hormones making me a nerve bucket???

[gigimartin]

Hello there,
desperately need some input on this. I am a 27 year old fit female with a divemaster qualification and a couple hundred dives mostly work related. I bought a whole new set of kit after saving for all the pieces for ages, went on the pill and moved to warmer climes with my boyfriend for a pr job in diving with free diving as my bonus. Sounds good and my kit is fantastic my tan is coming along fine BUT I am undergoing something very weird. After a six month stint out of water I have started to panic underwater and on a dive the other day at 35 metres helped another diver who was panicing and got him calmed and heading back to boat with his buddy, when out of no where I got all cold and my mind went bezerk and I JUST WANTED OUT. I stayed cool barely and had to rub my knuckles off some rocks to stay focused and pinch myself and it was the most terrifing and horrible feeling.It has kept rearing its head up and I tell my self I am making it up and that all is okay but even though I am still diving tentativelyI am not enjoying it at all and I keep going to prove to myself that it is fine and I am hoping it will just go away. My buddy-boyfriend is being very patient with me but just doesn´t understand how seriously scared I am. I hope someone will tell me its the pill and mabey I am adjusting to that or is it because i am overheating or something physical because this is wrecking my head.I also think it is because I am diving for pleasure and not as a dive leader, not focused so much? HELP

 

[tndiveinstruct1]

Hello there,
desperately need some input on this. I am a 27 year old fit female with a divemaster qualification and a couple hundred dives mostly work related. I bought a whole new set of kit after saving for all the pieces for ages, went on the pill and moved to warmer climes with my boyfriend for a pr job in diving with free diving as my bonus. Sounds good and my kit is fantastic my tan is coming along fine BUT I am undergoing something very weird. After a six month stint out of water I have started to panic underwater and on a dive the other day at 35 metres helped another diver who was panicing and got him calmed and heading back to boat with his buddy, when out of no where I got all cold and my mind went bezerk and I JUST WANTED OUT. I stayed cool barely and had to rub my knuckles off some rocks to stay focused and pinch myself and it was the most terrifing and horrible feeling.It has kept rearing its head up and I tell my self I am making it up and that all is okay but even though I am still diving tentativelyI am not enjoying it at all and I keep going to prove to myself that it is fine and I am hoping it will just go away. My buddy-boyfriend is being very patient with me but just doesn´t understand how seriously scared I am. I hope someone will tell me its the pill and mabey I am adjusting to that or is it because i am overheating or something physical because this is wrecking my head.I also think it is because I am diving for pleasure and not as a dive leader, not focused so much? HELP

Greetings Gigi,

First off, I'm not a doctor, but I have been married for 21+ years. I also have a degree in Biomedical Engineering, which required us to take many of the same courses that RN's take. And I have slept in a Holiday Inn Express

It is very possible that it is because you have started on the pill. Without going into a lot of details, suffice it to say that the introduction of the extra hormones into your system has been known to cause severe mood swings and yes even panic attacks. It sounds as though you are experiencing this.

Please do not construe this as medical advice, because it isn't. I just happen to know several people that have reacted the same way that you have after starting on the pill, as well as starting on a HRT ( Hormone Replacement Therpay ) program.

I would suggest you consult with a doctor as well. Tell them EXACTLY how you feel.

Best wishes and hope this helps!

Randy Cain

 

[littlemermaid]

Hi,

Although I am not an OB/Gyn (just finished my pediatric residency) I have known many people to have severe changes in mood, not dissimilar to your experience and I personally would not be surprised if this was contributing. Although I am saying this without knowing very much about your OCP history and other information. The real culprit in OCP's is the estrogen so a couple of things to consider would be a low estrogen pill (though if you are sensitive to it might not help that much and higher risk of breakthrough bleeding), a progestin only pill (can also be used while breast feeding but have to be VERY good at taking the same time every day), DepoProvera (but need to take your CALCIUM), the NuvaRing (has less systemic absorption of estrogen), there is a new progestin releasing IUD called Mirena (I saw another thread on this a while back)...not to mention the old tried and true birth control methods.

I hope you have an OB/Gyn who listens to you and can really help you find another birth control option....because until you get the estrogen out of your system for a few months, you won't know how much it is really contributing. Anyways, hope this is helplful and if I can provide any other information, let me know. Best of luck!

Echo

 

[bubblelogist]

HI,
I have no knowledge at all in medecine but I know two sad stories.
First, one ex-diver I know was a Dive master, and she worked with a scuba shop. One day on a certification she had to take care of a panicked student. After that incident, she finally gave up dicing and decided to sell all her gear. Another ex-diver I heard about found a dead body in a quarry, and never doved again after that.

The feelings you have now may be caused by the pill, but it's possible that the situation with the panicked diver just create something in your brain... maybe you are afraid of getting panicked too, now that you saw someone getting panicked.

I don't have a solution for you, and the only conclusion that I can see is that human body and human soul is so complicated. I really hope that you will get back your pleasure in diving

Good luck !

 

[Wendy]

Maybe it is cuz you were not focused on doing a job when you are just pleasure diving. I never paniced on a dive, but felt like I was 'loosing my happy place' on a couple dives when I was not the one leading the dive. It only happened a couple times and now I am ok. It just kinda stopped, but I tend to like doing dives where I need to stay focused on a task or I am the one leading the dive.

