Your best defense is to be mentally prepared for an attack.
Once attacked, many victims describe feeling as though their minds were floating—like they had slipped out of their bodies and were witnesses to the crimes being committed against them. The reason for this is that those who are unprepared to deal with violent situations who find themselves suddenly thrown into one go into shock. Their minds drift and wander and they lose precious time. You need to combat this feeling by knowing how to respond in a crisis. How do you accomplish this?
The same way you prepare for everything. Rehearse it in your mind. When asking your boss for a raise, or bringing up a particularly sensitive subject with a loved one, you practice how to broach the subject and what arguments you can use to support your view. You can train yourself to respond to violent attacks in the same way. When you read about or hear crime stories, imagine yourself in a similar situation and imagine how you would respond. Do this often to prepare your mind for an emergency response. Discuss the subject with your family members and treat it as seriously as you would a home fire drill. You need to develop a mind-set prepared for violence. When you do hear crime stories, you will most likely find a certain repetition in the stories in that criminals all tend to do the same things. What it boils down to is the assailant controlling the victim through fear. Train, defend, and live!
