Panic - how close we are

[elmer fudd]

Being demasked can be very panic inducing even when you are prepared for it. It doesn't feel natural to breathe when your eyes are submerged and you have water rushing up your nose.

I try to remove my mask, swim awhile with it off and then put it back on every third dive or so. The reason I do it is because from time to time I like to practice my basic skills while diving. When I removed my mask at depth in cold water, I was shocked at just how unnerving I found it. Like you, I had to revert to that, "I'm still breathing so everything's alright" mantra. Didn't panic, didn't shoot to the surface, but it freaked me out a hell of a lot more than I was comfortable with. Since then I make sure to practice demasking on a regular basis.

 

[261311]

Being demasked can be very panic inducing even when you are prepared for it. It doesn't feel natural to breathe when your eyes are submerged and you have water rushing up your nose.

This is my largest problem. If it becomes an issue, I just plug my nose and I can return back to sanity. I find while my sinuses are being messed with I put the most focus into feeling comfortable and right, so I lose any sort of situational awareness around me whether or not I'm even actively working out a solution. It's just distracting to such a powerful level. Not having a mask isn't near uncomfortable for me as the nose issues, I actually can feel quite calm and relaxed without a mask. After that it's the need to see what I'm doing. I'll relate it more to a novelty feeling because it's not practical. I think no matter what, I'm going to end up having a spare mask on me under water, it just seems like something I should bring while I work out my own issues.

 

[TSandM]

I really, really, really don't like not being able to see. But I've done a TON of blackout work in my cave training, and I've swum more miles than I can count in the halocline (which is like swimming in salad oil) and I've learned that if I have a tactile reference, that will do. Luckily, I do most of my diving with people who are team divers, so if I just move my light back and forth a few times, somebody will be right with me, putting out a hand for me to use as a reference, and keeping the problem from spiraling out of control. The hard part is divorcing myself from my own issue enough to let the team know about it.

The bottom line is that somewhere in your diving, you will have a weak point. You need to work to strengthen it the best you can, and have a plan for coping with it either way. My weak point is getting vertigo when deprived of a visual reference and forced to move my head around, so my buddies are told that, on ascent, they MUST stay where I can see them, or they are on their own. I CANNOT look for them in midwater, or I will get vertigo, which makes buoyancy control very difficult. Before the dive, everybody understands the parameters.

 

[elmer fudd]

This is my largest problem. If it becomes an issue, I just plug my nose and I can return back to sanity. I find while my sinuses are being messed with I put the most focus into feeling comfortable and right, so I lose any sort of situational awareness around me whether or not I'm even actively working out a solution. It's just distracting to such a powerful level. Not having a mask isn't near uncomfortable for me as the nose issues, I actually can feel quite calm and relaxed without a mask. After that it's the need to see what I'm doing. I'll relate it more to a novelty feeling because it's not practical. I think no matter what, I'm going to end up having a spare mask on me under water, it just seems like something I should bring while I work out my own issues.

What you're experiencing is actually normal. It's the mammalian reflex and we all have it to some degree.

When we get cold water in our face and up our nose our bodies instinctively tell us to stop breathing, (that's the urge to spit out the reg). In fact, the usual way to revive a free diver who blacks out is to blow air across their face. This tells the primitive portion of the brain that it's OK to start breathing again.

The solution is just to practice diving with a flooded mask or no mask over and over again until you no longer feel much panic when you get some water up your nose.

 

[SailNaked]

When i am driving and my ADD kicks in it is a form of panic and I have to turn down the A/C or the radio. No idea what my brain is thinking in that situation, neiter the radio or the ac are causing me any problem. it may be a good thing to get a grant to study and then publish a paper on. if only I was a PHd.

 

[Rhone Man]

I think having the occasional "quasi-panic" is a salient growth experience in a diver. (Full blown panic usually is not.) We take it, we analyse it, we learn from it and we grow from it.

I think I have learned a lot more from those days when I felt cold fingers clawing at my insides than I learned in a multitude of classes.

 

[TMHeimer]

I like the mammalian reflex answer. I do wonder at times why divers have problems with no mask stuff. Maybe I'm just lucky in that the only thing that ever bothered me was opening my eyes in chlorine (not salt water). Then I wonder if those with problems ever swam at the beach (cold water or not) with their head under and eyes open. Maybe it's just that when you start out on a dive your mask is on, THEN it is off?

 

[divingpyrate]

I think having the occasional "quasi-panic" is a salient growth experience in a diver. (Full blown panic usually is not.) We take it, we analyse it, we learn from it and we grow from it.

I think I have learned a lot more from those days when I felt cold fingers clawing at my insides that I learned in a multitude of classes.

This is very true

 

[Nemrod]

Last weekend I tried a new rig and was quite disoriented. I didn't have the trim right and ended up rolling around side-to-side. It was very disorienting and I took on a bit of water in my mask, could not stabilize myself and had a bit of panic. Depth was around 15 feet. In retrospect I recall that during my brief moments of panic I had an urge to spit out the reg. My brain and my training intervened and I heard myself say "Breathe, breathe you silly fool, and you'll be OK no matter what else happens".

I did not go into any sort of continued distress but I am now wondering why would I have the urge to spit out the reg from this little bit of panic? Are there any known explanations? I believe there have been a number of deaths from people with plenty of air and the reg out. I wonder if my small experience may have familiarized myself with that situation ? Or maybe it was a one-off.

- Bill

You did not panic, you thought it through. You recognized the runaway chain of events that lead to panic and you controlled your mind. Good job.

I always test new/rebuilt/reconfigured gear in a pool or controlled environ. Your results may vary.

N

 

[Dondon462]

Years ago at about 150 dives..and not having dived for about five years..first dive was a rough day for the boat, tough entry with me last in chasing the others, gasping, into a wide mouth huge cavern with a dive master, at 25mtr, I was not fit, my mask was fogging, I was working hard to catch up to the DM to say I was getting low on air..but did NOT say that..instead pointed to what I thought was the way OUT!..I could not see it...DM thought I wanted further IN!..so we continued IN..after not seeing light I thought ****!!..at that point I got "mind race"!! all things flashing past.. .then showed the DM my air...we both headed out fast...I was so embarrassed about "maybe " having to share air to get to the surface I took off..still safe, STILL with a foggy mask, Gasping harder, geting worried, not able to look at my air left! not wanting to know anyway, thinking silly bugger, first dive, a tough one etc etc...not quite pannicking but wow!!..learnt a big lesson sucking the cylinder empty at the surface after an only just safe assent...and surprised myself..all because I did not think to clear my mask...which I ripped off at the surface as all worried divers do!!.....but I have often thought of printing a T-shirt with "what the Fxxk, PANNIC!" on it cause all my life I have been working to make sure it never happens...and in my life of Adventure it fortunaltley never has..BUT!!..I have often had those "Mind rushes" so how close have I been??...Hmmmmm

This is a great thread!