Question Panic in the experienced diver?

It would seem to me that, as we gain experience and go through some minor glitches on dives, we should increase our capacity to tolerate issues underwater. I'm wondering what could cause an experienced (say, more than 200 lifetime dives) diver to become distressed enough to lose rational thought. Has anyone here (who meets those criteria) been through a panic event? What caused it, and what did you do?

 

[ArmyProDiver]

Our shop's quarry can be quite the cold water environment for noobies and experienced divers alike. The one skill that I religiously practice on all of my open water dives is Mask Removal and Replace. When I first splash [on every dive], I will do the MR&R on the surface prior to decent. This gives me several points of reference: salinity of the water, temperature of the water, and on occasion, clarity/turbidity of the water. Any of these factors, if experienced at depth and unexpectedly can cause a diver to panic. Doing the drill, in a controlled manner, while not a guarantee, will usually help a diver who suffers a lost or flooded mask at depth from bolting to the surface in a panic. Just my $0.02.

Train, train and train. People will react like they were taught

 

[tursiops]

Our shop's quarry can be quite the cold water environment for noobies and experienced divers alike. The one skill that I religiously practice on all of my open water dives is Mask Removal and Replace. When I first splash [on every dive], I will do the MR&R on the surface prior to decent. This gives me several points of reference: salinity of the water, temperature of the water, and on occasion, clarity/turbidity of the water. Any of these factors, if experienced at depth and unexpectedly can cause a diver to panic. Doing the drill, in a controlled manner, while not a guarantee, will usually help a diver who suffers a lost or flooded mask at depth from bolting to the surface in a panic. Just my $0.02.

Curious how knowing the salinity of the water helps prevent panic, and why you need to test what it is before a dive...seems like a geographical distinction like "Ocean" vs "fresh" might be sufficient.

 

[USdiver1]

Curious how knowing the salinity of the water helps prevent panic, and why you need to test what it is before a dive...seems like a geographical distinction like "Ocean" vs "fresh" might be sufficient.

Salt water can sting the eyes and nose/sinuses, knowing it is not quite the same as experiencing it, which is the purpose of the MR&R exercise.

 

[Ulfhedinn]

Since this thread is still rolling along. I will share something I learned from Dr Laura Walton. Its the truest statement for me dealing with stress.

-Stress Inoculation-
To avoid these uncomfortable sensations and emotions they could tough it out, mentally disconnect, use distraction to get away from the feeling—rushing to get it over with. Or, they could slow down, notice the sensations, focus on staying present, and being aware of performing the skill. In the second option, there is exposure to the sensations and emotions, and that exposure is important in allowing habituation. Being more willing to be uncomfortable makes it easier to become familiar with it.​

Dr Laura Walton

 

[Six Feet Under]

I had one experience where I panicked while cave diving, back in 2017. Stupid and simple reason.
All of this was probably 20-30 feet from the entrance in clear view of daylight and open water, if I were able to open my eyes underwater. Never had any issues on any other dive.

Downstream side of Cow Spring, fairly close to the entrance, I was having issues with my mask fogging badly (something I've since corrected by using a Magic Eraser to clean the lenses before each dive and then applying anti-fog - not just using anti-fog) and would let it a little bit of water to slosh around on the lenses and clear the fog.

The partial mask flooding turned into me trying to clear the mask unsuccessfully, which introduced more water (now over my nostrils in the mask) - tried clearing it again, unsuccessfully and uneasily as my nostrils were already getting wet every time I inhaled. I have a habit of inhaling through my nose and mouth simultaneously and I don't know why, just always have. By the third time I tried clearing the mask it was about half full of water and I inhaled a good bit of it via my nose, triggering the panic response because I thought I was going to drown inside my mask (like I said, stupid). In my brain at the moment, the only way to stop the phenomenon was to rip my mask off and just pinch my nostrils to get a few good breaths in. Mask off (and retained), but I had not wrapped my arm around the line prior to doing it (and this system is a slow siphon, for those who aren't familiar with it). At that moment, I swam toward the entrance but ended up in a small pocket next to the cave entrance, inside the cavern zone. I wedged myself in between the ceiling and floor rocks because I knew I wouldn't move away from that spot without knowing it, and started signaling my buddy that I was having an issue. Problem was, I was doing a vigorous oval/circle instead of a slash like I thought, which has since turned into an inside joke about being "vigorously okay" LOL. I was trying to control my breathing to slow it down and end the panic attack to facilitate putting on the mask in a controlled manner rather than trying while I was in the midst of the panic and making it even worse.

