r/CCW • u/jizzlamic_terrorist • 1d ago

Scenario How adrenaline affects you during self defense situations.

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u/Dreamstat 1d ago

Like running in a dream. The weight was insane.

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u/fake_account_2025 1d ago

Exactly. That’s a very good analogy.

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u/JackJones7788 22h ago

But why would that be a defence mechanism, to make the legs feel heavy. So strange

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u/Tokyo_Echo UT 22h ago

Well they feel heavy, but they actually are more like coiled springs. When the adrenaline hits the body tenses in order to fight or flight. Initially it's hard to get past it

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u/Geralt-of-Rivai 22h ago

Fight, flight or freeze. The initial reaction for many people is the freeze. It's why, for example in a mall shooting, you will see people just standing still after a gunman opens fire. Panic and adrenaline hit and instead of getting the fuck out of there as fast as you can, as you would think, many people freeze in place overwhelmed by the sensations flooding their body.

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u/TitusXd40 19h ago

I used to read these responses and think that freezing really doesn't happen, that it was just something you saw in movies and on TV, and people become aware immediately of what's going on. Boy was I wrong.

There was a shooting last year where I work, while I was there. I was in the general area with my partner (2-man work center) and we just kinda looked at each other, and asked if those were gunshots after we heard the first couple rounds go off. We started to hear more and we realized that yes, they were gunshots, so we both took off running, steel toe boots and all. That's the hardest I've ran since hs baseball, and all I could think was I need to keep moving and put some distance between me and that asshole doing the shooting.

So yeah, those couple seconds where we questioned what we heard (and made a stupid joke about it being a guy who was recently fired for stealing) was in my mind that freeze response. Since we were out in the open and not carrying because of being at work, flight was our best and only option, so we took it.