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The instincts that cause human beings to survive are numerous, multifaceted, and intertwined. In my life, the survival instinct that evolution gave most people, has worked both for and against me. It has also sometimes worsened my symptoms of mental illness, and yet at other times has been grounding. 

The survival instinct, when it is not quite right, can stymie a person's endeavors toward success. You could be on the verge of a milestone or an essential step, and the excitement of it can be frightening, and this fright being one instance of a survival instinct. When this happens, a person could sabotage their own efforts. For many of us, success is too scary. It can mean becoming someone else or something else than you have been. It can feel safer to remain in a mire of deprivation and of barely getting by. 

Yet, if the mind is compromised, which is a completely different scenario from above, the survival instinct can still work for or against us. It can prevent doing something ill-advised and irreversible. Yet it can also be misdirected and can cause us to act improperly toward cops or innocent bystanders. 

The survival instinct can cause a "fight or flight" response. This served me in one instance in which my housing was in jeopardy, and I needed to immediately shower and do something to fix an urgent problem related to remaining housed. The survival instinct motivates me on a continuous basis to do the tasks needed in life, as an independent disabled man. 

Physical and mental fatigue, as well as becoming stressed out can be seen as survival mechanisms. When the body takes over and decides that you need to rest, it is probably in your best interest, unless something is up that's absolutely vital and that you can't miss. In a job situation, if the job pushes me too far beyond what I can handle, which includes about 95% of my work attempts, the instinct is to get out. This is self-preservation. There are valid reasons that I do not have conventional employment. 

Too much fear and too much worry over a long stretch of time take their toll on the body and mind. Yet, some amount of worry and stress are necessary. The human body functions on some amount of apprehension and some amount of comfort. To go too far in either direction is unbalanced. 

The capacity for pain is essential to survival. There is an extremely rare birth defect in which a child is born who does not feel pain. They do not develop normally and do not have a clue of how to prevent harming themselves. They need to always wear a helmet, and they need constant supervision. 

I will add that mental pain and/or emotional pain are essential. Certain types of mental pain are intended, in my observation, to prevent overstraining the central nervous system. Pain also helps us get to sleep. Sleep is essential to the maintenance of the brain. 

When Buddhists reach "attainment" a state in which, purportedly, they have transcended all pain, it does not mean that pain is absent. It merely means that, on another level, they are not involved in their pain. Buddhists who are enlightened may also need some level of worry, in order to keep their brains working and to keep engaged with essentials. 

Buddhists, if advanced in their practice, don't often panic. But when they do, it is probably for a very good reason! 

Sometimes mental illness is caused by trying to circumvent the survival mechanisms to achieve some other objective. In some instances, we equate something purely symbolic with survival. The survival mechanism is changeable, and when it is changed toward something inappropriate, it can trigger symptoms of mental illness, especially in combination with other factors, such as a genetic predisposition. 

Psychosis can be caused by many things. When a person's psychosis is persistent and will not cease without introducing medication, they are likely to be mentally ill. Too much fear can trigger an increase in symptoms. Symptoms can generate unnecessary fear. Then we are in a vicious cycle. And this sometimes causes a person to spiral into a relapse. 

A psychiatrist said that valium is good for schizophrenics. This is not often given because it is habit forming. Comparatively, antipsychotics are a lot less fun to take. A patient is hooked on benzos when they are constantly asking for a higher amount. Benzodiazepines are sometimes prescribed because the survival mechanism is generating unnecessary anxiety that interferes with living. Being too afraid of everything could be something evolution gave us, but if often interferes with doing necessary things we need to do to survive independently.