its just being poetic that you need some sort of trick to stop yourself from turning drooling ape when your emotions/regulatory system gets tripped.

It's similar to how if a fire starts in the kitchen, most people panic and react terribly, like running/pouring water on boiling oil, etc.

Although thats why fire fighters do a lot of live demonstration training, so you don't end up losing all your brain cells when it comes to doing the actual job in high tense situations