"Dark Narc" Experience? Advice please!

[Pvs.A Diving]

Hello! Some advice please.
So I have been diving infrequently for the last 20 years. Had my OW but had never bothered to go any further, I only had about 45 dives. This year I got the bug again and wanted to do more certifications. I signed up to do a night cert, the night dives were great, the instructor was about the best I have ever met, but the extra dives during the day were very stressful. I ended up with a buddy that hit the water and took off, not once checking on me, not looking to see where I was, went to blow through the safety stop til I finally got his attention, at the surface he developed a massive nose bleed and told me not to worry it happens every time...very stressful to me.

I recently went to do my deep dive and wreck dive for my AOW. The Instructor again was a great instructor, there were the instructor, a DM and five students total. When I first hit the water I felt stressed right away, I didn't know why. Even though I had a different buddy, weather was good, I was stressed. Here I take responsibility...I should have called the dive. But I didn't, My buddy ( a very new diver was having trouble descending cause of being too lightly weighted) and the Instructor was trying to help him when another diver in our group ignored the instructions and hit for the bottom. I made contact with the Instructor and signalled that I would buddy up with the girl who was heading for the bottom alone as I was the closest one to her. He gave me the OK. On descent I started to feel better, my mask was leaking a little too much but I just kept clearing, no big deal. I caught up with my "buddy" at the bottom (26 metres). The rest of the group made it down and then I started feeling wrong. I started to really freak out. I couldn't breathe, I was gasping huge deep breaths, choking. I instantly thought GO UP!!! I somehow stopped myself, I knew I was too deep for that and grabbed my own reg and held it in my mouth, I had this weird feeling that I was going to spit it out and only by holding it in would it stay there. I made it over to the instructor and signalled him that I was not OK. The panic was such that I couldn't explain to him I was panicing. He was great, made physical contact and got his octo ready, he got the DM over and was ready to head up. All this time I was thinking to myself "this is crazy you are ok, there is nothing wrong, you are not going to drown" but I couldn't get my breathe under controlor the panic to stop. The Dive master and I went back over to the line and ascended up only about 2 metres and suddenly I was ok, panic really went away. I signalled I was OK, descended, completed the skills but signalled I needed to ascend as my panic had wiped out my air supply. As I was short and no one else was the DM came up with me and it was fine, safety stop was fine.

Later in the day after our S.I. the Instr. asked if I wanted to call the wreck dive, I said no I wanted to dive. I hit the water, felt stressed again at the surface but not near as much as the first dive, descent was fine, buddy was better weighted and a better buddy ( stayed in touch, spotted cool things on the wreck and let me know, etc.), wreck was at 25.4 metres basically the same depth, felt a little bit like my mask was flooding and I was snorting too much water, but the dive went great.

The instructor told me that he was very impressed that I had managed to prevent myself from bolting for the surface and that I had done everything right, getting his attention, making eye contact, slow ascent to a safe level, slowing my breathing down, keeping track of my air consumption. And that is great. The problem is...I am now really freaked out about the whole experience, I am very scared of ending up with a dangerous dive buddy, I am afraid of my reaction at depth, I am worried about poor mask fit and breathing too much through my nose and snorting water and choking. I am very barrel chested and wet suits usually fit WAAAAYYY too small in the chest and leave me feeling VERY short of breathe Even before I hit the water. I have loved diving and now when I finally live near some great diving I am getting scared to get in again. Any advice please.

I really don't want to stop but am not sure I could deep dive again if I feel this way.

 

[Tortuga68]

This isn't "dark narc" or narcosis, it's stress/panic probably exacerbated by CO2 retention due to hyperventilation. As your Instructor said, you did well not to bolt for the surface, so you controlled the panic impulse to flight

You said you were already nervous before the dive. That plus the additional stress of your buddy change, mask leakage, restricted breathing and - boom. Panic attack

You need to be mentally and physically prepared for the dive, this includes having equipment - eg mask & wetsuit - that fit properly. Since you plan to do more diving now, you should consider buying your own mask & wetsuit that do fit you

Try to find a good regular buddy - meanwhile try to buddy with the Instructor or DM until you regain your confidence

While it's nice that you wanted to look after the girl who went straight to the bottom, that's not your job

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If the wetsuit is too tight on your chest and you can't breath easily, then this is the very first issue that needs to be resolved. Not being able to breath does tend to make people nervous. This is not narcosis at 80 feet.

