So, just like dance moves, I usually follow television shows one at a time and a few years later when no one cares about them anymore. I’m currently “sloth-ing” my way through Six Feet Under and hit a pretty crazy disaster-related episode last night.

On this show is a man named George. George likes to be prepared. In fact, in this episode George decides to stock an ENTIRE room full of water, outfit a bomb shelter as his new permanent home and ingest potassium iodide to stave off the effects of potential radiation poisoning! George also uses neti pots, but that’s a whole different (gross) issue.

The point of all this? It’s absolutely important to be prepared for emergencies. What is equally-important is to be rational and not lose your friends because you’ve become a “disaster hypochondriac.” Maintaining a calm demeanor before and during a disaster will protect yourself and loved ones from additional stress and harm.

SPOILER ALERT! Let me just note that George ends up diagnosed with depressive psychosis and so my intention is not to discredit the serious and real mental illnesses of this nature and I hope I didn’t offend anyone by this post.

Photo of George and wife Ruth exploring their bomb shelter (courtesy of darkhorizons.com)