Could you handle living in a rougher, tougher society?

[fuckingcoldshowers]

Thinking about this as it's freezing where I am, and thanking my lucky stars we can stick the heating on.

I would be 100% shit in a tougher world. Anything from the grinding hardship of WW2 to dystopias like The Walking Dead. I'd be so shit I mean, actually I wouldn't survive in the first place but if the universe was having a laugh and I did make it past the initial event, I'd be rubbish. I mean, obviously it would be very scary and devastating, but the sheer MISERY of it all would sap my motivation to survive, I reckon.

I can't think straight when I'm really hungry. Also, hanger would lead to some sort of stupid spat with the wrong person.

I'm also terrible without decent sleep. After enough sleep deprivation I'd give up.

Finally - even if fed and sleeping I cannot deal with no nice, clean shower or bathing facilities. I'd be SO CRANKY feeling grubby and dishevelled all the time, traipsing around trying to survive.

Could you adapt well and cope cheerfully without these basics after the apocalypse?

Possibly, but I'd move myself to a somewhat warmer place but not sweltering. I can fish, make a fire.

Years ago, there was a show in the US on PBS, which reenacted the colonial period, approx 1600s settlers in New England.

Oprah and Gayle did a short stint on the show, where everyone lived a typical day from that period. The PBS show ran for a few months, but I think Oprah and Gayle were there a few days.

I remember Oprah feeling shocked, and she said something like “now I know why it took so long for white women to get the vote. They had no time to organize, and were too exhausted”. She mentioned she’d never thought of there point of view before.

It looked grim. I’d never survive, I’ve got autoimmune diseases and I’d be in agony without my meds.

www.oprah.com/relationships/oprah-goes-colonial/all

Our brains are made to adapt. If you're thrown into a survival-mode or a very uncomfortable situation, for the first 2-3 days you will feel despair, like you cannot survive for much longer. Then you will start adapting. Every little thing you've managed to do to survive will give you so much fulfillment that the feeling of it, and the adrenaline, will keep you going. And then in about a week, you will notice things do not feel so bad anymore, even if you're still very far from having adapted to it.

I've been there. It is an amazing process. I am glad I'm back to "my normal", but it has given me a very valuable insight. Sometimes I miss the feeling of achievement, the "yes, this is what I was meant to do in life" when I found food, water, or got myself out of being lost in the wilderness.

I'm glad someone asked this because I was thinking about it recently. I could do most of the things listed.
It's so cold in my house I can see my breath in the air, I am more isolated, geographicaly and socially than anyone else i have encountered and wouldn't crumble without companionship or a 'D'H. I'm fairly happy to eat the same boring meal of vegetables every day and have almost nothing in a material sense so wouldn't miss anything in particular.

What's strange is that I make an effort to look put together so no one would ever know my true circumstances.
Also none of the above is by choice, I just genuinely have next to nothing. When I was with my ex partner I had an easy life and didn't have to work btw, the tables have just turned massively in my life

Well you'd have to cope, wouldn't you? The only alternative would be to top yourself. Your best bet would be to make friends with Ruth Goodman and Bear Grylls. Ruth knows how people lived before electricity and Bear knows what to eat, how to get clean water etc.

After two days without washing my hair looks like I've dunked it in chip fat.

Imagine after six months of not washing, living in some godforsaken cave somewhere or something

Ugh God no

My will to survive would come from trying to protect my children and grandchild.

Actually that's pretty much all I'm surviving for now.

If I didn't have them.... Oh blimey, and my cats 🙄 ...

Nah. I wouldn't be living through this current shit let alone some sort of apocalypse.
I'd happily run a bubble bath with some razor blades.

Mine too. But a few weeks in East Africa with no water to waste and I just got used to it. Weirdly the combination of being a bit yuk and the red dust, I thought, "THAT'S why the local people do their hair the way they do, with the red paste". Looks good, keeps the sun off, no need to wash. And also weirdly, we didn't smell as bad as you'd think.

