Nervous Nellie in the water-- even after a dozen dives

[Matt S.]

OP, how are your skills like mask replacement and air donating?

If you can absolutely master those skills they will give you confidence. You can practice them in water shallow enough to stand up in, too.

Good luck!

 

[Imla]

I have never been to Alaska but I have been in Finland and Sweden and Norway although not diving. Even during the day the sun does not get directly overhead. I am guessing that would also reduce the amount of light that penetrates to depth. If that is the case it would be another reason to use a small light sometimes during the day.

The sun may not get directly overhead, but this time of year it is hard to get a decent nightdive in Norway without staying up untill the wee hours.

But, to get back on topic...

Knowing exactly what you talk about... drysuit... Algae... murky cold waters... what I theorize is the problem here is really your breathing.
And it surprises me slightly that ppl have not mentioned it before.

With a drysuit, a hood and heavy gear everything gets heavy and cumbersome. This increases the need to ventilate CO2, but decreases the bodys natural ability to adjust breathing pattern to do such a thing. Being anxious and very often breathing "on the top of your lungs", but at a elevated rate will further diminish your bodys ability to expel CO2 from the lungs.

CO2 has a very narcotic AND anxiety enhancing effect, and your breathing pattern might very well be what is the reason for your troubles.

I really do not understand this SB tendency to advice all divers that encourage trouble to "Go somewhere warm and fuzzy"... Very often there is a good explanation to the problem people are experiencing.

I normally dive in Norway. I dive all year round, and there is no such thing as a "dive season". Drysuit all year!

I would like to challenge you. Find a favourite patient buddy. Plan a series of dives over a weekend, or afternoons during the week. For each dive, you challenge your own comfort levels. Dive #1 Descend to 15 feet. Find a small patch of "anything that grows". Lay still and focus on hovering over this patch. Keep focus on your breath. One trick I did to remember to do good exhales was to take short inhales, counting to three, and longer exhales, really expelling the air over a count to 6. Keep breathing. Keep focus. When you feel you are breathing good, take a minute, and check if you feel that anxiety feeling.
Dive #2 Descend to 25 feet... Do the same
Dive #3 Descend to 40 feet... Do the same
And then on...

Make sure you feel calm, and know that your breathing is purposeful before you go on.

Edit:
Oh... And you are NOT a nervous nellie for calling a dive when you have had enough. ANY diver can call ANY dive at ANY time without ANY reason!!
Remember, low viz, cold water and drysuit will all tax your concentration. It takes time to "exercise" this capability, so maybe a good idea would also be to plan shorter dives so you would not experience getting exhausted and had to "call" the dive.

 

[lamarpaulski]

If you can survive Alaska (kudos to you !) then a tropical or semi tropical vacation would seem like a breeze to you. You can get aquarium like conditions in some places. i agree with the other posters...go to Hawaii or S. Pacific or Carribean. I was in Kona a couple winters ago and every other diver was from Alaska or the mid west. Also, I would suggest you be very picky on days you do dive Alaska so you avoid pea soup and hit the primo conditions. Most places Pea soup ain't worth it unless you're getting gold nuggets.. imho. Experience gradually quells the nellies too.

 

[TheWonder3FeetUnder]

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't realize that there were more replies because I stopped getting notifications.

I like the reassurance that anxiety will probably go away after many dives.

I also like the suggestion to not analyze the situation and to "just dive". Analyzing the situation is what I do best and I agree that it increases anxiety.

i think my anxiety is multi-fold:
1) fear of the critters I can't see, especially the ones hiding under the huge plants on the floor.
2) equipment failure
3) fear of overly curious sea lions or the occasional orca.
4) I have this weird fear of an unstoppable descent into the abyss. As though some force would pull me down. I think this is pretty unreasonable because I could always drop my weights and plus the BC and drysuit have air in them, making this unlikely. Regardless, because of this fear I hang very close to the wall where I can always grab on.
5) I have a weird fear of my air tank slipping out of my BC and dragging me down by the regulator, or worse, ripping the regulator out of my mouth and leaving me without an air source and needing to do a CESA.
6) I have a weird fear of an extremely strong unexpected current wisking me out away from the wall and out into the abyss
7) I have a strong fear of my mask getting bumped completely off of my head and getting lost in the pea soup, leaving me completely unable to see and needing to assend blindly, or worse, resulting in a blind descent into the abyss, never to surface again.


