Who is the Toughest Person on this Forum?

[Smitty-48]

The hallucinations came on at night, in the woods, in the dark, the normal eyes playing tricks on you thing, with sleep dep, that becomes intense, like, you think you see a horse waking through the woods, and you're like, "there's no horses in the training area, that can't be", but it's so intense, you eventually have to turn to your buddy and ask "seriously, you don't see a horse out there, do you?"

I've never hallucinated like that. Whenever I go without sleep for a long time, its just little shit that seems bigger. Like a flicker of light in the corner of your eye becomes someone sneaking around or a sudden low noise sounds like a bang. I guess that's why methheads are so paranoid and shit.

There was another one where I was lying in the all round covering my arcs, and I saw my father, like ghostly, walking towards us through the bush, and all I thought was "how is he moving so quietly? He can't be that quiet, he's not that stealthy in the woods".

It's like, you won't let your brain sleep, so it starts trying to dream, while you're still awake.

It becomes like thirst, after a week, the urge to sleep is so powerful, you're shaking from the effort to stave it off, every little tiny thing, is hard, it's hard to do the simplest thing, it's debilitating, you're becoming crippled by the sleep dep, you get a palsy, your hands are shaking as you try to reach for things, like you're a hundred years old.

You can do bursts of energy, pure adrenaline, like if you have to run or something, but then you crash again after, and your knees are buckling, you're falling down all the time, you're not tripping, you're just collapsing, and as soon as you hit the ground, you brain tries to go to sleep right there, and you have fight your way back up to your feet, like climbing out of a hole.

It's ninety degrees, I'm carrying a hundred pounds of kit, and my feet are so shredded by blisters that I'm wringing blood out of my socks, but I don't even care about any of that, all I care about is sleep at that point, sleep was the only thing I wanted in the world, after more than a week without sleep.

[heydaralon]

The hallucinations came on at night, in the woods, in the dark, the normal eyes playing tricks on you thing, with sleep dep, that becomes intense, like, you think you see a horse waking through the woods, and you're like, "there's no horses in the training area, that can't be", but it's so intense, you eventually have to turn to your buddy and ask "seriously, you don't see a horse out there, do you?"

I've never hallucinated like that. Whenever I go without sleep for a long time, its just little shit that seems bigger. Like a flicker of light in the corner of your eye becomes someone sneaking around or a sudden low noise sounds like a bang. I guess that's why methheads are so paranoid and shit.

There was another one where I was lying in the all round covering my arcs, and I saw my father, like ghostly, walking towards us through the bush, and all I thought was "how is he moving so quietly? He can't be that quiet, he's not that stealthy in the woods".

It's like, you won't let your brain sleep, so it starts trying to dream, while you're still awake.

It becomes like thirst, after a week, the urge to sleep is so powerful, you're shaking from the effort to stave it off, every little tiny thing, is hard, it's hard to do the simplest thing, it's debilitating, you're becoming crippled by the sleep dep, you get a palsy, your hands are shaking as you try to reach for things, like you're a hundred years old.

You can do bursts of energy, pure adrenaline, like if you have to run or something, but then you crash again after, and your knees are buckling, you're falling down all the time, you're not tripping, you're just collapsing, and as soon as you hit the ground, you brain tries to go to sleep right there, and you have fight your way back up to your feet, like climbing out of a hole.

It's ninety degrees, I'm carrying a hundred pounds of kit, and my feet are so shredded by blisters that I'm wringing blood out of my socks, but I don't even care about any of that, all I care about is sleep at that point, sleep was the only thing I wanted in the world, after more than a week without sleep.

Seems like the military would want its soldiers to get sleep, because the well rested are more alert, make less mistakes, follow orders better, and are less likely to injure themselves and others or damage expensive machinery..

[Smitty-48]

They're simulating combat, they can't shoot live ammo at you, so they use proxy stresses to determine how you would perform under combat stress. It was a combat leadership course, anybody can be the alpha when they're not under stress, they want to see if you can still be the alpha, when you're pushed to the limits of endurance.

We knew we were near the end, so we weren't going to quit, but, if you didn't know, if you thought it could go on indefinitely, OK, now you're in the torture zone, nobody could take that indefinitely without breaking.

I don't know what my absolute limit would be, maybe it's two weeks, maybe it's three, but eventually, you'd be broken, you'd say anything to get a few hours of sleep.

[SuburbanFarmer]

When toughness comes up, I don't even think of fighting first. I think of guys working in extreme conditions for long hours, physically demanding day in and day out.

This. If we’re talking about actual, mental toughness, I’d nominate myself.

Fighting has nothing at all to do with “toughness”.

[SuburbanFarmer]

The toughest thing I've ever had to endure, was sleep deprivation, going without sleep for days while sustaining maximum effort and carrying out complex tasks, that was the toughest.

After a few days, you totally understand why they use sleep deprivation as torture. I wouldn't bother with waterboarding, sleep dep will break anybody in the end, it's just a matter of time.

I did 72 hours on my feet, holding my hand on a car for super bowl tickets. I hope I never experience anything like that again.

[Smitty-48]

Tell you what tho, when it was over, and I finally got a shower and then a rack with clean sheets, for eight hours sleep, that was one of the best things I've ever felt in my life, that was truly sweet. That's what good about the infantry, you get pushed to your limits, extreme privation, but that just makes the little things in life all the more sweeter when you get them back.

[C-Mag]

I really regret making this thread

Don't this is actually quite a good discussion. While many will see it as dick measuring it is really about pushing ones self out of their comfort zone, through pain and suppressing natural urges.

[C-Mag]

Brawling is about aggression not toughness, your aggression overcomes your aversion to violent confrontation, but you don't have to be tough, tough is about enduring, sustaining effort under duress for extended periods.

Like, the Pathfinder Course, that's tough, you have to be iron man hard to get through that, but getting into a fight and taking a beat down, that's easy.

Brawling is an interesting thing, and totally different than getting into a fight. It is a totally different mindset than a one on one fight. It's a chaotic sea of churning where at best you are in control of the 12 inches around you.

Glad you brought up duration. Most fights seem long if they go minutes. It's usually are very quick thing where the most aggressive in the fight wins.

[Smitty-48]

The toughest thing I've ever had to endure, was sleep deprivation, going without sleep for days while sustaining maximum effort and carrying out complex tasks, that was the toughest.

After a few days, you totally understand why they use sleep deprivation as torture. I wouldn't bother with waterboarding, sleep dep will break anybody in the end, it's just a matter of time.

I did 72 hours on my feet, holding my hand on a car for super bowl tickets. I hope I never experience anything like that again.

Sleep dep is cumulative, the first five days weren't too bad, it was about day six when it started to become a serious effort, by day nine it was becoming debilitating.

[Smitty-48]

Brawling is about aggression not toughness, your aggression overcomes your aversion to violent confrontation, but you don't have to be tough, tough is about enduring, sustaining effort under duress for extended periods.

Like, the Pathfinder Course, that's tough, you have to be iron man hard to get through that, but getting into a fight and taking a beat down, that's easy.

Brawling is an interesting thing, and totally different than getting into a fight. It is a totally different mindset than a one on one fight. It's a chaotic sea of churning where at best you are in control of the 12 inches around you.

Glad you brought up duration. Most fights seem long if they go minutes. It's usually are very quick thing where the most aggressive in the fight wins.

Oh yeah, boxing is the hardest, just a fight is no problemo, but even a few rounds of boxing had me stumbling on my feet, boxing takes fighting to a whole nother level. With the gloves you don't get beat up near as bad, but in terms of staying on your feet, woof, boxing a bag drive.