Narcosis

[JamesK]

It can be like being good and buzzed from a couple Jack & Cokes. You think you are ok until you get on the dance floor and make an ass out of yourself. Same here. With narcosis you can feel ok, but when you task yourself out oh lordy.

 

[razorbackdiver]

First of all thanks for all of the comments.
I guess all divers have at least a small bit of dare devil in them otherwise we would probably never put a second stage in our mouth.
Currently, I have no plans to go deeper than 130 ft. again,without getting tech training. The walllooked the same at 170 as it did at 130 only darker.
My respect for the narcosis is why I have gradually increased my depths even before getting to 130.
Still I feel knowledge is power and experience trumps knowledge,which is why I violated recreational limits only under the supervision of Tec instructor.

 

[danvolker]

Back in the early 90's, well before anyone other than Military divers were using Helium, I did several hundred dives with some of my WKPP buddies on air, to 280 feet. The moment we figured out how to do trimix, we switched, and would never consider deep air after that, for dives over 120 or 130 feet deep.
I mention this background, only so that the OP will consider my opinion credible.

At 130-140, I would not really feel any narc to speak of, but doing the same dives later on helium allowed me to see and explore more....that says quite a bit...

at 180 to 220, I find the most disturbing narcosis, where you are feeling the effects and realizing you are less than perfect, and this can make you slightly anxious. When you drop past this to 250 and then to 280, you are so blasted you could care less about the impairment concerns you had around 200 feet deep, and you are very happy to be on the dive...however, myself and my friends always knew we were heavily impaired at 280, and that there were only about 3 concurent thoughts or skills you could manage...like look around in front of you--check air--check time----if you added one more like shooting a fish, you would lose the checking air or time thoughts--you would have to hope your dive buddy was still just juggling 2 or 3 thoughts, and would alert you if the max durration for the bottom time had been reached.

There was alot of stupidity in the early exploration diving. In any event, my buddies and I lived through this...but when I hear someone like the OP considering 150 or 200 foot deep dives on air, because they don't feel narced at 130, I have to say this is a big mistake, given the MUCH BETTER OPTIONS you have now, than we had in the early 90's. Many people died in the early 90's, doing deep air. There was a point around 97 or so that so many deaths had occurred on deep air, that many tech divers began a crusade to show Deep Air as the most foolish thing a diver coud do, and the kind of thing no instructor should ever teach.

 

[gurnie]

A post like this pops up every couple of months, it is the same "I went to 180 with an instructor". I am sure this was an open water instructor, and I can't imagine that a tech instructor would even consider this.. We see this alot here in the Chicago area, there a group of divers well known to make "macho" dives that they can show their buddys on fancy computer with a heart rate monitor... I am sure you did your dive on a AL80 in a 5mm wetsuit and 23lb lift wing.. Honestly what was the point? You have nothing to test your responsiveness or ability to troubleshoot an issue in the water.

Like it was said before, I have also seen students at 80 feet that were unresponsive, once we got them to the surface they said "why did you bring me up, nothing was wrong". I wish I had video.. Narcosis affects us in different ways. I have had the chance to dive sites at 150 on trimix that I use to dive with nitrox, totally different dives.. I had no idea of the features of the site until I was diving a gas that "cleared" the fog..

I agree with DevonDiver, the best way to test this is in a chamber. You can experience the effects in a controlled and safe environment. Safe diving..

 

[boulderjohn]

I have fifty dives under my belt (yes, I know I'm still a newbie) and have never noticed the symptoms of narcosis.

I have a few more than that, and I have never felt anything related to being narced, either. On the other hand, as TS&M's post suggests, I have had very clear evidence that I was narced several times, even though I felt perfectly fine. I have even done the trick of going back and forth between a helium mix and air while at depth and really couldn't feel a thing when I was on air.

I just don't want to get narc'ed and not be able to recognise it.

There's a good chance you won't be able to recognize it, no matter how you prepare. The important thing to do is to recognize that under certain conditions your judgment and skills are likely to be impaired and plan accordingly.

 

[Tessunderwater]

On my first dive to 100ft I actually felt a little "buzzed" and that was on a mix of 32EAN. I wasn't task loaded and I still was aware of checking my air and depth. I could have gone all the way to the bottom at 110 but it was murky past 100 and I knew I wasn't going to see much. I haven't look at my dive profile on my lap top to see how much time I spent at 100 feet but as soon as I hit my turn around air I started my ascent. Of course as soon as I started my ascent, the feeling wore off and I felt more "clear" headed. The next time I go to 100 feet I may not feel that way but I may feel that way when I go to 70. It does vary dive to dive and person to person. I think the biggest thing is being aware of how it affects you and recognizing those little hints like maybe taking a little longer between air checks or struggling with a task at 100 feet that is easy at 60.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Scuba_Noob]

The most 'narc-ed' I've been was a deep, night dive in cold water. We descended to 100fsw, and I knew I was 'narc-ed' pretty bad. I signaled my buddy that I'd move up 10fsw, and we ascended a bit. Then the narcosis became unnoticeable and the symptoms dissipated. The narcosis was likely a combination of the depth, the darkness, the cold, and the fact I had a small camera.

I never really have gotten narc-ed since then, and I've been down to and past that depth many times with more task-loading. I guess it's a matter of comfort that I have now and being used to functioning with a little bit of narcosis.

Like some people have mentioned and like I've read, nitrogen narcosis is caused by breathing in nitrogen under pressure. "The cause of narcosis is related to the increased solubility of gases in body tissues" due to the increase in pressure based on depth (Wikipedia). It's like breathing in nitrous oxide (laughing gas at the dentist's) or being drunk from alcohol. So try one of the two.

 

[boulderjohn]

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.

 

[danvolker]

The most 'narc-ed' I've been was a deep, night dive in cold water. We descended to 100fsw, and I knew I was 'narc-ed' pretty bad. I signaled my buddy that I'd move up 10fsw, and we ascended a bit. Then the narcosis became unnoticeable and the symptoms dissipated. The narcosis was likely a combination of the depth, the darkness, the cold, and the fact I had a small camera.

I never really have gotten narc-ed since then, and I've been down to and past that depth many times with more task-loading. I guess it's a matter of comfort that I have now and being used to functioning with a little bit of narcosis.

Like some people have mentioned and like I've read, nitrogen narcosis is caused by breathing in nitrous oxide. "The cause of narcosis is related to the increased solubility of gases in body tissues" due to the increase in pressure based on depth (Wikipedia). Nitrous oxide is basically the 'laughing gas' that some dentists use as an anesthetic. So easiest way to get the symptoms is to ask a dentist or get some nitrous oxide.

The few times I have had "laughing gas/nitrous oxide" at a Dentist's office, the concentration delivered varied greatly, and the intensity of the "high" would have no real correlation to any given deep depth.....Dentist don't have a mixer that says "equal to 150 feet....equal to 250 feet, etc"....

However.....If we could get a Diving Dentist to show up at this Fort Lauderdale DEMA Dive Show (that DEMA thinks it is not really a dive show).....and have an "EXPERIENCE RAPTURE OF THE DEPTHS AS IN DEEP AIR DIVING" --AND A TEETH CLEANING , DEMA might actually draw a large crowd of "adventure seekers"

Come to think of it, I might even show for that...

 

[TSandM]

I would not say that the effects of nitrous oxide would mimic nitrogen narcosis very closely, nor is nitrogen narcosis due to nitrous oxide. Nitrogen narcosis is due to elemental nitrogen.