Narcosis Experiences

[tstormdiver]

I've had several bouts of narcosis. I primarily dive fresh water quarries that can get quite cold down below the last thermocline. From what I can remember, all the time I have experienced it, it was a combination of task overloading & narcosis. The first instance was my first deep dive in my AOW course I was using rental gear & had multiple problems during that dive (not enough weight so had to hand over hand pull myself down a descent rope, a weight belt that wouldn't stay up, lost a fin at 80ft & started to over- breathe my regulator). Needless to say that things got out of hand rather quickly. If not for an attentive DM assisting with the class, I would have bolted for the surface. He recognized the situation, got a hold of me & we made a slow ascent. Once we got to the safety stop, I calmed down. Of course at the time I didn't realize it was narcosis. I have since experienced narcosis to milder degrees on other dives in that quarry. Any more I notice it as an irritating "static buzz" (like listening to a radio with lots of static) in my head or a feeling that I can't expand my chest enough to breathe properly. My last bout was this summer the first time I tried to dive my doubles. Not realizing how negative those double steel 85's were, I released ALL the air from my wings. Needless to say, I got into a run away descent & was finally able to stop myself at about 95ft. I was quite lucky that I didn't rupture my ear drums on that one as I found I was struggling to equalize my ears, fill my wings & my drysuit. When I got stopped, once again, I felt like I could not expand my chest enough to get a full breath of air & thus aborted the dive. I am finding out that, for me, task loading, temperature & descent rate seem to greatly affect how badly I experience narcosis. I have dove to 124ft in the Caribbean & not experienced any noticeable narcosis, yet have experienced narcosis dozens of times at this quarry to one degree or another. As I gain more & more experience it also seems to help me to deal with the narcosis, so each dive to depth, there, is a little better than the last.

 

[300bar]

Interesting stuff so far

As for me The only times i've got narced was at 130'+ and than just feeling not very happy on the dive.After ascending a bit it's always gone.

As for realy narced.

A few years ago I was teaching in Curacao and had a student who got narced.It was on the AOW deepdive, we went to 110' and did the timed tasks.
after that we had a few minutes of NDL left so I took the students fow a very little swim befor we should ascend.At that point one student sat on the reef and was completly non responcife.I waved my hand before him,slaped him and pinced him very hard
but he did NOT respond at all. I took him up and at 18m/60'he came back to the planet.
That was my 1e narc I've ever seen and scared the hell out of me at that time.
Seem some more since than but never that severe

 

[diverrick]

I have dove a few time to 110 and never felt like I was narced, though I know I was at that depth. When my wife and I did the advanced cert, deep diver was part of it. We went down to 110' and did the tests. I put together a complicated pvc pipe thingy, with no problems, actually did it the same time it took to do it on shore, but my wife.... She went down and they had her sign her name. When we got back the DI asked if she thought she was norced, and she said no, he then hands her the slate with her name on it. She had mispelled her own name!
I felt narcosis the first time, diving in the great blue hole in Belize. We were supposed to stop at 135' but I had stopped to watch a shark on the way down so I thought I had to catch up with the group, because I was behind, so I was swimming down, looking for everyone else, I could not see them anywhere, but I could here the DM rattling her noisemaker, but I could not find anyone, Then I feel this dizzy feeling when I turned my head, and I had no side vision, so I am thinking I am narc'd at this point, but still I did nothing to stop myself. I felt a tugging on my fins, I turned around and saw everyone well above me, I was in front of them instead, and swimming away further from them! The DM had come down and got me. She motioned for me to come up higher, that's when I realised that I had blown the max depth stop and was at 145' and still going deeper. I had no clue. I just was kinda on auto pilot, swimming mindlessly down.
I was glad she came after me, because I am not too sure how far down I would have gone, while looking for everyone else. Definately narc'd on that dive.

 

[wedivebc]

Acutally pilots who are in an unpressurized aircraft CAN suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis. Maybe you should do your research next time. ..

I think you are confusing hypoxia symptoms with narcosis. Perhaps you should read up on Meyer-Overton theory and stop telling others to do THEIR research.

 

[Narcosis_Anonymous]

I feel slight narcosis around 100'. The deepest I have been is 140' and the feeling was about the same. It was what I guess would be called a bounce/multi level dive. Real quick to 140' and then up with a couple stops for sight seeing. I have noticed I have more tolerance for narcosis than most of my friends that I dive with. I often wonder if this is because my best friends father in high school was a dentist?

