects of the world is revealed, firstly, in the way that individuality assimilates the objects of the world, being in some cases an independent system, and in others a subsystem of the world. Secondly, in how the systemic and ontological statuses of individuality and objects of the world are combined, since in the meta-individual world between the systemic and ontological ways of existence of individuality and the objects of its world, their incomplete coincidences take place (individuality and the objects of its world penetrate into each other as systems, but not as ontological entities). At the same time, it is the interpermeability of individuality and the objects of its world as systems (and subsystems) that makes it possible to bridge the gap between the ontological ways of their existence.

This ontological gap, according to L. Ya Dorfman, “is overcome in some cases due to the fact that individuality as a system covers the ontological essences of its self and the objects of its world. In other cases, the world as a system covers the ontological essences of the objects of its world and individuality as its subsystems ". In the first case, the leading role is given to the ontological status of individuality, and in the second, the ontological status of the objects of the world. Individuality as a system in itself contains the sources of determination of its activity and at the same time is the carrier of this activity. Individuality as a subsystem is also a carrier of activity, but the sources of its determination are localized in the systems interacting with it, that is, in the objects of the world. At the same time, in both cases the objects of the world are the subject of individual activity.”

This means: firstly, that several forms of activity should be distinguished depending on the localization of the sources of their determination; secondly, sources of activity and objects of activity are distributed between interacting systems when individuality manifests itself as a system. The very sources of activity and objects of individual activity are localized in the objects of the world when it acts as their subsystem; thirdly, “activity makes simultaneous impacts on the same object in different ways depending on the sources of its determination: in some cases, this object reveals its actual and potential signs in accordance with its immanent laws of existence, and in others, the object is subjected to subjective transformations in accordance with the immanent laws of the existence of individuality."

journalist extreme maladjustment psychogenic

Comfortable or close to them values ​​of human environmental factors occur, as a rule, in normal human life, in peacetime. They are often called normal conditions habitats.

Normal living conditions provide for the life support of the population for a normal life, life in peacetime. Almost every Russian lives in these conditions.

In the event of an emergency, people in the emergency zone may find themselves without shelter, water, food and medical care. In most cases, it is extremely difficult to solve the most important issues of life support for the affected population in these extreme conditions, promptly and in the required volumes, because the support system will be destroyed or its capabilities to fully meet all the needs of the victims will be insufficient.

In such cases, it turns out to be important to establish priority life support for people, initially providing for the satisfaction of only the physiological needs of a person, primarily for food.

In addition, in some emergency situations, during the initial period of their occurrence, even the physiological needs of a person for energy cannot be satisfied. Difficulties arise with housing, water, cooking, medical care, etc. Similar difficulties can occur in other circumstances, when a person, regardless of planned actions and route of movement, geographical location, finds himself cut off from the outside world and must rely only on himself. These are the extreme conditions of human life. For a person in extreme conditions, it is natural to want to survive, i.e. save your life.

The behavior of a person left to himself in extreme conditions, whose goal is to preserve his life, is survival.

Extreme conditions , in which a person fights for survival, are characterized by:

Lack or shortage of food (food);

Lack or lack of drinking water;

Exposure of the human body to low or high temperatures.

Food Provides the body's energy needs and the functioning of all human organs and systems.

The food should include proteins, fats, carbohydrates, and vitamins.

Proteins form the basis of every living cell and every tissue of the body. Therefore, a continuous supply of protein is absolutely necessary for tissue growth and repair, as well as the formation of new cells. The most valuable proteins are meat, milk, eggs and vegetables, primarily potatoes and cabbage and some cereals - oatmeal, rice, buckwheat.

Fats and carbohydrates are the main sources of energy and mainly determine the calorie content of food. Animal fats are considered more complete than vegetable fats. The most useful fats are those contained in milk, cream, and sour cream. Cereals, vegetables, and fruits are especially rich in carbohydrates; milk contains some carbohydrates.

