Fears, Panic, Anxiety... What Does It Do To You?

[rob.mwpropane]

My primary fear in life is that I won't be there and fully prepared in an emergency or life threatening scenario where my family or friends or even strangers need me to be there. You can practice, drill, simulate train and theorize for hours and days and years.......but the true fact is that you can't really know how you will react until the shite really hits the fan. As instructors, I think many of us know that the superstar in the pool may be the most problematic in OW...... and in an emergency or survival scenario it's sometimes the most unlikely suspect that picks up the bit and shines through...

Education, training and proper equipment will ALWAYS be a plus..... but the simple fact is that until the "real" bullets start flying, no one really knows for sure if they will hide and whimper..... or if they will step up to the tee and perform as they had always expected and hoped that they would.

For those of us that have been in a real life emergencies, we may have a bit of solace in knowing and learning a bit more about ourselves and how we might expect ourselves to react...

Like Rob, I don't feel that I have much fear of physical things. As a skydiver, I have had a partial line-over malfunction and have gone though the process of needing to make a very difficult decision to cut-away or stick with a partial canopy and ride it out. Having gone through that and knowing for myself that I took the time to stop, think and then act, rather than panic, and that I am here to talk about it, has taught me a bit more about myself...... but still doesn't mean that I won't piss my drysuit and panic in a true UW emergency... It just gives me hope that I wont.

My most memorable underwater "emergency" was on a solo dive on the Kehloken wreck in 1998 in about 70 FSW off of Possession Point in Area 9 of the Puget Sound. Normally an easy dive that I knew well and had dived many times. It was Easter Sunday and my parents and wife were on the boat while I descended to get our Easter dinner of fresh Lingcod. The wreck is really not a penetration type scenario but rather a collapsed and dilapidated structure with plenty of snags. I descended into the structure, selectively and mercifully shot a 15lb male and then while dealing with the fish my mask was suddenly off and gone. Not sure if it was poor inspection of the strap on my part or if I had inadvertently snagged the strap on a sharp. I was early in the dive and relatively shallow so my initial thought was that I had plenty of gas and my immediate instinct was to Stop, Think and then Act. I calmed myself and considered that I was in the middle of the structure and that there could be obstructions if I decided to make a direct ascent. I felt around me with no luck on initially finding the mask. Confident that I had plenty of primary gas and my 19CF tank mounted, I took another 30 seconds to again Stop & Think. The weird thing was that my main concern and fear was not about myself but the fear of my wife and parents not having me make it back as expected and then them having to deal with my death. After another minute I found that I could take my thumb and forefinger and form an inverted "cup" with the skin of my hand sealed against my forehead. This allowed me to form a small air pocket with my exhausted bubbles and actually have clear vision below me. That was a "breakthrough" even though I did not see my mask. So I considered this revelation and then repeated it only this time concentrated on not looking for the mask but getting a glimpse of my SPG to find that I still had 2000+ of gas. That was step 1 and served to further calm me into knowing that I had time to work the problem. I repeated that process and was eventually able to locate my mask that was only a few feet from me and behind me. Once I had the mask on and cleared, the rest was a rather non eventful event and controlled ascent.

My main takeaways were:

1)I found that in that scenario I didn't panic and I worked the problem.

2) I will never do another solo dive without a spare mask onboard.

Panic is the inability to accept and work through fear. I've never understood panic as I would imagine anyone who's lived through what you did would feel the same. It really doesn't do anything to help the situation. And really the small amount of panic / fear you had was because of lack of planning.

@Tracy and @The Chairman have both brought up good points about the lack of training or planning causing unwarranted fear and panic.

I think the difference between people who panic / have fear and people who don't could be the planning that goes into whatever activity they're doing. That could be with anything, hiking, skydiving, diving. I plan all my dives well in advance, I test everything the night before and make sure I'm packed ready to go. The very few times that I just "threw stuff together" there was more anxiety because in the back of my mind I kept second guessing if I was forgetting something.

