dark narc?

[rivers]

Yesterday I had a panic attack during my first dive of the day in Cozumel. And, I'm not entirely sure why. I was diving with Scuba Mau, and there were two couples on the boat and myself. We were at Palancar Caves and descended to the sandy bottom and headed over to the reef and continued our decscent. The plan was to hit 90 feet and cruise for 5-10 minutes before ascending to 70 feet. At about 85 feet, I started to feel "not right" and restricted, and my breathing rate began to skyrocket. This just sort of amplified the restricted feeling I was having. I motioned to the DM that something was wrong and I needed to ascend. So we ascended to about 60 feet, where I began to calm down. I finished the dive with no problems, and did the second dive without incident.

I was in my own gear with the exception of my wetsuit. I only have a shorty, so Opal loaned me a full suit since water temp was about 78F. Looking back, I think that may have been a contributing factor as it was my first time in a full suit. Normally I wear a shorty or shorts and a rash guard. Also, it's been a particularly busy and rough month at work with cast change, the Rick Springfield charter, my boss coming onboard, and the Backstreet Boys charter. I've been working tons of extra hours, and sleep has been a bit hard to come by on some days. Plus, it's the last month of my contract. Maybe my mind had enough. Perhaps the lack of sleep amplified the narcosis and I had a dark narc.

Either way, I'm proud of how I handled it. It was my first "panic moment" in the 65 dives I've done in the past year or so. I didn't bolt for the surface, i ascended, got my breathing under control, and continued my dive.

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you for posting, Rivers. By posting here, you are helping other divers. I do have a couple of questions, Rivers.

1) How often do you dive to 85'?
2) Was there a current?
3) How long were you down at 85'?
4) How old are you?
5) Have you ever had a panic attack before? Even one on dry land?

 

[Bubbletrubble]

Thanks for sharing your story. You seemed to do all of the correct things in response to your narcosis episode. The way I like to think about narcosis is that it's essentially ALWAYS there, whether you perceive it or not. Even for those who insist they have never experienced the phenomenon on deep air dives (100+ fsw), I'd venture a guess that, at the very least, they experienced perceptual narrowing. There's at least one scientific study that demonstrated measurable (but subtle) cognitive deficits in divers at a depth of 15-20 fsw. Interesting, huh? A component of becoming a better diver is gaining the experience of working through problems while underwater. This particular experience will help you to respect potential hazards of deep diving and to anticipate these issues in the future. You'll be a better, safer diver for it.

Something else to note is that carbon dioxide retention can exacerbate narcosis symptoms. The potential for CO2 retention climbs as a diver has to "work" harder underwater. It can lead to a vicious cycle of rapid, shallow breathing followed by anxiety, confusion, panic, and intensified narcosis. A reasonable response to manage elevated CO2 retention is to slow down (decrease work load of finning), decrease respiration rate, concentrate on inhaling and exhaling deeply, get your buddy's attention, and ascend a little. It doesn't sound like this was an issue on the dive being discussed, but I just wanted to bring it to your attention.

This is a separate issue but has relevance to managing issues underwater...
Who was your buddy on this dive?
Were you buddied up with one of the couples or the DM?
The reason I ask this is that it's suboptimal for the DM leading the group to be a single diver's buddy. It's mainly a problem of conflicting responsibilities. There are much better alternatives out there -- buddying up as a threesome, hiring a private DM to be only your buddy, etc. I've been on vacation dives where single divers are "buddied up" with the DM leader. On several occasions, the single divers have hung out in the back of the diver herd with the DM leader in front. The buddy separation distance was unacceptable in my opinion. Essentially, such single divers were diving solo.

 

[scubamarketing]

I'm interested to read the response to the follow up questions. I consider myself a student of narcosis since I'm one of those people who hasn't noticed it before. When I was a student on my deep dive for my advanced certification, half the class got narced, it was a very sketchy situation, a few staff people retired after the weekend, but it strengthened my resolve to try to experience narcosis under supervision, so I took a deep specialty. Fast forward to tons of dives around 130', many with students, frequently in bad conditions and I still haven't realized i have it. I'm not stupid enough to think I'm immune, but I really want to experience it in a situation like yours where it's relatively easy to recover safely.