Vitamins are necessary for the proper growth and development of the body, for the normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, neuromuscular system, vision, etc. The most important vitamins for the body are vitamin C, B vitamins, vitamins A, D, E.

In addition, the food should include minerals (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus) necessary for the skeletal system, as well as cardiac and skeletal muscles. The need for them is fully covered if the food consists of a variety of products of animal and plant origin.

In the human body, processes of oxidation (combination with oxygen) of physical nutrients (proteins, fats, carbohydrates) continuously occur, accompanied by the formation and release of heat. This heat is necessary for all life processes, it is spent on heating the released air, maintaining body temperature, thermal energy ensures the activity of the muscular system. The more muscle movements a person makes, the more oxygen he consumes, and, consequently, the more expenses he produces, and more food is needed to cover them.

The need for a certain amount of food is usually expressed in heat units - calories. The minimum amount of food that is necessary to maintain the human body in a normal state is determined by its needs at rest. These are human physiological needs.

The World Health Organization has found that human physiological energy needs are about 1600 kcal per day. The real energy needs are much higher; depending on the intensity of work, they exceed the specified norm by 1.4-2.5 times.

Fasting is a state of the body in which there is a complete absence or insufficient supply of nutrients.

There are absolute, complete and incomplete (partial) fasting.

Absolute fasting is characterized by a complete lack of intake of nutrients into the body - food and water.

Complete fasting is fasting when a person is deprived of all food, but is not limited in water consumption.

Incomplete (partial) fasting occurs when, with sufficient quantitative nutrition, a person does not receive enough nutrients from food - vitamins, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, etc.

With complete starvation, the body is forced to switch to internal self-sufficiency, using up reserves of fatty tissue, muscle protein, etc. It is estimated that an average weight person has energy reserves of approximately 160 thousand kcal, 40-45% of which he can spend on internal self-sufficiency without a direct threat to his existence. This amounts to 65-70 thousand kcal. Thus, spending 1600 kcal per day, a person is able to live about 40 days in conditions of complete immobility and lack of food, and taking into account the implementation of motor functions - about 30 days. Although there are cases where people did not eat food for 40, 50 and even 60 days and survived.

During the initial period of fasting, which usually lasts 2-4 days, a strong feeling of hunger arises, and the person constantly thinks about food. Appetite increases sharply, sometimes a burning sensation, pain in the pancreas, and nausea are felt. Dizziness, headaches, and stomach cramps are possible. When drinking water, salivation increases. In the first four days, a person’s weight decreases by an average of one kilogram daily, and in areas with a hot climate - up to 1.5 kg. Then daily losses decrease.

Subsequently, the feeling of hunger weakens. The appetite disappears, sometimes the person even experiences some cheerfulness. The tongue is often covered with a whitish coating, and the smell of acetone may be felt in the mouth. Salivation does not increase, even at the sight of food. There is poor sleep, prolonged headaches, and increased irritability. A person falls into apathy, lethargy, drowsiness, and weakens.

Hunger undermines a person’s strength from within and reduces the body’s resistance to external factors. A hungry person freezes several times faster than a well-fed one. He gets sick more often and suffers a more difficult course of the disease. His mental activity weakens and his efficiency drops sharply.

Water. Lack of water leads to a decrease in body weight, a significant loss of strength, thickening of the blood and, as a result, overstrain of the heart, which expends additional effort to push the thickened blood through the vessels. At the same time, the concentration of salts in the blood increases, which serves as an ominous signal of the onset of dehydration. Dehydration of the body by 15% or more can lead to irreversible consequences and death. If a person deprived of food can lose almost the entire supply of tissue, almost 50% of proteins, and only then approach the dangerous line, then the loss of 15% of fluid is fatal. Fasting can last several weeks, and a person deprived of water dies in a matter of days, and in hot climates, even hours.

The human body's need for water in favorable climatic conditions does not exceed 2.5-3 liters per day.

