Panic Attacks?

[Cold_Under_Here]

I had my first ever panic attack underwater. It was mainly due to poor visibility, new depths and buddies who weren't really buddies. I have managed to control this by visualising the dive before hand and thinking about ways I can help myself when my buddy has disapeared.

 

[CaptainNemo]

Just curious if panic attacks are common among other divers? The reason I ask is because my dive buddy and I went to a local quarry last weekend and he suffered from a panic attack once we hit the water. He was really shaken up about it and he has about 300 logged dives. Is this a common thing? I haven't had any troubles before but was just curious.

Thanks

Bryan

Is your dive buddy a heavy drinker of alcoholic beverages? I had a friend with the same problem. That was the first question asked in the ER. The answer was yes. He is still a heavy drinker and has had another one since then. Just a thought and my 2 cents worth.

 

[Babydamulag]

All of this discussion is good. Divers need to get these subjects out in the open. I have learned that divers give off a "scent" when they are a little anxious about the dive. Sometimes the diver will show no signs and have an attack (active or passive) while on the dive. I have learned that most divers get panicked when something in the dive is "not normal" for them. The DM needs to pick the divers brain about their experiences and what they have on their mind. I always take unknown divers on an easy dive. I make sure the diver can see the ocean floor from the boat. We always do the entry at 5m and then make sure we go no deeper than 20m. I also touch the diver from time to time. There is something about someone touching you that keeps the panic away. Eye contact is what tells the story....always. Divers speak with their eyes. A good DM will look into the eyes of all the divers and read their emotion. It is easy to see the "panicked" just by their eyes. This is an art developed over time as well. Divers are a little more fearless than the average person anyway....it is the breaching of the fear threshhold that throws someone into a full panic. As DM's we need to always learn about our divers, watch them always, develop dives that reduce the possibility of throwing people into panic. This is a lot of work but it is rewarding when it works. Always keep 50 bar!!

 

[matt_unique]

There is no experience level at which a diver is immune to a panic attack. The more experienced diver will recognize and address factors that could lead to a panic attack sooner. Too much exertion at depth for example, build up of C02 in your system, etc.

--Matt

 

[Daylonious]

Reminds me of the steps in the US Army Survival Guide

1) Keep a positive mental atititude

2) Accept your current situation

3) If no solution readily presents itself, improvise.

 

[diptera]

Everyone panics sometimes, it's fairly common and often a helpful reaction. As to Al M's comment that people who have ever had a panic attack should take up tennis, well, I think he's wrong (and a bit too macho ).

1st reason - If he's right then a majority of divers should quit, now. anxiety under

Maybe the majority SHOULD quit. There's no reason Sturgeon's Law (95% of everything is crap) shouldn't apply to divers, especially in this era of profit driven mania to remove barriers to entry.

Panic is not a helpful reaction. Panic is where rational behavior ends. Panic kills. Those who are prone to panic should avoid activities where panic can kill them. Your "macho" characterization is a needless ad hominem that implies that only machismo would motivate the proposition that there are traits incompatible with diving.

In 18 years of diving and 16 years of teaching, I have never panicked or known anyone, except for one person, who panicked. The one was doing his OW cert dives, and he would have died without immediate outside intervention. I've experienced reverse block so bad it made me vomit, during a night dive - I wasn't happy, but I didn't panic. I know people who've experienced entanglement and loss of all light on a night dive, who didn't panic. I've seen people in real OOA situations who didn't panic. It's not that common, nor should it be.

Most of the people who claim to have panicked or witnessed panic, are incorrect. If they maintained control, they didn't panic. Panic is a one way street until the source of stress/fear is removed. Fear is not panic; stress is not panic; anxiety is not panic. They are all causes of panic. Odds are, if you are around to talk about a negative situation you experienced underwater, you did not panic. In fact, if you have clear recollection of an event, then it wasn't panic.

Good training will, to some limited extent, probe for a person's panic threshhold. If that threshhold is to low, then, yes, as Al said, that person should seek recreational activities to which they are better suited, among them tennis.

 

[bigbluedodge]

I have been reading this post with much interest and had no intention of posting, but with the last couple of posts I feel that I can post my experience/opinions.

