Anxiety, Panic and how to deal with it

[Landlocked123]

With close to 200 dives I can say that overall I am very comfortable in the water. Spent most of my teen years free diving and spear fishing so for me Scuba was just an extension of an already familiar thing. This weekend I experienced a strange occurrence. on the 8th dive of a 3 day long weekend of diving I experienced what I can best describe as an anxiety incident. I am not in the best of shape and I don't know if the 3 days of consecutive diving had anything to do with this. I was tired from the other dives but nothing that I have not felt before. I dive Nitrox 32 and I am used to getting 3-4 dives in on any given day. We were planning a dive to 80 feet at Dutch (Pump House) I dive to that 70-90 foot range all the time so this was just another dive for me meaning I had no stress at all going into the dive. HP133 and 30 Bail out. I usually get two dives out of the HP133. So again air was no concern = no pre dive stress. It was the first dive on day 3. At about 10 feet I got a strange feeling like my reg was not breathing like it normally was. The venturi was on its normal setting that I use so i eliminated that. The feeling started to get worse. I had checked air twice already as I always do both pre-dive and at 5 feet. No issue there. Finally I had to pause my descent at bout 15. Feeling got worse. I made a decision right there that I would not descend further unless I got this sorted out. I never got into heavy breathing etc. I chilled out at 15 for a minute or so and it all went away. I told myself ok to try to descent but if any sign showed back up I would abort immediately. Descended down from there with zero issues. Found my usual happy place and had a great dive. Came back with 2000PSI after a 30 minute dive which is right around average for the profile we dove for me. I have been researching trying to find out what may have caused this. I came across this article below and thought it would be a good read. Also would like to know if anyone out there has had a similar situation and if so did it manifest itself on the back end of consecutive dives.

How To Deal With Panic While Scuba Diving

 

[nolatom]

I haven't had it happen, so I can't say too much. But I agree with the "stop, breathe, think, act" we've all been taught, and it's in the article you attach.

Stuff I have heard works:
Have a calming "mantra" that you can think while stopping and breathing, to slow down the racing thoughts. Then you can think slower, and better.

I also heard from an instructor that wrapping your arms around yourself (the way you'd do it if you were cold) can have a calming effect, you're giving yourself a hug, which is usually a comforting thing.

 

[Landlocked123]

appreciate the feedback nolatom. I am going to try and recreate this in my pool. This thing is bothering me. What is funny is that I use a blacked out mask in the pool to do stress training etc in full gear ... I went as far as asking my son to tangle me in my reel just to see if I could untangle myself. Never had any symptoms whatsoever. I guess knowing you are in a pool may make the training less real. if it ever happens again I have more things to try.

 

[helodriver87]

I've had similar feelings as a result of CO2 retention/overexertion. It starts to manifest as mild air starvation/reg breathing weird. The first couple times it happened, I tried to push through and it progressed to full on out of control breathing and feelings of impending doom, which is pretty typical of heavy narcosis as a result of CO2 buildup. The trick is to stop and focus on controlling your breathing. Your brain might be screaming that you aren't getting oxygen, but you are. It's excess CO2 that needs to be eliminated. Stop, think, and act is, as usual, good advice.

 

[flyboy08]

Telling times? I would opt for a stress test upon my next physical. I'm guessing though it's a one off event from over exertion and lack of fluids....i.e., water intake.

 

[OMANDIVER]

The time got this was when I had the cumberbund on the bcd done up too tight and a little high. Consequence was it restricted my diaphragm and made my breathing more difficult so it felt like the reg.

 

[Akimbo]

You might find this thread interesting: Panic in the experienced diver?

 

[Landlocked123]

Akimbo...been reading that thread. So what I conclude from this is one really does not know when panic or its precursor (anxiety etc) will set in. My experience seems to have no causal factor that I can point a finger at and perhaps that is what is bothering me the most. I had never even considered having to deal with near panic under water. Also after reading much of that other thread this tells me that it can happen unexpectedly and for any spectrum of reasons from none , to obvious, and everything in between regardless of experience and # of dives. I take training very seriously and have probably spent more hours in my pool training than diving but this raises the bar and is causing me to re assess how I train and what I train for. Its interesting that we have classes teaching us how to penetrate a wreck/ run a reel, dive deep, not scrape precious corals, but little to no training exists on how to deal with these situations. Yes there are generalizations...stay calm think and breathe.. I was watching a cave diving video which shows highlights of a full cave cert class. They did all kinds of stress inducing training. Impromptu free flow while blind folded, intentional and unexpected entanglements etc... seems to me there is a whole other mental side of dive training that is completely not covered nor even mentioned in open water training classes. Eyes wide open.

 

[KenGordon]

Akimbo...been reading that thread. So what I conclude from this is one really does not know when panic or its precursor (anxiety etc) will set in. My experience seems to have no causal factor that I can point a finger at and perhaps that is what is bothering me the most. I had never even considered having to deal with near panic under water. Also after reading much of that other thread this tells me that it can happen unexpectedly and for any spectrum of reasons from none , to obvious, and everything in between regardless of experience and # of dives. I take training very seriously and have probably spent more hours in my pool training than diving but this raises the bar and is causing me to re assess how I train and what I train for. Its interesting that we have classes teaching us how to penetrate a wreck/ run a reel, dive deep, not scrape precious corals, but little to no training exists on how to deal with these situations. Yes there are generalizations...stay calm think and breathe.. I was watching a cave diving video which shows highlights of a full cave cert class. They did all kinds of stress inducing training. Impromptu free flow while blind folded, intentional and unexpected entanglements etc... seems to me there is a whole other mental side of dive training that is completely not covered nor even mentioned in open water training classes. Eyes wide open.

The SDI Solo Diver course talks about panic.

Really though, you need to notice feeling anxious and do something to reduce that feeling. That may be stopping for a bit, physically steadying yourself, turning back or whatever. Carrying on while the cause is unaddressed seems to me to be a bad idea.

Sometimes it is in your head. I find it is a mistake to consider how much water is above me, at least while it is still there. Or thinking about how long it I should going to take to get back to the surface. Letting your conscious brain properly understand where you are can be worrisome.

I recently called a dive I was leading because I felt anxious for no good reason. We were only at 20m, it was cold and dark and a bit nasty but nothing terrible and nothing I can put my finger on as to why. By the time we got to 10m and I gave the student a DSMB deployment to do so I had more to think about I was happy again.

Anxiety is another reason to build up slowly.

 

[Akimbo]

They did all kinds of stress inducing training. Impromptu free flow while blind folded, intentional and unexpected entanglements etc... seems to me there is a whole other mental side of dive training that is completely not covered nor even mentioned in open water training classes.

Harassment dives are one of the main tools used by the military to identify diver trainees that panic too easily. It is very effective -- but not 100% foolproof and is extremely labor intensive. Black water (zero visibility) training is also very helpful. IMO, the third most significant skill to develop is free-assents.

The best training I know of that is available to the public is a good intermediate-level freediving course that teaches you to manage CO2 buildup. By manage, I really mean learn to ignore. There is a surprising amount of time beyond that "I'll pass out any second" feeling and where you actually pass out from anoxia. CO2 build-up is one of the more panic-inducing experiences I can think of.

You can do a lot of blackwater training on your own. It has more to do with acclimatization than skills or innate mental characteristics. See: Wreck Penetration, Post #2