Tag: health

Surviving in Style: Taking Care of Your Body and Mind When the World Ends

Posted on by admin

“Self-care” sounds like a spa-day word, the first thing you’d drop at the end of the world. In practice it is the opposite. In long emergencies, the people who last are the ones who keep looking after their bodies and minds, because exhaustion, infection and despair take people down as surely as any disaster. Here is self-care, apocalypse edition: practical, unglamorous and genuinely important.

Look after your body

  • Keep clean. Handwashing is the single most effective way to prevent the illnesses that spread through shelters and camps. A basin, soap and a washcloth will keep you surprisingly clean on very little water.
  • Look after your feet and teeth. Both are easy to neglect and miserable to lose. Dry socks every day, and keep brushing; a toothache with no dentist is a real crisis.
  • Sleep. Sleep deprivation wrecks judgment, mood and immune response. Take turns on watch so everyone gets real rest.
  • Eat and drink regularly. Skipped meals and mild dehydration cause headaches, irritability and bad decisions. Ration if you must, but don’t starve yourself to save supplies for later.
  • Dress for it. Comfort and function are style now: layers, sturdy shoes and something that makes you feel like yourself.

Look after your mind

Fear, grief, anger, numbness and trouble sleeping are normal reactions to an abnormal situation. Most people recover over time, especially with support. What helps:

  • Routine. Regular times for meals, work, rest and sleep give the day a shape when everything else is uncertain.
  • Something to do. Having a useful role is one of the strongest protections against despair. Give everyone a job, including children.
  • Connection. Talk to people. Share meals. Check on anyone who has gone quiet.
  • Limits on bad news. Stay informed, but don’t replay the worst of it all day. Repeated exposure to disaster coverage is linked to more distress.
  • Small pleasures. A song, a game, a hot drink, a good book. Our posts on games that need no power and keeping a journal have ideas.
  • Humor. Dark jokes are a time-honored survival tool among soldiers, nurses and anyone else who works in hard places.

Look after each other

Disaster responders are trained in something called Psychological First Aid, and its core ideas are simple enough for anyone: help people feel safe, help them meet their practical needs, listen without pushing them to talk, and connect them with others. You don’t need to be a counselor to make someone feel less alone.

Know when to get help

If someone can’t function, can’t stop reliving what happened weeks later, or talks about wanting to die, they need more than a pep talk. In the US, the Disaster Distress Helpline (call or text 1-800-985-5990) offers free, confidential support to anyone affected by a disaster, and you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at any time. Outside the US, your local emergency services can point you to similar support.

What keeps you steady when things go wrong? Tell us in the comments.

Apocalypse Hair: How to Keep Your Hair Clean, Practical and Stylish After the End

Posted on by admin

Hair is a classic trivial detail of the apocalypse. Movies show survivors with perfect windswept hair after months in the wasteland, which is a lie. Real hair at the end of the world gets greasy, tangled, matted, sunburned and, in crowded shelters, infested. Here is how to keep yours clean, practical and still a little bit stylish when salons are gone and water is precious.

Washing with almost no water

  • Wash less often. Most hair can go several days between washes, and scalps adjust to less frequent washing over a few weeks.
  • Use a cup, not a shower. Wet hair with a cup or two of water, lather a small amount of shampoo at the scalp, and rinse with another cup or two. Collect the rinse water for flushing toilets.
  • Dry shampoo works. Commercial dry shampoo absorbs oil at the roots. If you run out, cornstarch or arrowroot powder does the same job; brush it through and out.
  • Use a damp cloth. On truly dry days, wiping the scalp with a damp, soapy washcloth keeps things tolerable.

Styles that last

Braids are the classic survival hairstyle for good reason: they keep hair out of your face and out of machinery, reduce tangling, and stay neat for days. French braids and Dutch braids hold best under a hat or hood. Protective styles like cornrows and twists can last weeks with care.

Short hair is the most practical choice of all, which is why armies have favored it for centuries. It is easier to keep clean, dries faster and gives lice fewer places to hide.

Scarves and bandanas keep hair clean, protect your scalp from sunburn, and soak up sweat. They are also the easiest way to add a bit of personality to a wardrobe made of whatever you could find.

Cutting your own

Keep a pair of real hair-cutting scissors in your supplies, because kitchen scissors fray the ends. Cut hair when it is dry if it’s curly and slightly damp if it’s straight, take off less than you think, and let someone else do the back. Hand clippers that need no electricity exist and are worth having for anyone who keeps their hair short.

The lice problem

Nobody mentions this in the movies, but crowded living conditions spread head lice fast. Lice don’t carry disease, but the itching is miserable and scratching can lead to infected skin. A fine-toothed metal lice comb is cheap, lightweight and the most reliable tool against them, used carefully through wet, conditioned hair every few days. Avoid sharing hats, brushes and bedding when you can.

Why it matters

It is fair to ask whether hair matters at the end of the world. Survivors of long hardships often say that small grooming rituals helped them feel like themselves. Combing your hair or braiding a friend’s is a few minutes of normal life, and that is worth more than it sounds.

What’s your apocalypse hairstyle going to be? Tell us in the comments.

Being Black in Video Games

Posted on by tavia.

Being Black in real life isn’t super easy. Sure you always have company whenever you go shopping, even if you started alone. You’re more likely to have a living will or healthcare proxy (at least you should). Because Black folks are dropping dead like it’s Jim Crow again.

South Park’s new game recently introduced a slider that was labeled “Difficulty” and changed the character’s race. The darker you are the “harder” the difficulty. It’s funny because it’s true.

At least Fractured But Whole lets you be a person of color if you really want to. Or if you just really want to see a person of color as a hero in a video game. Continue reading “Being Black in Video Games”

Colds and Flus and The Apocalypse, Oh My.

