Collecting Narcosis Stories

[cloudflint]

... now there's an interesting Freudian slip ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

I blame that on narcosis caused by breathing nitrogen at 0.8 bar

Just remembered another story about nitrogen narcosis, though im not sure if it will count and I have never been able to verify if its true or not (I suspect its something of a tall tale), but supposedly in the early 60's a member of our dive club at that time was stopped after being seen driving away from the pub in his car while swerving all over the road. A few weeks later he reportedly was let off by the judge after arguing that he was driving erratically because he had been diving and was suffering the effects of nitrogen narcosis at the time .

 

[Dr. Lecter]

I like air as a bottom gas; it's cheap, easily available, and has relatively forgiving deco characteristics. One day, I will go trimix because I want a lower pO2 on dives past 240'...but narcosis is generally not something that gives me issues. Though I don't mean to imply it's not there because it very much is.

On shallower dives (130' or less), I have to really work to detect the effects. The thick-brained feeling I get at 200' isn't just not there, there's zero hint of it. But around 150', give or take depending on the day, I can feel it starting. By about 180' or so, like corvettejoe described, I experience being narced much the same way I experience a later on in the evening drunk, once the alcohol has really settled onto my brain. There's a fog or thickness hampering my thoughts, though it's not like higher level thinking or impulse control goes away...it's just that more focus is required.

Remembering where I am, why I'm there, what I need to be doing...all still there but it requires active thought, sometimes not that much even well into the 200' range and sometimes a lot even a bit above 200'. Performing tasks like doing a valve drill, staging and reattaching deco bottles, or extricating myself from an entanglement are pretty much the same: what's muscle memory is unaffected, but the mental processes attendant to the tasks are a bit slower, so the tasks are a bit slower. Sense of touch, like feeling out an entanglement on the manifold or re-clipping the bottom snap on a deco bottle, seems to be the same but again the mental processing of what my fingers are telling me isn't as fast.

I don't find a sense of enclosure--whether from dark, low viz water, wreck penetration, cold, or all of the above--worsens my narcosis; quite the opposite, in that the feeling of being enclosed and cold seems to help me keep focused on the task at hand, like having a cold shower when you’re drunk. Conversely, I have more trouble in warm, clear open water when I'm narced because I find my mind is more apt to wander and suddenly 5 minutes have gone by while I was pondering who knows what before remembering to check my instruments.

 

[Darnold9999]

Never really thought I suffered from narcosis until I got a DSLR. Determining the correct aperature, ISO, and shutter speed is somthing that was new for me even on land. However on land it was relatively easy to make a decision given a particular shot I wanted to take. At 50 feet also relatively easy. At 100 feet - not even possible. I would stare at the camera, and have no idea what it was that needed to happen to take the picture I was looking at. Didn't feel narked, except - to borrow a phrase - I was farm animal stupid.

Now that I am much more familiar with the process I can mostly make those decisions, and carry them out, but in the beginning when I was relying on problem solving skills rather than memory I found it absolutely impossible.

 

[AfterDark]

My first encounter with rapture of the deep was @ 110FSW on air, cold and dark it was on that wreck.
We had a plan BUT, we found an artifact! So having the tables (pre computer) in my pocket I took a look at an additional 10 minutes and what the deco obligation for those additional 10 minutes would be. I confirmed it again with my buddy who gave me the OK we had the gas between us to do it.
We secured the artifact and before heading to the surface checked my slate for the new deco time, it wasn’t there, and I didn’t remember it. I signaled to my buddy he motioned to my slate I shook my head he shrugged his shoulders. The artifact was heavy; I used a lot of air which I think increased the effect of the N. I didn’t write down the info and couldn’t remember a couple of simple numbers, my buddy wasn’t any better depending on me; we needed to start moving on up!
As we passed 80FSW all this information I had forgotten came back like it was never gone! I also realized that I had (still) tables in my pocket and could have just looked again and maybe have come up with the right time. It was then I realized I was a”little narc’d “ down there. I’m sure I’d been narc’d before but didn’t need to do anything beyond which I had planned to do so never noticed. We did our deco time and a little more which lead us to perform the 1^st real world old school buddy breathing I’d ever done at that time. We suffered no ill effects and we have a good story.
The artifact? Yeah, well the line broke hauling it up; we never saw it again. That’s diving!

