Please note, I did not lose consciousness, I became disoriented
Well, then everything is fine(ish).
OK, you should not become disoriented at 4ft but excitement may have had its psychological effect.
I certainly recognize that I had some brain fog during my initial dives.
The more I dive the more I have clarity of mind and awareness of the environment - but I'm still not perfect.
Problems are fine as long as you have an idea of how to cope with them and you can keep calm.
Becoming disoriented under water can be lethal in a cave (it should not be, if properly trained) or under ice (same comment as before) or if you start to swim down believing it's up and you have too little gas... These situations mostly depict very advanced forms of diving though and are not something a new diver should worry about. And remember, if you have no clue what's up, what's down, then I'll give a hint: bubbles very seldom go down (and now, everyone who has been in an ocean down current shut up
)
In open water however, with buoyancy aids (BCD and/or drysuit) that ensure buoyancy and while doing dives with no mandatory decompression stops... disorientation is a minor nuisance.
-> Just keep calm and breathe. It's important.
-> The water is still the same. The surface is still up there.
-> If you inflate your BCD then you will still float to the surface - with no brains needed. Just exhale regularly, and all will be OK.
Nobody wants the **** to hit the fan, we try to avoid that very hard, but if it still happens, then we need to know how to clean the mess up.