Posted on by tavia.

I’m sick. I have a cold. It’s loud and uncomfortable and I’m full of medicine.

How am I supposed to deal with a cold during the apocalypse?

I can’t pile up pillows and alternate guzzling night and day medicine.

I should try some hippy apothecary shit while I have the chance but I really just want to sleep peacefully, breath without coughing, and not be in constant minor pain.

And speaking of noise, there is no way to hide someone coughing the way I’m coughing.

There is almost no suppression for sale that can tame this noise.

Seriously, fuck this noise.

I’m the worst thing in the office and I’m sleeping on the couch to be polite.

One thing that has worked for me a bit that will be around post-apocalypse: honey. I put it in water or drink it straight from the bottle.

Most of the articles I’ve read discount the use of Zinc or echinacea to boost the immune system or combat colds, they also seem to agree that vitamin c can be helpful but is not a remedy or preventative. Boo. I guess I need a wizard and a spell book.

WebMD offers 8 Tips to Treat Colds and Flu the ‘Natural’ Way, a list that includes gargling with salt water and keeping the right fluids in and out of your body.

Do you know any solutions? Solutions to have handy in case of apocalypse.

Zombie Training – Guest post by Jamie Gibbs

Posted on by Jamie Gibbs

Regular readers will know Jamie, as he’s one of our most prolific commenters. Based on that, I assumed he had enough time to send us a guest post on Training for the Zombie Apocalypse… and he did!

The zombie survival workout – 4 workouts you need to not get eaten

The Buddhists say that your body is a temple. The Buddhists are liars. Your body is no more holy than my browser history is free of questionable Google searches. Don’t listen to them. Your body isn’t a temple.

Your body is a weapon.

And when the proverbial world fan is spinning the proverbial shit everywhere, you’re going to need your weapon in tip top shape. Don’t bring a butter knife to a gang war and don’t bring an overweight, wheezing sack of meat to a zombie apocalypse. Here’s how you fine tune that body of yours, from head to toe, against the oncoming hordes.

Rule #1 – Cardio

Yes, Zombieland rules apply here. Fatties do indeed die first. Before you even think about slaying zombies en masse, you’re going to need to be able to outrun them. Not only that, but you’re going to be doing a lot of walking across the desolate, post-apocalyptic landscape, so you need to be damn sure that your stamina is as high as possible.

So what do you train for; distance or speed? Surely it’s better to outpace zombies for the first few hundred metres and then slow down once they give up chasing you. That’s a good point, except for one thing. Zombies don’t give up. They don’t get tired. You will, sooner or later. And that’s when they’ll make you an entree. Always opt for long distance walking and running when you train.

If you can, spice it up with hill climbs and interval treadmills work. You’re likely to hit the countryside at some point, and those inclines are tough.

Your general survival completely depends on your ability to outpace the undead all the friggin’ time. Throw in a sprint every now and again during your workout so you can be sure you can rely on that extra burst of speed if a shuffler gets too close for comfort.
It’s all in the shoulders
I’ve seen enough zombie movies to know that if you want to properly down a zombie, you need to use blunt force trauma. Unless you’re a master at decapitating bodies in a single stroke, avoid sharp weapons and opt for your sledgehammers, crowbars and cricket bats. Most zombies are the slow, shuffling type, indicating that the only part of their brain that is active is the basal ganglia, the ‘reptilian brain’.

That little sucker is buried deep inside the brain tissue so you’re going to need a lot of force in order to cave in the skull and keep a zombie down for good.

Strength training for using these big, blunt weapons needs a lot of work on your back and shoulders. If you think that biceps are the way to go, think again. What are you, applying for Mr. Universe? The force of your swing and the strength you put into it comes from the shoulders, so make that a priority when strength training. Pushups and overhead presses will give you the strength you need to swing a bat with enough force.

Tighten the core
If you’re anything like me, the weekend pizza and beer sessions have left you with a slight paunch, making you more than a little front heavy. If you need to make a quick getaway or are knee deep in flesh-hungry undead, this will give you some disadvantages, the biggest of which is you dying a hell of a lot quicker.

Get shot of that beer gut as soon as possible and tighten up your core – your abdomen and back muscles near your spine. Every athlete knows this is one of the most important sets of muscles to train, as once you sort that out the rest of the body starts to fall into place. Sit ups and squats are your best friend in building up your core muscles and losing that belly.
State of mind
Even though blunt objects should be your weapon of choice, the one thing that you need to keep sharp is your mind. Complacency leads to stagnation, which leads to you getting eaten. The last thing you want is for stress to get the better of you and for you to freeze up mid swing, leaving you open for attack. Throughout your workout, add in some stretches, yoga and meditation to keep your mind focused and clear.

Your brain is the biggest advantage you have against zombies (hence why they find it so damn delicious) so use it.

Jamie Gibbs is the overweight, wheezing sack of meat that is doing his best to get into shape before the zombie apocalypse finally hits. You can find him on his fantasy blog Mithril Wisdom by day, and brooding over the city rooftops at night (that last bit might not be entirely true).

Post-apocalyptic Healthcare

Posted on by char

Last week, my three year old daughter had some awesome and fun medical adventures that required a trip to emergency and a few trips to the doctor’s office.

While I was taking my daughter back and forth from the ER to the doctor’s office (and back to the doctor’s office), I thought about what healthcare would be like post apocalypse. My daughter needed staples to close up a nasty gash on her head and antibiotics to combat an infection. Today, we can get that kind of treatment. But what about during the chaotic days immediately after the apocalypse?

There will probably be first aid and/or emergency stations, at least in the beginning. I’m sure that, regardless of what actually happens, people will be injured and will die during the apocalypse. I’d like to think that there will be places those people can go to get help.

Continue reading “Post-apocalyptic Healthcare”