 

[David P]

This is very interesting. Can you tell us what kind of computer you have? My Nitek duo will not let you change to gauge mode after the first dive. It takes I believe 48 hrs to clear before you can make the switch. That's a serious potential hazard.

and thanks for sharing what happened

Actually, I have a Nitek Duo... maybe they changed as mine is a little over 3 years old... but I can switch from computer to gauge mode, but once in gauge mode (and dive) you cant switch back ( I believe)...

oh yeah, as I am being transported to the chamber, I was asked why I did such a fast ascent(they were going through my computer), I responded that I wasn't aware that I made a fast ascent and they informed me that I went from 80 to 47 feet in one minute..."The RULE is 30 feet per minute" I just kinda laughed (still totally stressed as to why my one eye was totally dialated) and asked "you're not a diver are you?"

 

[Jimmer]

Acutally pilots who are in an unpressurized aircraft CAN suffer from Nitrogen Narcosis.

That makes no sense. Narcosis is because of increased pressure.

I'm not sure this is actually narcosis, or if it was just me being new to deep diving, but when I started going past 100 feet I found my heart rate was through the roof, to the point I could feel it in my chest. My breathing rate would increase too, and I had to force myself to relax and slow my breathing. Now I don't seem to have that issue when I go deep.

Now I do remember my first really deep dive, I was decending towards the wreck in 135 feet of water, and I was about 90 feet deep looking down at it, and I thought to myself "man it looks blurry...am I narced?" and then I realized my mask had a very small leak, so small I hadn't noticed it lol.

 

[texdiveguy]

I don't know if this should be posted somewhere else or not. Anyway, it might be interesting to hear from those of us who have entered the world of narcosis and what we experienced. I'll start out. This summer, my buddy and I were diving in Lake Travis, Austin, TX. We decided to check out the "Pecan Grove", a grove of large pecan trees at about 110 ft. We planned the dive out. It was also decided that if we got silted out and lost visibility of each other we would search two minutes and then surface. Vis was excellent (20' plus). We got down to the grove and sure enough, got silted up. As planned, I began my ascent after two minutes of searching the immediate area keeping a very close watch on my depth guage. Air was plenty. I immediately noticed I was not ascending according to my guage. Being in a "grove", I checked to see if I had gotten snagged on a branch or something. I was clear, but still not ascending. I began popping air into my bc slowly. Still no movement. Suddenly, I realized the problem. I had been fixated on my maximum depth needle. I was looking at the wrong needle. I then saw I was at 65' and rising quick. I immediately dumped the air and decended back to 90'. I then began a slow ascent with a five minute safety stop at 15'. I got to the surface and met up with my buddy. This is a long thread but I guess my point is that being narced does not mean you become a complete and total idiot. I thought I was thinking very rationally, following the plan, and even looking for a logical explanation for not beign able to ascend. And in that lies the danger.

Thanks for sharing your experience and I am happy all worked out OK for you guys.

Yea narcosis is an interesting beast....the effects are varying from diver to diver and within the same person dive to dive (lots of variables). A lot has been learned regarding its effects but so much we still don't trulley understand.

I for one 'seem' to suffer less than many others in regards to narcosis, though this does not change my dive protocols to take what action I can to reduce its effects on deeper dives.

I think study,,,,progressive diving and awareness are some key things we can each do to protect ourselves.

PS--Travis is a nice dive lake.

 

[oldschool]

Wow!! What a response! Thanks for all the great input. I feel I am in good company.

 

[Joe-Diver]

I've made many dives in the 90-110 foot range and thought I had experienced narcosis...and I probably had to some degree.

Made a dive to 130 on Santa Rosa in Cozumel. Dive went perfect, no issues and just as planned: 130 for 5 mins then up to 90 and shallower for the rest of the dive. It was dive #4 for my Deep Diver specialty. Once we hit 130 and leveled out, it didn't hit at first. It took about 6 or 7 breaths. It felt like those first few breaths in the dentist chair. Not enough to knock me out, not even close. But it was a very warm, numbing, giddy and pleasant feeling. Honestly, I enjoyed it. I was very surprised by it, and it was everything I'd been trained or told about: It's an anesthetic effect.

I can fully appreciate the danger in this. Luckily for me all we did was drift along the wall at 130 and admire the scenery. My only tasks were to concentrate on my depth and time....everything else, including the scenery, was secondary. As soon as we hit the 5 minute mark, we ascended to 90 and the effect went away as quickly as it started.