Let us know what happens.

 

[Big Fic]

I have been where you are!!!

I am 34 y.o. and started back on a lower dose of a pill I used to take for years without problem. I wanted to take them 3 months at a time, to decrease the number of periods to 4 per year, to better augment my dive vacations. I thought this should be no problem (gyno thought would be great idea)...but was I wrong!

My first panic attack was during full mask clearing in a pool session of my OW training, one week before my checkout dives! I could not calm down for probably 30 minutes! First my instructor tried to push me to "get back on that horse", but I resisted, in tears, knowing I could not go back down yet. Finally, he gave me some time, let me swim around a little, broke down the skill into steps, and I was finally over it and ready to resume the class. I had no more problems that evening, doing the clearing several times without difficulty. As the week went on, I got more and more generalized anxiety, an overwhelming feeling of dread, for no reason. I would also be sad, crying, for no reason. I was so embarrassed for acting so silly in front of my husband and dive friends. It's hard to describe, but it's got to be one of the worst feelings in the world.

I finally went on Saturday to a walk-in clinic, where the doc said probably not the BCP's, but could be...gave me 10 Xanax to "tide me over" until I could get into my regular doc. Saw my regular doc, who said about the same thing, and started me on Paxil CR, said to come back in a month. A week shy of that recheck, my 3 months of pills was up, so I stopped taking them. THERE WAS AN IMMEDIATE CHANGE that very next day, believe it or not! I have never had another symptom since! (by the way, the Xanax got me through my open water dives without problem...I had saved them for that purpose) When I went back to my doc for the recheck and told him of my experience, he then admitted that it's a fairly common problem (anxiety/depression/panic attacks brought on by exogenous hormones) and that he wasn't surprised. I since weaned myself off the Paxil (with the direction of my MD) and am still problem-free 2 months later.

My advice...get with your gyno, maybe try another type of pill or just give up the pill entirely. If you felt anything like I did, it is not worth it!

Trena

 

[littlemermaid]

Trena,

Coming from the medical profession, I have often noticed that physicians are reluctant to attribute anxiety symptoms to a medication side effect...as I stated in an earlier post, the only real way to know is by going OFF the medication and seeing if you notice or feel a difference...I have heard sooo many vignettes describing mood swings, depression, anxiety all related to taking OCP's. But since such a large number of women take OCP's, it is still a relatively small proportion that have these kinds of problems. Thus the symptoms may go unrecognized as being related to the pill....etc, etc.

Anyways, this is the long way of saying, "Way to be your own best advocate!" I hope this thread helps any women out there who have/are experiencing similar problems, and that they have a physician who listens to them and provides information on alternative forms of BC...

E

 

[scubasean]

I bought a whole new set of kit after saving for all the pieces for ages, went on the pill and moved to warmer climes with my boyfriend for a pr job in diving with free diving as my bonus.

<snip>

After a six month stint out of water I have started to panic ...

Although others have commented that they think it is the pills, the text above suggested to me that the pills and the panic may be unrelated. Did beginning the pill coincide with the panic? Seems to me that you were on the pill for awhile and are now (six months later?) panicing...

I'm not a doc and don't even play one...As someone else said, it could be something else entirely.

Is it possible that being out of the water and then getting back in without a refresher triggered the panic? What if you went a few times again with an instructor?

Or maybe I completely missed something here...

Good luck!

 

[Queen]

I've been through menopause (surgical) and found the HRT has caused a host of side effects all of which are mood related. I have had mood swings and have experienced fear in the most unlikely places. I've been working with my doc to alter doses and hopefully wean off the meds soon (it's been 4 years now). Things have improved markedly with the lower doses...as others have said, talk to your doc and maybe see what it's like off the pill?

Hope it gets better soon, I know how creepy it feels to "not be you".

 

[Big Fic]

SCUBASEAN: I get what you're saying, but I think my panic attacks were a combination of the pill and an anxiety-provoking activity, so I thought perhaps this might be our poster's problem--worth looking into: in my case, full mask clearing. I had gotten a snoot full of water one other time doing this activity and had a great deal of trouble completing the skill, but did not erupt into full blown panic like the time when I had been on the pill for awhile. But it still made me nervous just thinking about having to complete the task.

I also had a long history of having side effects from BCP's, always starting after I had been on them for at least a month, usually 3-4...it takes awhile to cycle through and your body to "get used to them".

LITTLEMERMAID: What is your discipline? I am a physical therapist, so that is probably why I am such a self-advocate...I do it everyday for others, and unfortunately see the results when patients can't do it for themselves. My primary doc is very conservative...you have to prod him in the arse to get him to refer you to a specialist. He once told me that I would have to live with my shoulder problem (at age 34!!!), though he could not diagnose it. I convinced him to refer me to an orthopedist, who diagnosed anterior shoulder instability, and with a little strengthening, it is 90% better! But I don't dare switch PCP's, because many are the same way...which is why, like you said, you have to self educate and self advocate! I couldn't agree more!

Anyway, GIGIMARTIN: Hope we are having some insightful ideas for you and good luck to you!