To be disturbed by the "Prepping" board.

[TheoriginalLEM]

Is this a thing now?

Is there really a need to be stockpiling food, medicines and creating a bolt hole?

Am i missing something? Seriously (this is not a light-hearted thread), i suffer from anxiety and this is really disturbing me.

Hopefully people have just been watching too much walking dead.

"This is not a normal thought process that you are displaying."

Thanks for your concern. I would agree that the top end of extreme preppers, the underground bunker and thousands of rounds of ammo are paranoid and not displaying a normal thought process, but I feel that my approach - To stock up in preparation in case there's a short term emergency like being cut off for a few days, or needing to leave the house in a hurry for a bit, is reasonable, rational thinking. It's plausible enough to justify my prepping, and having a go bag ready just in case I need it. Hopefully I won't need it, in a sense I'm hoping that preparing a go bag was ultimately a waste of time, I'd prefer never to need to utilize it. But in the event I do, I'm going to be very glad its there. It's like the fire alarms we have at work. They pay money to keep the system maintained, they spend time testing the alarms every week, but we've never needed them so some people might call it paranoia. However the view is that while they may ultimately prove unnecessary, the thing they are there to protect against - a fire in the workplace - is plausible enough to justify the continued expense. In fact it's considered so important that we have a legal obligation to have those systems

Where's it snowing?

When we were stranded on the motorway for 9 hours (and some people behind us were stuck for 11) not a single thing was handed out. We saw no police, no emergency services, in fact didn't know what was going on until I got a 3G signal 5 hours in and discovered thanks to my MN mates that we were stuck because a bloke was threatening to throw himself off a bridge a mile or so further up the road

Lem It's rather unfair to assume it's "haves and havenots". I am a single mum on benefits these days - and it seems like only common fucking sense to have a bit of extra food in my cupboards just in case the DWP doesn't come good this tuesday.

It is IMO location dependent, of course I don't have months/years of food. What I do have is fishing tackle and the ability to fish and hunt.

We all have differing skills. I read the underground map like a tourist and might dare take the tube from charing cross to leicester sq!

Don't - your continued reference to New Orleans in no way backs up your paranoia.

I'm sorry but it doesn't. You can give no examples to back up your fears of widespread starvation in the UK where you'd have to choose to eat and hide your stores from other people who will be starving.

I told you about my involvement in public service/government/armed forces planning in even the most unlikely of scenarios.

You are not a 'sensible' prepper planning for a snow- fall. I think you're paranoid. And I don't mean that in a dismissive way, I mean I am worried about you if you imagine scenarios which are completely unrealistic and have no evidence base and plan your life accordingly.

And I'm not being dismissive or accusatory. We just won't get anywhere on this thread going round in circles. You have your view, I have mine. We might both be talking bollocks .

"I'd be hopeless in an apocalypse or zombie situation,"

So would all of us Pipes. That's why we don't tend to bother prepping for that.

"I had no idea about this prepping thing."

There seems to be an effort to paint it as some kind of eccentric "fortify a bunker and wait for the end of the world" thing but it's really not. It's just considering that things might not always go to plan, working out what the most likely situations relevant to your specific situation are, and planning accordingly. For example if you live out in the country somewhere that often gets cut off due to bad weather, you'll probably keep a bit more food and water stocked at home than someone who lives in a city centre. A very small number of preppers take it to the extreme and prepare for all kinds of apocalyptic scenarios but I don't know why people are trying to say that this is what all preppers are like when it really isn't.

Poor bloke.

I think like a PP said it depends where you are stuck/why you are stuck. In my mum's case she happened to be lucky enough to get stranded close to those motorway cafe/van things that pull into lay bys and she was also close to a few farms, with tractors.

Plus we're northern. Us northern folk pull together in times of need. In fact it's pretty much what we base our identities on

and we have a lot of butty vans on our roads

"I am a single mum on benefits these days - and it seems like only common fucking sense to have a bit of extra food in my cupboards just in case the DWP doesn't come good this tuesday"

That's basically what prepping is, you're taking your specific circumstances, figuring out what could go wrong, and taking action to mitigate against that. So if the DWP doesn't come good this Tuesday, it's not like you are going to panic about what to put on the table that night, you have prepared in case of something going wrong. The chances are the money does come through and you won't need that extra food, but that's no loss. You'll eventually use that food anyway and buy in more to replace it.

"Don't - your continued reference to New Orleans in no way backs up your paranoia.

I'm sorry but it doesn't. You can give no examples to back up your fears of widespread starvation in the UK where you'd have to choose to eat and hide your stores from other people who will be starving."

Go and watch the documentaries, we see people dying and lying dead on the streets because they didn't have water. I never said there would be "widespread" starvation in the UK, so I don't know where you are getting that from. But I think it's possible there will be small short term instances of a particular community or a particular group of people not having access to outside sources of food and water for a short period of time. That's definitely plausible and is backed up.

"I mean I am worried about you if you imagine scenarios which are completely unrealistic and have no evidence base and plan your life accordingly."

