What can I do daily to improve my on-the-spot cognitive abilities?

Submitted ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨CoolBeance@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨[deleted]⁩

Hey all I just came across an emergency situation irl that I felt useless in because of how slowly I was thinking. Basically it was someone getting an epileptic seizure and I had the info in my head for what to do but I did end up freezing a bit before I did anything. Really didn’t like it. The person is fine now but if I had reacted faster, we might have been able to prevent a couple problems.

I’ve been in other emergencies before where I had to call the shots but I guess I want to think faster and keep it consistent at a higher level, and I want to improve on it for future scenarios, but what can I do to do that?

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Anise@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Look no further than the world’s militaries for this. They drill drill drill until soldiers react automatically without having to think about how they will react in a hostile situation. Its not enough to learn what to do once if you want a fast response.

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667@lemmy.radio ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Exposure and repetition through low stakes practice.

When you are out and about, think about what you would do if x happened to y at the moment you’re there. Standing in line behind an older person and suddenly they collapse? Be observant and notice if they seemed stressed, swaying, or uneven on their feet; be ready to slow their fall—place them into the recovery position and point to someone and say “YOU, call [emergency service number]”.

There are many aspects and many levels of preparedness. Decide up front to what extent you will be involved.

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Carnelian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I think you basically just need experience/practice. Imagine lifeguarding: they don’t just explain it to you and then hope you remember what to do the first time you see someone you think might be drowning. They train you and have you ‘rescue’ people in a controlled environment, so that when the real thing happens, you’re performing something you’ve done many times.

To put it another way, you don’t want to think faster. You want to have already thought about it, and already prepared for what to do.

Depending on the extent of what you want to do, maybe a few friends and you can try to rehearse your response. Have them simulate (without telling you exactly when) some of the signs of a seizure, then try to identify it and give their phone a call as if you were calling emergency services.

If you want to go further you can look into various first aid certs. Most classes are like $20-60, and they’ll be able to prepare you far better than anything else.

For context: Not the same thing exactly but I had to get first aid certifications in the context of bringing small groups of people into semi-remote areas of nature. Type of thing where you probably have cell service but it may take hours for help to arrive. We did a lot of practice on each other.

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ClockworkOtter@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Reflective practice. You need to actually carry out all the actions needed for a scenario, then afterwards go back over how it went and plan for improvement.

That’s how we do it in hospitals, except the scenarios are real.

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snooggums@midwest.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The majority of effort for emergency preparedness is repetition so you don’t have to think about it. Understanding is good too, but in a lot of cases you shouldn’t be taking action based on speed if you don’t know the right thing.

For example, it is generally better to just make sure someone having a seizure has room and isn’t going to fall off something. Things like sticking stuff in their mouth like in the movies is a terrible idea that makes the situation worse, so not acting is actually better than acting most of the time in the case of seizures.

As a counterexample choking requires immediate and correct actions. Some things will expel the object and others will get it stuck in a harder to expel location, so bboth time and foreknowledge is important.

All you can do is learn about the right things to do, such as taking a first aid class, and practicing them so you don’t need to think about what to do.

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nodsocket@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Situational awareness. Read the room and try to anticipate potential problems in advance.

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Alborlin@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
All the replies telling you to practice for the situation, but its too vague. The best way to be prepared for the almost anything mentally is to be aware.It only comes through meditation. You need to be aware of your surroundings and yourself. You can think straight if you teach yourself. Sit in a room without any sound or anything. Close your eyes and let thoughts comes to mind , but don’t dwleve into each of them let them breeze through. It’s very hard , but you need to practice a lot… Your brain will learn this and you will be aware

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rufus@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Good question and self-reflection on your side!

The other people here are correct. You need to sign up for a first-aid / first-responder course.

It is practice and rehearsal. I did an extensive training back when I was a first responder. We learned what to do and the steps not to forget, sentences to memorize all of that. And then we had to exercise for days, do it over and over again. And that’s what makes these procedures available to you. Especially in emergency situations where adrenaline is rushing in, emotions are on a high level, somebody is seriously hurt and bystanders are distracting everyone. Theoretical knowledge sometimes useless in those situations. And the human body isn’t made to think very thoroughly when overwhelmed by adrenaline. You need to have a feeling for what you’re doing, have the mnemonic appear immediately in your head, the procedure stored in your muscle memory and remember what you did the last 3 times when that happened.

Go to an organization and do a course. If you can do a 2-day one. The short ones don’t really focus on practice.

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glibg10b@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Caffeine

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