Re: Important 'cause...
"Either your brain massively overclocks in an emergency, to get more done in a short time, or something weird happens to your perception of time."
I strongly believe it's the latter. The conscious parts of our brain are a bit delayed, and often our "rational thinking" is just rationalizing things that have already happened rather than truly coming to any decisions. The conscious brain will also lie harder than Trump that this isn't the case at all and that it's totally in control at all times.
I suspect what happened in your case is that the lower parts of your brain recognized the mortal danger you were in, and started screaming "stopstopstopSTOPSTOPSTOPDEATHSTOPDEATHSTOPYOUMORON". Your foot was on the brake while your conscious mind was still going, "Huh? What's that noise? What're you going on about now?" Then, when the car stopped, the screaming subsided into something it could understand - a sign, harbour, water, danger, death, must stop. Already stopped? What? Fake news! I'm the decider! Clearly I did the research, analyzed the situation, and decided on the best course of action. It took a while, it sure was a hard job, but I did it! Nobody else could!
And your lizard brain rolls its eyes and says, "Sure, buddy, whatever you say. I reacted in 200ms and saved us cause that's something I was evolved to do. But you can't do SHIT in 200ms so it must've really been half a minute. Sure."
Biting the hand that feeds IT