The part that stuck with me was the two dialogues running concurrently in my brain: one was the panic of being off the line, blind, in an overhead environment that siphons, AND hyperventilating from inhaling a considerable amount water at the beginning of the experience. Just by those metrics, probably the worst situation you could be in without being out of gas or having a medical issue like a heart attack.

The other was telling myself to relax and control my breathing to slow it down. I'm near the entrance, my buddy was behind me and would be finishing his exit shortly (he'd stopped to look at something behind a boulder near the entrance) and see me, I know I have PLENTY of gas (1700-2000psi in each tank), all of my equipment is working, I have my mask in my hand, I have a rough idea of what direction the line is, and I know I'm not going to drift into the cave or cause a silt out because I'm wedged between two rocks.

Ended up exiting sucessfully and taking about a 20 minute surface interval, then doing a clean-up dive to pick up our reel and shake the bad juju off.

Needless to say, I worked on mask removal/replacement for a while after that as I hadn't done it in a year.

To avoid these uncomfortable sensations and emotions they could tough it out, mentally disconnect, use distraction to get away from the feeling—rushing to get it over with. Or, they could slow down, notice the sensations, focus on staying present, and being aware of performing the skill. In the second option, there is exposure to the sensations and emotions, and that exposure is important in allowing habituation. Being more willing to be uncomfortable makes it easier to become familiar with it.​

Dr Laura Walton

This is precisely what I'd always done up until the point of my incident with the mask removal & replacement. I was never willing to become comfortable with being uncomfortable in regard to having a flooded mask, and always rushed to get it over with as soon as possible.

 

[Stanleyh]

Safely practicing the drills could help when an incident happens. Mask R&R is pretty basic and should be done all the time, I even practice BC R&R and other drills during some leisure and fun dives at a less depth just to be comfortable.

 

[Six Feet Under]

Safely practicing the drills could help when an incident happens. Mask R&R is pretty basic and should be done all the time, I even practice BC R&R and other drills during some leisure and fun dives at a less depth just to be comfortable.

I spend a lot of time thinking about the mistakes I've made in life and analyzing them to (hopefully) prevent future reoccurrences. What I took away from that incident is just because I did it in OW class, in AOW class, and in Cavern/Intro class... does not mean I was proficient. It means I was able to pull things together under the watch of an instructor (who I subconsciously believed, like most people, "won't let anything happen to me here/now/at this depth") a few times.

Ironically, being self-employed is one of the things that helped me figure this out - being able to perform upon demand, regardless of comfort or desire at the moment, is the standard I want to achieve... not being able to perform on occasion, when I have knowledge the test is coming and have a safety buffer. Neither of those factors were present in my situation and I could have easily had that turn into a massive problem if I were deeper, further back in a different system, diving with a less experienced buddy, had less of an air reserve, or any more panicked than I was already.

Thus, off to the pool/springs I go this weekend and next to practice before my next class, standards in hand... just to ensure ALL the skills I will have to demonstrate (90% of which I've already been tested on previously) are up to par.

 

[Fishdip]

Only once and I had to calm myself down. Or I would have died. The fun part is looking at my sac you can see when the even takes place.

 

[D_B]

It's always eye opening to read this thread , thank you for this and all the divers contributions to it

Heartening to see that TSandM is still giving back to the dive community

 

[Barry Brumfield]

It would seem to me that, as we gain experience and go through some minor glitches on dives, we should increase our capacity to tolerate issues underwater. I'm wondering what could cause an experienced (say, more than 200 lifetime dives) diver to become distressed enough to lose rational thought. Has anyone here (who meets those criteria) been through a panic event? What caused it, and what did you do?

Panicking underwater is just one breath away. Tends to happen much more quickly without a mask and regulator.... or when you come up out of the inside of a wreck to find a 400 lb Goliath grouper is right in your face. It was short lived panic, but panic none the less.