Debunking the Common Misconceptions and Myths on Prepping
Just like many things in this world, prepping is also surrounded by a lot of myths and misconceptions. Sadly, the mainstream media chooses to focus on the superficial things and does not really look at the actual need and importance of being prepared. Below are several of the top misconceptions on preparedness that you might encounter. Unfortunately, these are the ones that prevent people from becoming more prepared and self-sufficient.
Myth #1: Prepping is About Preparing for Doomsday
Despite everything that you might see on TV, prepping is not just about preparing for doomsday. Although the ones who build bunkers in preparation for a hypothetical steroid that can smash to the earth are often the ones that garner the attention of the media, in reality, preparedness is also about preparing for the small-scale events in your life that can make you feel that the world will come to an end if you are not prepared.
Some of the things that people usually prepare for include:
- Man-made accidents
- Medical emergencies
- Natural disasters
- Home invasions
- Criminal attacks
- Terrorism
- Job loss and economic problems
Myth #2: Preparedness Needs Large Expenses for Fancy Gear
To be prepared, there is no need for you to spend that much. In fact, people who prepare through training, take their time in studying the threats and prepare themselves for mentally and physically facing the dangers are the ones who always come out on top, not those who have the most gear at hand. The strong will to survive is the one essential aspect to survive any traumatic event. Remember that the secret for survival is knowledge, not the amount of gear that you have.
Myth #3: Preppers are Paranoid People Living their Lives in Fear
For one, fear is not really a bad thing, particularly if this is used in the correct context. All people have been born with the so-called fight or flight response. It is this very genetic gift that kept the human race safe since the beginning of time as this alerts the body to danger and pumps things such as adrenaline to the whole body so that it can quickly react during life-threatening experiences. Having said this, living in fear is not really a good thing but this is not really what preppers do as they do exactly the opposite.
Preparedness is the real key to kill fear. This is also the key to ensure that it does not overcome you the moment things go from bad to worse to worst. It is the people who fail to prepare who will soon be engulfed by fear all because they failed preparing for events that they know will happen someday.
Myth #4: Prepping is Only About Wilderness Survival
The last but definitely not the least notion that the mainstream media seems inculcate to the minds of the public and compounded by the ever increasingly popular survival TV shows is that preparedness is about wilderness survival. This is not necessarily about knocking wilderness survival and so it will not be really preparedness-minded for a person not to have this kind of skills. However, for most people who find themselves in the face of disaster, this kind of skills offer very minimal help in the real world. The truth is, there are not many resources that you can find out there that deal with urban disasters and sadly, many of the so-called experts have limited experience that deal with criminal violence, threats and urban disasters.
These are just some of the common myths and misconceptions about prepping that you should know to ensure that you will not be left in the dark and continue believing what is far from the truth.