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?
Question Panic in the experienced diver?
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OCDiver
Registered
I haven't ready the 40 pages of this thread, but will add my experience in case it hasn't been covered. I don't know exactly how many dives I have, but it's measured in hundreds over 35 years. A couple of years ago, I started feeling anxious at the beginning of a dive. I would surface for a few minutes, feel better, drop back down and complete my dive. This happened maybe five times. I searched the web and found that Sudafed had been linked to anxiety while diving. Sure enough I had just started taking Sudafed before my dives. Of course I stopped and have not experienced any anxiety since.
Bookworm11
Contributor
Crofrog and Boulderjohn, I understand what you are saying. In my position in that cenote, I had no choice. I stand educated and enlightened. I am a mere novice in cenote diving, and I am positive I will never become cave certified. I am postive I will never get tech certified.
"What you write here is dangerous thinking. It implies that since some people who follow the rules die, it must mean that there is no reason to follow the rules. It implies that the "some people die when they don't follow the rules" is equal to "some people die when they do follow the rules." This is a common error in scuba logic."
Please let me politely point out you wrote that, not me. You inferred something from something I said to imply something I never meant or thought. Just because some people die who follow the rules does not mean that I think I shouldn't follow the rules. I always follow the rules. That's why they are there. People who have dove way, way more times than me set up those rules and they are there for a reason.
"What you write here is dangerous thinking. It implies that since some people who follow the rules die, it must mean that there is no reason to follow the rules. It implies that the "some people die when they don't follow the rules" is equal to "some people die when they do follow the rules." This is a common error in scuba logic."
Please let me politely point out you wrote that, not me. You inferred something from something I said to imply something I never meant or thought. Just because some people die who follow the rules does not mean that I think I shouldn't follow the rules. I always follow the rules. That's why they are there. People who have dove way, way more times than me set up those rules and they are there for a reason.
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You know how you are just informing us about stuff
well boulderjohn, is just informing us about stuff, too
and boulderjohn is an expert, informing us about stuff
not to say you're not an expert informing us about stuff
well boulderjohn, is just informing us about stuff, too
and boulderjohn is an expert, informing us about stuff
not to say you're not an expert informing us about stuff
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- 7,220
- Reaction score
- 6,265
- # of dives
- 2500 - 4999
Phil111
Contributor
On a recent dive trip in the Caribbean A diver who was 80 years old made a emergency ascent from 138' while diving nitrox. Po2 greater than 1.6. ATA. A day prior to the incident he discussed problems achieving neutral buoyancy despite having 20 lbs of weights. He was of small stature and stated to me that he weighed 120 lbs. I and the several other divers that he talked to were unable to explain how such a large amount of weights couldn't work for him.
On the dive at issue his dive partner was a newly certified "dive instructor". Somehow he ended up at 138' and when he realized the seriousness of the situation activated the power infiltrator of his B.C. His ascent to the surface was so rapid that the captain of the dive boat observed him clearing the surface of the water such that he could see his weight belt. Surprisingly he suffered no embolism. A physician on the boat placed him on 100% oxygen and he used two 40 cu ft bottles to stabilize his condition. His heart rate dropped to 38 b.p.m. during the oxygen treatment.
He recovered within 3-4 hours and had no residual effects. Prior to the dive trip he had a physical with his doctor which included a electrocardiogram the results of which were not known to the diver nor his physician. It disclosed that he had atrial fibrillation.
On the dive at issue his dive partner was a newly certified "dive instructor". Somehow he ended up at 138' and when he realized the seriousness of the situation activated the power infiltrator of his B.C. His ascent to the surface was so rapid that the captain of the dive boat observed him clearing the surface of the water such that he could see his weight belt. Surprisingly he suffered no embolism. A physician on the boat placed him on 100% oxygen and he used two 40 cu ft bottles to stabilize his condition. His heart rate dropped to 38 b.p.m. during the oxygen treatment.
He recovered within 3-4 hours and had no residual effects. Prior to the dive trip he had a physical with his doctor which included a electrocardiogram the results of which were not known to the diver nor his physician. It disclosed that he had atrial fibrillation.
Redleg0811
Registered
I have been reading these and will add my challenges. I will say before all this I had never had a panic attack before.
