Anxious and terrified Underwater

[briancb2004]

Hi Miranda, welcome to the wonderful world of diving! First off I have been diving since I was about seventeen (which was about eighteen years ago) and can still remember the aniexty of my first OW dive. I was certified in Maine on the east coast, water temp and visbility, was cold and not great. Since then I haven't got to do too many blue water tropical dives, but the ones I have done were amazing! I now live in Oklahoma and have been on my city's fire dive team for almost twelve years. I see some people have told you maybe you shouldn't dive (diving is great but sometimes it's not for everybody). As of right now though I wouldn't give it up just yet, you might be giving up something that you come to truly love!!!
First with anything new that we are learning there will be aniexty and apprehension. This is normal. When you first start out I believe this can be a good thing. As you do more dives, get more training(which I highly recommend) the fear of equipment failure won't be so much on your mind. In my OW class I had a fear of doing mask removal, I hated, didn't want any part of it. But I made an effort to overcome that by any chance I had of practicing that skill. I would start off before my dive with swimming on the surface with out my mask for a minute or two. Now after many times practicing I can take my mask of without thinking about it. Same went for regulator recovery and buddy breathing the more I practice this skill the more comfortable I felt.
I believe like many others have already pointed out that if you and your financee find a more experienced buddy (This helped me because my friend and his dady both had over a thousand dives I recieved alot of knowledge and felt comfortable knowing they had been diving that much) and dive within your comfort level (slowly building on your comfort level) you will be glad you stuck with it.
As far as reliability of equipment. With regular maintenance and taking care of it I have had most of my same gear since I started (regulators and BCD).
Good luck with it and let us know how it goes!

 

[bilsant]

First off, congrats on the courage and sense it took to express your concerns. From a newbie's perspective everybody else seems calm and free of any self doubt. In actuality that is not true, and I personally would concerned about diving with anyone who never has a moment's pause.

Now as to your concerns, we all acknowledge that equipment fails, but realize that a.) Proper care and maintenance greatly reduces the chance of that happening; b.) Training and practicing a free ascent can help...(once I realized that the depth I was worried about was the same distance from my front door to my mailbox, it placed things into perspective); c.) We keep a certain level of redundancy in our equipment so if it does fail, we have a backup plan; and finally d.) If you have a buddy you can trust and train with, you both are way better off together than alone. This last part has been really important to me, and in the end the choice was NOT my significant other.

I'll admit it...I always try to dive with people who are better at this than I am...so I can learn and be able to talk to them about my concerns...being able to talk about your worries does help.

Good luck and don't throw in the towel just yet. Wait til you get the feeling that you have some control, and then decide.

If you do give this up, there is ABSOLUTELY NO SHAME IN IT. There are a lot of other fun things in this world that you can try.

Hope to dive with you someday...

 

[Helly]

I'm a newbie. Certified August 2010. Previously afraid of fish! Now 27 dives...
I was so scared on my first OW dive I was crying inside my mask and my lovely instructor had to hold my hand to get me to go under in the first place... She told me a lot of things I didn't at first believe: 'Trust your equipment', 'You KNOW how to breathe', etc. Took me quite a few dives to realise she knew what she was talking about?! BUT. I still have a vague flash of my own mortality just before I go down - I believe it is healthy to realise that it is a dangerous sport and makes you very aware of everything you do. The people who get into difficulty underwater are usually not taking things as seriously as they should. I also had a horrid experience during training when I struggled for 10 minutes to get down to 12m - with an empty tank as it turned out?! Looking down to see 10 bar left was a little alarming. And YES I always check my tank before I dive now?! Now I tell myself it's a funny story to tell down the pub...
I only started to feel fully in control of my diving after I did my Peak Performance Buoyancy dive for my Advanced. Once you are assured you aren't going to kick coral/others/shoot around like Buzz Lightyear/scrape your knees, you feel like you can concentrate on the important things - yoga-esque breathing and having a real good nosey around at the fish and all the lil critters?! Can't recommend the training highly enough.
I still have the odd wobble and the occasional 'moment' underwater (usually just below the surface) and I'm hoping this will improve with experience.
I have every confidence and hope you'll get a grip on your fears if you really want to dive.
If you'd like a sympathetic buddy - come join me next month in Thailand (Gonna start my Dive Master training!) x

 

[Mike Boswell]

I was recently certified this summer and have done about 12 dives. My biggest fear in the world is drowing/not being able to breath and I am REALLY struggling with being 40ft underwater and relying on equipment to keep me alive. I really love the water and seeing all the things in it but I have this horrible fear the whole time I am doing the dive.

I had a pretty scary mishap when I was doing my certification and I almost called off diving, but, I got back in the water and pushed myself and got certified. I breath so deeply from being scared that I am EXAUHSTED when I get out and my ribs hurt the next day. I panic very easily and what worries me, is that in a bad situation I will FREAK =(

Someone please tell me that they started out this way and that it gets easier/better? I am only "comfortable" around 20-30ft and even then I am SO on edge and paniced that I can't really enjoy the dive =( Any tips or advice? Will this get any easier? I just want to be able to enjoy the dives instead of thinking I am going to die at any second.

Considering that you are new, diving in a thick wetsuit, in cold water, with low vis, I would say you are doing just fine. It IS scary at first, and you SHOULD be scared: That fear is what will keep you alive.

I think you should set some goals for yourself, and go slow until you have gained more confidence with your gear. Practice drills like mask removal and air sharing until they are no big deal.

If those things are too daunting for you right now, then I think you should find an instructor who will work with you until you have more confidence.

Good luck - We have all been there.