I purposefully concentrate very hard on deep, slow, methodical breathing when I get more anxious. It definitely helps. It doesn't take the anxiety away completely but it definitely immediately clears my mind up and takes me out of panic mode.

Most of this strong anxiety doesn't start until 10 feet down. I can stay for hours having a blast within 10 feet, although I am very very slightly anxious even within 10 feet.

 

[Prostardiver]

My wife has had bouts of nervousness while diving. The best thing we found was to give her a "job". She once dived while holding a flooded camera. The DM kept pointing out cool things for her to shoot. So she "had" to go take the shot. It was a great day.

 

[OkByMe]

I think you just have too much going on. Dry-suit, cold water, trim, buoyancy, poor visibility and there probably is not squat to see anyway. Bite the bullet and go to the Florida Keys, specifically Key Largo and go out with Ocean divers. They have nice big boats and will run reef only dives. Visibility is well over 100' and if you go during the Summer/Fall you won't even need to wear a wetsuit. I would advise a skin though.

All you have to do then is get neutral and enjoy the dive. Once you get all that under control and want to venture a little deeper, there are wrecks with loads of fish in 40' - 120' with a little current and very good visibility. For that you may need a 3/5 wetsuit. There are a bunch of places to stay within a mile of the harbor canal where the dive shop is. In fact, stay with their partner and they will cut a deal. I have been to Largo at least fifty times and have never been disappointed outside of the weather.

Now if you get spooked by sea life... well you will have to get over that. There is nothing like hanging 15' from the surface in about 45' of water and big schools of spotted rays come swimming around you. There are a lot of finger reefs that all these schools swim through. Since these areas are in a Marine Preserve there is no fishing line to get tangled in and no one fishing to bring in the larger predators. If, after a trip like that, you can't get confident and comfortable... Then maybe diving is not for you.

 

[tamas970]

1. (critters) - get to know them better / don't dive the area, where the ones you fear live. (My case: Crocodile & Great White)

2. That is what your course is for. No gear is made in heaven, it DOES fail. You have to learn how to tackle that. Yes, there are no unlimited reserves. If you cant live with the fact that multiple & coinciding failures may kill you, then diving is not for you.

3. See point #1.
4. You answered the point yourself, a little practice helps a lot. Anyway, don't start with walls, look for sites with visible bottom.
5. Buddy skills, training. No need for CESA.
6. See point #4.
7. Secure the mask! I was taught to put it under the hood. Some apply a piece of weak line (which is thorn easily to avoid entanglement) - I don't.

As earlier said, start with easy dives in a nice warm pool. If you are nervous in the pool after 10 pool dives, than diving is not for you, no need to force. If you are comfortable in the pool, you will certainly find dive sites around the world that you'll enjoy!

 

[tyesai]

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't realize that there were more replies because I stopped getting notifications.

I like the reassurance that anxiety will probably go away after many dives.

I also like the suggestion to not analyze the situation and to "just dive". Analyzing the situation is what I do best and I agree that it increases anxiety.

i think my anxiety is multi-fold:
1) fear of the critters I can't see, especially the ones hiding under the huge plants on the floor.
2) equipment failure
3) fear of overly curious sea lions or the occasional orca.
4) I have this weird fear of an unstoppable descent into the abyss. As though some force would pull me down. I think this is pretty unreasonable because I could always drop my weights and plus the BC and drysuit have air in them, making this unlikely. Regardless, because of this fear I hang very close to the wall where I can always grab on.
5) I have a weird fear of my air tank slipping out of my BC and dragging me down by the regulator, or worse, ripping the regulator out of my mouth and leaving me without an air source and needing to do a CESA.
6) I have a weird fear of an extremely strong unexpected current wisking me out away from the wall and out into the abyss
7) I have a strong fear of my mask getting bumped completely off of my head and getting lost in the pea soup, leaving me completely unable to see and needing to assend blindly, or worse, resulting in a blind descent into the abyss, never to surface again.