It is important to distinguish true water hunger from apparent one. Very often, the feeling of thirst arises not because of an objective lack of water, but because of improperly organized water consumption. Therefore, it is not recommended to drink a lot of water in one gulp - this will not quench your thirst, but can lead to swelling and weakness. Sometimes it is enough to rinse your mouth with cold water.

In case of intense sweating, leading to the leaching of salts from the body, it is advisable to drink lightly salted water - 0.5-1.0 g of salt per 1 liter of water.

Cold. According to statistics, from 10 to 15% of people who died in various extreme conditions were victims of hypothermia.

Wind plays a decisive role in human survival in low temperatures. At an actual air temperature of -3 0 C and a wind speed of 10 m/s, the total cooling caused by the combined influence of the actual air temperature and the wind is equivalent to the effect of a temperature of -20 0 C. And a wind of 18 m/s turns a frost of 45 0 C into a frost of 90 0 C in the absence of wind.

In areas devoid of natural shelters (forests, folds of relief), low temperatures combined with strong winds can reduce human survival to several hours.

Long-term survival at sub-zero temperatures also depends largely on the condition of clothing and shoes, the quality of the shelter constructed, fuel and food reserves, and the moral and physical condition of a person.

In extreme conditions, clothing can protect a person from the cold only for a short period of time, but it is still sufficient to build a shelter (even a snow shelter). The heat-protective properties of clothing depend primarily on the type of fabric. Finely porous fabric retains heat best - the more microscopic air bubbles are enclosed between the fibers of the fabric, the closer they are located to each other, the less such fabric allows heat to pass through from the inside and cold from the outside. There are a lot of air pores in woolen fabrics - the total pore volume in them reaches 92%; and in smooth, linen ones - about 50%.

By the way, the heat-protective properties of fur clothing are explained by the same effect of air pores. Each strand of fur is a small hollow cylinder with an air bubble “sealed” inside it. Hundreds of thousands of these elastic microcones make up a fur coat.

Recently, clothing made from synthetic materials and fillers such as padding polyester, nitron, etc. has found widespread use. Here, air capsules are enclosed in a thin shell of artificial fibers. Synthetic clothing is slightly inferior to fur in terms of warmth, but it is very light, does not impede movement, and is almost not felt on the body. It is not blown by the wind, snow does not stick to it, and it gets little wet.

The best option for clothing is multi-layer clothing made from different fabrics - preferably 4-5 layers.

Shoes play a very important role in winter emergency situations, because 90% of all frostbites occur on the lower extremities.

We must strive to keep shoes, socks, and foot wraps dry by all available means. To do this, you can make shoe covers from improvised material, wrap your legs with a piece of loose fabric, etc.

Shelter. Clothing, no matter how warm it is, can protect a person from the cold only for hours, rarely for days. No clothing can protect a person from death if a warm shelter is not built in time.

Fabric tents, shelters made from the wreckage of vehicles, wood, metal in the absence of a stove will not save you from the cold. After all, when constructing shelters from traditional materials, it is almost impossible to achieve hermetic sealing of seams and joints. Shelters are “blown through” by the wind. Warm air evaporates through numerous cracks, therefore, in the absence of stoves, stoves and other highly efficient heating devices, the air temperature inside the shelter is almost always equal to the outside one.

An excellent winter shelter can be built from snow, and very quickly - in 1.5-2 hours. In a properly constructed snow shelter, the air temperature, only due to the heat generated by a person, rises to - 5-10 0 C at 30-40 degrees below zero outside. With the help of a candle, the temperature in the shelter can be raised from 0 to 4-5 0 C and higher. Many polar explorers, having installed a couple of primus stoves inside, heated the air to +30 0 C!

The main advantage of snow shelters is the ease of construction - they can be built by anyone who has never held a tool in their hands.