 

[rivers]

To answer your questions:

Thank you for posting, Rivers. By posting here, you are helping other divers. I do have a couple of questions, Rivers.

1) How often do you dive to 85'? about half of my dives are in the 80-100ft range.
2) Was there a current? mild. it was cozumel. i'm used to current. i dive in coz quite a bit.
3) How long were you down at 85'? we were only about 10 minutes or so into the dive.
4) How old are you? 27
5) Have you ever had a panic attack before? Even one on dry land? No

 

[DevonDiver]

Dark Narc

It watches and waits.... to make your deepest fears come true.

 

[rivers]

Thanks for sharing your story. You seemed to do all of the correct things in response to your narcosis episode. The way I like to think about narcosis is that it's essentially ALWAYS there, whether you perceive it or not. Even for those who insist they have never experienced the phenomenon on deep air dives (100+ fsw), I'd venture a guess that, at the very least, they experienced perceptual narrowing. There's at least one scientific study that demonstrated measurable (but subtle) cognitive deficits in divers at a depth of 15-20 fsw. Interesting, huh? A component of becoming a better diver is gaining the experience of working through problems while underwater. This particular experience will help you to respect potential hazards of deep diving and to anticipate these issues in the future. You'll be a better, safer diver for it.

Something else to note is that carbon dioxide retention can exacerbate narcosis symptoms. The potential for CO2 retention climbs as a diver has to "work" harder underwater. It can lead to a vicious cycle of rapid, shallow breathing followed by anxiety, confusion, panic, and intensified narcosis. A reasonable response to manage elevated CO2 retention is to slow down (decrease work load of finning), decrease respiration rate, concentrate on inhaling and exhaling deeply, get your buddy's attention, and ascend a little. It doesn't sound like this was an issue on the dive being discussed, but I just wanted to bring it to your attention.

This is a separate issue but has relevance to managing issues underwater...
Who was your buddy on this dive?
Were you buddied up with one of the couples or the DM?
The reason I ask this is that it's suboptimal for the DM leading the group to be a single diver's buddy. It's mainly a problem of conflicting responsibilities. There are much better alternatives out there -- buddying up as a threesome, hiring a private DM to be only your buddy, etc. I've been on vacation dives where single divers are "buddied up" with the DM leader. On several occasions, the single divers have hung out in the back of the diver herd with the DM leader in front. The buddy separation distance was unacceptable in my opinion. Essentially, such single divers were diving solo.

I was buddied with the dm and was about five feet behind him. Most of the time i am diving on my own occassionally buddied with another single diver, a couple or the guide/dm. Since i dive with the same ops over and over again they know my skill level and that i am usually quite calm and relaxed. I am still perplexed by the whole thing but again i know there were contributing factors as well.

 

[DennisW]

It happens sometimes and your using a different wet suit could cause you to be a little aprehensive which I believe can enhance the effects of Nitrogen Narcosis. This is due to my own experiences, not to any scientific evidence. Ascending to a shallower depth helps me when I experience something like this (60ft seems to be a good depth) and then I can complete the dive after I feel better. Could be CO2 build up, but I don't think so. Again, just my opinion.

Sounds like you handled it ok.

 

[openmindOW]

Thank you, Rivers.

So, based on ;yor responses, it sounds like the following are facts based on your recollection.

During the dive in question, you were at app. 85' for app. 10 minutes. There was mild curent. You are 27 years old. You have had dive experience in dives deeper than 80 feet. You have never had a panic attack before.

I should say that I do not know if what yoiu experienced met the medical definition of a panic attack; perhaps someone else might be able to advise on this.

Is it possible that you experienced a bit of hypercapnia?

 

[InTheDrink]

Rivers - I get this **** the whole time. It's a major PITA but you just gotta work round it. Main thing that helps is familiarity and as DennisW said, getting shallower. I go from paranoia to absolutely fine from 30m to 20m. I don't know why I'm susceptible to it but I do know that if I have a full weeks diving every day it goes away. I think my brain adjusts to it.

Anyhow, you dealt with it appropriately. If you're feeling narked the appropriate response with no deco obligation is to get shallower. Simple as.

Cheers,
J