Forget the lone wolf mentality! The best way to prepare for disaster and survival is to get your community on board for strength in numbers.

This is why a lot of people are being proactive and joining survival communities. Aside from strengthening our resources and security together, there is also a lot to learn from other preppers.

However, there are some types of preppers who won’t just drive you crazy, but could put your life at risk.

Avoid these types of preppers!

The Bragging Prepper

It is great to be prepared by having a stockpile of food, a self-sufficient food system, rainwater harvesting system, and off-grid energy source. It is even great to talk to your neighbors about why this is important. What you do NOT want to do is brag about how much prep work you’ve done.

Even though it is common sense that you should shut up about your disaster stockpiles, a lot of preppers can’t help themselves. They feel the urge to brag about all their prep work. And guess whose door the unprepared neighbors are going to come knocking on when SHTF?

That’s why you need to avoid bragging preppers!

The Conspiracy Theorist Prepper

It is great to keep up on the news so you can take action at the first sign of a big disaster. What isn’t good is when you read so far into the news that you start to see conspiracies everywhere.

Even when there IS a legitimate conspiracy theory, it doesn’t mean that it is okay to be a “conspiracy theorist prepper.” You just waste time talking about all those cover ups and plots.

I personally prefer to avoid these types of preppers because I’d rather save my time and energy for doing actual prep work instead of listening to bitching and complaining about conspiracies.

The Tunnel Vision Prepper

A tunnel vision prepper is someone who is so convinced that XYZ disaster is going to happen that he spends all his time preparing for that specific disaster. Of course some disasters are more likely than others (like these disasters which are most likely to strike). And we each have disaster scenarios which worry us on a personal level more than others. But focusing on one type of disaster isn’t going to help you.

I find that tunnel vision preppers often overlook the very basics – like going to great lengths to prepare for a grid outage but forgetting to secure their homes from burglars.

You don’t need to avoid tunnel vision preppers completely. Often, they are so focused on the one disaster that they have thought out every single detail of it. This can be very valuable information for you.

However, tunnel vision preppers can often waste your time in a discussion because they don’t want to talk about anything but their particular disaster.

The Gun Enthusiast Prepper

Gun rights is a really popular topic in the prepper and survival communities. I don’t want to get into the politics of it here. But I do want to warn you to avoid gun enthusiast preppers. These are the types of preppers who are so fixated on their guns that they fail to fully plan or prepare for disasters.

They think that guns will be the answer to all of their problems. When confronted with a weakness in their plan, their answer is just to stockpile more guns.

Yes, guns are definitely a good survival weapon and can help you in a lot of ways. But a gun isn’t going to help you make a shelter, find clean water, cure a bacterial infection, and so forth.

Stay away from the gun enthusiast types of preppers. In a SHTF situation, they’ll probably be the ones doing stupid stuff like shooting at everyone, wounding your family, and giving away your location.

The Commander Prepper

There is a big difference between a leader and a commander.

As this website says, commanding relies on getting people to do things the “commander” wants through the use of power, coercion and fear of punishment. By contrast, leaders inspire performance and desirable actions by gaining the group’s trust and respect, and by having common goals.

Even if the commander does know survival skills and has a good disaster plan, he isn’t going to be able to get his team to respond. Everyone hates being bossed around. The group dynamic will quickly suffer and everyone’s survival will be put at risk.

We need people to work together in SHTF situations, so avoid commander preppers!

The Religious Prepper

Don’t get me wrong. I believe that everyone has the right to worship, and I also think that religion will be a great comfort to people in disaster situations. In this sense, being religious and having faith is a great asset. What is NOT an asset is being obsessed about religion to the point that you read doomsday dates in the bible.

Even if it does turn out that the date of doomsday is somewhere in the bible (hey, I’m open to all ideas), I still think you should avoid the religious types of preppers. They are so obsessed with their own idea of doomsday that they can’t see the reality in front of them. It reminds me of that joke about a woman stuck during a flood:

A woman was stuck in her house during a flood. She began to pray to God to rescue her. The neighbor came by and offered her a ride in his pickup truck. She refused, saying, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The water started rising higher so the woman climbed onto her roof. A boat with rescue workers came by and urged her to get on the boat. She refused, saying, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The rescue workers drove off in the boat. Now the water was even higher. A rescue helicopter flew by and spotted the woman on the roof. They sent down a rope for her. But once again the woman refused, saying, “I am waiting for God to save me.” The water rose over the roof, swept the woman away, and she drowned. When the woman reached heaven, she asked, “God, why didn’t you save me?” God replied, “I sent you a pickup truck, a boat, and a helicopter! What else could I possibly do for you!”

In other words, don’t get so obsessed with your interpretation of religion that you overlook what God is doing and offering right in front of you.

The Fortune Teller

Here is the final type of prepper you should absolutely avoid. Fortune teller preppers are the ones who think they know exactly what will happen when SHTF. They are the ones who say matter-of-factly, “When EMP strikes, the entire grid will go down. Within 3 days, half the population will be rioting in the streets and looting. Within 1 month, people will have reorganized into groups…”

Yes, we CAN predict some things about the aftermath of a disaster fairly accurately – like that supermarkets will run out of food and that looting will occur. We know this from past experience with disasters like blizzards, earthquakes, and hurricanes.

However, NO ONE can predict exactly what will happen in a major SHTF scenario. For example, I’ve got a friend who survived the Bosnian war. He was trapped in Sarajevo during the siege which lasted 44 months. Instead of neighbors turning against each other and fighting for resources, they came together and helped each other. He’s got one great story about how they all took turns hauling water up the elevator shaft in his building since the plumbing and power were out.

It is great to listen to theories about what will happen during a SHTF disaster scenario because then you can prepare for the many possible outcomes. But avoid fortune teller preppers.

They will be so stuck on their idea of what will happen that they won’t be able to help you make well-rounded preparations.

What types of preppers do you think need to be avoided?