I started diving in Okinawa in 96 and stopped diving in 2000 as it was one more expensive hobby I was not doing with my new bride.
2022 my wife says I am thinking about learning to dive are you interested in getting back into it. I said yes. She didn't know the monster she would release as diving for me was all consuming earlier. we did class and I had a back issue and so had to delay from Dec to Feb 2023. I also did my dry suit cert. My wife ended up finishing her cert in Hawaii. I started diving with Richard from Dive-Tronix as he was a neighbor. If you have not worked with him and his wife, they are amazingly awesome people. I dove with him for a while and started talking about side mount. He introduced me to a retired UTD instructor that was also the retired DSO at the aquarium. Both of these gentlemen are my mentors and have been very giving with their time and Knowledge. I feel very lucky to be able to improve my skills with them.
I had never felt panicked while diving and back in the day diving with fellow Marines we would train shutting off air and taking mask, etc. At least on the ones that were very comfortable under water. Even getting back into diving I felt comfortable. Take my mask off, or what ever.
I thought I was doing pretty good and went with the dive club to Deception Pass. I had been in current before, but I think this dive had gotten into my mind. I was diving Nitrox32 and shortly after the wall started breathing pretty heavy. There was a down current that brought us to 70ft and then an up current. I was trying to slow my accent and sliced up my dry gloves on the barnacles. I had wrist seals so no flooding. other issues I had was with breathing so heavy I think I put myself into a Co2 loop and when I turned my head the current pushed water on the exhaust valve injecting water to my throat. I was so close to the surface trying not to just bolt as I had slowed my accent down, but didn't do my safety stop. I was under the bridge hanging on trying to catch my breath. Saying to myself I F-cked up. I was trying to signal my dive partner as I lost him. I guess everyone lost their dive partners, not great. After a bit I swam to the next little inlet and and chilled for a minute. My dive partner then popped up. We talked a bit and then swam back to the beach. I was humbled by that dive. I called my mentor and told him I messed up. I said all the things I did wrong and what I should have done. He said well you covered everything, just learn from it.
I then had two more dives that crabbing that went fine.
End of August I was diving with Jeff doing drills with side mount and scooter. I went to do something I have done a million times for the drills which was flooding my mask. All of a sudden panic hit me I controlled it, but felt I would loose it doing the next drill of mask removal. I thumbed the dive and Jeff confirmed. even though we were at 25 ft we didn't just go to the surface, but stopped at 15 and 10. When we were up I told Jeff what happened and tried to just do flooding on the surface, but the panic came back. I still needed to recover the my DSMB that I was using for drills. We went back down and while I was focused on the recovery all panic went away. We puttered around then back towards the shore I started flooding and removing my mask with no issues.
I went diving on the Sept 6th and most of the dive I felt like I just didn't want to be there at 70' and had to control my panic feeling.
this was the day after the 3 year anniversary of our 14 year old son drowning in a river. I thought the dive would reset me, but it didn't. I got done with the dive and felt alright.
That Sunday night my wife started screaming during a dream. She has done this once in a while and I just wake her up and calm her down and go back to bed. This time I get up go use the rest room and lay down with the Cpap and start having a full blown panic attack where I feel I can't breath and tingling arms. Next night I was good, but the night after I was up all night long. From there it just seemed like everything was putting me into fight or flight. The put me on some meds for short term and while and I talked to my shrink that night he gave me some tools to use. Basically saying I can breath and if I have a panic attack it will not feel good, but it will not kill me. I then run it to ground from there. I had to use the reg in the tub and under 3" of water I felt panic. I kept doing it until the panic eased. I did it the next day and felt no panic. The next week no panic either. I then used my reg in the hot tub with no issue.
Since that I have not had a panic attack. I have had one dive with my mentor Jeff where we did 85 minute dive and several sets of drill 6. We also did out of air drills with long hose. I had no issue. A week later I dived with a new mask and going down I started to feel some anxiety I get to the bottom and my dive partner asked me if I was ok I said so so. He just made the signal for breathing, which I was focusing on. 60 seconds later I was good to go. We had a great dive.
I will probably have to work through more issue, but I feel I have the tools to resolve this.
I also think I might need to think a bit more about our son anniversary in Sept and maybe I just need time out for that month or a couple weeks before and after the date.