I purposefully concentrate very hard on deep, slow, methodical breathing when I get more anxious. It definitely helps. It doesn't take the anxiety away completely but it definitely immediately clears my mind up and takes me out of panic mode.

Most of this strong anxiety doesn't start until 10 feet down. I can stay for hours having a blast within 10 feet, although I am very very slightly anxious even within 10 feet.

I had similar concerns so you aren't alone. Eventually I practiced enough and got comfortable enough that they went to the very back of my mind. However do you really see Orcas when you go diving or is it the idea that they could show up? I could see where that might make someone a bit uncomfortable. Last week they saw some out in the Straights of Gibraltar near where we were diving and they said we should listen for them. I kind of remember thinking if I can hear them then I don't really want to be in the water lol, but I quickly put it to the back of my mind and just dove...

Edited to add a little bit of fear breeds some caution which isn't necessarily a bad thing per-say.

 

[timakempton]

Your fear is perfectly natural. We are animals that are designed to live in a high visibility air environment. When diving you are always going to feel some level of nervousness underwater, this is normally outweighed by our enjoyment of what we are doing. It is that underlying nervousness that gives us the feeling of exhilaration that we find so addictive. When you add in low visibility then you turn the balance our basic instincts are set to drive us to be aware of our environment and that requires being able to see it. Low vis diving and night diving are both putting ourselves into a situation that all of our instincts tell us is dangerous, our natural response is fear. This is our instinct telling us to get out into a safer environment. Some of us are better able to override this need to get out than others, with practice most of us can learn to ignore the drive to get out and enjoy the thrill, however a few of us will never be able to get over it. Some people will always be afraid of the dark, it's not something wrong with them it's just the way they are wired. In your case you are clearly more sensitive to the instinctive fear that the lack of visibility creates. With more experience you may learn to ignore it or you may never, either way don't feel bad about it, it just means you are human, welcome to the club. I think you will really enjoy a blue water diving and always remember if it's not fun or it feels wrong then don't do it.

P.S. I hate low vis dives, I have all the same fears you do and even in good visibility if I cant see the bottom I am nervous about what is out there that I cant see. I cant night dive I am just too nervous and I wont endanger others with my fear, yet I can enter a dark area while diving a wreck with no problems and feel quite comfortable in confined spaces in vow visibility.

 

[dumaresq]

I've seen an AL80 come off my buddy's son at depth (around 45'). He was using a brand new BC and we hadn't gotten it tight enough (live and learn). The tank wasn't exactly neutral, but it wasn't "heavy", there is NO WAY it could have pulled him down by the reg hose. I know it doesn't help you because you didn't see it, but there was no danger, his hoses kept the tank close enough to him that I'm not sure he even noticed it was lose until I tried to put it back. I really wish someone had video taped us because I imagine it was pretty funny watching his dad and I try to get that tank back on him! At the time our buoyancy was pretty bad, and wasn't helped by us thrashing around trying to get the tank on. In the end it was a non-issue, but it was something that helped the three of us realize that having a tank fall off isn't a huge deal. Remember that the tank weighs the same on your back as it would hanging from the hoses, so if you are neutral with the tank on you will be neutral with the tank hanging by the hoses, I will mess up your trim just a little bit . Also I suspect (can't say for sure as I never been dry suit diving) that the shortest hose is the one going into your dry suit, so it will be less likely to pull on your reg first. In his case it was the hose to his BC that kept the tank closest.

Like you, I have suffered from anxiety and still do occasionally, like you I've never been in warm water with good vis. IT DOES get better the more you do it!