Blindsided is the authoritative guide to crisis management. This "how to" handbook gives essential advice that every manager needs to know when a crisis hits. Written by CMI Founder/CEO Bruce Blythe, it's a fascinating, easy-to-read guide that draws on Blythe's 20+ years of experience as a pioneer in crisis management.

  Ancient reflex is at root of panic
      By Bruce Taylor Seeman
      Newshouse News Service



Biloxi-Gulfport, MS
Sun Herald
Wednesday August 21, 2002

If dirty bombs explode in ominous succession, if smallpox emerges, if arsenic is dumped into a reservoir, the government will sound the alert: Don't panic.

The advice is flawed, experts say. We may carry the gift of reason, but human beings are animals. And when life is threatened, there's no denying the survival reflex, and that's the root of panic.

'Blank statement like 'Don't panic' are not going to work,' said Bruce Blythe, who leads Crisis Management International, an Atlanta consulting company. 'It's like saying,'Don't think of pink elephants.'

The biological switches that activate panic have worked in our favor for thousands of years. They ignite the fight or flight response, which is the physiological core of severe panic.

When someone is confronted with a serious threat, the adrenal glands, a pair of fatty lumps atop the kidneys, emit hormones that deliver an adrenaline boost. These supercharged chemical signals can be lifesavers. The messages make the heart best faster. Blood flow increases to large muscles. Glucose levels rise to increase energy.

Launched by this hormonal surge, humans are capable of extraordinary feats of strength, speed, courage and single-minded self-protection.

But there's a downside. Judgment may abruptly veer off course. Personality may bend out of shape. Individual survival rises above broader concerns.

Managing panic is a complicated problem in the context of terrorism.

Jessie Gruman, executive director of the Center for the Advancement of Health, a Washington think tank, said the Sept. 11 catastrophes stole our sense of order and instilled dread that another calamity would follow.

'One of the reasons we got so wigged out about 9/11 was, all bets were off in terms of survivability,' Gruman said. 'When the World Trade Center fell, people worried the Empire State Building would fall. There was such an expectation that another shoe would drop.'

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