It is interesting when you get a case of the fuck-its. You just adapt.

Also the plot of every Hallmark film

I think I would.im tiny - 5ft and 7stone but fierce! As Shakespeare said....
I'd want a gun though - a super sonic gun like Linda Hamilton in The Terminator

I always say that in the apocalypse i want Bear Grylls and Caroline Girvan on my side, but my son's cubs leader will be a start

Sometimes I wonder how my sons would survive in a 'Gone' situation where all the grownups disappear. Or 'the Enemy' where they all turn into zombies! In both scenarios the older kids are really good at looking after the younger ones but who knows.

I would be ok initially - we never put the heating on, I can cook over an open fire, I own a Cobb oven and a Kelly Kettle, we have lots of blankets, jumpers, hot water bottles etc and other camping gear.
I am pretty knowledgeable about first aid, natural remedies, water purification, infection prevention and suchlike.
We have enough food to keep us going for maybe a month (one meal a day and weird combos, but would have calories) and know how to "grey man" and stealth cook to stop other people knowing we had food when they didn't.
I think I could also be utterly ruthless, if it came down to it, I would kill someone trying to take what my family needed to survive.
Having said all that, long term, I would be fucked! I'm old and ill and wouldn't be much use other than as an information source. I would die quite soon without access to my medication anyway.
I would pass on as much as I could to help my loved ones though.
During a "collapse" I would just concentrate on keeping my family safe, and I think we'd be ok. The aftermath and " rebuilding " wouldn't be my problem.

Yeah I'd be grand, I'm a good shot and resilient and haul up somewhere remote.

I think I'd miss a pint the most

The human spirit is strong and I'm sure many of you will be surprised at what you'd do when your basic instinct to survive kicks in. It'll be shit and depressing but most people will fight to survive.

This.

You would adapt. You would have to. As evidenced by the utter suffering endured by so many currently.

It's not comparable to war or apocalypse obviously, but remember Covid? If any of us were told in advance of the restrictions we'd face then, we'd have said we couldn't do it. Many of us said that during Covid too, and did.

That sounds very tough 💐

I hope things improve for you.

I would hate it, absolutely despise it as I love my comforts like being warm, nice food and high quality toiletries and cosmetics.

But, that said, I am quite determined and have a strong survival instinct so I feel like I'd throw myself into it like Xena and become this amazon warrior to protect my family. I'd certainly complain about it though. A lot. My peri menopausal rage without my HRT would assist me greatly with fighting off attackers 😂

I still have serious doubts about how some people would cope with no electricity or water going by some of the comments I read on MN. Most people would rise to the challenge, but there are also some who won't.

I love that series! Also listen to Dr Eleanor Janega podcasts and books. She's brilliant.

Yeah, I remember them. Also, an outside loo - bloody freezing in winter.😳

I’ve got soft now - and whack on the central heating at the first signs of “chilly”. 😉

Thing is everyone would smell so we would stop noticing eventually 🤢.

😂

the thing which I would not be able to survive is the other people.

Have you ever noticed in all these films that people rob loot and steal adn attack everyone else. It becomes dog eat dog, and the one with the biggest gun survives.

We have a big garden, so I could probably grow food, we have a wood burning stove so we could keep warm and cook (and about 1 years supply of wood)
We have chickens, so we could eat. (need to borrow a cockerel from someone in the spring) and so on.

But those bastards coming round and stealing our wood and food. They would be the killer.

I'd be OK with all of it, I taught myself basic survival skills like starting a fire & can forage, grow & preserve food & raise livestock.

Not so great at the hunting part but I'll be OK if my OH survives.

He can't tell most plants & fungi apart so he can bring the rabbit or deer & I'll provide the side dishes.

I do like a nice bubble bath though, so I'd be surviving, but very sullen.

I always say when we’re watching programmes like this “my god these people have got such a will to live” 😂😂.

Like a pp it's only the people that would bother me

The breakdown of societal rules would freak me out more than the self sufficiency