Basic Human Factors Contributing to Survival

Will to live. In the event of a short-term external threat, a person acts on a subconscious level, obeying the instinct of self-preservation. In extreme conditions, with long-term survival, the instinct of self-preservation is gradually lost, and sooner or later a critical moment comes when excessive physical and mental stress, the seeming pointlessness of further resistance, suppress the will. Passivity and indifference take possession of a person; he is no longer afraid of the possible tragic consequences of ill-conceived overnight stays and risky crossings. He does not believe in the possibility of salvation and therefore dies without fully exhausting his reserves of strength, without using up his food reserves. 90% of people who find themselves on life-saving craft after a shipwreck die within three days from moral factors. More than once, rescuers removed dead people from boats or rafts found in the ocean in the presence of food and flasks of water.

Survival based only on the biological laws of self-survival is short-lived. It is characterized by rapidly developing mental disorders and hysterical reactions - a psychogenic damaging factor operates. The desire to survive must be conscious and purposeful. This is the will to live, when the desire to survive should be dictated not by instinct, but by conscious necessity. The will to live implies, first of all, action. Lack of will is inaction. You cannot passively expect help from the outside; you must take action to protect yourself from unfavorable factors and help others.

General physical training, hardening. The usefulness of general physical training for a person who finds himself in an extreme situation does not need to be proven. In an extreme situation, you need strength, endurance, and toughness. These physical properties cannot be acquired under conditions of extreme training. This takes months. Military rescuers acquire them during physical exercises, tactical and special training, as well as during individual training in certain sports in their free time.

Knowledge of self-rescue techniques. The basis for long-term survival is a solid knowledge of recipes for preparing dishes, for example, from caterpillars and tree bark.

A box of matches will not save a person from freezing if he does not know how to properly make a fire in winter or in the rain. Incorrectly provided first aid only aggravates the victim’s condition. It is tempting to have comprehensive knowledge of self-rescue in any climatic zone of the country, in any extreme situations. But this involves assimilation of a large amount of information. Therefore, in practice, it is often enough to limit ourselves to studying a specific climatic zone and possible extreme situations in it. However, it is important to study in advance those self-rescue techniques that are suitable for any climate zone, typical extreme situations: terrain orientation, timing, making fire using primitive methods, organizing a camp, preserving food, “extracting” water, first aid, overcoming water obstacles and so on. We must remember the motto: “To know is to be able, to be able is to survive!”

Survival skills. Knowledge of survival techniques must be supported by survival skills. Survival skills are learned through practice. Having, for example, a weapon, but not possessing hunting skills, you can die of hunger when there is an abundance of game. When mastering survival skills, you should not “throw yourself away”, trying to immediately master the entire volume of information on a particular issue of interest. Doing less is better. It is not necessary to practically master the construction of all types of shelters from snow (there are about 20 of them); it is quite enough to be able to build three or four shelters of various designs.

Proper organization of rescue operations. The survival of a group finding itself in an extreme situation largely depends on the organization of rescue operations. It is unacceptable for each group member to do only what he considers necessary for himself at a given moment in time. Collective survival allows you to save the life of each member of the group, individual survival leads to the death of everyone.

Work within the camp should be distributed by the group leader in accordance with the strengths and capabilities of each person. Physically strong people, primarily men, are entrusted with the most labor-intensive work - collecting firewood, building shelters, etc. Give the weak, women and children jobs that require a significant amount of time, but do not require much physical effort - maintaining a fire, drying and repairing clothes, collecting food, etc. At the same time, the importance of each work should be emphasized, regardless of the labor invested in it.

Any work should, as far as possible, be carried out at a calm pace with an even expenditure of energy. Sudden overloads followed by long rests and irregular work lead to rapid exhaustion of strength and irrational use of the body's energy reserves.

With proper organization of work, the energy consumption of each group member will be approximately the same, which is extremely important with rations, that is, equal for everyone, food rations.

With high technologies that free us from labor, humanity will become extinct. And all because work provides moderate stress, a socially approved minimum of “extreme conditions” necessary for a person to maintain and develop his mental and physical abilities. Without labor, a person stops in his development and degrades.

