Scubasmed22
Registered
I had a very strange experience on my last trip. I have never had any anxiety in the water. I had roughly 10 dives under my belt. As I came out of a swim through and over the wall, I immediately had an extremely panicked feeling. My breathing rate accelerated and had an undeniable urge to bolt for the surface. Realizing I was in a somewhat irrational state, I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing. I managed to slow myself down and gather my senses. My wife noticed I was stressed once we got on the top of the wall. I signaled to her I needed to abort the dive and we did. Our DM pointed us to the line and we completed our safety stop together without incident.
The following shallow dive was uneventful. But, I still had a very anxious feeling. Consequently, I went through my air a bit quicker than normal.
The next days diving was really tough. As we submerged, I really panicked. I was no deeper than 10 feet and had to surface. The intense panic feeling had returned. After surfacing for a few seconds, I submerged and completed the dive. However, I had a fairly high anxiety level the entire dive.
I managed to complete the remainder of the weeks dives. I don't know that I ever truly relaxed again. I have tried to figure out what my problem is. Claustraphobia? Perhaps. Vertigo? Maybe. Some type of anxiety? Possible. My point is, have any of you gone through this? If so, how did you get over it? Is what I am going through completely unheard of?
Let me say, I did develop some coping skills. When submerging, I found using the mooring line helped my feeling of falling. When wall diving, if I took going over the edge really slowly, it seemed to help. While on the wall, I tried to focus on the wall rather than the abyss below. I avoided swim throughs the remainder of the trip.
I want to be able to descend without the mooring line. I have no good reason why except everyone else was able to. I want to enjoy swim throughs. I just feel terrible while in them. I want enjoy the wall. I just feel sick the whole time I'm on it.
I had no problem with dives where I could see the bottom. Depth didn't seem to matter. Can anyone give me any suggestions, diagnosis, additional training, book suggestions, courses, anything?
I LOVE to dive. But, I don't want to go through this again. Help!
The following shallow dive was uneventful. But, I still had a very anxious feeling. Consequently, I went through my air a bit quicker than normal.
The next days diving was really tough. As we submerged, I really panicked. I was no deeper than 10 feet and had to surface. The intense panic feeling had returned. After surfacing for a few seconds, I submerged and completed the dive. However, I had a fairly high anxiety level the entire dive.
I managed to complete the remainder of the weeks dives. I don't know that I ever truly relaxed again. I have tried to figure out what my problem is. Claustraphobia? Perhaps. Vertigo? Maybe. Some type of anxiety? Possible. My point is, have any of you gone through this? If so, how did you get over it? Is what I am going through completely unheard of?
Let me say, I did develop some coping skills. When submerging, I found using the mooring line helped my feeling of falling. When wall diving, if I took going over the edge really slowly, it seemed to help. While on the wall, I tried to focus on the wall rather than the abyss below. I avoided swim throughs the remainder of the trip.
I want to be able to descend without the mooring line. I have no good reason why except everyone else was able to. I want to enjoy swim throughs. I just feel terrible while in them. I want enjoy the wall. I just feel sick the whole time I'm on it.
I had no problem with dives where I could see the bottom. Depth didn't seem to matter. Can anyone give me any suggestions, diagnosis, additional training, book suggestions, courses, anything?
I LOVE to dive. But, I don't want to go through this again. Help!