I live with ( not suffer from) a depression/anxiety disorder. I have experienced many panic/anxiety attacks. They used to rule my life. Through much therapy and much work I have learned to recognize a panic attack for what it is, remind myself immediately what it is and breathe through it. I do not feel it poses a hazzard to me or to my dive buddy. My panic/anxiety doesn't really come with a situation one would think would cause panic. Have I ever panicked in the water? Sure on my first real lesson. I was doing my emergency w/o air assent, felt panicked, but did it right, then when I got to the top, lost my mind a bit, couldn't stay on top of the water....my instructor was on his way to me when I suddenly remembered " DUH you have a regulator. put it in my mouth then went DUH again ( really did think DUH) and inflated my BC. And that was at my first lesson. I have a panic/anxiety disorder....but that doesn't stop me from being as able as someone who doesn't to handle situations. ( might panic afterward though). I think there is not one blanket answer for everyone.
Should someone with panixc/anxiety problems think seriously as to whether diving is safe for them? Absolutely! But whether or not I have panic/anxiety disorder doesn't change my dive plans. I know that I need to plan well, and not plan a dive outside of my boundries or comfort zone. I also know that if I am not comfortable with a dive for ANY reason, I abort. My instructor taught me well.

SkyBird

i can second most of what you have said. i live with these wonderful conditions as well. scuba is a very "safe place" for me i feel very secure in the fact that i have had very very thorough instructors, i have unfortunatly had to use some of my emergency training on ow dives however in both situation i managed to keep it together and to calm myself so that i could properly react to the problems. it would have been far more likely for me to let myself go into a paniced or highly agitated state if i had not been at depth or in the water period. i dive with my wife, faythe and she is my world, when we dive i focus on watching over her as she snaps away with the canon, i find the entire dive event to be very calming. it helps to clear my mind of evrything else that has no relevance on the moment. from the moment we begin to kit up to the time i hand my fins to the assistants on the boat at the the i am at peace, (for the lack of better words and a little less cheese, lol) we have experienced some more advanced dives in the time we have been cert but the dm's have always comented on how relaxed and calm we where through all dives. as for the coment that i should be one of the ones to take up tenis... that is a very ignorant and un-educated thing to have stated, heck i be willing to venture that he has had a least a couple of students that are or have been treated for depresion/anxiety disorders that he was completely unawre of, i'd go so far as to say that they would more then likely have been his better students.

cheers skybird

 

[DementialFaith]

I don't know if I'm speaking for everyone, but everytime I'm down at depth, there's always a slight sense of agititation(fear, though not exactly). Kinda like feeling "something doesn't seemed right" with your sixth sense. So in a sense every dive I did kinda has some element of panic, still I believe that some fear is always helpful in keeping me alert.

 

[utnapistim]

The closest I've come to it was last winter with a too wight wetsuit. It was squeezing me too hard and I had a difficulty maintaining a slow constant breating.

Also, I got preety close on a dive in Malta w/ a 3mm shorty, in 20deg. celsius at 22m and surrounded by stinging jellifish (then I just decided that everything was preety funny and wanted to laugh - the first time I realized I was narked).

 

[Fish_Whisperer]

I've had three experiences of apprehension that could have resulted in panic, I suppose...

1. Certification dive in Vortex Spring, FL. We had done our skills check-offs on a little plateau, about 40' down. After that, my instructor motioned me to follow him and he went over a set of boulders that were around the rim of the plateau. As I crested this and looked down, it was like staring into the Abyss. I made the descent, and we ended up a short distance inside of a cave. (We didn't go any further than just inside the entrance) But I realized at that moment, just how much water and rock was overhead, and I felt a little strange...

2. Second OW dive during the same trip, the vis wasn't that good, and we were diving a sunken bridge. (Bridge Span 14, for those who know it) I always feel nervous when diving around manmade structures, and my fins got snared in some fishing line. When I couldn't get disentangled, I started to get a little "thrashy" about it, but then took that as my cue to slow down, breathe, and begin methodically working on it. I got most of it off, when my dive master came over and cut the rest of it with his knife.

3. Diving the wreck, C53, in Cozumel. I mentioned being apprehensive about diving man-made structures, and I put out my hand on a doorway to steady myself and wait for the dive leader to move through a hatch leading to the lower decks. My buoyancy was good and I wasn't gripping the doorway at all, but as soon as I placed my hand on it, something went right through my glove like a hot knife through butter. It grazed my finger, but if I would have put my palm on it, I have no doubt that it would have gone right through my hand. I'd also (like a dumb-azz) forgotten my dive light and in the lower decks, it was pitch black. I just stayed close to the dive leader and made my way along, remembering where his light had shone. It was a dumb mistake, but there you have it... Returning above decks was a welcome relief.

All in all, when I feel my breathing get faster and I begin feeling apprehensive, I take those very things as my cues to take a nice deep breath, relax physically and mentally, and evaluate the situation and all of my options.

The Army Survival Guide steps are good:

1. Accept
2. Evaluate
3. Act (Improvise & Overcome)