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+---- Thread: Truly being alone (/showthread.php?tid=7790)
Truly being alone - Scythe13 - 20 August 2015
I'm loving the programme Alone, that I spoke about previously.
Granted there is a lot of people living alone, doing not much, and hunkering down for the rain to pass. Lots of snivelling and crying. So while watching it, it does make you laugh a little. But the truth is…being 100% alone is HARD!!! Not just being alone, but having to survive alone.
Everyone says that they could do it. They talk about how hard it would be to survive, but the loneliness wouldn't effect them.
To this I say…there is a 1% chance you're right. But for 99% of people, being alone is HARD WORK!!!
Imagine being unable to speak to another person, being unable to ask for help, advice, or anything. But also being unable to have social security.
Human contact has been shown to produce happy hormones in our bodies. Without this human to human interaction, our bodies can start to shutdown certain emotions. This is one of the reasons that so many lone survivors have befriended animals as companions. Whether it's domesticating cats or dogs to be semi-house trained.
For anyone whose going to say that they can cope being 100% alone for any length of time, I would happily call them out on that and see how they cope on a 3-5 day solo camping trip in an unknown area, with minimal gear.
If you've never done totally solo camping, then you would have no idea how the mind can play tricks with you. When I'm ratting in the pitch black, my mind goes off on one and I imagine 5 foot high giant rats scurrying around trying to kill me! Seriously, your mind is made to create fear, because it is that fear that helped us create houses and the alike. Our fear of safety caused us to create front doors to our caves. Then walls, and the alike. The mind is your most powerful survival item, but it is also the one that will wreak the greatest havoc on you.
Watch alone, consider that these people are likely more experienced than the majority of us, and even they are breaking down and crying.
Opting to not interact with people is fine, because you can always reverse that decision. But having that decision taken away from you…that's when things get really bad.
Watch Alone, and if you think it's easy, try solo camping for a weekend in bad weather. For legal reasons, I recommend you do not try this, as it could well go wrong and you end up dying because there is nobody out there to hear you fall into that gorge, or to hear you freeze to death. So for legal reasons I highly recommend you do not try solo camping…even though I love it (one of the reasons I love it is because of the fear it produces).
RE: Truly being alone - Straight Shooter - 20 August 2015
BigPaul springs to mind here.....over the past years He never deviates his attitude ......not once........that sort of determined attitude i think i may well lack.....i mean ....who will listen to my jokes and roll their eyes back after hearing them for years over and over as oh does......the self is one thing but without the one you love ...i do wonder about the purpose .....i think BP will be okay though..........selfish bastard !!!! joke BP ole butty ole pal
RE: Truly being alone - Midnitemo - 21 August 2015
I love solitude, not enough of it in my life , have alway's looked for solo job's , sometimes I can't wait to go to work to be on my own , was attached a lot of my time in the mob which meant no close friends around , international truck driver away for weeks on end , I make excuses to my bike club so I can travel alone , my current job is 12 hour shifts working alone in a remote location.....trust me I love alone lol
RE: Truly being alone - bigpaul - 21 August 2015
many people would not be able to function on their own, humans seem to have this "herding" instinct and they NEED other people around them, my SIL is such a person-when she is out she HAS to have lengthy conversations with complete strangers, depends how you are brought up I think, as an only child and later on in adult life I have spent long periods of time on my own. 3-5 days Scythe??that's nothing............I was self employed for many years and worked alone, I thrive on it.
RE: Truly being alone - Devonian - 21 August 2015
I agree with everything above, in that the vast majority of people simply wouldn't/can't cope on their own, but there are also those of us for whom it is nothing unusual.
In fact I'd find daytime in the centre of a city surrounded by 1,000's of people far more scary than a few days or weeks alone on the moors. Can't say I've ever worried about being attacked by 5' killer rats in the middle of nowhere, but I do get concerned about being mugged or lost in a strange city full of people I don't know or trust.
I've not seen this 'alone' programme, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
RE: Truly being alone - bigpaul - 21 August 2015
I wish there was a "like" button, I am in full agreement with what Devonian says, being surrounded by strangers worries me a damn sight more than being alone, being alone is heaven compared to having to deal with other people.
RE: Truly being alone - Mortblanc - 22 August 2015
Want to know who won?
RE: Truly being alone - Scythe13 - 22 August 2015
Already do mate. Alan.
Urm…I mean….SPOILER ALERT!!!
RE: Truly being alone - Mortblanc - 23 August 2015
Many of the American bushcrafting sites have gone into full analysis mode on this series, dissecting the list of possible gear selections, list of prohibited gear, family backgrounds, age comparisons, occupational background, hunting background psychological outlook and all.
Almost all the contestants were gathered from the ranks of Y-tube/internet forum survivalists and non-professional survival instructors (scouting leaders/SRE volunteers)
The only consistent thing they all agreed on was that the ones that were all computer talk tapped out first, and among those first tap outs were the ones that taught/promoted going the most primitive.
One of the first men to tap out was a moderator on the Bushcraft USA forum. He did not make it a week.
And yes, we have bears covering much of the US and specifically concentrated in our wilderness areas. It is very difficult to find a true wilderness area in the Eastern US that does not have those wooly black beasts who raid your coolers, steal your food and occasionally eat a backpacker.
To me, that means that the participants that were the most upset by the presence of the bears had never really done much wilderness camping, in spite of their positions as promoters and teachers of survival skills.
If they had been in the woods much they would have been more confident in dealing with them rather than their meek little "Hey bear" whimpers that did nothing but tell the predators where they were located and did nothing to establish their own dominance and territorial ownership.
Chances are that these participants had never camped without a Caravan being present.
http://www.history.com/shows/alone/articles/full-gear-list-and-prohibited-items
RE: Truly being alone - Scythe13 - 23 August 2015
Very little analysis on here though…which is a shame.