 

[soltari675]

I find that being with people I trust keeps me happy, and being honest with new buddies. I trust the people at my dive shop. I know which ones have a lot of dives and which ones are new. I don't have to worry if I am with someone experienced or not. Because of that also, they know I was just recently certified and they take the time to make sure I am ok frequently. And are happy to do so (I hope ). When I went to Mermet, it was my first dive after certification. I was with someone new. I was straight honest with him. I told him that was my first dive and he was very happy I told him. He took it easy. We went to 20, made sure I was ok, and slowly descended, frequently checking on me. I find that if you are up front with the people you are with, they are completely ok with taking it easy for you. No diver wants to push someone else's limits. It's a recipe for disaster. So be honest with them and you'll learn to trust other divers. You'll get better too. WIth more practice you will be more confident.

 

[surfinusa555]

Do a lot of dives in a pool until you get used to it and bored of it. Then do shallow dives. No need to go where you aren't comfortable.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Hello again Maranda ... let me add to what others have said by stating that what you are experiencing isn't that uncommon. It may be helpful to understand what's causing it.

We all have within us a built-in set of instincts that cause us to react in certain ways to certain situations. You've heard them referred to as "fight or flight" instincts ... and they have little to do with the "rational" part of your brain. It is those instincts that are causing your anxiety ... because we humans aren't designed to be underwater, and your natural reaction to being underwater is the feeling that "I ain't supposed to be here, and it's gonna hurt me" ... which triggers the "flight" side of your brain to get you the heck outta there.

These instincts affect all of us to some degree or another when we learn to dive ... you happen to be someone who feels them strongly.

The good news is that we humans are adaptable creatures, and we can "rewire" those instincts over time by diving. The trick, as others have pointed out, is to do so in gradual steps so as not to overload yourself with stress ... underwater, stress is not your friend and the instincts that are intended to help you survive in an air environment can cause you to hurt yourself in a water environment. So that's why you should take it slow. But, with time, you WILL feel more comfortable diving. It just takes some people more time than others. Relax, accept that this is who you are, and don't put any more pressure on yourself to take it faster than you should for anyone else's benefit.

Now, to the scary mishap you experienced in your class. It's related to those instincts I was just talking about. It's called a "mammalian reflex" and it occurs commonly with new divers when they do the mask flood and clear exercise. What happens is that, because we humans are typically nose-breathers, when you get water on your nostrils it triggers a response in your brain that says you're breathing water ... and so your brain tells you that your regulator is malfunctioning. But of course, it's not ... it's just your brain messing with you.

When I have a student who has this problem, the solution is to spend some time breathing through the regulator while standing chest deep in water ... face in the water with no mask on. What you're doing is "re-wiring" your instincts to recognize this condition and associate it with safety rather than danger. Sometimes it takes minutes ... sometimes longer than that. Work with it first in a pool ... then in open water ... because colder water temperatures do make the feeling stronger. Start with just a couple of breaths, and work your way up to where you an do it for 15 or 20 breaths without discomfort. If at any time the stress level gets to you, simply stand up, get your stress level under control, and try again. Eventually the feeling that you're breathing water will go away. And when it does, the stress you're feeling about your equipment will also go away ... because that's really just a rational manifestation of the instinctive reaction.

This isn't an uncommon thing ... I've dealt with several students who had the same issues you're feeling. And yes, it does get better. It just takes understanding why it's occurring, and taking the time to slowly adapt your instinctive reactions to accommodate an environment we were never designed for.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[halocline]

In your first post you said this:

I My biggest fear in the world is drowing/not being able to breath and I am REALLY struggling with being 40ft underwater and relying on equipment to keep me alive.

Then in another post you said:

I have always loved the water and been very comfortable in it.

These statements seem somewhat contradictory to me. Maybe a good thing for you do would be to snorkel for a while. Have you done much of that? If so, and if you really enjoy it, then I would guess you could adapt to diving. If you can't enjoy snorkeling, I'd say you might be in for a major self-confrontation project if you want to keep diving. NWGratefulDiver is correct in that we can adapt to many things, but the one thing that I would say is a deal-killer for diving is a general fear of the water. That's pretty deeply seated in most people, and pretty tough to overcome as an adult. It can happen, I've seen it, but it took lots of work and patience.

I believe your fear of drowning due to regulator failure is irrational (although most fears are, and we all have them!) because in the depths at which you are diving, if your regulator fails you can simply swim to the surface. You do realize that, don't you? Maybe you could try some exercises to work on that; eventually you should be able to trust the fact that gear failure should NEVER be fatal in OW diving.

Panic, however, is a different story; it can and has killed OW divers on many occasions. At the risk of sounding a bit blunt, it's probably best that you devote yourself to dealing with your fear of panicking underwater before you do too much else. Good luck with it, I wish you the best, and I'm sure many of us would be interested to hear how your progress goes.

 

[abnfrog]

miranda i was too scared every time i got in the water ,but more dives closer to my comfort zone (ie shallower) i dove my brains out then one day volia! i was not scared any more , visualize each dive before you do it, BELIVE ME IT HELPS .....the more you dive the better it gets till you just CANT stay out of the water .....hope that helps

 

[kimbalabala]

I'm so glad you started this thread Miranda! So much of this advice is just what I, personally, needed to hear - sometimes for a second, third, fourth time? The mammalian reflex thing - especially the part about it being heightened in cold water - was good information for me. Also like the idea of visualizing it ahead of time. When I was getting OW certified the most hated part of it for me was flooding my mask. I dreaded doing it in 45 degree water - but of course it had to be done. Naturally on my very first dive in tropical water my mask got knocked off my face! Figured!