What is hard Part II

This second instalment of what is hard is brought to you by stress. Working under stress is very hard. This may seem abvious to most people, but frankly, I used to thrive under stress. Part of this was a relative concept. Not much stressed me out, and therefore, it wasn't that I was that good, but that I was not nearly as stressed as those around me, and therefore comparitively I was good.

However, in combat it is difficult to not be stressed. If I remember back to my psychology class, the maximum measurement for stress was a wedding, which was considered pretty much the greatest stressor that anyone was likely to go through. While that is probably generally true, I wonder how combat stacks up?

The effects of stress are numerous, but to me the biggest is the distraction that it produces. You are always tired, and don't want to eat, sometimes I can't sleep (although that is more situational that psychological, people have a tendency to wake me up because I sleep in a high traffic area), and you just aren't happy. The distraction in turn impairs judgement, and makes decision making hard. This is dangerous because of what we are doing, and that in turn increases stress.

On the plus side, I think that my net stress threshold has increased significantly. I am pretty sure that in the long run I will be able to deal with more urbane high pressure situations much better. I hope that this is so, because there are so many things that are important, and that are high pressure, and you cannot prepare for those things. I hope that I am learning skills now, that will aid me in the future.