Martin
I started diving in Okinawa in 96 and stopped diving in 2000 as it was one more expensive hobby I was not doing with my new bride.
2022 my wife says I am thinking about learning to dive are you interested in getting back into it. I said yes. She didn't know the monster she would release as diving for me was all consuming earlier. we did class and I had a back issue and so had to delay from Dec to Feb 2023. I also did my dry suit cert. My wife ended up finishing her cert in Hawaii. I started diving with Richard from Dive-Tronix as he was a neighbor. If you have not worked with him and his wife, they are amazingly awesome people. I dove with him for a while and started talking about side mount. He introduced me to a retired UTD instructor that was also the retired DSO at the aquarium. Both of these gentlemen are my mentors and have been very giving with their time and Knowledge. I feel very lucky to be able to improve my skills with them.
I had never felt panicked while diving and back in the day diving with fellow Marines we would train shutting off air and taking mask, etc. At least on the ones that were very comfortable under water. Even getting back into diving I felt comfortable. Take my mask off, or what ever.
I thought I was doing pretty good and went with the dive club to Deception Pass. I had been in current before, but I think this dive had gotten into my mind. I was diving Nitrox32 and shortly after the wall started breathing pretty heavy. There was a down current that brought us to 70ft and then an up current. I was trying to slow my accent and sliced up my dry gloves on the barnacles. I had wrist seals so no flooding. other issues I had was with breathing so heavy I think I put myself into a Co2 loop and when I turned my head the current pushed water on the exhaust valve injecting water to my throat. I was so close to the surface trying not to just bolt as I had slowed my accent down, but didn't do my safety stop. I was under the bridge hanging on trying to catch my breath. Saying to myself I F-cked up. I was trying to signal my dive partner as I lost him. I guess everyone lost their dive partners, not great. After a bit I swam to the next little inlet and and chilled for a minute. My dive partner then popped up. We talked a bit and then swam back to the beach. I was humbled by that dive. I called my mentor and told him I messed up. I said all the things I did wrong and what I should have done. He said well you covered everything, just learn from it.
I then had two more dives that crabbing that went fine.
End of August I was diving with Jeff doing drills with side mount and scooter. I went to do something I have done a million times for the drills which was flooding my mask. All of a sudden panic hit me I controlled it, but felt I would loose it doing the next drill of mask removal. I thumbed the dive and Jeff confirmed. even though we were at 25 ft we didn't just go to the surface, but stopped at 15 and 10. When we were up I told Jeff what happened and tried to just do flooding on the surface, but the panic came back. I still needed to recover the my DSMB that I was using for drills. We went back down and while I was focused on the recovery all panic went away. We puttered around then back towards the shore I started flooding and removing my mask with no issues.
I went diving on the Sept 6th and most of the dive I felt like I just didn't want to be there at 70' and had to control my panic feeling.
this was the day after the 3 year anniversary of our 14 year old son drowning in a river. I thought the dive would reset me, but it didn't. I got done with the dive and felt alright.
That Sunday night my wife started screaming during a dream. She has done this once in a while and I just wake her up and calm her down and go back to bed. This time I get up go use the rest room and lay down with the Cpap and start having a full blown panic attack where I feel I can't breath and tingling arms. Next night I was good, but the night after I was up all night long. From there it just seemed like everything was putting me into fight or flight. The put me on some meds for short term and while and I talked to my shrink that night he gave me some tools to use. Basically saying I can breath and if I have a panic attack it will not feel good, but it will not kill me. I then run it to ground from there. I had to use the reg in the tub and under 3" of water I felt panic. I kept doing it until the panic eased. I did it the next day and felt no panic. The next week no panic either. I then used my reg in the hot tub with no issue.
Since that I have not had a panic attack. I have had one dive with my mentor Jeff where we did 85 minute dive and several sets of drill 6. We also did out of air drills with long hose. I had no issue. A week later I dived with a new mask and going down I started to feel some anxiety I get to the bottom and my dive partner asked me if I was ok I said so so. He just made the signal for breathing, which I was focusing on. 60 seconds later I was good to go. We had a great dive.
I will probably have to work through more issue, but I feel I have the tools to resolve this.
I also think I might need to think a bit more about our son anniversary in Sept and maybe I just need time out for that month or a couple weeks before and after the date.
Martin
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