I understand the paralyzing fear. It has happened to me in combat 3 times now. When these situations occur I know what to do, but I just freeze. This may sound completely insane to you but this it how I broke out of it the first time.

The day before the first time I froze we had trained on fast roping and I ascended too fast and burned the webbing on the inside of my left palm. When the incident happened that caused me to freeze, subconsiously I increased the grip on my weapon and the pain from the burn to my palm snapped me out of it. The last 2 times it happened I put my index finger on the barrel of my rifle and the blister snapped me out of it and put me in the right mind set.

I think that I have a handle on the freezing aspect now as since the last incident I have been in much more severe circumstances and haven't froze. I am not saying this is a cure by any means, it is just a way that snapped me out of it. All 3 of these times I was solo which is a relief to me. If I was in a situation where my freezing could have got members of my team injured or killed I would have officially taken myself off operational status.

My point is this. Find something that can help you snap out of these moments when you freeze. It may be something as simple as having a charm on your key chain with pictures of your children on it with an engraved edge that you can rub between your fingers.

People, feel free to shoot this idea down as I myself think it sounds totally crazy. All I can say is it worked for me and I am just trying to help.

No one is going to shoot it down tact. All we do is tell others what works for us. Sometimes the other person can use it sometimes they can't. Beauty of the forum, take what you need and leave the rest. Different options and takes on things is what makes this forum work, so thanks for your input, you contributed to the forum.

Absolutely, I agree with Veiled. Since I have gotten on this site, it has helped me tremendously. First, because I did not feel alone, and then second, because of the great ideas people offer. Thank you, Tactman. Thank you to everyone who responded to my post. I appreciate your care and kindness...It's more care for my welfare than I've experienced from my former employer in two years. Imagine that. I decided to change careers, though, and I'm going to live a great live in spite of the inhumane treatment of their employees.