Action hero reflexes (2/17/15)

I've decided I have action hero reflexes.  It's cold and snowy and I was going to my new doctor's office for the first time.  My driving directions had unwisely routed me down highway 131, which is horrendously clogged and busy at all hours of the day.  As such, it's a great place to spot accidents, or better yet, be in one yourself.  Needless to say, I avoid the place as much as possible.  But, I thought, maybe today it wouldn't be so bad.  It was just a short ride down 131.  Surely nothing would go wrong.  

So of course some guy comes sliding across three lanes of traffic and the exit lane, right in front of me.  Diagonally.  Like, his car's nose was pointed off the road into the snowbanks.  I was about to hit this guy and I didn't even know where he came from.  But I didn't panic, I just swerved.  This unfortunately set off a chain of 5 fishtails, each smaller than the last, until I got my car under control and got off the highway.  I missed the sliding car, didn't hit anyone around me, and didn't go off the road.  

The reason nothing awful happened is partially luck and partially the fact that when things like this happen, I don't respond normally.  Science tells us that most people panic, curse, and flail.  When adrenaline or panic hits, familiar places like our houses and schools become alien and unfamiliar.  We could walk across our homes blind in normal circumstances, but in a panic situation, we might not even be able to find the way out of the house.  That's not a weakness or failure, it's just how humans are wired.  

We tend to think we'll act differently in an emergency because of all the action heroes we watch.  They're calm and collected in an emergency.  They crack jokes here and there as a building burns down around them and everyone else panics and flees.  We're made to look up to those action heroes, aspire to be them.  It's funny, though, because if you ask a psychologist about people who act like action heroes, they'll start talking about antisocial personality disorder or other disorders.  

I don't have antisocial personality disorder, but something is different about how my brain is wired.  I would guess I don't process emergencies properly.  I knew that if I hit the car swerving across my lane, it was going to be bad times.  But I wasn't thinking about that at the time, I was so focused on trying not to hit the car that there wasn't room for the possible consequences of failure.  

This isn't the first time something like this has happened, but it's the first time I've thought to write about it.  Relatedly, I think I'm going to irrationally insist highway 131 is trying to kill me and avoid it entirely from now on.  My directions app can just recalculate my route forever.