Narcosis

[ktomlinson]

My wife and I recently had a conversation about narcosis. We dove the Vandenberg as the last two dives of a 20 dive wreck trek. The Vandenberg has an art installation of 5 or 6 paintings on it that we had seen in Oct of 2011. Before this trip, we had dove the Vandenberg 7 other times. I noticed that I remembered a lot more detail of this ship on these dives than on any dives I had done before. My wife swore that she only remembered one of the paintings and that the rest must have been placed there after we last dove it. Neither of us have ever experienced a cut and dry narced feeling, even down to 140'...you just know you are narced by the slow reaction times. Something that I notice when I am deep is that the bubbles sound 'tinny'...when I hear that I know I am getting narced. We talked about it more and both think that we were probably less narced because on this trip we had dove 16 100' dives in the past 4 days, and in the past we dove soon after getting to Key West.

 

[TonyErnst13]

When I "Narc" it is NOT a feeling of drinking a beer or two. It is a sense of slight panic and feeling like I'm not getting enough air. The first time this happened I was absolutely over exerted, due to intense currents on the Spiegel Grove and thought that was the main culprit. Months later I dove the Duane, took it EASY down the line, was fine at 90ft, and then at 105 felt like my reg wasn't giving me enough air... and I was calm as can be before.... I went up a few feet and did a few looooooooooooong exhales and my breathing went regular and I felt fine..... Not everyone has a "good" feeling when narc'd !!

BTW, the most clear case I ever experienced of impaired ability while being narced, even though I felt perfectly fine, was at only 100 feet. My next most clear example was only at 130 feet.

I have a friend, a technical diving instructor, who had a narcosis episode including a sense of panic, while on a recreational dive at only 85 feet.

You don't have to be really deep for this to happen.

 

[boulderjohn]

When I "Narc" it is NOT a feeling of drinking a beer or two. It is a sense of slight panic and feeling like I'm not getting enough air. The first time this happened I was absolutely over exerted, due to intense currents on the Spiegel Grove and thought that was the main culprit. Months later I dove the Duane, took it EASY down the line, was fine at 90ft, and then at 105 felt like my reg wasn't giving me enough air... and I was calm as can be before.... I went up a few feet and did a few looooooooooooong exhales and my breathing went regular and I felt fine..... Not everyone has a "good" feeling when narc'd !!

Maybe you just need a new regulator!

 

[TonyErnst13]

First time was a MK25/G250, just serviced. Next time was on a Abyss 22 that I bought new and used about 10 times.....

 

[wedivebc]

When I "Narc" it is NOT a feeling of drinking a beer or two. It is a sense of slight panic and feeling like I'm not getting enough air. The first time this happened I was absolutely over exerted, due to intense currents on the Spiegel Grove and thought that was the main culprit. Months later I dove the Duane, took it EASY down the line, was fine at 90ft, and then at 105 felt like my reg wasn't giving me enough air... and I was calm as can be before.... I went up a few feet and did a few looooooooooooong exhales and my breathing went regular and I felt fine..... Not everyone has a "good" feeling when narc'd !!

What you are describing both cause and effect is consistent with CO2 buildup not nitrogen narcosis.

 

[tracydr]

I think it's very difficult to describe narcosis, because it's different for different people, and for the same person on different days or under different conditions.

I have seen a student get so loopy at 80 feet that we turned the dive and basically escorted him shallow enough that he could think again. I don't know how he felt, but his coordination went to pot, his light was waving vaguely around, and he wasn't responding to signals much at all.

I have also had the personal experience of not being AT ALL aware that I was narced until I made what could have been a very dangerous mistake on a cave dive. I've done it three times. All three times I felt fine, except I looked at information I needed and went, "Huh?". I no longer go to 100 feet in a cave, and I hope that I'll recognize that the "Huh?" reaction is a sign that I'm severely disabled and don't know it.

Those experiences are why I completely disregard the people who say, "I went to 170 and I wasn't narced." They were. They just didn't have the right situation to point it out to them.

I was taken to about 100 feet and asked to do math problems while being timed. Although I didn't feel much difference, there was a difference in response. Try it at a shallow depth, then again at a deeper depth. Just don't go 150-170 feet again before getting tech trained, please!

 

[jmneill]

Good thread. I find the huge variations between one person to the next very interesting, if not strange. I have maxed out my recreational limits many times and never noticed a thing, (even when looking for it) yet my brother says he doesn't even need to check his guages to know he has hit 90'.

 

[tracydr]

Take it from someone who used to follow the Grateful Dead in the 80's, and has been to 200 feet on air...

It's like when you're at the dentist, and he gives you nitrous oxide. That's about as close as it gets


With that said... DON'T go to 150 feet with less than 50 dives. That's foolish. really.

I actually had a very close good friend who was a military diver from Vietnam. Commercial diver after Vietnam. He ended up abusing nitrous oxide because it made him feel "narced" and he died from an overdose of gas.
I guess for him, anyway, the high was very similar. He described it as the same. This was before I dived. He's the one who encouraged me to take up diving, although I didn't get a chance to until about 9 years later.
He was a very special person, Special Forces, 3 tours of Vietnam, some pretty severe PTSD and physical scars from it, though.

 

[TonyErnst13]

What you are describing both cause and effect is consistent with CO2 buildup not nitrogen narcosis.

I wasn't shallow breathing, hyperventilating, or skip breathing. i was not over exerted, on a new high end reg, on clean gas and I am a healthy non-smoker.... i doubt my dioxide levels were causing this.

 

[shoredivr]

There is a morning meditation I do (and have been doing for years), with a focus on mental images, to get relaxed and centred for the day. I have on several occasions done this meditation under water at depths ranging from 20 to 60 feet and my experience under water is that even at these depths, there is a slight lag in my ability to rapidly call up the sequence of mental images.

I have been deeper than 130 ft and can say definitely that I have been narced. The effects and the depth at which they occur (narrowing of perceptual vision, loss of colour, slowing of motor skills) vary. If I have been doing a number of progressively deeper dives, I might imagine that I can function more easily, but I am still experiencing narcosis.