They use specialized psychological defenses including denial, minimization, rationalization, blaming, intimidation and proclaiming the right to make their own decisions in life. Like victims of oppression, they go underground in their attempts to protect their freedom. Their defenses become habitual and function smoothly even when cognitive faculties begin to fail. Under desperate conditions, humans do things they could not imagine under normal conditions. Members of the Donner party commited acts of cannibalism.
People regularly jump out of high windows to escape fire.
Under crisis conditions, we are able to make rapid calculations as to the most likely path for survival. My work with adults who were subjected to extreme abuse as children has indicated that this capacity for prioritizing between terrible choices is available at an early age. Employee assistance programs and professional assistance programs employ a strategy that frames a crisis such that the alcoholic must choose between loss of job and recovery. The defensive bulwark that their self-preservative systems erect against all influences for change is sufficient under most conditions to maintain the addiction, but it can be breached. Alcoholics sometimes experience a sudden spontaneous awakening.