Are bunkers the best way to survive an apocalypse

Ever since the outbreak of the latest virus, many businesses have suffered and had to shut down, but one area of industry that’s booming is anything related to surviving a natural disaster. One particular sector that was previously quite small is the fabrication of underground survival bunkers that have been specially designed to provide everything a person needs to stay underground for an extended period of time, but are bunkers the best way to survive an apocalypse?

(Bunkers like this one are being built in higher amounts than ever before, but they may not protect you for as long as you may think)

One thing that seems to be common in bunker owners is they haven’t spent any real amount of time within their bunkers and normally just leave them sitting there just in case something happens, with the most anyone seems to have done being no longer than a week. So how long could you survive without going insane and what exactly would you need in your bunker to stop that from happening?

The fallout shelter

This is the smallest and cheapest type of shelter that is normally installed under things like log cabins and small houses. They are usually designed to house between 2 and 6 people for a short amount of time for certain natural disasters like a tornado, but if you’re stuck in one for more than a few days the psychological factor will weigh heavily on your shoulders. It doesn’t matter how comfortable you are underground or in small spaces, you’ll still have trouble coping simply due to the fact people are naturally above-ground animals.

(A small military style underground bunker, good enough to hide for a few days but mentally impossible long term)

If you imagine being locked in your bedroom for an entire week without the ability to phone someone or talk out the window, then imagine the added psychological factor of being underground, knowing you can’t leave if you wanted to, and combine that with suddenly doing much less exercise and a complete lack of vitamin D. The simple fact is, the smaller the space the less time you’ll last before you go crazy or commit an extreme act out of depression.

Long term bunkers

Normally built for military use or by the occasional prepper, anything built for long-term survival will have to be much bigger than a single disaster bunker. The problem with these bunkers is they are built to house people in a military style, with strict roles and routines for the inhabitants. When all of this stops, boredom and depression set in which makes it risky for civilians who won’t have this level of discipline to better help them deal with the situation.

(The plans for a small, one bed shelter. It may look cosy but sitting on your bed all day doing nothing will quickly take its toll)

So how long can someone actually last in a bunker?

The average person will start to notice a change in their personality after as little as 48 hours, with the smaller and more cramped the bunker, the quicker things will go wrong. A complete lack of vitamin D combined with the psychological factor that you can’t leave, along with a sudden change in diet to rationed survival food and no personal space makes for one difficult situation.

The amount of time it would take before someone did something stupid or decided to leave would depend entirely on the individual. A person used to being alone most of the time who’s happily isolating themselves at home on their computer would be able to deal with living underground much better than an active and outgoing person because the change would be much more subtle.

A person who exercises outdoors every day and works in a position that involves meeting a lot of different people would find it very difficult to spend every single day sitting in the same metal box with no personal space and nothing to do. The less extreme the change in someone’s lifestyle, the higher the probability they could last longer underground psychologically.

So what would someone need to live underground long term?

The three main factors that contribute to a person coping underground are as follows:

Personal space
The majority of the smaller bunkers don’t have any personal space other than the bathroom, with most of the beds being separated from the main room by nothing more than a curtain. Knowing there are people only a few feet away who can hear you at all times will eventually play heavily on your mental state. To avoid this, personal space like individual bedrooms will help greatly, but at a severe financial and size cost.

Psychological support
People who are trained in recognizing mental conditions would be highly valued when living underground and would be necessary to squash any serious conditions or incidents before they got worse. People would also need to be provided with something they can recognize as normal life, such as a huge amount of pictures of the outdoors all over the walls and a gym to vent any extra energy or frustration.

Entertainment
The whole reason people would be staying in a bunker long term would be to avoid whatever is going on above ground, which involves a lot of waiting. The necessary activities of the day like cooking and washing will only take up a fraction of your awake time, with the rest simply just waiting. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, as the saying goes, and this couldn’t be more true when stuck in a situation where boredom is your number one enemy.

To survive comfortably for a long time without going insane, the bunker would need to provide as much personal space as possible while meeting all the requirements people need to survive. Currently, the only bunkers that are set out in this design are the highest level of military bunkers and the private bunkers of millionaires. But this isn’t to say that having your own bunker is a waste of time, and it could make the difference between surviving a catastrophe and ending up dead, just don’t expect to be able to live in it for a long period of time without going insane.