If a person is “burdened” with some minor problems, for example, a “problematic” relationship, and suddenly finds out that his child is in danger, the focus of perception changes dramatically. It is as if he receives a signal from the subconscious, immediate activation of internal resources, and feels as if he has awakened from a dream.

In an awakened consciousness, everyday “problems” have no meaning. A person awakens to solve deep “problems”, or some more important tasks, such as survival in extreme conditions. In other words, difficulties awaken in us the dormant tools for solving these very difficulties. Therefore, for example, Zen masters sometimes used just such extreme conditions to awaken the consciousness of their students.

Extreme conditions can be divided into three levels of extremeness: “moderate”, “intensified” and “extreme”. The moderate level of “extreme” conditions is the everyday level of everyday events. The enhanced level is associated with events that can significantly affect normal life. The ultimate level is events on the verge of life and death.

Extreme conditions at a moderate level, or “how to overcome laziness?”

By moderate extremity here I mean the conditions that are required for a person to maintain his psychological and physical form at the proper level. We all know that without muscles they become frail and even atrophy, a person becomes weak and decrepit. The same is true for our mental data. If we don’t learn anything, don’t train our own intellect in work, it becomes lazy and weakened. I think there is no need to say how dementia manifests itself. To avoid moderate levels of “extreme” conditions is to take the path of physical and mental degradation.

If laziness is such an “instinct for conserving energy,” then this instinct in a person is too developed. We are not animals limited by instincts, and must be able to understand ourselves on a more subtle level - in the spheres of intellect and reason. Many people are afraid of life, afraid of growing up, afraid of having to make efforts. To overcome laziness, it is worth remembering its consequences, and what learning, work, solving everyday problems, reading books, and overcoming stultifying passivity in all possible ways can provide. A moderate level of extreme conditions is necessary for a normal life.

Extreme conditions at an enhanced level, or “how steel is hardened”

If moderate “extreme” keeps us on our toes and allows us to move through life with moderate steps, an increased level of extreme conditions helps to unlock potential that a person is not even aware of. We overcome “negative” consequences of a moderate level with ease, and without noticing it we gradually become stronger.

The consequences of working at an enhanced level are more serious, and can turn out to be both a great benefit and a big problem with the transition to the next “ultimate” level of extremeness. An enhanced level often manifests itself when a person dramatically changes the conditions of his own life: work, place of residence, social circle, etc. This level is especially noticeable if changes are not for the better - then a person feels the loss of familiar supports and fear of the unknown. Many people were thrown into increased levels of extreme conditions during the recent economic crisis.

Staying at this level, a person changes “before our eyes”: he can become stronger, more flexible, work hard, overcome ossified conservatism, but he can also quickly bring himself to the “ultimate” level and find himself in life-threatening conditions. However, most often the “risk” is still justified, and having gone through conditions of increased extremeness, a person becomes different, living conditions gradually return to moderate, and everyday life changes for the better.

Few brave people are capable of deliberately “placing” themselves in extreme conditions. Most often, these are people who have already found themselves in unusually difficult situations by force, and with their guts have understood the benefits of this kind of hardening of their own psyche. Leaving your usual comfort zone strengthens you and allows you to look at your usual life from the outside with a more sober look. .

At an increased level of extreme conditions during work, the consciousness can switch to concentration mode. At this time, the work is done spontaneously, as if by itself, and the consciousness accepts the entire volume of incoming impressions here and now in order to respond to the “event” in the most effective way. At this time, a person feels grace, and the work is done spontaneously in the best possible way. You may have heard about doctors who worked tirelessly for days on end during the plague epidemic.

As for various kinds of “extreme athletes”, paratroopers, conquerors of the North Pole, rock climbers who, risking their lives for no apparent reason, climb over the abyss, in this case, here we can talk about a type of drug addiction, when a person exposes himself to danger in order to survive the desired acute Feel. Perhaps there are exceptions among these people, if a person approaches the matter. For purely health purposes, yoga, qigong, swimming pool, etc. are much more suitable.