I agree, if I was planning life based on unrealistic scenarios which have no evidence base that would be worrying, fortunately I'm not. Thanks for your worrying and concern but it's really not needed, all you're doing is stressing yourself. As you say we both do have our beliefs and probably won't get anywhere continuing to go round in circles.

Swisscheese that is quite quite different, as well you know.

I'm not convinced that anyone in New Orleans died of starvation or dehydration, plus this is the UK, not the US, we are much smaller and therefore would be able to deploy help much quicker.

Like I've already posted, locals, at least around here do help flood victims with food and water, blankets and anything else they can fit on their kid's rubber dinghy.

Joe Bloggs from down the street will happily rescue Mr and Mrs Elderly and their 7 cats from their roof in his 'borrowed' kayak and pull them to the local church.

i have 4 kayaks in my garden.

I can paddle to the Elysian fields

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this, but there was a report on msn news a few weeks ago quoting a politician as saying that people would do well to have 2 weeks of food and water and cash available, as it was conceivable that the potential crash in China (at the time) could have the effect of shutting banks and stopping food lorries get to supermarkets, etc.

Before that, I had only heard conspiracy theorists talk about it.

(I went off and bought a lot of cans of cannelloni and dh has now eaten the entire stash as midnight snacks...we are going to be eating grass stew, evidently) (dh needed to put a bit of weight on though so all good)

Don't let anyone have the other 3 Brenda.

Study of the New Orleans dead www.nola.com/hurricane/index.ssf/2009/08/answers_are_scarce_in_study_of.html not nice reading.

As the prepers have their own board why are they on this thread? Surely their justification for wanting it, was to avoid spamming other people's discussions.

Umm, seeing as 'thick, stupid, paranoid, mental health problems' are being gaily flung about, I think it's only fair that we get to post on here to point out that actually most of us are pretty rational, and not planning an End of Times Zombie Apocalypse bunker.

1,400 died, that's a lot, so sad, I had no idea it was so many.

The reason help was slow to arrive in New Orleans was because it was predominately the poor black community that was adversely effected. Also in the US disaster liaison between State and National support was poorly co-ordonated.

Prepping for a few days snow/benefits stalled = sensible, not really what I think of when I think of prepping.

Prepping for unforeseen doom, starvation and god only knows what else and pre thinking your steadfast desire not to help your neighbours for fear of being raided by who?! = a worrying outlook on life and perhaps you ought to talk your fears over with someone professional.

Stratter the thing is you have a special board now, you do not need to come on here spreading your own anxiety to others. It is interesting to note that the most posts on any thread over there has 58 replies, whilst on this one the discussion is well over 300.

I suspect that for a lot of prepers key the pleasure is feeling terribly smug that 'they are ready' whilst us 'normal' folk are not. Therefore you enjoy engaging with us to tell us we are all doomed.

I haven't RTFT but had no idea prepping was such a big "thing" that it warranted an entire board. Have they been watching repeats of Survivors?

We always have very well-stocked cupboards (with the exception of bottled water/long-life milk) and joke that we could withstand a siege although it might mean eating lots of baked beans and chopped tomatoes out of the tin. We are not prone to any flooding or extreme weather, nor are we in a remote location.

An emergency bag for the car might not be a bad idea, however.

For example:

Having a bag in your car with basic first aid supplies, an extra phone battery, blankets and something hot to drink if you're going to be driving in bad weather, normal behaviour. Adding weapons, weeks worth of food and water, radios etc to that bag in your car - not normal. Seek help.

Ditto in the house, keeping a few days extra food and water and basic medical supplies = normal, sensible. Adding weapons, camping equipment, creating a secure room for your hoard and running though imaginary situations where you'll have to fight your NDN for your last tin of beans = not normal - seek help.

LEM How is it "completely different"? I am preparing for a scenario which is unlikely to occur (DWP will probably stick money in my account... banking issue more likely than DWP one), however should it do so then my family will eat. I too suffer anxiety - to appease my anxiety it makes sense to me to have food in, candles and all the other stuff us beardy-weirdy prepper types have. Don't have a bunker/12-bore.

Surely as someone who has anxiety issues you know via your CBT learnings that you prep to avoid such scenarios playing out, or if you feel that the is no likelihood of any of these scenarios playing out you use mindful techniques to allay your fears.

Silver so posters who post on the Preppers topic, should be banned from posting on an AIBU thread about prepping? Hmmmm. That sounds fair.

I suspect that for a lot of prepers key the pleasure is feeling terribly smug that 'they are ready' whilst us 'normal' folk are not. Therefore you enjoy engaging with us to tell us we are all doomed.

Well I have replied on this one and never been into the preppers bit.

I don't consider myself a prepper. Although I do have stocks of things, due to having been snowed in a few times. I also have an axe, for wood for the wood burner. Some people would label me a prepper, but it's a wide range of people all with different aims.

I don't feel smug that I am ready for being snowed in. Chances are most people here won't get snowed in...ever.

Aibu has far more traffic. That's why there are more responses. Most people on this thread have specific reasons that aren't anything to do with zombies. Try aren't spreading fear.

Why would me having some food in because i have been snowed in, make anyone else more anxious?