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There’s a moment where your brain switches from “fight for your life” to “I’m fucked, don’t bother trying to save me”. The I experienced when I nearly drowned

There’s a moment where your brain switches from “fight for your life” to “I’m fucked, don’t bother trying to save me”. The I experienced when I nearly drowned once. I was very calm and ready to go. You can see it in videos of how to spot a drowning person.

dpwm 8y ago
I am an anxious person. About a decade ago I was a passenger and at one point I was within about one second of almost certain contact with a vertical box section on a very slow moving vehicle. There was no way that my friend, and inexperienced driver, could brake in time. That one second was slow and I was unnervingly calm. Right at the last minute with probably less than 200ms to go, the driver very gently swerved and we must have avoided collision by less than two inches. Quarter inch if we include wing mirrors. My friend, the driver asked later why I didn't say anything. I explained that had I panicked, he would have panicked and we would probably both be dead.
- mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
  I was driving 60 the speed limit on a rainy day in southern Cali when a truck appeared out of nowhere, spinning into my path. I had a very brief ‘oh shit, this could be the end of me and my wife ‘ moment and then I calmly swerved to the left into oncoming lane that was empty at the time. The back of my car clipped the spinning vehicle at probably full speed perhaps slower If I slowed down (I can’t remember if I did) and we spun a complete rotation and a half to end up on the oppoite side of the road facing the opposite direction. My wife went into full panic mode while I was as calm as I’d ever been for reasons unknown to me. I realized later had I panicked and waited a second longer to take action, we’d likely both be dead now. I don’t know if t all happened too fast or if my mind decided to stay chill instead of panicking, but I’m glad i did what I did and that there were no cars in the other lane.

dpwm 8y ago

I am an anxious person. About a decade ago I was a passenger and at one point I was within about one second of almost certain contact with a vertical box section on a very slow moving vehicle. There was no way that my friend, and inexperienced driver, could brake in time. That one second was slow and I was unnervingly calm. Right at the last minute with probably less than 200ms to go, the driver very gently swerved and we must have avoided collision by less than two inches. Quarter inch if we include wing mirrors. My friend, the driver asked later why I didn't say anything. I explained that had I panicked, he would have panicked and we would probably both be dead.

mrhappyunhappy 8y ago
I was driving 60 the speed limit on a rainy day in southern Cali when a truck appeared out of nowhere, spinning into my path. I had a very brief ‘oh shit, this could be the end of me and my wife ‘ moment and then I calmly swerved to the left into oncoming lane that was empty at the time. The back of my car clipped the spinning vehicle at probably full speed perhaps slower If I slowed down (I can’t remember if I did) and we spun a complete rotation and a half to end up on the oppoite side of the road facing the opposite direction. My wife went into full panic mode while I was as calm as I’d ever been for reasons unknown to me. I realized later had I panicked and waited a second longer to take action, we’d likely both be dead now. I don’t know if t all happened too fast or if my mind decided to stay chill instead of panicking, but I’m glad i did what I did and that there were no cars in the other lane.