As a CIA officer, I’ve been trained to handle a multitude of challenging and dangerous situations. Each experience has its own unique challenges and trials. Among the many experiences I’ve encountered, one stands out for its unique combination of physical pain and psychological impact: being tased.
For anyone trained in combat, being intentionally tased can be a particularly jarring experience. The loss of control and the inability to respond can be mentally destabilizing. Many operatives undergo training that includes being tased so that they can acclimate to the sensation and learn to recover more quickly, similar to FBI trainees being pepper sprayed.
The first thing that strikes you about being tased is the electrifying jolt that surges through your body. Picture a blitzkrieg of pain flooding your senses, leaving you momentarily paralyzed in its wake while feeling every bit of it.
The experience of being tased is an unrelenting assault on the body and mind that feels like an eternity of suffering despite the electrical pulse lasting 5 seconds.
The Physical Experience of Being Tased
The instant a TASER’s prongs make contact with your body it feels as if a bolt of lightning is trying to tear its way through your flesh, there’s an immediate sensation of sharp pain, similar to a sudden, intense and throbbing bee sting.
Then the electricity takes over.
The pain is localized around the area where the prongs enter, but the electric current spreads throughout the body. This makes movement or resistance virtually impossible. As the current from the TASER enters your body, your muscles seize up almost instantaneously. It feels as if every muscle in your body is cramping at once, a sensation that is both overwhelmingly intense and impossible to control. This full-body cramp can be accompanied by a sensation of heat where the TASER prongs have made contact with your skin.
The shock lasts for about five seconds, though in the midst of the experience, it feels much longer, eternal. Once the current is cut off, your muscles relax as abruptly as they seized up. You’re left with a lingering, aching soreness throughout your body, similar to the aftermath of an intense workout.
The Mental Experience of Being Tased
As the voltage subsides, the mental storm begins. It’s akin to being hit with a stun grenade; your pulse is racing, your senses are fried, and your thoughts are disoriented. Your body has just undergone a traumatic experience, and it’s struggling to make sense of it. There’s a feeling of vulnerability and violation, with a somewhat sense of humiliation or shame.
Long-term effects can include anxiety, especially in situations that remind the individual of the incident. Some people may experience flashbacks or nightmares, and it’s not uncommon to feel a heightened sense of caution or wariness around law enforcement or security personnel.
What Being Tased Does to The Body
When a TASER is deployed, it fires two small dart-like electrodes connected to the main unit by conductive wire. When these electrodes make contact with the skin or clothing, they deliver a high-voltage, low-amperage electrical charge.
This charge interferes with the communication between the brain and the muscles. Normally, your brain sends electrical signals through your nervous system to control muscle movement. When you’re tased, the sudden influx of electricity causes your motor neurons to fire all at once. This results in the intense muscle contractions described earlier.
Further, the pain and stress of the situation can cause a spike in adrenaline, which may contribute to the feelings of disorientation and confusion often reported after being tased. It’s also worth noting that while TASERs are generally considered non-lethal, they can still pose significant irreversible risks.
What being tased feels like is one of the worst experiences you can go through, both physically and psychologically – despite lasting just a few seconds. It’s a stark reminder of the importance of our work in law enforcement and intelligence, as well as the serious responsibility that comes with the use of such tools.
The experience has left me with a profound respect for the power of electricity, technology, non-lethal weaponology and a deepened understanding of the human body’s response to such extreme conditions.