What can come from a critical incident?

• A. Overwhelming of the senses
• B. A sense of calm
• C. Clear recall
• D. Heightened awareness

Answer: (A)

During a critical incident, the body's fight-or-flight response floods the brain with adrenaline and a surge of sensory information from the environment. This can push the senses into overdrive, making it feel overwhelming as sounds, lights, and movements become hard to filter and process. That’s why the most likely immediate outcome is an overwhelming of the senses. A sense of calm is unlikely in the heat of the moment, and while you may become more alert afterward, immediate memory is often not clear or reliably recalled due to the adrenaline effect. Heightened awareness can occur, but it typically accompanies or follows sensory overload rather than replacing it in the moment.