Extreme conditions at the limit

At this level you can have a deep awakening, or you can die. Therefore, I would advise you to refrain from any experiments here. In the most life-threatening situations, perception can intensify so much that the effect of time dilation appears (as in “The Matrix”), and the person remains in a concentrated “now”. The physical condition also changes greatly, and the person feels an unprecedented surge of strength.

However, this does not happen to everyone, and most often the person simply loses consciousness. The ultimate level of extreme conditions can reveal things beyond words, but can also take lives. Former soldiers sometimes talk about the war as the best time in their lives, because then they “really lived.” But more often than not, such extremes cripple people’s fate.

I read somewhere that most centenarians have faced situations on the brink of life and death in their lives, which awakened additional vital resources in them. However, such tears are completely unnecessary and can be destructive. A healthy personality is enough to lead a healthy lifestyle. Buddha himself preached the middle, “easy” path, on which we are also able to come to the truth.

In this article I would like to emphasize that we should under no circumstances risk our lives for the sake of “experiences”, or even for experiments with our own psyche in order to discover new resources of consciousness. An event of the ultimate level of extreme conditions (near death) may be the last in life. We are unable to predict the impact of extreme “extreme”. But here I want to emphasize the importance of moderate levels of “extreme” conditions. At a moderate level, I put “extreme” in quotes, because... there it has the limitations of a “local maximum”, and does not go to extremes. We shouldn’t be afraid of life, but we shouldn’t rush into the fire for the egocentric goal of “becoming cooler.” We should not feel sorry for ourselves, exalting childhood grievances and fears to a universal scale. Wisdom is the awareness of individual moderation. Everything is good in moderation.

Now let's look at the keyword in the course title - security. Turning to various dictionaries will help us understand what state security, economic security, firm security, industrial safety, etc. mean. Dictionaries do not explain what “personal security” is. In the literature on general environmental security issues, the following definition of security is found.

Safety- this is a state of a person that ensures the impossibility of causing harm to him, both by others and by himself, thanks to the existing knowledge, skills and abilities on how to do this. Safety is an important goal in human life. The safety of its activities is a means of ensuring a comfortable life. We should agree with the last two statements, but the definition of security has a number of vulnerabilities.

First, it is unlikely that security can be attributed only to the state of a person, excluding the connection with the external environment, the state of which also affects human security.

Second– danger to a person comes not only from other people, but also from natural factors.

Third– it is controversial to say that safety is achieved only through a person having the appropriate knowledge, skills and abilities. The human condition manifests itself only in action, and action is always directed towards other objects. Action is not always determined by knowledge, skills and abilities, sometimes by habit or intuition, sometimes simply by repeating the actions of other people. The range of motives used by a person to ensure safety is much wider than indicated in the definition. Therefore, let us approach the definition of the concept of “personal security” using a systematic approach.

When defining this concept, we will use the terminology recommended by the USSR Academy of Sciences for control theory. (Control theory. Terminology. USSR Academy of Sciences. Institute of Control Problems. M.: “Nauka”, 1988) The necessary concepts include the following.

An object is a part of the world identified according to certain rules, which is the subject of knowledge and practical activity.

External environment - objects that do not belong to the object under consideration, but influence it.

Impact is the influence of one object on another, causing in the latter a change in its properties and (or) state.

A property of an object is how the object in question is similar to or different from other objects being compared.

Object state is the state of processes in the object.

The impact of disturbance is an external influence on an object, which, as a rule, makes it difficult to achieve the goal of the action.

Safety is a property of an object, which consists in the ability to prevent such changes in its state and properties, as well as not to cause changes in the states and properties of other objects associated with it, which would be dangerous for people and (or) the environment.

