If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, perhaps you have misread the situation.
Actually, survivor studies show that those who keep it together in a crisis are more likely to make it out alive. The single greatest determinant is one’s ability to recognize what is happening, accept it immediately, and focus on survival.
Since I have lived through several surreal events over the years (armed robbery, attempted sexual assault, flash flood, tornado, emergency c-section, badly injured child), I am now conditioned to immediately accept a situation, my body moves to instant survival mode, and I start looking at how to survive.
Last year, I was in the midst of an active shooter situation. Everyone was freaking out or blinded by normalcy bias. For me, everything was in slow motion. Review of the video shows I was moving quickly, but it felt like forever. I put my emotions on lock down, called the police, stopped people from leaving the building and walking into the crossfire, and when the subsequent bomb threat was detected, arrange and executed the orderly evacuation of the building. Everything I needed was at the front of my mind, even random bits of information. As emergency and law enforcement entered the property, i was telling them how many floors, how many units, where the emergency exits where, who needed assistance to exit the building, etc. The FBI, fire department, police and I were the last ones out of the building. My ship, my people. No one I was responsible for got hurt. Had to keep myself together in the many hours that followed, communicating with authorities, communicating with the people in the building, communicating with my husband and children who were worried about mom getting shot or blown up. People told me that I was surprisingly calm throughout the episode and it helped them stay calm, too.
Didn’t get emotional until I was safe, at home, hugging my family.