Panic at Depth......

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by RuthH

I have a lot of panic attacks so I thought I'd add my two pence worth. I've only done four dives though. On my first attempt at diving in the sea I panicked (this must be fairly common) but then I was terrified when I arrived at the dive centre, let alone when I got in the boat, let alone when I was floating in the water doing a buoyancy check...

Ruth, I'm exactly the same as you. I'm a very new diver (did my 16th dive last night) and I used to get really nervous before each dive, not sleeping the night before, feeling sick, not being able to eat anything before the dive! It does get better, believe me. I've only done 16 dives and already the nerves are fading. I had a nasty experience last night, though. Seven of us were diving off Cawsands in Devon. Five descended down a shot line but my buddy and I descended a little way from them. I immediately lost sight of the others and had trouble equalising. I signalled to my buddy that I was going up. When we got to the surface, the current had pulled us about 120 metres from the shot line. I could feel the panic rising and my breathing started to speed up but my buddy was fantastic. She calmed me down, we held hands so as not to get separated, swam back to the shot line, descended with no problems and had a good dive. I very nearly blew it but once I was back under the water, I was fine. I seem to do most of my panicking at the surface! All I could think about were the trailers from that new film 'Open Water' where the American couple are stranded at sea! At least there aren't any sharks at Cawsands!

[Helen F H]

Originally Posted by Kirstie

Ruth, I'm exactly the same as you. I'm a very new diver (did my 16th dive last night) and I used to get really nervous before each dive, not sleeping the night before, feeling sick, not being able to eat anything before the dive! It does get better, believe me. I've only done 16 dives and already the nerves are fading. I had a nasty experience last night, though. Seven of us were diving off Cawsands in Devon. Five descended down a shot line but my buddy and I descended a little way from them. I immediately lost sight of the others and had trouble equalising. I signalled to my buddy that I was going up. When we got to the surface, the current had pulled us about 120 metres from the shot line. I could feel the panic rising and my breathing started to speed up but my buddy was fantastic. She calmed me down, we held hands so as not to get separated, swam back to the shot line, descended with no problems and had a good dive. I very nearly blew it but once I was back under the water, I was fine. I seem to do most of my panicking at the surface! All I could think about were the trailers from that new film 'Open Water' where the American couple are stranded at sea! At least there aren't any sharks at Cawsands!

Get yourself a flag - only about £15. Bungee on your tanks. Dive boat would be pretty pushed to lose you with one of them!

Well done for sticking with it.

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by Porg

Get yourself a flag - only about £15. Bungee on your tanks. Dive boat would be pretty pushed to lose you with one of them!

Well done for sticking with it.

Good advice! Are whistles worth bothering with? When we surfaced, I could see the boat way off on the other side of the shot line buoy but couldn't see the skipper, and a whistle might have attracted his attention if I'd needed to.

I've got to be honest, the main reason I carried on with the dive is because I didn't want to spoil it for my buddy. I didn't realise that the other five divers were waiting for us at the bottom of the line - in fact one was on her way back up to look for us. I thought that if I abandoned the dive, my buddy would have to as well, and I didn't want to disappoint her. For me, each dive is almost a battle with myself as I get so anxious. I feel I have to complete each dive as, if I abandon one just because of nerves, I'll never do it again. Silly, I know, but it works for me!

[Norseman]

Originally Posted by Chris Guimaraens

In seriousness I'll be totally honest here: I didn't use to have problems with depth until this year. For some reason (I began to notice since Easter week at Dover) I was not handling well depths beyond 25m. I was getting nervous and over cautious, the worst still was that I couldn't get rid thinking of all the worst case scenarios, i.e getting caught in netting, breathing the last breath etch. I mean this was happening at depths of 30m or even less. This has happened since even in clearish waters of Gozo.

If its narcosis or not I don't know.

Chris,

You should know that it very well could be narcosis, but not the one you're normally thinking of. CO2-narcosis happens if you do a bit of shallow breathing ending up with too much CO2 in your lungs. Apparently CO2 is many times more narcotic than N2.
The shallow breathing could appear from you already being a bit anxious. A worry about using too much air is enough for many divers to start doing shorting breaths without noticing. What happens then are all the symptoms you are talking about. I've experienced it myself, but that was through a hit at 36 meters and it was not pleasant. The only reason I didn't take the elevator was that I'd read about it and knew that the best way to get rid of the chemically induced thoughts was through deep breaths and focus on something close and small. All of a sudden the depth/I'm gonna die/run out of air-thoughts were gone!

Kyrre

[divegyrl]

Kirstie,
I have had to use a whistle only once in anger, but it proved it's weight in gold. I was in Florida on a drift dive, quite a fast drift and we get separated from the group. Only 18m, but I didn't know the area, finally convinced my buddy to ascend (she still had air left!) and when we got to the surface there were swells big enough to hide us from the boat which was about a mile away, out comes my trusty whistle and eventually the boat turned in our direction.
My buddy was very impressed that I had a whistle; the captain said he knew it was me because I was the only one on board carrying one!

But back to panic at depth....... my "narcosis" almost always exhibits itself as the paranoia type, racing heart, air hunger, ohmygodohmygodohmygod moments. The first time I noticed it was 2 years ago on a 42m dive, viz was a reasonable 2m and I was diving as a 3, I got a horrendous headache (now know it was CO2, probably from not breathing correctly) and just wanted to get to the surface ~ not good when there was deco obligations to do. I didn't want to ruin the dive for my buddies and would have continued on except once I let Juz know there was a problem, the only way was up

It usually hit me around the 30-35m range, and it's more a feeling of "unease". I can now recognise it and "talk myself out of it", but since I started visualization techniques before my dives it rarely happens anymore (or maybe that's doing deeper dives on mix!)

Both Daz & AA are right, no description can adequately describe that feeling, but recognising it and then doing the stuff that helps you overcome it keeps us alive

Blanaid

[Juz]

Originally Posted by divegyrl

once I let Juz know there was a problem, the only way was up

I firmly believe that I'd rather be 'on the boat wishing I was at the bottom, than on the bottom wishing I was on the boat!'

And I have no qualms at all about aborting a dive, and as such, no qualms about my buddy doing the same - they don't even have to give a reason if they don't wish to.

There will always be another chance to do that dive.

Juz

[Fiji Dave]

Originally Posted by Juz

I firmly believe that I'd rather be 'on the boat wishing I was at the bottom, than on the bottom wishing I was on the boat!'

And I have no qualms at all about aborting a dive, and as such, no qualms about my buddy doing the same - they don't even have to give a reason if they don't wish to.

There will always be another chance to do that dive.

Juz

Good thinking.

I shouldn't have had any qualms about aborting, but I did. I guess that's the panic taking over, and allowing it to take over is why I f*cked up big time. Talking things through with my girlfriend afterwards she said exactly the same thing. We can dive any time, so call the dive whenever and we never need to give a reason. Hopefully it won't happen again, but if it does I'll have the sense to abort.

Dave

[Helen F H]

This is by far the best whistle i have ever used. I had to be able to recall kids while sailing, and this is what we used. Perry Whistles can be a bit feeble sometimes, especially if you are out of breath. This is LOUD!

[Juz]

Where from Helen?

Juz

[Helen F H]

I don't know where you can get them from now. Field and Trek used to sell them (no longer do) and the same with Cotswold Outdoor. My local outdoor shop sell them for a couple of quid. They are well worth finding - I got this picture from a gun-dog site.

They are called Tornado whistles if that is any help. If you have real problems getting them I will go in, buy you one and post it! (how's that for service!)