I could see any activity being like that. Who do you think panics 1st, the guy who brought 48 hours worth of water, a map, and a gps on his nature hike in the park or the guy who just wanted to take his dog for a 30 min walk to a waterfall he heard about and didn't bring anything. Of course it's guy 2, he got way in over his head before he ever even started. Silly example but you get the point.

 

[The Chairman]

CO₂ and diving.

It's been my conclusion for a long time that many a diver inadvertently cause their own panic by trying to extend their air by skip breathing. Earlier this century, when my username was NetDoc, I was often contacted by peeps with medical questions. No, I'm not a medical doctor, and finally gave up that appellation because of the confusion. One conversation with a caver stands out. He had gotten to the point where he would often go into a panic on descent. Working backward, he had been trying to get further back into a high flow cave and was working on his breathing to accomplish this. It was an aggressive skip breathing protocol: breathe in 15 and exhale for 45. Mind you, a quick search of Google tells us that the average rate is 12 to 16 breaths a minute, and he was trying to reduce it to just one.

His buildup of CO₂ had to be massive. For those who don't know, two of the early onset side effects of CO buildup are panic and confusion. It also reduces your ability to reason and make good decisions. The major cause of it in divers is overexertion, but add skip breathing and you're really asking for trouble. That football player panting after that touchdown run is not trying to get more oxygen as much as they are trying to get rid of his CO₂ buildup. It's debilitating. So, do yourself a favor and stop trying to control your breathing. If you need to go longer, buy a bigger tank.

 

[rob.mwpropane]

CO₂ and diving.

It's been my conclusion for a long time that many a diver inadvertently cause their own panic by trying to extend their air by skip breathing. Earlier this century, when my username was NetDoc, I was often contacted by peeps with medical questions. No, I'm not a medical doctor, and finally gave up that appellation because of the confusion. One conversation with a caver stands out. He had gotten to the point where he would often go into a panic on descent. Working backward, he had been trying to get further back into a high flow cave and was working on his breathing to accomplish this. It was an aggressive skip breathing protocol: breathe in 15 and exhale for 45. Mind you, a quick search of Google tells us that the average rate is 12 to 16 breaths a minute, and he was trying to reduce it to just one.

His buildup of CO₂ had to be massive. For those who don't know, two of the early onset side effects of CO buildup are panic and confusion. It also reduces your ability to reason and make good decisions. The major cause of it in divers is overexertion, but add skip breathing and you're really asking for trouble. That football player panting after that touchdown run is not trying to get more oxygen as much as they are trying to get rid of his CO₂ buildup. It's debilitating. So, do yourself a favor and stop trying to control your breathing. If you need to go longer, buy a bigger tank.

I have done this, twice if I recall, in the early days. Both times the feeling of a little anxiety and tightness in the chest.. trying to figure out what the hell was going on. I stopped, remembered something someone said about CO2 and just breathed. Stopping and just taking a second to regroup can make all the difference in the world. I think you're right, the buildup of CO2 could very well be the door that leads to panic. Like that video of the girl panicking and fighting her way to get back to the surface... I must have watched that video 20 times when I started diving because I didn't want that to be me. Could have very well have been CO2.

All that falls back to planning too.. I take so much gas with me now I don't even really care what my SAC is anymore. I know it, and I use it to plan, but if I need the extra gas that I have to fight current or figure out a problem it's there and I'll use it. And low and behold, SAC has gotten worlds better just not worrying about it.

 

[KatieMac]

I'm not a fan of heights - would never choose to do something like the top of the CN Tower or any high attraction with a glass floor. Balconies are also an issue. Anxiety? No, but I get a bit of vertigo.

As for diving, I didn't start until late in life. I was afraid of the ocean - or so I thought. After jumping in to snorkel on a catamaran cruise in Cancun, once I put my face in the water and could see, any fear I thought I had of the ocean disappeared. I realized I wasn't afraid of the ocean ... I was afraid of what I couldn't see.

For the first few dozen dives, I had to be the first back on the boat. Sitting out in the water with my head above the water was very uncomfortable. I dealt with it by putting my head back in the water to see what was around me. I'm over that now but it took a while and the patience of a reliable dive buddy to get over it.