 

[stairman]

Just getting into diving or in your case back into diving, can be exillerating. With exilleration comes a rush and excellerated heartbeat. Youll start breathing harder and shallower and can overbreathe the reg and make you think its not working right. Add a flooded mask and the wonder of knowing if a buddy can be relied on and it starts snowballing from there. Problem solving at depth that should be incorporated in your motor memory is the plan of action in this scenario. The circular thinking many people have when on the verge of panic sends the message to get to the surface. With experience, and practicing the what-ifs that could happen you should get over the anxiety and stress and start enjoying the depths. Dealing with problems, including the stress that accompanies them, are a vital part of diving and the rules are to stop all activity, insure air supply is adequete, identify the problem while deep breathing with full respirations, solve the problem or call the dive. An unhurried ascent and safetystop as required will complete this dive. Injecting a little humor into the situation will sometimes interupt the circular thinking that is occuring. Building up experience slowly and being prepared for emergencies is important in diving IMO.

 

[TSandM]

This sounds like classic CO2 retention. If you are already compromised by a wetsuit that is too tight, and then you spend your descent clearing your mask (which is not efficient, rhythmic breathing), you can end up retaining CO2. This causes a feeling of shortness of breath, which usually leads the person to rapid, shallow breathing, which doesn't solve the problem.

My advice: Purchase your own mask and wetsuit. Make sure both of them fit. I strongly suspect you will find diving a different experience once you have done that.

 

[Steve50]

Are these certification dives the first dives you've done after a long lay off? or did you do some easier getting used to it again type dives first?

 

[Bogie]

Breathing slow and deep is important. It cleans out the CO2. When you breath shallow you build up CO2 and can cause the air starvation feeling which can cause more quick shallow breathing, this can cause panic, and can even cause shallow water blackouts. Breathing deep and slow also calms one down preventing panic. The rescue diving training stop, breath, think, is smartly written. Rescue diving teaches we prevent panic.

An overly tight wetsuit on your chest is a problem. I had the same problem and had to go to a larger size on the top. I think the first item one should buy is the properly fitting exposure suit.

I would do some easier dives. Shallow, mellow, good vis, and build your confidence.

You used your brain and did not panic. Good for you!

 

[Pvs.A Diving]

Thanks for the advice everyone.

I have done 10 dives this summer, these were numbers 9 and 10. The previous dives were all easier dives, to shallower depths (10 ~ 20 metres). And with the exception of the night dives for certification, all the other dives were "just going for a nice look around type" dives. I am going to slowly buy my own gear because over the years I have been burned by rental equipment. I seem to have this ability to always get the hard breathing regs (instructors and buddies have commented on my luck with this); and wet suits very rarely fit me. I really had thought that I was narcd. but I guess it could well be CO2 build up. As I said the wet suit was so small in the chest that I was feeling laboured breathing at the surface, I had thought this would ease once I got in the water. I guess the fast descent, with a hard breathing reg, leaky mask and a tight wet suit could well cause the build up of CO2 and stress. I forgot to mention that on this dive,although I still had lots of air, at the safety stop the DM gave me his octo to breath on while he tried my primary. On shore as I disconnected my reg he came to check because he had found breathing on it at the safety stop so hard that he believed that something was impeding the airflow. There wasn't anything that he could find, it was just a hard breathing reg. I didn't really mention it cause I am so used to getting the hard breathers.

Again thanks everybody. I have arranged to do some 10 thru 20 metre dives with the Instructor to help me re-build my confidence. I am going to pick up a suit next, will just have to go and do lots of trying on til I find a good match that fits in my dimensions.

 

[DennisW]

Alfred,

You were Narc'd. At 26 meters, you were very Narc'd, but the feeling that you couldn't breath was likely CO2 build up as suggested. I will tell you that I have had the same feeling and it was not (in my opinion CO2 buildup). I think it was a "dark Narc" because I had no stress on the descent and had pulled myself down. It was a night dive and I had not done one in a while, so I may have been a little stressed about that, but I was excited to make the dive and felt comfortable on the initial descent. After I got to depth, I felt that I had a hard time breathing and got a panicky feeling. I let my buddy know and we ascended to where I felt better, stayed there for maybe 1 or 2 minutes and then finished the dive (from about 100ft to 60 ft and then finished the dive back at 100 ft). So somewhere in the same depths as you were. It is not a good feeling, so I understand completely. Going back into the water at shallower depths is good, then gradually build up to some deeper dives. You will do fine.

 

[Tortuga68]

You were Narc'd. At 26 meters, you were very Narc'd

Dennis - the OP was stressed before the dive. It was his first dive in a while. He had a wetsuit that restricted his breathing, a mask that leaked and buddy issues. You agree that he probably had CO2 build-up, which increases respiration whilst leading to a feeling of breathlessness... all of this is a perfect recipe for a panic/stress attack

So on what do you base your statement that he was "very narc'd" at 26m?