I've written a lesson plan or two and at least one deals with this subject in particular. I'm going to bring out some bullet points. The intent is to make this a discussion on the subject with input from those who wish to contribute. I won't be doing a cut and paste type of deal and no, I don't make a habit of sharing complete lesson plans. Many are available through Nevada POST though, as I've had them certified there and that makes them accessible to LEO's.

My take on it...

Depending on the type of and intensity of the stress you are experiencing, your body will react in a number of ways or none at all. Just depends on you and the comfort zone you operate in.

Stress is, after all, the realization that we cannot meet the physical and emotional demands placed on us by a combat environment.

What happens?
1) Fight or flight response
2) Stress hormone boost
3) Increase pulse rate
4) Digestive shutdown
5) Loss of fine motor skills
6) Perceptual narrowing
7) Fragmented memory or loss of time cognizance

Ok.... now your turn guys. Pick one of these and in your post, expand the topic with what you think happens for that particular number. This is physiological reactions, not psychological.

I'm hoping you guys will find this interesting enough to participate.

this is a good read, its copyrighted and therefore i will just post a link:

www.lwcbooks.com/artic...atomy.html

Cassius

Respectfully, Cassius, this is a group discussion thread. Cutting and pasting (or linking) is exactly what I didn't want to happen. Absorb the knowledge and bring it back here for the rest of the guys. Please, follow the idea of this thread. You're certainly welcome to start another but we're talking basic here, not the true anatomy (yet) of anxiety or fear.

Jody,

Here are my thoughts on Stress Hormone Boost:

Although often categorized as Fight-or-Flight, I consider this to be the reflex response, which is often accompanied by a surge in epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenaline).

Epinephrine is released from the adrenal glands, which are located on the supra-anterior portion of both kidneys and plays an important role in preparing the body for Fight-or-Flight.

The effects of adrenalin are:

Cardiovascular - Action of heart increased.
Nervous system - Tunnel vision (pupils dilate to allow more light to enter), tachipsychia, (misperception of the slower or faster passage of time), and auditory exclusion.
Musculo-skeletal system - Force of muscular contraction improves, onset of muscular fatigue delayed.
Metabolic rate increased, (release of glucose into the bloodstream, which generates extra energy).

The effects of noradrenalin are similar to adrenalin and include:

Cardiovascular - Increased blood flow through the coronary arteries and slowing of heart rate, constriction of small blood vessels leading to increase in blood pressure,(shunting).
Respiratory - Increase in rate and depth of breathing, (dilation of the bronchial passages permitting higher absorption of oxygen).
Gastro-intestinal - Relaxation of the smooth muscle in the intestinal walls, (blood supply to the bladder and intestines reduced, their muscular walls relax, the sphincters contract, AKA PUCKER FACTOR.

It should be interesting to note, that although these effects may be lessened by intensive training, their advent is independent of personal will.

Fear is an automatic physical reaction to a perceived threat that results in predictable physical, emotional, perceptual and cognitive changes due to states of high physical arousal.

Hope that helps.

Chase

In regards to loss of time, or distortion of time, this appears to be a way the mind functions in order to process everything that is happening in a speed your concious mind can understand. The percieved slow motion or loss of time is not real, of course, but the purpose from what I have studied and experianced is that it allows you to make decisions or movements that relate to what is unfolding in realtime speed. I do not know the fancy biological terms, but there it is.

Cassius

Pretty good, Cassius. Your own thoughts, not borrowed from someone else's website or article. Anyone can quote Massad Ayoob or the other guys. Heck, a lot of my research is based on Siddle's findings.

Andy is actually the guy who broke all this stuff down for me the best.

When we function in a state of hyper-vigilance, we process information much faster. Kind of like shutting down all your background programs so your computer plays a game or a movie better, or just boots faster.

It isn't uncommon at all to have severely fragmented memory loss. Yes, everything is still there, but you may not remember it. One thing that I try to ingrain in police officers that I train... never submit to an interview of a critical incident until you've had a chance to seriously calm down. Yeah, you might be required to give a statement but if you come up with something out of sequence in your initial statement it could seriously bugger you later at a hearing or trial.

It takes a very well trained interviewer to bring back all the details. Multiple techniques can be used but the cognitive technique moving forwards and backwards and focusing on each individual sense can bring out all sorts of details that someone may not have even realized that they remembered.

Jody,

As I'm sure you're well aware, Massad Ayoob is one of the leading authorities on Lethal Force confrontations...I'm under the impression you're looking for bullet points for a lesson plan? Why not include them in your presentation?

This is a portion of the text you posted, published elsewhere.

As I believe I pointed out in my initial posting, I have authored several lesson plans on this subject already. I am not looking for anything other than a group discussion for the betterment of our membership. Several members indicated that they liked the previous thread we were in and I thought that this would be a good way to carry-on.

I'm not looking for bullet comments. While I respect Massad Ayoob's research, I give him no more credibility on deadly encounters than I do many leading experts and several others who are published only in the annals of legend; IE, the fellow Cassius and I discussed previously.

Don't worry though. If I was quoting Ayoob or someone else, I'd make sure to footnote the credits for his work.