You are walking down a dark street at night and you sense someone walking behind you. You don’t want to appear paranoid, so you avoid turning around to face them. Is this what you should do? Or let’s say that you are at your favorite bar and a man will not stop pestering you. What do you do? When you are faced with the sudden prospect of a potentially dangerous confrontation, you are immediately thrown into a whirlpool of decision-making. Should you act? Should you turn away and run? What should you do? Here are some tips for how to avoid potentially dangerous confrontations.

What to do when you are feeling paranoid

The question goes something like this: to follow or not to follow your instincts? This can also be phrased as: are you being overly paranoid? When you are feeling paranoid, the best thing to do is to follow your own instincts. The basic truth is that you are probably feeling paranoid for a reason, and you are probably always better off following your instincts than trying to suppress them. Will there be times when your instincts appear to be completely wrong and you feel silly for being so paranoid? Most certainly, yes, your instincts will sometimes be completely off. But in the long run, you should always do what you feel most comfortable doing, even if you suspect that you are being paranoid.

Get away, now, and as fast as you can

The best thing you can do when you are faces with a potentially dangerous confrontation is to flee as fast as you can. This need not be a dramatic movie-type escape that leads to a high-speed chase. No, getting away as fast as you can may simply mean that you excuse yourself from the bar and move to a different table. If you find yourself stuck in that nightmare scenario of walking down an abandoned alleyway with a shadow on your tail, don’t be afraid of appearing paranoid, strange, and rude or whatever it may be. Go ahead and cross the street. If the shadow behind you also crosses the street, maybe it becomes evident that you have good reason to be suspicious.

Use your cell phone to your advantage

Most of us carry and use personal cell phones with us as if our life depended on it. The thing about cell phones is that they can actually make the difference between life or death. If you feel caught in a perilous situation, do not be afraid to use your cell phone to your advantage. Open it up, dial and talk to someone. This display of communication can often be enough to keep potential predators off your track. Even if you are not really talking to someone on the cell phone, don’t be afraid to whip it out and at least pretend to be talking on it.

Avoid the potentially dangerous confrontation with a little help from your friends

One of the best ways to overcome a potentially dangerous confrontation is to buddy up with a friend or a group of friends. You are much less likely to be attacked or approached if you are traveling in a group. Enlist a group of friends for going to bars, nightclubs, parties or other places where you think you may be susceptible to strange or potentially dangerous encounters. If possible, you should try to come up with a signal that you and your friends share. This secret language of signals can be used to indicate any number of things, including signals for wanting to leave, needing assistance, or any other type of communication.