[Mal Bridgeman]

I am sure we have discussed this a number of times and at the end of the day people will subscribe to whatever voodoo works for them .... if you've been out for a night on the town with a bunch of mates who are drinking and you are not, and they try to behave like they are sober then I think you pretty much have the scene of the Narcosis deny-ers

Narcosis is a physical thing so can be tolerated by some more easily than others but to deny it affects one at all, is somewhat ill-informed. The increases in partial pressure affects the brain and the rate of change of that partial pressure seems to be a contributory factor too.

Nitrogen is the initial cause and gives the slightly intoxicated feeling and you do the "I must be super alert" routine so you check your guages and buddies a little too frequently but since you don't really absorb the info you need to check them again pretty soon just to prove you are on top of your game.

A CO2 related narcosis has a much bigger effect and causes those panicky types of narcosis.

Neither is good since they impair the diver's ability to make good decisions.

Recognising this in yourself takes a little getting used to but for me, it's better to recognise it and find strategies to deal with it than it is to live in the fuzzy world of denial waiting for something bad to happen.

Me? I subscribe to the view that I get narc'd on every dive and there have been a couple of dives where decisions I made were a little too dumb even for my liking, mainly in the 40m plus range, and it's why I now like to use helium.

Mal