Personal Doomsday Scenarios
We hear all the time about preparing for the pending economic collapse, martial law or even an EMP, but we don’t hear enough about preparing for a personal doomsday. This is probably because people love drama, people love the big doomsday stories, but the reality is that we should all start preparing on a much smaller scale while we look at the bigger picture.
I recently lost my mother and while I was sitting in the hospital room all I could think about was how the dynamics of my family were going to change if my mother made it through this. The way I prepped would change, my bug out strategies would change and how our daily lives were going to change with her living with us. Unfortunately my mother did not make it and I never had the opportunity to implement these strategies.
This got me thinking about personal doomsday scenarios that could not only affect our daily lives, but it also changes our ability to prep for bigger disasters on a daily basis. As we prepare for smaller more localized events like the loss of a job or natural disasters we are inherently on our way to being prepared for a disaster on a bigger scale.
Another factor to take into account is that the way you prepare today will change over time because of family dynamics, your increasing age, demographic and governmental changes. We need to constantly be on our toes and ready to pivot at a moment’s notice, a well thought out bug out plan that works today might not be your best option 5 or 10 years from now.
Here is a list of 10 personal doomsday scenarios that could affect the way you prep today or the way you prepare in the future. Scenarios like these are why I believe that where you should start preparing for your future begins with your financial and physical situation.
1. Loss Of a Family Member
A loss of a family member could drastically affect not only how you prepare, but what you are able to prepare for. Losing the income of a family member could put you in a situation where you do not have the ability to purchase the supplies you need for any disaster you might face.
The loss of a family member could be because of divorce, death or even children moving away from home. Although a child moving out almost always helps your financial situation (it did for me) sometimes this is not the case, sometimes they are actually adding income to the family…I am not that fortunate.
2. Addition To The Family
Hopefully this is not a personal doomsday scenario for you, but I put it on this list because it will affect how you prepare and what your options are in the future. An infant will require more care and require you to prep differently than people without small children. Bugging out with a small child or elderly family member will also require you to acquire different supplies.
3. Local Grid Down Scenarios
Not only should we be concerned about larger off the grid events caused by an EMP or overpopulation and over usage, we should take into account the possibility of a local grid down situation that could affect us for weeks.
4. Disability
Accidents happen and life happens. A disability could mean you becoming disabled or a family member becoming disabled. There will be extra costs and medical expenses when caring for someone who has become disabled or different strategies needed when you are working on your bug out plan.
5. Auto Accidents
An automobile accident could cause a number of different personal doomsday scenarios from finances to loss of a family member. A car accident could change your life in a split second. Even something as simple as your car breaking down could put your job in jeopardy.
6. Loss Of a Job – Debt
Losing a job not only puts added stress on you and your family it handcuffs you and your ability to prep. Most Americans are only a few months away from a personal economic collapse at any given time.
7. Natural Disasters
Natural disasters can also cause other personal disasters to manifest. You could lose your home, your job and be completely cut off from the supplies you need in your daily life. Take a personal audit of what disasters are more likely in your area and make sure you are prepared for those before you even begin prepping for a larger scale disaster.
8. Loss Of a Home
The loss of a home could be caused by many different factors. It could be caused by the loss of income and your home gets repossessed, a natural disaster could destroy your home or something caused inside the home like a fire or water lines breaking could make your home uninhabitable.
9. Robbery
Whether it is someone coming into your home and taking everything you own of someone stealing your car because you didn’t lock it while you were just running into the store really quick to grab some lunch. Robbery could put a big financial strain on your prepping capabilities.
10. Mental Trauma – Physical Assault
This was brought up to me in the Facebook group and could present a huge problem not only for you, but your entire family as well. Many people who go through some sort of physical assault or situation that affects them mentally could be afraid to even leave their home.
Another comment from the Survivalist Prepper Facebook Group asked…
“I think it is interesting what motivates one to prep in the first place. Why to some go to certain extremes but others are more practical? Is it a trauma? Is it upbringing?”
This is a very good point. There are many different reasons that cause someone to become a prepper, for me it was my upbringing, for others it is something that has caused them to open their eyes to the very real problems we face today.
Some people choose to be or become self-sufficient because they see the writing on the wall and they know that the current system is not sustainable, some have been raised their entire lives knowing a disaster could destroy the world as we know it and turn our lives upside down.
Ultimately the reason you are a prepper doesn’t matter, just be thankful you are. God willing, we will live our whole lives and never have anything catastrophic happen to us, on the other hand by taking notice of current events and planning for an uncertain future we not only increase our chances for surviving an economic collapse, EMP or martial law, we make those smaller doomsday scenarios a little bit easier to handle.
What is the reason for your prepping? Was it just the way you were raised? Was it something that gradually turned the lights on? And one day you realized that most of the websites you visit are prepper websites. Or is there something that made you say “ok, this situation is more real than I ever imagined?
Leave a comment below, I would love to hear your reason.