I have a question and I'm not sure where on here it goes on here. My wife will freak out over the smallest thing. Don't get me wrong. She is a wonderful woman and I am glad to be married to her. We live in south Mississippi and during Katrina she almost had a melt down. She is supportive on the whole prepping scene but I'm afraid that when "it" does go down I will have a major problem with her. What can I do now to help her during a time that I am sure to come?

Not so sure what your meaning of "it" is. If "it" is a short term weather related/ natural disaster type thing, then if you can take a long week-end come home and ( without her prior knowledge) announce we just had a disaster, power/phone/etc. is out. Then turn off all the utilities and pretend for the weekend. That gives her a taste of what could happen, and give you both a chance to work out the kinks in your plans. If your talking about long term situations (TEOTWAWKI) and she stresses out has anxiety/panic attacks or that kind of thing there are several kinds of plants like camomile you can use as a natural relaxant to help de-stress her if she's willing. Other than that talking about what you may expect to happen and how you plan to work together to deal with it might help her think and get mentally prepared for it.

I have found that lots of "what if" and practice of your plan goes a long way towards mental preparedness. You can calmly explain that the preparedness you do helps smooth the way through hardships and crisis. People who freak, generally do so because they aren't prepared, or confident. Though with some, there is no telling how they will actually react, in general, clear understanding and routine practice will help. They will react automatically if they drill enough. Be patient, explain your concerns and talk herthrough the fear.
Good luck!

A little pop psychology might possibly help. You could tell that you really need her to keep it together for just the amount of time it takes to get through the immediate crisis and she can fall apart later. Also, some 'simulated' crisis dry runs might take the edge off. Tell her long in advance that you will practice fire drill, power outage, food shortage, etc. Start small and work your way up. GL, M8

EDIT: Wow, HP, great minds.....LMAO

Continuously induce a meltdown until she gets use to it, know when to stop it, or it could end badly, every now and then I yell at the top of my lungs " someones trying to get in your house " my wife knows to drop what she's doing run and get her rifle and take up a good spot to defend herself and the KIDS from a home invader, may sound a bit crazy but it did give her allot more confidence in herself, she can now do this most of the time in about 30 sec from anywhere in the house, Patriot Nurse videos are good too, God bless Patriot Nurse.

Is the automatic post update not working anymore? There were no post here, after hitting submit there were three.

Lighthorse wrote:Is the automatic post update not working anymore? There were no post here, after hitting submit there were three.

Johnny disabled it, lighthorse. It was causing problems, he said. Good post! Gives me ideas...sneak some practice in on the wife, she won't go for it willingly(especially not in winter, even though we have electricity-free heating)

Ativan, stat! Then deal with it under calmer conditions.....

hk404me

Everybody above has their Finger on the Problem - Your Wife Doesn't feel capable, and is driven by Fear, till she is transfixed/Paralysed. All you need to do is to "Role Play" a few scenarios and variations, till she "Goes On Automatic".

First try Power Out Days.

Then Try No Water Days.

Then Fire Drills (And Fire FIGHTING),

Then Try some Defend against Someone at the Door/Outside.

Then Teach about safe positions/Lanes of Fire, etc.

Last, If you have Knowledge, Do some Inside the House Room Clearing, or get someone who does Know to teach you both.

Weapons training and emplacement is a good thing too. Teach her about how a nice Wood Staff, or Kitchen Knife, or Oven Cleaner Spray, or Shovel, or...(You get the Idea) is a good weapon in extremis. Try them out - she might Like a machete, or a Pole, or an Iron Pan... Put a Weapon in each room.

then Teach about Remote Meeting Places.

And so on...

You will Defend/Fight Just like you practice, so make it serious as you can without scaring her. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

Then there is the Fun of Adverse Conditions/Defensive Driving, and Code Words, Radio Protocol, and, and... and....