Articles | Your Mental Health in The Context Of Pepper Sprays, Stun Guns, TASER Weapons and Other Self Defense Products

How much would you like to accomplish personal development and fulfillment? How much do you think your self-esteem is worth? How important is it to you to satisfy your love and belongingness needs? And what does all that have to do with pepper sprays, stun guns, TASER weapons and self defense products in general?

A great deal, actually. Read on and you will find all the proof you need.

As reported by Abraham Maslow (a chief exponent of the humanistic paradigm of human psychology), each individual has a five-levels "hierarchy of needs" that triggers off his/her conduct. How well you do in life will depend on your ability to manage the needs of each one of your lower, most dominant stages of the hierarchy, as you move up to satisfy the demands of the higher stages. This same process keeps happening, one level after the other, until the highest stage is reached at and a healthy state of "self-actualization" (psychological wellbeing) is created.

But what are those specific demands to be fulfilled on each particular stage of your own hierarchy? And what does all that have to do with self defense weapons in general? Let's take a quick look at each stage of Maslow's "pyramid of needs", before we introduce self defense products into the whole psychology picture:

Level 5: "Self-Actualization" (Highest level)
Level 4: "Esteem and Self Esteem"
Level 3: "Love and Belonging"
Level 2: "Safety and Security"
Level 1: "Biological/Physiological Needs" (Lowest level)

As you can see, the lowest stage of the pyramid (Level 1) is that of "Biological/Physiological Needs". In this level you must satisfy your most basic human needs, including getting enough food, water, air, sleep, sex, etc. Many crimes are actually motivated by a difficulty to fulfill these needs through socially accepted channels (be ready to defend yourself using non lethal TASER weapons, stun guns, pepper sprays and other reliable security products such as surveillance equipments).

Once the physiological drives of this first level are accomplished, the second level of Maslow's Pyramid ("Safety and Security") comes into play, its specific needs again motivating your behavior until completely satisfied. This is exactly where self defense products fit into the whole mental health picture. Without these licit self defense weapons, your "Safety and Security" needs might not be properly fulfilled, and your chances of satisfying those crucial needs of the remaining next three levels ("Love and Belonging", "Esteem and Self Esteem", and "Self-Actualization") would be thwarted (nobody can develop those higher level goals of human development under life-threatening conditions, according to Maslow's psychological theory).

However, the obligatory question is: Is it possible to achieve your full potential as a human being without using any TASER weapon, stun gun or pepper spray at all? Of course it is. Maslow himself never talked about self defense products. Nonetheless, the real question you must ask yourself is: What are your chances of upholding your self-actualization position (once achieved) if you become a victim of crime?

It has been estimated that the average U.S. citizen has a probability as high as 80% of becoming the victim of violent crime over the course of a lifetime (by logic, that is exactly the same chance of losing your self-actualization status). If you become a victim of crime, you will most probably go back to a previous "deficit oriented" (not self-actualized) status of the hierarchy of needs (levels 1-4), and the quality of your life (and that of your loved ones) would be painfully affected. In other words, there is an enormous chance that you will lose your self-actualized status (fifth level of the hierarchy), after having had to struggle so hard to achieve it.

Furthermore, you would also lose your sense of esteem and self esteem (fourth level), as well as your sense of "love and belonging" (third level: you will consider it hard to trust others)...even going back as far as your second level of your own psychological hierarchy: "Safety and Security". That's a lot to lose in terms of mental, emotional, and even physical health, isn't it?

TASER weapons, stun guns, pepper sprays, instructional fighting DVDs, surveillance equipments...these licit self defense products and non lethal weapons stand for so much more than just your physical security: these are important tools to help you secure all the mental and emotional wellbeing you and your family may accomplish in life. They represent your human right to defend your peace of mind and your emotional wellbeing, and that of your loved ones.

Who says that psychology doesn't have anything to do with prevention? And crime prevention begins with getting yourself reliable self defense weapons and products. If you protect yourself today, you might even free yourself and your family from years of psychotherapy aimed at reconstructing a shattered psychological hierarchy of needs that could have stood intact if only you had chosen to listen to a good advice...while time was still on your side.