Thus, from the standpoint of a systems approach, each person is an object that has connections with other objects that are external to him. It interacts with these objects using actions that can be:

The influences of direct communication coming from a person to external objects and changing their state;

Feedback influences coming from external objects to a person and changing his state.

It is especially important to understand that the impact of feedback will depend on the state of the external object, caused by previous direct impacts of disturbance from other objects, which can change their state and the parameters of feedback impacts from a given object to a person.

Regardless of whether a person feels or is aware of these connections, they objectively exist. Their character may not pose a threat to a person when the state of an external object changes within a certain range. However, outside the permissible range, changes in these parameters can lead to the emergence and implementation of a threat to human life, health and property.

This is the most important idea of ​​security - no matter who we interact with, even at a non-contact level, indirectly, without sending signals of aggression, without violating technical safety rules, discipline or internal order, etc., the effects of feedback to us will always be “modulated” "disturbing effects on the interacting object of other objects beyond our influence. Attempts to expand one’s own influence or limit the influence of other objects on interacting ones always have limitations (due to opposition or limited resources), especially if we take into account the conjunctive nature of our world. From this idea follows the role of information as a tool for imparting such a character to direct and feedback connections between objects of the immediate and immediate environment, in which the influence of one object on another does not cause a dangerous change in its properties and (or) state in the latter.

Taking into account the above, we will define personal security in this way. Personal security is a relationship between a person and objects of the external environment in which unplanned (unexpected) changes in their condition do not lead to the loss of life, health or property.

With various forms of relationships with environmental objects, the parameters of the impacts of direct and feedback connections always have a certain range of values. However, as a result of deviation of the impact of direct communication at the input of an environmental object from the expected norm or due to the disturbing influence of another object (person) on this object, the feedback impact parameters may exceed the values ​​corresponding to the personal adaptation threshold or have forms that are unsafe for humans, those. create extreme living conditions for people.

Extreme conditions are those conditions in which there is a threat to a person’s life, his health or property from external objects due to an unplanned (unexpected) change in their condition, leading to the appearance and action of maladaptive factors.

Combining all the definitions, we can say that an emergency is a situation of compromised security.

In accordance with the classification of emergency situations, extreme conditions can be classified as follows:

1. In natural emergencies:

Extreme conditions of autonomous existence in nature;

Extreme conditions of natural disasters;

2. In emergency situations of a man-made nature:

Extreme conditions of influence of the results of human activity;

Extreme conditions of accidents and disasters;

3. In emergency situations of social origin:

Extreme conditions of everyday, professional, social conflicts;

Extreme conditions of criminal situations.

3. In environmental emergencies:

Extreme environmental conditions at home and at work;

Extreme environmental conditions of the living environment.

In accordance with this, it is necessary to highlight the goals of personal security, the achievement of which should be ensured by society:

Creation of normal social conditions for human life (!);

Minimizing criminal danger;

Preventing emergency situations and ensuring preparedness for actions in case of accidents and disasters, natural disasters and other natural disasters;

Ensuring ecological cleanliness of the environment;

Ensuring the preservation of health;

Ensuring the preservation of people’s working capacity, etc.

Selection of an adapted social environment and scale, level of social
priorities (I give this without comment, but they exist);

Choosing role behavior that minimizes the possibility of involvement in criminal situations and the damage from unintentionally getting into them;

Avoidance of actions to create and get into accidents and disasters, readiness to act in the event of extreme situations;

Behavior that excludes domestic and industrial injuries;

Taking into account and reducing factors that worsen the environmental situation;

A lifestyle aimed at maintaining health and performance, etc.

To achieve these goals, each person needs to solve three tasks:

1. Hazard identification, that is, recognizing danger by its signs ,
determination of its nature, direction of action and degree of impact.

2. Protection (evasion) from danger, that is, taking measures to minimize damage by implementing measures adequate to the degree of danger, depending on the phase when the danger was identified.

3. Elimination of negative consequences and exposure to hazardous factors.