 

[scubadada]

I'm lucky, I don't seem particularly susceptble to narcosis. This may be becausue of extensive experience earlier in my life. I do take special precautions when diving deep. Only 9% of my dives are greater than 110 feet and I pay particular attention to these dives.

 

[mopardiver]

I was on the Spiegal in poor vis with a ripping current. My buddy was really struggling with the current, and I thought it would be a good idea for us to drop down a few feet and let a vertical portion of the wreck block the current. I was hanging on the wreck with my left hand and the current was blowing me straight out like superman in flight mode, and I kind of forgot what side the inflator was on when I wanted to let a little air out.

 

[Doc Harry]

I have two memorable narcosis stories:

(1) I did a cave dive to 150 feet on EAN24. It was years ago, and I can't remember the details, but I think our bottom time was 20-30 minutes and we had about 15 minutes of deco. I was trying to do some calculations and was stuck on trying to figure out 12 - 8 = ? but I simply could not figure out the answer. So I just kept checking my watch, depth gauge and gas supply to reassure myself that everything was okay and that we were on schedule. Once I looked at my compass and I couldn't figure out what all of the numbers meant. Despite the extreme narcosis I was still able to navigate around the cave and I got us back to our deco bottles right on schedule for the ascent.

(2) A few months ago I was solo diving off the Kohala coast of Hawaii. The whale migration was in progress and I saw a lot of whales off shore. The sounds of whale songs were very loud on all of the dives. During one solo dive I swam out a couple of hundred yards in hopes of seeing whales swim by. (Though the whale songs were really loud, I never saw any whales underwater during a week of diving.) The water was pretty deep out there, so I sank to the bottom - it was way out past the reef and there was nothing but a sandy slope. I got really narcotized. There on the bottom, I rolled onto my back in the sand to watch for whales above me, and stayed there for about half-an-hour. I really enjoyed tripping on the whale songs while I was really narcotized.

I don't plan on going deeper than 120 feet anymore until I get Trimix certified.

 

[tkdgodess]

We had planned a dive to a depth, and i was supposed to stop at that depth, i was approaching that depth and was not stopping,i did not exceed planned depth, but i knew i was having problems putting the brakes on. I signalled to ascend, i'm loopy, got to a depth i was clear and had a happy dive. I, ok with narcosis, because in 20 years of diving I've been aware its happening to me, and make the signal to ascend.

 

[tracydr]

I've been amazed at the similarities in the "narcosis" that high altitude climbers feel and the nitrogen narcosis that divers feel. I realize that its an entirely different mechanism, and yet their stories seem very similar.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

In 1977 I was acting as a deep "safety diver" with my dive partner, and we had been tasked with holding depth at 150' in blue water off the Kona coast, keeping track of the "deep" diver's bubbles who was very deep on air below us.

We were to hold station until the deep diver returned, and be prepared to assist if he needed help during his ascent, and help guide him to the "deco station" above, where the 3 of us would join our "shallow" safety diver at our high tech decompression station (tanks suspended beneath a car inner tube).

As I attempted to hold position mid-water (no down line) at 150', I became mesmerized watching the bubbles rising through the most beautiful blue you can imagine... and suddenly realized I was "stoned" out my gourd.

I also realized my buddy and I had unintentionally sank to just above 200' while admiring the pretty bubbles.


I signaled to my buddy that I was heavily narc'ed, he signaled "me too!", and I signaled an ascent. We leveled off at 120', and waited there for our deep friend. I was feeling less narc'ed, but I was hyper vigilant checking depth and time, and became a bit paranoid about the chances of the dive ending on a happy note... but the "deep" diver ascended into view, and we all completed decompression without further drama.

I was simply amazed that I had allowed myself to drop that far below my assigned depth, and had not immediately realized it.

Best wishes.