Collecting Narcosis Stories

[PsyWulf]

I remember my 2nd Deep training dive in our local Mud hole,compass use with reciprocal. We were around 32meters,and it was my turn to swim,got my bearing and off I went,did the requisite distance and stopped to get the reciprocal using the Bezel,looked at the compass,and I had no idea what I was doing,or how the bezel works,or why I needed to use it. About 20 seconds later I still had no idea,so I did the requisite math in my had to calculate the reciprocal and proceeded to swim back to my starting point

Narced stupid,but I guess my math skill was inherently better than my memory at that depth

 

[Tortuga68]

I have a few:

1. A friend (no, really - it wasn't me) was given a torch at the entry of a swimthrough on a 50m air dive. At the other end of the 8 metre swimthrough, when asked to return the torch, she denied every having it - and continued to deny it after the dive (loss of memory). We went back to the site the day after and found the torch in the sand at the entry to the swimthrough, still on (although now flat). Seems she just dropped it there and totally forgot ever getting it.

2. The same person, on an air dive to 70m, went unresponsive at about 60m, losing all buoyancy control (to arrest her descent) and drifted slowly down to the target depth. When another diver went to assist her, she (accidentally) knocked his mask off while he was inflating her wing. She didn't regain awareness until ascending back to the 21m stop/switch, and to this day (AFAIK) cannot remember anything from the time in between (apart from a vague recollection of sinking and her mask flooding). Back on the boat, she burst into tears spontaneously.

We didn't take her on any deep dives after that

3. Me this time... on my first ever "tech" (deco/accelerated deco) dive to 41m, I had a classic happy narc - maybe the most 'fun' dive I ever had, but the run time I had on my slate didn't make the slightest bit of sense to me until we got back to 21m or so. I just followed the other divers, luckily they were following the plan, so yes it ended up being a 'trust me' dive. I did manage to monitor max depth and max time but that was about it, otherwise it was just 'yipee!!'

4. Me again... I was a little light at the start of a 45m air dive and had to work to descend. Obviously this was only going to get worse on the deco stops after using some gas in the dive. At the target depth we found some lost weights but discarded them after they were too heavy to comfortably manage at the target depth. Didn't even think that at least one would be handy for the later stops, until I was at 6m breathing *very* shallowly to hold the stop

I've been mcuh deeper and felt less dumb, which just goes to show what the other posters have been saying

I've also had visual and auditory 'hallucinations' never seen any dead people though

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

My usual narcosis test for the AOW deep dive is to watch for the student to be distracted looking at something, then flash an emergency signal, spit out my reg, slash my hand across my throat and see what they do. Usually the test gets the desired result. Sometimes it's delayed ... sometimes considerably delayed. I had one young lady who looked at me, shrugged her shoulders, and proceeded to study her dive computer ... not at all realizing I didn't have a regulator in my mouth or that I was giving her an OOA signal.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[boulderjohn]

Narced at 24m? I was under the impression it only really sets in 30m+. Well everyone's different I suppose.

I friend of mine, a technical dive instructor, said his worst case of narcosis ever occurred at 85 feet, or 26 meters.

 

[ajduplessis]

If you want some real bone chilling stories, read "Shadow Divers"

 

[Teller]

I dont remember any!

 

[divin'dog]

... The next day, I did the same wreck on trimix with a planned depth of 150. I was astonished and delighted at the incredible color on the wreck -- sponges, soft corals, lionfish galore -- all kinds of colorful and spectacular things, all the way up into the coral above the end of the wreckage.

The following day, I did the top of the wreck on Nitrox again, and it was all gray.

I can't explain it, but it really happened.

Alice in Wonderland couldn't explain it either...

 

[Wobbegong wannabe]

The only time I've knowingly been narc'd was at 35m and swimming against a strong current. My buddy was an instructor and fitter than me, so he was a bit further ahead. Suddenly I had this thought that was so strong I almost heard it; 'He's going to leave you here. He's going to leave you to drown.' Anyway, the rational part of my brain took over and I figured that it was narcosis. If I hadn't read about the effects I might have become really paranoid, and even knowing what it was, for the rest of the dive there was a constant dialogue running in my head between the paranoid voice and the rational one. My peripheral vision also narrowed, which my rational brain realised was another symptom.

It was a bit weird.

 

[boulderjohn]

My usual narcosis test for the AOW deep dive is to watch for the student to be distracted looking at something, then flash an emergency signal, spit out my reg, slash my hand across my throat and see what they do. Usually the test gets the desired result. Sometimes it's delayed ... sometimes considerably delayed. I had one young lady who looked at me, shrugged her shoulders, and proceeded to study her dive computer ... not at all realizing I didn't have a regulator in my mouth or that I was giving her an OOA signal.
)

I had pretty much the same thing happen with a student last week, except we were in the deep end of the pool. Maybe it wasn't narcosis.

 

[Carlos Danger]

I got narc'd on my first ever ocean dive, and later had some DCS symptoms that lasted about a day; it was not a fun feeling. At that time I was not using a computer, which was probably pretty critical in hindsight. For a new diver, I obviously overdid it a bit, but also felt like maybe my body just wasn't used to all the loading and need time to adjust. Once I got acclimated to the activity everything was okay. Haven't really had any problems since, thankfully.