 

[The Chairman]

And low and behold, SAC has gotten worlds better just not worrying about it.

A doctor once told me that there's a ten-fold time factor to get rid of any additional CO₂ you retain and that it might be even more underwater. Moreover, it's the presence of CO₂ in your blood that triggers your breathing and not the absence of oxygen. So every minute of skip breathing results in at least ten minutes of feeling starved for oxygen. Unfortunately, that urge to breathe is quite compelling, so what began intuitively as a way to conserve gas ends up costing you a lot more.

The real way to reduce your rate of respiration is to reduce how much CO₂ you create. Every time you move a muscle, whether it's to adjust your trim/buoyancy or (gasp) to fight mondo currents, you create more CO₂ which must be expelled. Reducing the weight you need and balancing your rig will help with the first part while learning the five D's of handling currents will help you with the other. Dive smarter, not harder!

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[Ulfhedinn]

Fear for me is kind of unique. When I was a young kid I was afraid of the dark and I got a little nervous around girls but as an adult, I have tried many things to "test" my fear. Skydiving non-tandem first jump, Scuba diving in any environment I could find, rock climbing, or really climbing anything I could find, super fast motorcycles through the center of traffic, jumping trucks, etc.

My skydiving instructor got a little heated with me and justifiably so. When we got to the height I just got in the door and jumped and they had to chase me. I was sorry but I was just excited to jump. With all that being said I do not enjoy being smothered in a rug which I tried... Burrito wrap with your head sticking out but it's the loss of control that is the concern. I have never dove in a cave... a real cave buts it's coming. Fast motorcycles, rollercoasters, etc... anything for that rush. Some people just need the adrenaline to feel normal.

So what do I really fear... not being able to help my dogs in an emergency, not knowing what is wrong to help them if something goes south. Crazy.. but it's on my mind all the time. You may ask why not your wife, daughter, parent, etc. Well, I have those modalities pretty dialed in, and adding Vet too combined with Dr Dolittle just hasn't panned out yet.


These are things I take to heart!

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear
Mark Twain

To avoid these uncomfortable sensations and emotions they could tough it out, mentally disconnect, use distraction to get away from the feeling—rushing to get it over with. Or, they could slow down, notice the sensations, focus on staying present, and being aware of performing the skill. In the second option, there is exposure to the sensations and emotions, and that exposure is important in allowing habituation. Being more willing to be uncomfortable makes it easier to become familiar with it.
Dr Laura Walton

 

[stretchthepenn]

It's peculiar, the contradictions that emerge when I consider the things that freak me out.

Like KatieMac, I used to be freaked out by the thought of what was under the ocean that I couldn't see. Then, once I actually saw what was there -- sand, rocks, fishies -- the fear disappeared. Now, when I'm on an ocean dive and doing a surface interval, I'll swim away from the boat a good distance and then do my best Michael Phelps impression as I butterfly-stroke back to the boat. Sharks and barracudas hanging out on the wreck below? It's all good.

But I still won't swim in lakes. Nuh-uh.

And that one day when I took a paddleboard out at the quarry I used to frequent? Oh, gawd. I just couldn't do it. The viz was excellent that day, and I know what's on the bottom -- mud -- but balancing on that little board and being able to see 50, 60 feet down... *shudder* I planted ass and paddled myself back to the side ASAP.

 

[mbs]

Fear of heights and claustrophobia for me! I remember the first time I came to the edge of a sheer wall diving in the Bahamas and I felt that feeling in my gut. I said to myself - you idiot, you can't fall off this wall! And that was that. Pretty bad above water. I don't like driving across bridges!!!
Some swim-throughs make me anxious if they are a little tight and there is someone in front of me. I did a chimney in Roatan that really freaked me out. Turned my light onto my depth gauge and watched that carefully until I was up.

 

[The Chairman]

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[KatieMac]

I did a chimney in Roatan that really freaked me out. Turned my light onto my depth gauge and watched that carefully until I was up.

Bear's Den by any chance?