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Old 09-08-07, 09:19 AM
Mal Bridgeman's Avatar
Mal Bridgeman Mal Bridgeman is online now
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An interesting tale.

There are those who believe that narcosis can be adapted to.....

I, though, subscribe to the view that there are two forms of narcosis ....

the "fuzzy" narcosis which makes us slow and a little confused but seems enjoyable... like when you look at your contents gauge but 2 secs later have no idea what it said so you look again

the "panic" narcosis when everything is really scarey and can lead to irrational behaviour like bolting for the surface.

The fuzzy narcosis is caused by higher Nitrogen partial pressures and the panic is caused by raised CO2 partial pressures.

So when worried by something and breathing rate increases so does the CO2partial pressure which leads to that very uncomfortable feeling. It's why the STOP, THINK, BREATHE, ACT mantra is so good....a good lungful of fresh gas can make big difference to this feeling.

Could this be the case with your cave incident? On the second day without the fears your breathing rate remained calm so without the CO2, you didn't get "the willies". No doubt you were still narc'ed but with the fuzzy one instead.

HTH
Mal
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