NationStates Jolt Archive

right now I am being kept awake by the sound of emergency vehicle sires blaring outside the window. Ever since I can remember, I have also got ill to my stomach or really nervous when hearing those types of sirens. My question is if there is anyone else that experiences that? Or perhaps what are some other reactions? I know of some people that stop and pray for a second when they hear them going off, while others hope in vehicles and try to find out what is going on.

I just wonder which type of vehicle it is.

And, if you're with someone, there is of course the obligatory joke 'they're coming to get you at last'.

I just usually wish them Godspeed when I see them pass by.

If I'm driving I try to locate the source beforehand to get out of the way. And I often think about how we progressed as a society in comparison to the darker times - everyone scrambles out of the way just because somewhere some anonymous human being might be in danger. And even if some people do it because that's law and not out of compassion, it's progress.

Ok, this is just something I remember reading ages ago.

Your feeling of nervousness and illness maybe because you associate the sounds of sirens to a previous memory (I think its called classical conditioning.)

Anyway, there was this case study I read somewhere (sorry, no link), that this girl was very ill during her childhood, and was constantly in and out of hospital because of this.
A few years after she recovered, she visited a relative in the hospital, and immediately felt nauseous and panicky. It was confirmed that she was not actually ill, and it was suggested that the sights and smells of the hospital had triggered an episodic memory, which included her feelings of being at the hospital as a child.

Maybe its something like that, you remember the emotions of the sirens, but maybe not the event itself.


Or maybe I'm just over-analysing ;)



(Normally the only sirens I hear around here are fire engines going to put out the fires in the woods behind my house, and I just carry on working and wishing a slow painful death to the people who keep starting them)

right now I am being kept awake by the sound of emergency vehicle sires blaring outside the window. Ever since I can remember, I have also got ill to my stomach or really nervous when hearing those types of sirens. My question is if there is anyone else that experiences that? Or perhaps what are some other reactions? I know of some people that stop and pray for a second when they hear them going off, while others hope in vehicles and try to find out what is going on.

Is the sick feeling due to worry of what might have happened? or maybe just more generalised in a Pavlov kind of thing.

I usually figure out what it is (the sirens here sound *slightly* different depending on if it's police, fire or ambulance. That or I'm slightly psychic). If I'm in company, I usually say "I didn't do it" or words to that effect.

If I hear/see a lot of emergency vehicles, especially from the different services, in a short space of time, I wonder what's going on, but normally it's a momentary thing and I go on with my day.

No praying for others or anything like that although if I see a police pursuit, I do hope that the bandit car crashes, burns and the scum inside die a horrible death without injuring any innocent people.

As long as you don't live anywhere near Silent Hill or remote Japanese villages you should be fine.

Or remote Japanese villages you should be fine.
*Hmph!* There's nothing wrong with living near remote Japanese villages damn it! They usually have the best food anyway. ;)

If I'm driving I try to locate the source beforehand to get out of the way. And I often think about how we progressed as a society in comparison to the darker times - everyone scrambles out of the way just because somewhere some anonymous human being might be in danger. And even if some people do it because that's law and not out of compassion, it's progress.

I feel something similar. It warms my heart to see everyone pull over and and stop moving to let an ambulance/fire engine/etc. by. It's like... a sign that regardless of whether or not we recognise each other or will ever see each other again, we're tied together by some general sense of compassion or law-abiding or whatever. For a minute, it doesn't matter where we're going or how late we are. Everything freezes for a minute, and we all share that awareness, before we continue on.

And yes, I generally say a quick, silent prayer when I see them. I've been in one before, accompanying my grandmother on her way from our home for the last time. Anyone on the destination side of an ambulance can use a well-wish or two.

I ususally try to figure out what kind of siren it is, but that's it really. Am I dead inside?

right now I am being kept awake by the sound of emergency vehicle sires blaring outside the window. Ever since I can remember, I have also got ill to my stomach or really nervous when hearing those types of sirens. My question is if there is anyone else that experiences that? Or perhaps what are some other reactions? I know of some people that stop and pray for a second when they hear them going off, while others hope in vehicles and try to find out what is going on.

Were you raised by sixties radicals who accidently killed a security guard in a campus bombing and have been on the run ever since? That would explain it.

right now I am being kept awake by the sound of emergency vehicle sires blaring outside the window. Ever since I can remember, I have also got ill to my stomach or really nervous when hearing those types of sirens. My question is if there is anyone else that experiences that? Or perhaps what are some other reactions? I know of some people that stop and pray for a second when they hear them going off, while others hope in vehicles and try to find out what is going on.
I pay more attention to where they're coming from when I'm out on the street ever since I nearly got run over by an ambulance.

i get out of the way if i'm driving, otherwise i don't really think about them. i hear sirens most nights from my bedroom window. if i worried each time i heard one i'd never get to sleep :p

*snip*

True, many people get stressed out when they hear a dentist drill too, could be something similar.

"I wasn't here, you never saw me!" /flee

If I'm asleep, nothing, not even sirens wake me (maybe because as an infant, my parents lived next door to a fire station, so I had that to put me to sleep). It's got to be loud enough to wake the dead. If I'm awake, I don't flinch at the sound.

For a minute, it doesn't matter where we're going or how late we are. Everything freezes for a minute, and we all share that awareness, before we continue on.
And then we go back to business as usual and hating each others' guts. :)
But this moment is... precious.

Every time I heard a siren when I was little, my immediate thought was: "Tornado!"

However, I have seemed to have grown out of that around 1998 where it transioned to: "Oh $#%^ SILENT HILL!!!111!"

what if you need to get somewhere more urgently than the ambulance? :p

Like, say, away from the scene of the crime?

Have you tried lashing yourself to the mast and stopping your ears with beeswax?

I wonder how I ended up in a rave

i get out of the way if i'm driving

what if you need to get somewhere more urgently than the ambulance? :p

I wonder how I ended up in a rave



what if you need to get somewhere more urgently than the ambulance? :p

Yeah, like to Dunkin Donuts?
(I've actually seen that :()

I only get nervous if I hear the Flood Siren go.

(It's the same sound as a WWII Air raid siren).

As my town is right on the edge of the Wash and it has flooded dozens of times.

I usually pray the emergency incident isn't too near me, and a little worry and despair at another emergency situation. I suppose it does get me thinking a bit about society and criminals. I also try to work out which type it is before i see it, but i usually get it wrong.