Getting pepper sprayed feels pretty much like I imagine dipping your face in a deep fryer might. For those first seconds especially, your entire face is shocked to a new level of awareness with the intense pain. Besides the pain, your eyes force themselves shut and your throat and nasal passages constrict. So now your can't see, you feel as if you're suffocating, and the pain continues.
The first time I was pepper sprayed, there had been numerous methods proposed beforehand to reduce the effects. Some people said milk was the way to go to wash it off. One guy even bought a wax-like face ointment that he thought would help seal his pores and keep the OC out. Good idea, but I couldn't understand his comments on it's effectiveness over the sound of him yelling.
The whole point of the exercise was so that each of us sprayed could understand and remember the effects of being hit with OC. Armed with this understanding, the theory was that we would be both a. less likely to use it on someone else without good cause, and b. if we were inadvertently sprayed ourselves, we would have the understanding that it doesn't have to completely incapacitate you. Basically, you'll survive it.
I see benefits to understanding the effectiveness of pepper spray. It's a great, fairly safe method of deterring attackers, either human or animal. The downside to using in self defense is that is doesn't necessarily stop the aggression. Just as my experience taught me to anticipate the effects, anyone who has been sprayed before will understand that yes it hurts and yes you'll be blind, but an angry, blind attacker can still cause harm.
Besides as a pocket self defense tool, pepper spray could be a good addition to you outdoor pack
as well. Depending on the restrictions in your state, carrying a firearm
may not be an option at all. Pepper spray or even bear spray,
if legal in your area, is worth considering.
In the light of the ongoing protests and subsequent law enforcement responses, pepper spray has been a topic of recent discussion. So what if you are accidentally or even intentionally sprayed?
It is going to hurt, particularly for the initial half hour after you are sprayed. Flush your face, eyes, nose, mouth with cool water. It is particularly irritating to the membranes in those areas, so focus there. As much of the mucous as you can get out of your nose and mouth, do. It'll help! If you try to shower, be very careful - the water will roll down the rest of your body, carrying the pepper spray with it, possibly to other parts of your body where you especially don't want it.
My experience with OC spray followed this approximate timeline:
- First 1 minute - intense pain, blindness, trouble breathing, almost complete disorientation because of the loss of your primary senses
- Next 20 minutes to 1 hour - slowly restored vision and breathing returned to normal. My nose and eyes were still running like crazy.
- Following 2-3 hours - decreasing pain that I would say is about on the level of a pretty bad sunburn. It was the next day before the effects were 100% gone.
