seaducer
Contributor
If you can find a place out of the current, or hanging on a line, where you don't have to think or be hyper aware of your surroundings for a minute, here is a technique that might help you.
If you can, close your eyes, if you are uncomfortable then leave em open. Breathe all the way in, fill your lungs, then empty them completely. Repeat. While you are doing this, visualize your lungs filling with air, then deflating. Count to 3 slowly on the inhale, and again on the exhale. The only way to catch your breath, whether from exertion or from CO2 buildup, is to turn the air in your lungs over slowly and completely.
Slowing down does a few things. It keeps you from hyperventilating which just makes things worse. It ensures you get the most amount of air into your lungs, which will calm your muscles down, if you pushed them into burning lactic acid. It calms you down, concentrate on breathing, just breathing for a minute or two. By inhaling slowly, over 3 or 4 or even 5 seconds, you will get a full lungful without over breathing the reg.
It has helped me everytime I have exerted myself UW, and once when I was started to get uncomfortable with task loading, and needed a timeout to get things back under control. Hopefully it will work for you...
